INTRODUCTION

   As far back as i can recall I’ve always considered the power supply as one of the most important hardware components of a system. True i never thought about it to be just as important as the mainboard or the graphics card but i always knew that in order for these two to work flawlessly a good PSU providing stable power is a must. Of course back when i started testing power supply units they didn't have the many 80 Plus certifications that we have now nor did they have the features they do now but the entire concept was the same. Nowadays however things are quite easier so in a way the various 80 Plus certifications also provide a quick way for people to know what a specific power supply is capable off without digging deeper (for example we have yet to test an 80 Plus Gold or Platinum PSU that didn't have excellent performance). On one hand however not everyone can afford to purchase a high output Gold/Platinum 80 Plus Certified PSU while on the other there are several bronze and silver certified ones with excellent performance as well. Now as you all know recently we gave away a Power Zone 1000W 80 Plus Bronze Certified PSU by be quiet! and since we always like to know exactly what it is that we are giving away one such PSU ended up in our test bench.

   be quiet! is a premium brand manufacturer of power supplies and cooling solutions for your desktop PC. be quiet! products are convincing which is proved by reaching and defending the market leadership in PSU business in Germany for five consecutive years *. This is validated and accompanied by numerous awards for both power supplies and cooling solutions. be quiet! is awarded for five times in a row as manufacturer of the year in the power supply category by the readers of the well-known German hardware magazine PC Games Hardware. Another first and second rank in the categories “fans” and “cooler” underline the high acceptance of our products. be quiet! sticks to its name: Ten years’ experience in the field of noise reduction and silence make be quiet! products probably the most silent one on the market. Undoubted fans have a large impact of the noise levels of be quiet! products. Due we are using our specially developed Silent Wings fans in nearly all of our range. They are equipped with various noise reducing features. Thanks to these we ensure a really silent operation - our products reach the best balance between cooling performance and a virtually inaudible operation. If you choose be quiet! you can be sure to get premium quality and second to none silent operation from the quietness experts.

   Unlike what the majority of PSU manufacturers is doing currently be quiet! gave the Power Zone 1000W a single +12v rail capable of dishing out up to 996W of power making ideal for gaming rigs (since single rails can't really get overloaded). Of course in the past single +12v rail PSUs could overheat resulting in the device burning up but today the likelihood of something like that ever happening is close to zero and certainly not with a device manufactured by one of the leading companies in the market. Another great feature of the Power Zone 1000W is the 100% modular design which means less cables and also that it's future proof in case we ever see the introduction of a different mainboard cable than the 24pin one we have now. Still be quiet! didn’t stop there so follow us as we take a closer look at their latest Power Zone 1000W 80 Plus Bronze PSU to see exactly what it offers.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The unit is packed inside a large dark grey box with the model name and its rated power at the front right above its main features printed in 3 languages.

A few words about the unit are also present on the left side in two languages.

All the available modular connectors are listed on the right side.

The rear of the box is filled with the units’ electrical table, detailed features in two languages, several certification logos and several award logos by media around the globe.

The modular cables along with the bundle are placed inside two cardboard boxes (left/right) while the PSU itself sits in the middle of the box.

Power supply units rarely have rich bundles and the Power Zone 1000W is really not an exception so aside the unit itself placed inside a cloth bag you will get the modular cables, power cable, 5 mounting screws and several cable ties.

THE POWER ZONE 1000W EXTERIOR

Be quiet! gave the 175mm long, 150mm wide and 86mm thick Power Zone 1000W a nice rugged/military look which i happen to like a lot.

This is the first time i see a colored logo on a PSU and i think it adds to the overall appearance.

A single SilentWings 135mm fan is used to keep the temperatures of the interior at check.

The model name is placed on both sides of the unit (from this side it looks like an armored container).

As it is typical the electrical table is placed on a large sticker at the bottom.

All of the modular connectors are both different in size and tagged to avoid making any mistake and next to them be quiet! has also placed three 2pin fan ports.

At the rear of the unit we see the power port, on/off switch and the usual honeycomb perforation behind a grill (looks like the front of a truck).

THE POWER ZONE 1000W INTERIOR

The 135mm SilentWings fan can spin up to 2900RPM (however it never did during our tests) and thanks to the COOL-OFF feature it runs for up to three minutes after the system has shut down to avoid overheat of the interior components.

The interior layout is quite clean and is divided into several sections by 4 medium-sized black heatsinks.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the primary capacitors are manufactured by TEAPO and are rated for up 105 degrees Celsius.

Secondary capacitors are also manufactured by TEAPO and are also rated for 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 computer. Certainly limitations do apply and so you can't really test a 1000W power supply if your system only uses 500W at peak loads and that's why during the past 5 years i have 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 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). 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 far less.

TEST RESULTS

RAIL STABILITY

Rail stability can be considered as rock solid especially since we did pull more power than its rated one.

POWER CONSUMPTION

We managed to pull up to 1058W of power from the device so our results are actually a lot better than we had hoped for.

NOISE LEVELS (SPL)

The 135mm SilentWings fan never crossed the 42dBA line during testing however out of pure curiosity since its specs state a max speed of 2900RPM we did manually heat up the unit at which point we recorded almost 52dBA of noise. However since this was not done during our load tests we didn't include it in the chart.

CONCLUSION

   Be Quiet! may not have the long history some of the other PSU brands have but in the roughly ten years they've been around they've managed to make a name of themselves thanks to the high build quality and performance of their products so it was never a matter of whether or not the latest Power Zone 1000W 80 Plus Bronze PSU would be good, the only real question was just how good. Well after wrapping up our tests and using it for almost a week I’d say the Power Zone 1000W PSU is a very good mid-end solution for gamers and professionals who are after the sweet spot between performance and price. You see it's not just a matter of the total power output in which case 1000W is more than enough to power most tri/quad GPU configurations nor is the 80 Plus Bronze certification which offers up to 90% efficiency, what matters is that it offers very stable power and does so at nearly inaudible levels. The 100% modular design along with the 3 fan ports and the COOL-OFF feature are also very important additions but at least for me perhaps what's even more important than those is the rugged design be quiet! gave the Power Zone line.

   In the previous paragraph we said that the Power Zone 1000W 80 Plus Bronze PSU was the ideal choice for people seeking to hit the sweet spot between performance and price and we ment it since currently it retails for just USD139.99 inside the USA (NCIX - Limited Offer) and 115Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Granted the battle around that price range is quite fierce with solutions by many of the leading manufacturers however out of those not many have the power output of the Power Zone 1000W while even less have a future-proof 100% modular design and can maintain inaudible levels especially when delivering power levels far above their rated one. Bottom line you can't go wrong with the latest Power Zone 1000W PSU by be quiet! which is why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Rugged Design
- Performance (Rail Stability)
- Almost Inaudible
- 80 Plus Bronze Certified
- Future Proof
- 3 Fan Ports
- COOL-OFF Feature
- 5 Years Warranty
- Price (For Some) 

CONS

- Current Availability (Especially In The USA)