INTRODUCTION

   The recent introduction of the new GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics cards by NVIDIA and the Radeon R9 Fury graphics cards by AMD has "pushed" enthusiasts and serious gamers all around the world to also upgrade other parts of their systems most notably their power supply units. True these two card models are not the most power hungry ones in the market currently but they do require a good amount of power especially at load (roughly 300W for the GTX 980 Ti and 400W for the R9 Fury) and let's face it if you have enough money to get one or more of these cards you should also invest in a good power supply unit just for your peace of mind (that is if you don't already own one). Be Quiet! recently also updated their product catalog with their flagship Dark Power Pro 11 line of power supply units and for the past 2 weeks we've been using the 1000W model with exemplary results.

   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.

   We've pretty much reviewed every PSU line be quiet! has released to date but the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W (peak output of almost 1170W) is in a class of its own since aside the 80 Plus Platinum efficiency certification it also features four +12V rails (2x32A & 2x40A) capable of delivering up to 996W, strong minor rails with a total output of 150W, overclocking key (can convert the four +12V rails onto a single +12V rail) 135mm SilentWings 3 PWM Fluid Dynamic Bearing fan, ErP 2014 support, EPS v2.92 support, ATX v2.4 support (Intel Haswell ready), Energy Star v6 support and a full set of electrical protections (OCP/OVP/UVP/SCP/OTP/OPP). Unfortunately the Dark Power Pro 11 doesn't feature a fully modular design like the Power Zone line of PSUs again by be quiet! but since fully modular models are known to perform slightly below their semi-modular brothers I’m sure that's why they followed this path.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

As with most products by be quiet! at the front of the box there's a product picture along with their logo and the main product features.

The product features are listed on both sides in 4 languages.

All of the available modular power connectors are listed at the rear right next to the features list in 2 languages and the unit’s electrical table.

Be Quiet! has placed the PSU between two black pieces of foam and the rest of the bundle inside a cardboard box.

The box contains the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W PSU, 5 modular cables, power cord, overclocking switch/key, 5 thumbscrews, 5 screws, 4 fan cables, 6 cable ties, 2 cable straps and the user manual.

THE DARK POWER PRO 11 1000W

The enclosure of the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W model features scratch resistant paint and is quite large much like most models in its category measuring 193mm in length, 150mm in width and 86mm in height.

A 135mm large SilentWings 3 FDB fan is placed beneath the bottom grill (1800RPM / 26.3dBA).

The output of this particular model is printed on two large stickers placed on both sides of the enclosure.

On both ends the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W features anti-vibration rubber sleeves (the screws to access the interior are located beneath these sleeves).

Turning the unit over we find a large sticker with its electrical table.

All of the modular connectors are different in size and tagged for maximum safety.

Cable sleeving is excellent but we honestly didn't expect anything less from be quiet! especially since this is their flagship line now.

Most of the rear is perforated but we also see the power port and the on/off switch.

This switch converts the four +12V rails to a single powerful +12V one suitable for gaming rigs.

You can attach up to 4 fans directly onto the PSU a feature which although not groundbreaking should still be quite useful.

Unfortunately one of the screws keeping the enclosure together didn't want to let go so this time over since we didn’t want to damage the device we had to "borrow" a picture directly from our friends over at be quiet! (we can easily tell that the primary and secondary capacitors are manufactured by Nippon Chemi-Con and are certified 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 considerably less.

TEST RESULTS

RAIL STABILITY

Excellent rail stability from the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W but I would had liked to see if that would still be the case with a higher amount of power consumption.

POWER CONSUMPTION

We managed to max out the power output of the unit but that’s pretty much it.

NOISE LEVELS (SPL)

The 135mm SilentWings 3 fan barely climbed over 40dBA during all our tests a result which was surprisingly good since we did use all of the units rated output.

CONCLUSION

   No matter how many times I say it in the end I say it again and so it’s obvious to all of us that be quiet! keeps getting better and better at the design and manufacture of power supply units each model they make. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier the Dark Power Pro 11 line is not fully-modular and it’s not 80 Plus Titanium certified either but with that kind of performance and available features like the OC key, available electrical protections and built-in fan ports I doubt anyone will actually think twice about those. On top of that add the low-noise 135 SilentWings 3 fluid-dynamic bearing fan and the very nice looking body of the Dark Power Pro 11 line and there’s not much anyone could want more (if at all). I would like to eventually see a model similar to the DPS series by Thermaltake since I do think that some people would benefit a bit by having more “control” over the device but that’s obviously not one of the really important features the majority of consumers will look for in a PSU.

   Getting an enthusiast grade PSU nowadays is nowhere near to what it was even just a couple of years ago so currently the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W by be quiet! retails for just USD239 inside the USA (Newegg.com) and for 241.90Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). There are of course several other 1KW models at around the same price range (even some 1.2KW models) so again in the end it all comes down to what your needs are and how much you’re willing to spend. Overall the Dark Power Pro 11 1000W 80 Plus Platinum certified PSU has everything gamers, enthusiasts and even professionals will ever need for their system and that’s why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Superior Build Quality
- Rock Solid Rail Stability
- 80 Plus Platinum Certified
- Features (ErP 2014/Energy Star v6/ATX v2.4/OC Key/Fan Ports)
- Electrical Protections (OCP/OVP/UVP/SCP/OTP/OPP)
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)