INTRODUCTION

   If you belong in the top 1% of gamers all over the world and are planning to upgrade to one of the latest AMD Radeon 6800/6900 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080/3090 cards anytime soon then you should really invest a bit on an equally high-end power supply unit. Fortunately, this is something you're already well aware of so all that's really left is which model you should decide on getting. Well right now the market is not at its best and since power supply units go hand to hand with graphics cards this means two things, first that their prices have increased and second that there aren’t that many high-end ones available for purchase. Luckily this does not apply for newly released models (higher availability levels) and so since be quiet! just made their latest Dark Power 12 line available I’ll be testing the 1000W (1KW) variant.

   be quiet! is a premium brand of power supplies, PC cases and cooling solutions for desktop PCs. The products of be quiet! offer legendary quiet operation and first-class performance thanks the passion for quality and precision. Attention to detail is the key to perfection. Which is why our very own experts lead product conception, design and quality control from our headquarters in Germany. be quiet! sticks to its name: More than 15 years’ experience in the field of noise reduction and silence make be quiet! products probably the most silent ones on the market.

   The brand new Dark Power 12 line of power supply units is currently available in 750/850/1000W outputs all of which feature fully modular designs (future-proof since you can always change the cables if needed) and the 80 Plus Titanium certification (up to 95.9% electrical efficiency). The Dark Power 12 line is based on a state of the art DC-DC design/topology (active rectifier with full bridge LLC) which aside the impressive 95.9% efficiency also gives the unit a total of up to 8 PCIe connectors, 6 strong +12V rails (2x32A/2x40A) capable of delivering over 99% of the units total power output and a peak power output of no less than 1142W. Be quiet! has once again used an overclocking key which allows the end user to combine all four +12V rails into a single one with high power output (83A) making ideal for overclocked processors and/or graphics cards. Other features include strong minor rails with a total output of 146W, wire-free interior, sleeved cables, high-speed frameless 135mm Silent Wings fan and long-lasting Japanese capacitors certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius. Of course, the new Dark Power 12 PSUs are Energy Star v7.0 compliant and are secured with a full array of electrical protections including over-current (OCP), over-voltage (OVP), under-voltage (UVP), short-circuit (SCP), over-temperature (OTP) and over-power (OPP). As always be quiet! offers a very generous 10-year limited manufacturer's warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The box in which the new Dark Rock 12 line gets shipped in has a large product picture at the front right beneath the company logo and the 80 Plus Titanium certification and above the included output model.

At the rear we find the units electrical table, several certification logos, the serial numbers and barcodes and of course a 2D barcode which points potential buyers to product information.

Inside the box we see that the PSU is wrapped inside a synthetic cover and placed between two foam spacers whereas the rest of the bundle is placed in a thick cardboard box.

Along with the Dark Power Pro 1000W unit, its sleeved modular cables and its power cord you're also getting the multi to single rail PCI switch, 6 cable ties, 10 mounting screws (two sets of 5), 5 cable straps and the user manual.

THE DARK POWER 12 1000W EXTERIOR

Measuring 175mm in length, 150mm in width and 86mm in height the Dark Power 12 1000W may not be the largest PSU to ever reach the lab but it's still large.

Almost the entire top area of the enclosure is practically a mesh cover which allows for optimal airflow levels.

The electrical table along with the 80 Plus Titanium certification (and others) is printed on a sticker found on the left side.

As with previous models the product line and company name are located on the other side.

At the front of the Dark Power 12 1000W we find a total of 5 drive ports, 4 PCIe ports, 4 mainboard ports (including the 24pin port) and the multi to single rail port (all are different in shape and tagged).

On the other side we find an on/off power switch, the power port and a mesh grill.

The multi to single rail switch is ideal for people with ultra-high end graphics cards and extreme overlocks.

THE DARK POWER 12 1000W INTERIOR

Accessing the interior of the Dark Power 12 is slightly different than with the Dark Power Pro 12 but it still requires removing the aluminum cover and then both plastic air inlets.

This time over be quiet! has used a 135mm frameless fan which can spin up to 2100RPM with just 25.8dBA of noise.

Interior layout is very clean and according to what i see this unit is manufactured by the FSP group.

Both primary capacitors are manufactured by the Japanese Nippon Chemi-Con and are certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors seem to be manufactured by United Chemi-Con and Rubycon and are all rated for use up to 105 degrees.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Using a dedicated measurement instrument such as a Chroma or a SunMoon to test power supply units is without doubt the most ideal and accurate way (not to mention the fastest) to do that currently. However, it's certainly not the only way there is and so pretty much anyone can test a power supply unit just by using a test rig. Certainly, limitations do apply and so you can't really push a 1000W power supply to its limits if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why over the years we saved certain hardware components for the purpose of building a dedicated PSU test rig. True it may not be as accurate as the above mentioned solutions but it comes really close and is in fact much closer to real world usage. So as always, we ran several games with maximum graphic options enabled at a resolution of 2560x1600 in order to stress every hardware component and increase the overall power demands of the system. The Passmark BurnIn Test was also used to overstress the components in an effort to provide the most accurate results possible. As a final test we also used the latest OCCT 4.4 software and its dedicated PSU testing suite since it can really bring a power supply to its knees after inside a few minutes.

   Rail stability was checked/measured with the CPUID Hardware monitor and a Metex multimeter which also recorded the system load in idle and in load. As always try to remember that the power consumption numbers listed in the graph are the highest (Peak) ones recorded during the entire duration of the tests and not the average ones. Noise levels coming from the fan were recorded using the high precision HD600 ExTech Sound dBA Meter from the rear of the unit and at a range of no more than 5-10cm. Readings under load are recorded the exact moment we manually switch the fans of all graphics cards from full speed to almost zero, that way the fan of the power supply does not have enough time to slow its RPM and so by doing this we get very accurate noise level readings. Needless to say, in order to get 100% accurate readings, you need to have a noise isolated room for that exact purpose, something which is quite impossible unless you are working inside a real lab (some people use very small noise insulated boxes but due to their size both heat and noise exceed normal levels and so the results can't really be considered to be 100% accurate, nor realistic for that matter). Also do take into account that since all noise measurements take place from just 5-10cm away the final noise levels to reach your ears will be considerably less.

* After well over 10 years of testing PSUs the Intel Core i7-920 CPU of this rig failed and so we replaced it with a Xeon X5660 (we also swapped the GA-X58A-UD7 for the G1. Assassin).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   Having reviewed the top of the line Dark Power Pro 1500W a couple of months ago (review here) means I had high hopes for the Dark Power 12 1000W and as you can tell from my charts it didn’t disappoint. Build quality is also almost as high as that of the Dark Power Pro 12 line so nothing less here either. On top of that the electrical efficiency of the Dark Power 12 1000W seems to be higher (always based on the official numbers) compared to that of the Dark Power Pro 12 1500W model so overall the former could actually be a better choice than the latter for some people (not including those who may need a more powerful single +12V rail). Worth pointing out is that the 135mm fan used in the Dark Power 12 1000W turned out being less audible than the 135mm model used with the Dark Power Pro 12 1500W (as expected really due to the difference in output).

   The be quiet! Dark Power 12 1000W 80 Plus Platinum power supply unit was officially released less than 2 hours ago and so currently it retails for around 280Euros inside the EU a price tag which is just a tad higher compared to other similar models. Still this small gap is actually well justified not only due to the multi-single rail feature of the Dark Power 12 1000W but also because of its excellent build quality, low noise levels and of course the 10-year limited warranty all of which warrant the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- 80 Plus Titanium Certified
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/SSP/OPP/UVP/OTP)
- Low Noise Levels
- Frameless Silent Wings 135mm Fan
- Multi & Single Rail Mode (32A/40A & 83A)
- 10 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Current Availability