O-Sense
INTRODUCTION
Whenever someone comes up to me and asks what power supply unit to get the very 1st thing I tell them is to always get something with a higher output than what they think they need. This is something I’ve told people for as long as I can remember since I believe it’s always best to have something and never need it than to need it and not have it (and yes, this applies to many other things in life, not just power supply units). Last year be quiet! released the Pure Power 11 FM line of PSUs in outputs up to 750W (review here) and just recently updated with two extra models (clearly to cover a larger segment of the market) the 1KW variant of which arrived in the lab a while back.
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.
With the addition of the 2 new variants the Pure Power 11 FM line of power supply units by be quiet! now includes 550/650/750/850/1000W models all of which are fully modular and are 80 Plus Gold efficiency certified (up to 93.9% electrical efficiency). The Pure Power 11 FM 1000W model which I’ll be testing today can deliver up to 1000W of continuous power (1138W peak) and features strong +12V rails (46A/42A) which can deliver the units entire power output (999.6W), active PFC, advanced stability and voltage regulation (thanks to its LLC, SR and DC-to-DC technologies), ATX v2.52 and EPS v2.92 support and several electrical protections including OVP (over-voltage), UVP (under-voltage), SCP (short-circuit), OPP (over-power), OCP (over-current) and OTP (over-temperature). As with previous models the Pure Power 11 FM 1000W model is covered by a 5-year limited warranty.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
As in the past the black box be quiet! uses has a large product picture at the front right beneath the company logo and the 80 Plus Gold certification and just over 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 bubble wrap whereas the rest of the bundle is placed under a piece of cardboard.
Along with the Pure Power 11 FM 1000W PSU, its low-profile modular cables and its power cord you're also getting 5 cable ties, 5 mounting screws and the user manual.
THE PURE POWER 11 FM 1000W EXTERIOR
Just like with the 750W model be quiet! used a round braided power cable for the motherboard (24pin) and flat low-profile power cables for everything else.
The chassis of the Pure Power 11 FM 1000W measures 160mm in width, 150mm in length and 86mm in height.
A Silent Wings 120mm fan is placed at the top (or bottom, depends how you see it) of the chassis right beneath a grill.
The company logo can be seen on the left side of the chassis while on the right side we find a large sticker containing the electrical specifications table.
At the front we find a total of 10 modular connectors all of which are tagged and different in size/shape.
Turning the chassis around we find the typical honeycomb perforation, power on/off button and the power port.
THE PURE POWER 11 FM 1000W INTERIOR
Be quiet! has used a similar 120mm fan (BQ QF2-12025-HS) as with the 750W variant, this time over however slightly faster (2000RPM as opposed to 1800RPM).
According to OEM numbers this unit is manufactured by HEC and in terms of quality everything seems to check out.
Once again for the primary capacitors we see TEAPO ones, this time however they are certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.
Secondary capacitors are also manufactured by TEAPO and are certified for use up to 105 degrees Celsius.
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
Exactly with every other power supply line when be quiet! released the Pure Power 11 FM line I thought that 750W wasn’t high enough to cover most consumers out there so the release of the 850W and 1000W variants was something I was actually hoping and expecting (at least from a company like be quiet!). Now in terms of performance HEC has done a good job, rails are solid, noise levels are lower compared to other similar models by the competition and the 80 Plus Gold efficiency certification should be more than enough for the majority of consumers. On top of that the 5-year limited warranty is always something that will certainly attract even more potential buyers. Price/cost is the last piece of the puzzle so let’s see what be quiet! charges for their brand new Pure Power 11 FM 1000W model.
Unfortunately, after searching all over i was unable to locate the Pure Power FM 1000W on any of the large e-tailers (makes sense since the official release was today). Still i do have its recommended retail prices here and at USD159.90/154.90Euros the Pure Power 11 FM 1000W is priced just a tad higher than what i was expecting. This however may not have anything to do with be quiet! but rather with the current state of the industry so i wouldn’t be surprised if prices fell later inside 2022. Price aside the Pure Power 11 FM 1000W is not only a high-quality model covered by a 5-year limited warranty but it also performed well enough to get the Golden Award.
PROS
- Very Good Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- 80 Plus Gold Certified
- Fully Modular
- Electrical Protections
- Peak Output (1138W)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
CONS
- Current Availability
- Current Price (For Some)
