Power supply technology has really accelerated over the past two years; before this time it was somewhat dormant. The main reason power supply technology made little advancement until recently is because there has been no demand for them to do so. That was until about a year or two ago when processors and graphics cards really started to suck down power. Computers are generating a lot more heat these days and for this to happen they need more power. The power requirements of the latest and greatest computers are enormous. The power situation has reached a point where anything under 400watts is obsolete.

The power supply has always played a vital roll in any computer, yet most users fail to acknowledge this. The power supply could be considered the single most important piece of hardware, purely because it gives the computer life! Often users forget this and pair their high-end rigs with generic 300~400watt power supplies simply because they are cheap. Spending $40 US or less on a power supply for a high-end gaming system will not get the job done. Shamefully, most users spend much less than this and often run into various stability issues along the way.

Only three weeks ago an extremely powerful computer comprising of dual GeForce 7800 GTX graphics cards, found its way to the Legion Hardware labs. Excitement levels were high, that was until the system was shot down, due to random resets while trying to benchmark. The problem was quickly traced back to the power supply unit. In place was a 550watt Antec TruePower 1.0 power supply. Surprisingly this was unable to power the dual GeForce 7800 GTX system. The Thermaltake PurePower 460watt power supply was also suffering from the same random crashes. The problem was only corrected once I moved to the Thermaltake PurePower 680watt power supply, which also features PCI Express support.

The Thermaltake PurePower 680watt power supply corrected the problem and I was able to continue benchmarking without any more issues. However, I refused to believe a dual GeForce 7800 GTX system with a single optical and hard drive would require the full grunt of a 680watt power supply. Therefore, I called upon OCZ to supply us with their ModStream 520w power supply. Although this power supply is rated with a 520watt output, OCZ state that the peak load is 620watts. This means in stressful conditions the OCZ ModStream 520w power supply should be up to the job.