INTRODUCTION

   With NVIDIA having already released the latest GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card and AMD rolling out their newest additions to their RDNA3 line of graphics cards (namely the Radeon RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT models) now is the time to grab an PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 power supply unit. Now, I’m not going to lie to all of you, noone really "has" to buy an PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 power supply unit, even more so if one already owns a high quality and performance model. Even though however noone must buy a new PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 power supply unit the benefits of doing so are very clear and not only include power savings (higher efficiency levels) and better quality components (at least in most cases) but also improved specifications which make them ideal for all the latest graphics cards and motherboards (2xCPU/3xGPU excursion tolerance). The Straight Power 12 line of PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 power supply units is the latest one by our friends over at be quiet! and today with me i have the flagship 1500W 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.

   As expected, the Straight Power 12 line includes fully modular models available in 5 different outputs (750/850/1000/1200/1500W) all of which feature the 80 PLUS Platinum certification (efficiency up to 94%) and are both PCIe 5.0 & ATX 3.0 compliant. As opposed to the rest of the line the 1500W variant which i have here with me comes ready with two +12VHPWR 600W power cables and sports a single powerful 12V rail (125A) capable of delivering 100% of the units’ total power output (1500W), peak power output of no less than 1671W (according to ATX 3.0 specs peak should now be up to 3KW for 100ms – this not something i can test however), four PCIe 6+2 connectors, high-speed Silent Wings 135mm fan, Full bridge LLC technology, 100% Japanese capacitors, wire-free DC interior side and individually sleeved cables. The latest Straight Power 12 is also secured by a full array of electrical protections including over-current (OCP), over-voltage (OVP), under-voltage (UVP), short-circuit (SCP), over-temperature (OTP), over-power (OPP) and Surge & Inrush (SIP). As always, be quiet! covers the brand new Straight Power 12 line with a very generous 10-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Typically, at the front of the black box we find a large product picture, model name, company logo and the power output.

The electrical table is printed at the rear of the box alongside several certifications.

As with previous models the Straight Power 12 is placed inside a bubble wrap.

Along with the Straight Power 12 1500W, its modular cables and power cord inside the box you'll also find 4 cable ties, 4 mounting screws and the user manual.

THE STRAIGHT POWER 12 1500W EXTERIOR

As mentioned in the intro page be quiet! has used sleeved braided modular cables, including for the two +12VHPWR 600W ones.

The Straight Power 12 1500W is a mid to large size ATX factor PSU that measures 180mm in length, 150mm in width and 86mm in height.

Be Quiet! has used a nice looking grille right over their Silent Wings 135mm intake fan.

On the right side of the housing, we find a sticker with the units' electrical table whereas on the left side we find the company logo.

At the front of the Straight Power 12 1500W we find 11 modular ports which are both different in size and tagged.

Moving at the rear we find the power port and a somewhat large on/off power switch.

THE STRAIGHT POWER 12 1500W INTERIOR

The Silent Wings 135mm fan (BQ SIW3-13525-HF-26) used with the Straight Power 12 1500W can spin up to 2600RPM.

Once again i skipped checking the OEM of this model but judging by the layout this is probably a unit manufactured by FSP (will update if it turns out it’s another one).

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

Secondary capacitors are manufactured by both Nippon Chemi-Con and Rubycon and are also 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

   Just like with previous reviews I feel I need to point out the obvious and so once again since my test rig can’t draw much over 1KW whenever I test power supply units with higher outputs my results may not be 100% accurate (even if I had a SunMoon/Chroma tester that wouldn’t change much). This of course applies only for systems that can actually manage to squeeze more power than my test rig does. That being said even then rail stability shouldn't be affected much (if at all), what will be affected however are noise levels and so for example in the case of the Straight Power 12 1500W if you do manage to draw its full output, I expect that noise levels will undoubtedly climb to over 50dBA (from just 5-10cm away that is). With that out of the way rail stability is very good, the Silent Wings 135mm fan is pretty much inaudible from 1 meter away (at least up to 1024W) and as for build quality well it’s exactly what you’d expect from a unit by be quiet! and their OEM partners (again, probably FSP in this case). On top of that you’re getting two 12VHPWR 600W connectors which means you’re set for all of the upcoming GeForce RTX models by NVIDIA (and Radeon RX models since AMD will probably use the same connector eventually).

   The Straight Power 12 line of power supply units by be quiet! was unveiled roughly 2 months ago but it was only recently that these models became available in the market and so currently the 1500W variant retails for USD379.90 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 338.70Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Again, this may not seem as quite affordable for the majority of people but it’s worth point out that models with well over 1KW of power output are mostly for people who may like to overclock the living daylights out of their CPU and GPU (or people who just have lots to spend on a new system, also who knows, future graphics cards may feature multi-link once more). Cost aside the latest Straight Power 12 1500W PSU by be quiet! scores high on everything and for that it deserves the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Near Excellent Build Quality
- Solid Rail Stability
- ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0
- 80 PLUS Platinum Certified
- Powerful Single 12V Rail (125A)
- 1500W Output (2x +12VHPWR 600W)
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/SSP/OPP/UVP/OTP/SIP)
- Noise Levels
- 10 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)