INTRODUCTION

   With the rather recent appearance of 80 Plus Titanium certified power supply units in the market (some of which rated up to 1500W) hardcore overclockers and enthusiasts alike have found yet another reason to reach deep down their pockets for a brand new and rather costly upgrade. For good or bad the ultra-high-end power supplies cost quite a bit and in the end are mostly suited for use with really power hungry systems so casual consumers have really almost no need for something like that. On the other hand 80 Plus Bronze and Silver power supplies are far more affordable, feature quality components, come in both low and high power outputs and offer very good performance levels. For the past 2 days one such solution has been lying on our test bench, the Pure Power L8 700W (L8-700W) PSU by be quiet!

   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.

   The Pure Power L8 line features several 80 Plus Bronze certified (up to 88% power conversion efficiency) power supply units and although it consists of both modular and classic (fixed cables) models the 700W variant which we have here with us is the later. This particular model features one of the latest 120mm SilentWings L8 fans by be quiet along with two independent +12V rails for improved power stability (deliver up to 91% of the units total output) and 4 PCI-E power connectors while it also brings support for Energy Star 5.2, ErP 2013, Intel Haswell platform and Intel’s Deep Power Down C6/C7 mode. Spec-wise the Pure Power L8 700W may not be something unique but it should prove more than just enough for its target audience, the how much more however is up to us to find out.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Be quiet! has once again used a black cardboard box to pack the unit with a product picture at the front, its main features listed beneath and the company logo.

A few words about the features of the product in 4 languages are placed on the two sides of the box right above 8 online award logos.

All of the available connectors are listed at the rear right next to the units electrical table, two pictures showcasing the units size and several certification logos.

Be quiet! used both a bubble bag and cardboard to secure the L8-700W inside the box.

Inside the box you will find just the basics so aside the Pure Power 700W PSU you will also get the AC power cable, 5 wire straps, 5 mounting screws and the user’s manual.

THE PURE POWER L8 700W EXTERIOR

The body of the L8-700W has a nice black matte finish and as you can see all of the wires are hardwired inside.

Moving to the cooling fan used this time over be quiet! has placed an 120mm SilentWings rifle-bearing model.

As you can see be quiet! has placed their logo on one side while on the other we see a large sticker with the electrical table on it.

Cable sleeving extends all the way to the interior of the chassis.

The typical honeycomb perforation takes up most of the rear while next to it we see the company logo, on/off switch and the power port.

THE PURE POWER L8 700W INTERIOR

The 120mm SilentWings fan used can reach speeds up to 2000RPM to produce up to 58CFM of airflow with 30.8dBA of noise.

The interior is separated in 4 sections with the help of three heatsinks.

Be quiet! has used primary (rated at 85°C) and secondary (rated at 105°C) capacitors by Teapo.

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 considerably less.

TEST RESULTS

RAIL STABILITY

Although a mid/end PSU the L8-700W offers surprisingly stable rails.

POWER CONSUMPTION

628W at peak may not be very close to the 700W of the L8-700W rated power output but it still is roughly 90%.

NOISE LEVELS (SPL)

With a noise of 45.7dBA during load the L8-700W is not really loud although at 100% load it's possible that the fan may spin even faster.

CONCLUSION

   Be quiet! has really made a name for themselves (especially inside the EU) and having tested quite a few of their products helps know what kind of performance to expect and so i never did think that the Pure Power L8 700W PSU could be bad, quite the opposite actually and it didn't fail me. 80 Plus Bronze certification may not impress some people and the fixed cables are certainly not as appealing as modular ones (although in some cases they do perform better) but the L8-700W is a solid unit that offers very good rail stability with acceptable noise levels. The sole issue i can find with the Pure Power L8 700W is indeed its fixed cables since people with small PC cases may really have a hard time fitting them all inside. However it seems that be quiet! is well aware of that and so for that audience they offer the L8-730W CM variant which comes ready with modular cables (we'll try to get it here for testing as well).

   Currently the Pure Power L8 700W power supply unit (L8-700W) retails for just USD99.90 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 92Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag that lands it right next to several similar solutions by other leading manufacturers. In the end i can't say that what you can't find another PSU that can offer what the Pure Power L8 700W can but that's beside the point really since that happens quite a lot in this industry. In the end what matters is that be quiet! has once again released a high quality unit that performs very well and should cover the needs of most people out there and since we really liked it we are happy to give it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Performance Levels
- 80 Plus Bronze Certified
- Haswell Ready
- 3 Years Warranty

CONS

- Fixed Cables
- Noise Levels (For Some)