OCZ ZX Series 850 W Power Supply Review

Introduction

The new OCZ ZX Series comes to replace the Z Series from the same manufacturer. Three models are being offered so far: 850 W, 1,000 W and 1,250 W, all with a full modular cabling system, 80 Plus Gold certification, single +12 V rail, and synchronous design with DC-DC conversion. Let’s see if the 850 W model is a good buy.

This power supply is manufactured by an obscure Chinese company called Great Wall, being the model GW-EPS850DA(90+) from this company. This unit is also sold as Sparkle SCC-850AF (the unit sold under Sparkle brand does not offer a full modular cabling system, though – the main motherboard cable and the ATX12V/EPS12V cables are permanently attached to the power supply). Diablotek will also release a power supply based on the same unit, the PDAX-850GW.

Figure 1: OCZ ZX Series 850 W power supply

Figure 2: OCZ ZX Series 850 W power supply

The OCZ ZX Series 850 W is 6.9” (175 mm) deep, with a 140 mm ball bearing fan (Yate Loon D14BH-12, 2,800 rpm, 140 cfm) on its bottom part.

The new OCZ ZX Series 850 W has a fully modular cabling system, meaning that even the main motherboard cable is modular. This system has 12 connectors and the power supply comes with the following cables:

• Main motherboard cable with a 20/24-pin connector, 21.6” (55 cm) long
• Two cables, each with two ATX12V connectors that together form an EPS12V connector, 21.6” (55 cm) long
• Four cables with one six/eight-pin connector for video cards each, 21.6” (55 cm) long
• Four cables, each with three SATA power connectors, 21.6” (55 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• Two cables, each with three standard peripheral power connectors, 21.6” (55 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors
• One cable with three standard peripheral power connectors and one floppy disk drive power connector, 21.6” (55 cm) to the first connector, 5.9” (15 cm) between connectors

The cables with SATA and peripheral power connectors use 18 AWG wires, but the main motherboard cable, the EPS12V/ATX12V cables and the video card cables use thicker 16 AWG wires, which is always nice to see.

The number of SATA cables is fantastic (12), but it would be better if this unit had six video card power connectors instead of only four, this way you could install three high-end video cards without needing to use adapters.

Figure 3: Cables

Let’s now take an in-depth look inside this power supply.