OCZ EliteXStream 800W PSU

Cables and Connectors

• One 65cm 24-pin ATX cable
  
• One 65cm 8-pin EPS 12V power cable
  
• Four 65cm 6+2-pin PCI-Express power cables
  
• Two SATA power cables with connectors at 65cm, 80cm, 95cm, 110cm
  
• One Molex power cables with connectors at 65cm, 80cm, 95cm, 110cm
  
• One Molex power cables with connectors at 65cm, 80cm, 95cm, 110cm and a floppy power cable at 125cm

Again we find a single length used for everything and these cables are seriously long. If you've a huge case then this is a great PSU to consider, but most of us will be forced to tidy the inevitable excess away in nooks and crannies. Only a 24-pin ATX cable is provided which is not unexpected from a powerful 800W model, however only a single 8-pin CPU power connector is included. There's no second cable and, more importantly, no 4-pin option either.

This PSU is clearly aimed at performance motherboards and that isn't exactly a niche market as most/all of which now ship with single 8-pin connectors, but if you're buying this for a replacement of an older board or for some reason your board only has a 4-pin connector, or this was potentially for a dual CPU workstation (it's certainly powerful enough), then you're out of luck.

The PCI-Express cables don red connectors so you can easily find them amongst the sprawl of wires, and the 6+2-pin connectors are our favourite type - offering universal compatibility without having extra wiring or adapters strewn about.

OCZ uses the slightly thinner 18 AWG wire for virtually everything except the yellow 12V cables on the 8-pin and 24-pin, which get a slightly fatter 16 AWG. 18 AWG is pretty common so it's not a criticism, but the thicker wires offer less resistance and less heat as more power is drawn down them. In a perfect world, we'd have liked to have seen the PCI-Express cables use 16 AWG too.


Sprouting out the back the cables are braided right into the PSU so it looks better, and the hole allowing them to escape fits neatly around. OCZ has zip tied every cable at the top and half way along the long cables to keep the braid tight, however on the ATX cable we found that it was far too tight and greatly compressed the individual wires making it unmovable in parts, and the smaller cables with thinner braid often deformed and broke around the tight zip ties.

This is certainly not the greatest quality we've seen and cutting off a few of these zip ties we could see no real reason for them: the braid holds its shape perfectly as we repeatedly tugged it to and fro, and not only is the diameter used is appropriate to the cables inside, the heatshrinking on the ends holds perfectly well.


The Molex and SATA connectors are black to match the rest of it, however the Molex connectors lack the push-release bits of plastic and none of the SATA connectors are 90 degree ones. In addition, there are just two exceedingly long cables for both sets of eight connectors - this could prove a nightmare for cable routing and hiding. For example having six hard drives in the base of a case, then SATA optical drives at the top means you'll either have to squeeze them together or use Molex to SATA power adapters.

On top of this, Molex connectors are used in all sorts of situations and having to drag it across the motherboard for the extra power connector, then back again for a sound card, then up to the optical drives is not an ideal scenario for keeping cable mess to a minimum. Finally, if just the floppy power connector was needed, you'd have to hide over a metre of cable. On the other hand though, having a fairly minimal number of cables from the PSU in the first place means there is less tangling and unused wires from the outside - so plan your build/potential build before you buy. It could work out great, but it could also be very restrictive.