OCZ PSUs

FurBurglar

Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
513
When did OCZ PSUs start to suck so bad? I have a GameXStream 700 that I purchased back in 2006 that was supposed to be a great PSU at the time. Was it figured out later that these actually sucked? I am having some issues with random blue screens and crashes now that seem like they could be PSU related which brought me here and I noticed all the bad comments about OCZ.

Now that I am shopping for a replacement would a Corsair 750TX handle this system:

EVGA P55 FTW
Intel i5 750 OCed to 4.0 GHz
8 GB DDR3 2000
GTX 470/460
GTS 250 (Physics) or in the future a second GTX 470/460
2 x 80GB SSD
2 x 2TB HDD
 
It was figured close to after launch that the OCZ GXS 700W was crap by JonnyGURU but it didn't get widespread attention.

Yes, a Corsair 750TX would be enough for that setup.
 
When did OCZ PSUs start to suck so bad? I have a GameXStream 700 that I purchased back in 2006 that was supposed to be a great PSU at the time. Was it figured out later that these actually sucked? I am having some issues with random blue screens and crashes now that seem like they could be PSU related which brought me here and I noticed all the bad comments about OCZ.

Now that I am shopping for a replacement would a Corsair 750TX handle this system:

EVGA P55 FTW
Intel i5 750 OCed to 4.0 GHz
8 GB DDR3 2000
GTX 470/460
GTS 250 (Physics) or in the future a second GTX 470/460
2 x 80GB SSD
2 x 2TB HDD

I second Danny. Especially since the original FSP Epsilon platform (that "700W" GXS is one of several "over-rated" PSUs based on that platform) is not really meant to provide more than about 500W and still keep its ripple in spec.
 
I feel the OCZ PSU's are fairly hit and miss. I have been rocking the OCZ modXtreme Pro 700w for 2 years now, it's rock solid. Got an overclocked i7, 9gb Ram and an overclocked GTX470 running on it, solid. However, i fear i'm lucky with it.
 
I would say you are lucky with it. I have been getting random blue screens and restarts and in every instance the source is "Kernel-Power". Recently there have been a couple times where upon reboot Windows said the startup files were bad and tried to run startup repair which always comes back that it failed to repair. Usually if I power down and back on it boots right back up. I never gave much thought to my PSU because I thought I had a good one until I did some digging and OCZ PSUs seem to be proven as paperweights. Hopefully a new PSU will put and end to my problems. I can't complain too much though as I have had this PSU for 4 years and it is always running at least a heavily OCed CPU/GPU and 4 HDDs.
 
I would say you are lucky with it. I have been getting random blue screens and restarts and in every instance the source is "Kernel-Power". Recently there have been a couple times where upon reboot Windows said the startup files were bad and tried to run startup repair which always comes back that it failed to repair. Usually if I power down and back on it boots right back up. I never gave much thought to my PSU because I thought I had a good one until I did some digging and OCZ PSUs seem to be proven as paperweights. Hopefully a new PSU will put and end to my problems. I can't complain too much though as I have had this PSU for 4 years and it is always running at least a heavily OCed CPU/GPU and 4 HDDs.

You are lucky that that PSU lasted as long as it did. PSUs of similar quality as yours typically degrade in performance after two to three years. Hence, while that Epsilon platform was effectively a 500W performer when the PSU was new, it degraded to the point where it can now barely output 400W without risking out-of-spec ripple.
 
I currently use an OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W power supply for about 10 months and it has been solid (hopefully it stays that way).
 
I currently use an OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W power supply for about 10 months and it has been solid (hopefully it stays that way).

You're lucky, since that PSU can't really provide the full 600W under realistic average PSU temperatures of 45°C to 50°C. OCZ rated its ModXStream Pro series PSUs at a slightly lower internal operating temperature of 40°C but did not realize that an increase of 5°C above the 40°C testing temperature was enough to degrade its output noticeably.
 
I think I have decided to go ahead and get an 850HX. That way I have plenty of headroom in case future CPUS/GPUs are more power hungry and I don't run into this problem again.
 
It has worked for four years and now you're having problems so it's a bad PSU?

OCZ PSU's are fine, but they've had some bad units here or there.

750W Fatal1ty I have is great. Their Z-Series are awesome. Those FSP Epsilon units had some issues, but other than that, I've not heard anything bad about OCZ as a whole.

I am just surprised you have something for four years and then determine it is crap.
 
It has worked for four years and now you're having problems so it's a bad PSU?

OCZ PSU's are fine, but they've had some bad units here or there.

750W Fatal1ty I have is great. Their Z-Series are awesome. Those FSP Epsilon units had some issues, but other than that, I've not heard anything bad about OCZ as a whole.

I am just surprised you have something for four years and then determine it is crap.

I have had random issues here and there over the course of the 4 years. I have been through 4 complete systems all on this PSU and had random issues with all 4 systems. They were just that though, random. I would try to track down the issue and then the problem would go away so I would just let it roll. I never gave the PSU much though because as I said, I thought the one I had was considered to be a good unit. Recently when the problems arose again I was discussing it with a friend and he asked if I had looked at the PSU as the problem. That's when I started researching and found that the GameXStream and ModXStream lines of OCZ PSUs are generally considered to be sub-par. Couple that with the fact that windows event viewer states that every single one of my crashes originates from "Kernel-Power" and things start making sense. I run a pretty stressful system and I now believe that all along the random issues I had were caused by the PSU being underpowered and unstable. It is the one common thread to all of my systems. I'm not just deciding after 4 years my PSU is crap, I am after 4 years coming to the conclusion that I may have had a sub-par unit all along and it is time for a change.
 
I have had random issues here and there over the course of the 4 years. I have been through 4 complete systems all on this PSU and had random issues with all 4 systems. They were just that though, random. I would try to track down the issue and then the problem would go away so I would just let it roll. I never gave the PSU much though because as I said, I thought the one I had was considered to be a good unit. Recently when the problems arose again I was discussing it with a friend and he asked if I had looked at the PSU as the problem. That's when I started researching and found that the GameXStream and ModXStream lines of OCZ PSUs are generally considered to be sub-par. Couple that with the fact that windows event viewer states that every single one of my crashes originates from "Kernel-Power" and things start making sense. I run a pretty stressful system and I now believe that all along the random issues I had were caused by the PSU being underpowered and unstable. It is the one common thread to all of my systems. I'm not just deciding after 4 years my PSU is crap, I am after 4 years coming to the conclusion that I may have had a sub-par unit all along and it is time for a change.

That's fair enough.
 
Do yourself a favour and buy a PSU from a local brick and mortar store so you can easily return it if the new PSU doesn't solve your problem.
 
I might do that. The only problem is the closest B&M that carries decent PSUs is the newly reformed CompUSA and the closest one is a good 1.5 hours away.
 
It has worked for four years and now you're having problems so it's a bad PSU?

OCZ PSU's are fine, but they've had some bad units here or there.

750W Fatal1ty I have is great. Their Z-Series are awesome. Those FSP Epsilon units had some issues, but other than that, I've not heard anything bad about OCZ as a whole.

I am just surprised you have something for four years and then determine it is crap.

Z-Series is certainly not awesome. Z-series is a decent Sirfa made psu because OCZ for some reason does not source psus from any of the higher quality makers anymore. Also Z-series is pretty overpriced for the quality of the psu, the ripple and voltage are just good, but nowhere near great.
 
I had an OCZ GameXtream 600W that ran rock solid for over 4 years. Problem is, when it went out, it did so in style. It went up in flames... and it took my CPU and motherboard with it.

I decided to take a chance and pick up a BFG 1000W EX. I know they are out of business and therefor no warranty, but I get a 1 year warranty through the place I got it, and it was only $45.
 
Yeah I saw that deal but wasn't convinced I needed a PSU. I actually went back to see if I could find that deal again but it was gone.
 
I decided to take a chance and pick up a BFG 1000W EX. I know they are out of business and therefor no warranty, but I get a 1 year warranty through the place I got it, and it was only $45.

That's a fucking good deal youi got there. So good, i would put it up in Hot Deals section if they're still available.

Edit:
Yeah I saw that deal but wasn't convinced I needed a PSU. I actually went back to see if I could find that deal again but it was gone.
:(
 
Z-Series is certainly not awesome. Z-series is a decent Sirfa made psu because OCZ for some reason does not source psus from any of the higher quality makers anymore. Also Z-series is pretty overpriced for the quality of the psu, the ripple and voltage are just good, but nowhere near great.

They are just fine, not going to kill any components, and the efficiency is good.
 
They are just fine, not going to kill any components, and the efficiency is good.

Hey what did I say? I said it wasn't awesome. I certainly didn't say they weren't fine for normal usage. Just for the same price, you can get a much better psu, so why pay for a ocz?
 
Hey what did I say? I said it wasn't awesome. I certainly didn't say they weren't fine for normal usage. Just for the same price, you can get a much better psu, so why pay for a ocz?

I got a Z550 for something like $70-80 IIRC and it's 80plus silver. What could I have done better? (Though there are more silver and gold PSUs now than when I bought it.)
 
Actually I'm not even sure how good the Z550 is since it never really gets reviewed, but I was talking about the Z850/Z1000. Things that are better, NZXT's Hale90 series, Corsair's AX Series, Seasonic's X-series, Kingwin's Lazer Gold, Antec's HCP series, etc.
Actually looks like Z550 is eol, wonder why they killed it so fast :p
 
Hmm. I just came from a 700w Gamexstream to my HX850. The ocz would blue screen during occt's power supply test and my Corsair unit never misses a beat. I used the OCZ since before the gtx280 was released up until about a couple of weeks ago. I did have a board die during that time, maybe that could have had something to do with it.
 
Actually I'm not even sure how good the Z550 is since it never really gets reviewed, but I was talking about the Z850/Z1000. Things that are better, NZXT's Hale90 series, Corsair's AX Series, Seasonic's X-series, Kingwin's Lazer Gold, Antec's HCP series, etc.
Actually looks like Z550 is eol, wonder why they killed it so fast :p

Dunno about the NZXT but the other stuff costs more. I read at least one Z550 (or possibly 650) review that had good things to say. I forget where now.
 
Uh Lazer Gold-850 on newegg was $145 last I saw. That's way cheaper than the OCZ 850 :p I'll take a quality superflower over an ok sirfa easily.
 
That's a fucking good deal youi got there. So good, i would put it up in Hot Deals section if they're still available.

I got it at work. Normal price was $58 I think... which is still good. They are gone anyway. I contemplated getting two for a backup, but I didn't...
 
ocz's Psu's are garbage! have 3 different ones and they all crapped out, i'd rather go with corsair or silverstone striders!
 
I had an OCZ GameXtream 600W that ran rock solid for over 4 years. Problem is, when it went out, it did so in style. It went up in flames... and it took my CPU and motherboard with it.

Thats scary to hear as I'm using the same 600W GameXstream PSU for 4+ years.
I've had no problems with it so far . Guess they're really a hit and miss eh
 
I've had 3 OCZ Gold PSU's and they have all sucked. For whatever reason, they work for about a week, then just stop functioning. PSU tester shows no issues, but they won't power any computer.

Swapping out to a spare CoolerMaster psu proved the issue to be the OCZ psu's not the comptuers.


I will never buy an OCZ PSU ever again.100% failure rate within the first 30-days.




PS: OCZ was pretty good about replacing the first two, but they gave me crap on the third one saying it was my fault. I calmly explained that I have Antec, Corsair and CoolerMaster PSU's running in the same systems, on the same circuit, that run with no issues. They did end up replacing it.
 
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