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Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Mark Tyson

Streacom ZS800 Rethinks PSUs for SFF Builds

Streacom ZS800 Hybrid SFX

At Computex, Streacom showcased a new take on power supply design for small form factor (SFF) builds. Its new ZS800 Hybrid SFX PSU (800 W) tackles traditional SFF PSU design from a number of angles, and its experts at Computex have been revealing the reasoning behind its decisions.

The Streacom engineers seemed to have a wish list for modifying SFF PSUs before they started, and one of the first things they wished to improve was cabling. The issue of the bulky 24 pin ATX cable was considered first. Streacom says that its experience with DC to DC ATX converters meant that it could deliver multiple voltages from a single 12V supply. When Intel introduced its single-rail ATX12VO (12V only) specification, Streacom designed a hybrid solution that is both ATX3.0 and ATX12VO compatible.

(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)

You can see the 24-pin ATX conversion cable is attached, and an official close-up shot of the DC to DC converter board is embedded below. Streacom mentions that the board is designed specifically for its PSUs, so owners of other brand ATX12VO supplies shouldn't think about acquiring one to supply lines with different voltages. Lastly, on the topic of this aspect of the design, Streacom says that users of its ZS800 Hybrid SFX PSU will hopefully be able to discard this adaptor, when / if ATX12VO is adopted by more motherboard vendors.

(Image credit: Streacom)

Another new aspect of the ZS800 Hybrid SFX from Streacom is its physical form factor. The firm mentions that the SFX standard specifies a PSU size of 125 x 63.5 x 100 mm - but once a user starts adding cable a lot of extra depth is needed for cable wrangling (probably about 20 to 30mm). You can see in our images that the recessed design of the ZS800 angles the connectors at 90 degrees, helping a lot in the most compact systems. We reckon cables attached to this PSU would need little more than the cable thickness for successful routing.

(Image credit: Future)

Apparently the cabling change also allowed Streacom to design-in a removable fan. The company claims that the ZS800 "is the first SFX PSU that allows the user to replace the fan with one of their choosing to create a perfectly matched system." We have images of the unit with and without a 120mm fan installed for your perusal. Streacom seems to have gone for a Noctua fan, but users could easily choose any standard 120 x 15 mm fan from their preferred brand - and go RGB if they wish.

If you are more than just interested in the Streacom ZS800 Hybrid SFX, please check out the official specs. Among the specs, you will note it comes with a 12VHPWR connector which is popular with modern Nvidia GPUs.

(Image credit: Streacom)

Yesterday we wrote about the Streacom SG10 fanless gaming case and the Streacom VU1 dynamic analogue dials in our coverage from the halls of Computex 2023.

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