OCZ GameXstream 850W review - Testing setup and procedure
Author: Vedran Dakic
Date: 06 Feb 2007

So, when you have a PSU with "number" this big, the first thing you think of is - how will I make it cry? Well, we decided to assemble a really sick computer with these components:

- EVGA 680i motherboard 250
- Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700
- OCZ Platinum XTC PC2-8000 (2x1GB)
- EVGA 8800GTX (x2) in SLI
- WD RaptorX (x2) in RAID 1
- Pioneer DVR-111DBK (x2)
- Seagate 250GB SATA HDD (x2)
- Maxtor 250GB SATA HDD (x2)


Not bad for a close to EUR 4.000-computer, right?

With a single 8800GTX card on board, the setup worked without any problems. And although you "only" have two PCI-E power connectors, you'll have zero problems making your dual-8800GTX rig work, as well. So, hats off for that. But we weren't about to stop there. This is one very, very power-consuming setup, but then again, we tried with a slight "change". Change being Tyan's S2895 dual-Opteron motherboard with SLI, and some OCZ's ECC Registered RAM. And these two Opterons - well, we had a couple of Opteron 285's around. So, dual core, 2.6GHz, Socket 940. This configuration worked, as well.

Since we weren't about to give up so easily, we started using some Y-power connectors and connected 4 more hard drives to these additional rails. We ran out of Y-power connectors and decided to call it a day. We thought - maybe with additional DVD-burners and additional PATA controller, maybe we could kill it? So, we disconnected two of these burners and added two more. It worked. Added a TV tuner? Still - working. I mean, what does it take for a man to kill the PSU these days?