The finish I alluded to earlier is a reflective smoke grey. I only wish more of the high quality PSU makers would invest in the appearance of their unit's. Of course there are those, who try to distract us with a quality finish, and mediocre performance. In that case I'll take PCPower&Cooling's neutral wrapper any day. In so far as OCZ Technology's foray into the power supply field, they've found a balance which combines high quality parts, with a high gloss finish;





Cables provided are well thought out. There are two (shrink-wrapped) braided cables labelled VGA/HDD, two 12V molex, each with two additional 12V molex on each and a floppy connector, able to supply a total of six devices between them. One SATA connector, one AUX connector, and the BTX 24-pin, with 24-pin to 20-pin adapter included. Finally there's a 6-pin BTX motherboard power supply connector, with a 4-pin ATX on the same line;





The unit not only came with an owner’s manual, but a complete 2-page test report from Fast Auto Electronic;





I doubt everyone will receive this information, none-the-less the unit passed every test Fast Auto ran. Lifting the hood off the PowerStream reveals a plethora of high quality parts, and without a doubt the best heatsinks, and heatsink placement I've seen on any PSU;





What's not readily apparent in the photo above, are the wrap-around style of heatsinks. They conform encapsulating the parts they're intended to cool. Made of anodized black aluminium, their coverage is the most extensive I've seen yet. Even to the extent individual devices come provided with heatsinks as seen in the photos below;







The design also pays close attention to air-flow dynamics, maximizing the placement of the heatsinks between two fans arranged in push/pull fashion. To test the unit's cooling capability I secured the Cooler Master, Musketeer's external thermistor on each heatsink, replacing the cover, and then placed the PSU back into the Case for each test. While under LOAD conditions, the thermistor taped on the heatsink above the induction capacitors (shorter seen above) indicated temperatures peaking at 28°C.

While mounted on the other side, temps maxed out at 29°C. Albeit a rudimentary test, it does give a rough indicator of operational temps within the unit, while under LOAD (running Seti@Home for approximately two hours). Each heatsink has micro fins over just about every exposed surface, and the heatsinks are sectional allowing air to circulate through, and around devices, as seen in the photos below;







OCZ placed a lot of thought into the thermal dynamics of this power supply, and took full advantage in their fan/heatsink placement. The temps recorded by the Musketeer's external thermistor corroborate their efforts in this respect. Heat is the arch-enemy of the Overclocker, Enthusiast, Business-Server owner, and Gamers alike. Where PSU's are concerned heat is just as detrimental to performance as it is any other component, and this is especially true for the system's source of power. As you can see below placement of the heatsinks between inlet, and exhaust fans is well executed;