DailyTech - OCZ Acquires PC Power & Cooling

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Hardware OCZ Acquires PC Power & Cooling
Gabriel Ikram & Kristopher Kubicki - May 25, 2007 4:46 PM

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109 comment(s) - last by AntDX316.. on Jun 2 at 1:12 AM

OCZ CEO Ryan Petersen is all smiles after picking up boutique power-supply vendor PC Power & Cooling (Source: DailyTech)

Memory, cooling and power supply giant OCZ picks up enthusiast power supply company PC Power & Cooling

OCZ today announced it has acquired American supplier of power supply units PC Power & Cooling. Orginally founded in 1985, PC Power & Cooling has been a frontrunner in ultra high-performance power supplies and cooling solutions. OCZ aims to expand its product line through the acquisition, increase its R&D resources, and establish the organization as the leading provider of power-supply solutions.

The acquisition will result in concentrated efforts between OCZ and PC Power & Cooling. The two companies will combine their technical strengths and R&D resources to deliver stronger solutions to consumers. PC Power & Cooling has had a long history of offering enthusiast oriented products.

OCZ plans to combine the current product lines of both companies immediately after the acquisition is complete. PCP&C's current line of power supply units will become the new line of high-end OCZ power supplies. Despite the acquisition, the power supplies will still maintain their PCP&C branding.

In addition to combining current product lines, OCZ will make PC Power & Cooling's products available worldwide through its distribution channels, which includes Wal-Mart and Buy.com. Previously PCP&C's products were only available for sale in the U.S through its online store and a few retailers.

The acquisition will also result in a change in management for OCZ. The founder of
PCP&C, Doug Dodson will move into the position of Chief Technology Officer at OCZ. Previously, the role of CTO was jointly filled by OCZ CEO Ryan Peterson and OCZ vice president of technology development Michael Schuette. OCZ hopes to bring Dodson's experience and innovation to the company by adding him to its leadership.

Regarding his new position, Doug Dodson said "In my new role as Chief Technology Officer, I will focus on maintaining PC Power's lead in proven ultra high-performance with the Turbo-Cool line, and in value and quiet computing with the Silencer line, as well as provide guidance for the continuing improvement of OCZ's power management solutions. I am excited about the improved accessibility of PC Power & Cooling products and I am confident that our rich tradition of reliability and innovation will continue to strengthen as a part of the OCZ Technology Group.”

OCZ company went public in London April 2006 and had its initial public offering in June. Further financial data on the acquisition will be released Tuesday.

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Modular connectors

By Chriz on 5/25/2007 7:30:44 PM , Rating: 2

Maybe now we can start seeing some PC power and cooling power supplies with modular connectors, at least for the enthusiast line. Or we can hope.

RE: Modular connectors

By ryedizzel on 5/25/2007 7:44:57 PM , Rating: 2

Amen to that! But like Azander said both products lines will mostly remain the same. So I would suspect the modular power connectors will only be found in the OCZ line. :(

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RE: Modular connectors

By pauldovi on 5/25/2007 7:45:50 PM , Rating: 3

Modular connectors are not very good for quality power-supplies!

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RE: Modular connectors

By Proteusza on 5/25/2007 8:33:38 PM , Rating: 1

Why? Unless you hang your pc from your power supply.

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RE: Modular connectors

By pauldovi on 5/25/2007 9:40:35 PM , Rating: 5

Increased resistance, rusting, increased voltage deviation.

That is why high end PSU's don't use them.

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RE: Modular connectors

By Hare on 5/26/07, Rating: -1

RE: Modular connectors

By mindless1 on 5/26/2007 6:46:35 PM , Rating: 5

Having one potential point of failure is not justification to add MORE points of failure. For many people the difference is negligable and never realized, but nevertheless it is possible to have connector problems and some people have.

It's even more important over the course of time when environmental factors or repetitive plugging and unplugging of connectors will result in worse contact. Some PSU burn out in 3 years if that and won't have the level of exposure to such things as a better PSU that might last a decade.

In other words, if your two year old modular supply still works acceptibly it is not evidence that all do over the course of time. Remember also that "modular connector" does not describe the quality of that connector which can vary.

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RE: Modular connectors

By TomZ on 5/26/2007 9:17:06 PM , Rating: 5

Hare, let me introduce you to Ohm's law: voltage = resistance * current. Now suppose you add 10 milliohms of resistance (0.01 ohms) with an additional connector pair (male+female), and then you pull 25A through it - guess what, you now just added an 0.25V voltage drop just due to that connector. At these high currents, contact resistance in connectors becomes significant, more than you might otherwise think.

Also, you might also find it interesting that many connectors like the ones used only have a useful life of 10-30 cycles. Each time you mate-unmate the connector, the contact resistance increases slightly. Not really a good thing.

You may call it FUD, but I call it "fact."

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RE: Modular connectors

By slashbinslashbash on 5/26/2007 10:17:25 PM , Rating: 3

What you seem to be forgetting is that it's pulling 25A through multiple pins. Looking at a recent review of a 1000W PSU on johnnyguru's site http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=113... I see 22A, 25A, 32A rails, but they all are going through 4, 6, 8, 24-pin connectors.

Another point that's been lost is that modular connectors doesn't necessarily mean exclusively modular connectors. My current PSU has modular PCIE and HDD connectors, but the ATX connectors (ATX and ATX12V) are hard-wired. With increasing PCIE wattage requirements, I can imagine that they might need to be hard-wired too when you get to the 1kW+ PSU's. But the piddly connectors for hard drives and optical drives? Those will never pull many amps, and I can't see any reason not to have them be fully modular to save on case clutter when I don't need them.

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RE: Modular connectors

By TomZ on 5/26/2007 10:30:19 PM , Rating: 2

First, divide by two, since half of those pins are grounds. Second, splitting the supplies across multiple pins does help with the voltage drop problem, but the power dissipated (wasted) by the connector is the same.

The tradeoff in your supply seems a smart one to me.

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RE: Modular connectors

By Hare on 5/27/07, Rating: 0

By Hare on 5/27/2007 9:43:21 AM , Rating: 0

I'm very familiar with the Ohm's law as well as power supplies in general. Now let me go through your list. Sure bad connectors exist, but who's forcing you to buy a crappy power supply?

Your 25A example is a bad one. High end GPU's don't eat much more then 10-14A and SLI / Crossfire configurations spread the load over multiple lines (connectors) just to go around the (theoretical) connector limitations.

Usefuls life 10-30 cycles? Haha, that's funny. Maybe for your 20$ Ping Pong power supply? How many times were you planning on plugging the wires, btw? Decent connectors maintain good connection even with heavy use. Most likely you don't even need to touch the psu connectors since most people just tend to remove components, not wires.

You can tell me about n+1 facts but the problem is that those facts only have theoretical impact. In practise, no one should be worried about good modular connections as we can see from the numerous psu-tests made by independent enthusiast sites (not power supply manufacturer PR or other fud). And that's exactly what I'll be calling it since it is just FUD. That's a fact...

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RE: Modular connectors

By dm0r on 5/29/2007 12:46:27 PM , Rating: 2

Wow....i was really thinking about buyng a modular power supply...your post was very usefull and changed my mind.Thanks and 6 for him

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RE: Modular connectors

By ecktt on 5/26/2007 10:01:32 PM , Rating: 4

er, Its myth listed on Power PC and Cooling site. If you did any kind of physics you would understand why modular connectors are bad. So unless the laws of physics some how change inside you PC then modular cables add unnecessary resistance to the circuit path and there by cause a voltage drop. There also the introduction of points of failure. That would make you post BS . Just about the only good thing going for modular cable is the removal of unnecessary cable for a cleaner install. To me that take a back seat to a more robust system build. Besides a good system build could neatly hide the extra cabling.

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RE: Modular connectors

By MrBungle123 on 5/28/2007 11:43:38 AM , Rating: 2

"So unless the laws of physics some how change inside you PC then modular cables add unnecessary resistance to the circuit path and there by cause a voltage drop."

What, you don't have a close proximity electrical physics modifying resonator card?.... pfft, loser.

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RE: Modular connectors

By IceTron on 5/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Modular connectors

By AntDX316 on 6/2/2007 1:12:48 AM , Rating: 1

he didnt bull shit he just over exaggerated

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RE: Modular connectors

By mrred on 5/25/2007 9:51:55 PM , Rating: 2

I was thinking the same thing. As long as the connections are solid, shouldn't there be no difference? Is there really THAT much more resistance from a little plug?

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RE: Modular connectors

By pauldovi on 5/25/2007 11:51:49 PM , Rating: 2

Yes. And over time it will only get worse.

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RE: Modular connectors

By MS on 5/26/07, Rating: 0

RE: Modular connectors