Verdict and Conclusion

Having poked, prodded, abused, tested and examined the OCZ ZT Series 650w Power Supply I find it to be good. There were no major issues to be found anywhere and a solid number of good features.

The first being 648w of 12 V in a 650w unit. The majority of a modern computer's load is on the 12 V rail so it is very nice to see OCZ stepping up to that and facing it down.

I really, really, really like fully modular power supplies. For many people it is only useful once, when they first install the unit. I however spend quite a bit of time swapping parts and cases, having a fully modular unit makes that much easier. Plus you don't have to worry about whether you're going to use all the hardwired cables if they aren't any!

The build quality is quite good overall, the long component leads and lack of nuts on the modular output board standoffs are the only dents.

The regulation was solid, in the mid 1% range across the board. Not spectacular, but well within spec.

80+ Bronze was near the top of the pile not long ago, now it is almost expected. Still, I don't think you'll see Silver units in this price range any time soon.

Ripple results were quite good, no issues there at all.

The price is also good, current prices seem to be in the $83 range, some are $89 with a $20 mail in rebate. While I dislike MIRs, getting this unit for $70 sounds quite attractive to me. You can spend less for similar wattage, but not for similar wattage and full (or even mostly) modular cables.

In a perfect world I'd like to see more PCIe cables, but that would open OCZ up to issues from people not calculating how much wattage their pair of GPUs uses and overloading the unit. I can't fault OCZ for not wanting to risk that.

All in all there are lots of pros:

• Fully modular.
• Good price.
• Lots of 12 V wattage for a 650w PSU.
• 80+ Bronze efficiency.
• Good regulation.
• Good ripple control.
• Good build quality.

It doesn't quite escape a cons column though:

• MIR required to get the really good price.
• Nuts on the modular power board standoffs would be nice.
• A few long component leads.

Given all of the above I'm going to give the OCZ ZT Series 650 W Power Supply a rating of 9.1/10, I am quite impressed by what OCZ has managed here. I definitely recommend this unit to anybody looking for a PSU in this wattage and effciency range.

SCORE

9.1/10

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