BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 850W PSU Review

1. Introduction2. BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P10 850W (Bundle & Cables)3. BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P10 850W (External)4. BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P10 850W (Internal)5. BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P10 850W (Super High Res Gallery)6. Testing Methodology & Results7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

BeQuiet! are well known in enthusiast circles as the purveyor of class leading fans, having diversified their product portfolio into power supplies and CPU heatinks. Today we are looking at the second power supply in their latest flagship range, the Dark Power Pro P10 850W.

The Dark Power Pro 10 850W is a modular, 80 Plus Platinum certified design and is set to target the high end enthusiast audience who aren't willing to accept compromises.

BeQuiet! are actually classified as the best selling manufacturer of power supplies in Germany, six years running, according to market data from GfK.

BeQuiet! have a simple policy – they focus on creating products which emit the minimum amount of noise. The latest 10 designs use a new power conversion topology which delivers 80 Plus Platinum and Gold certification, currently the highest standard for efficiency.

All these supplies are ErP 2013 ready meaning the standby power drain should be below 0.3 watts.

The company are releasing six Dark Pro 10 power supplies rated between 550 Watts and 1200 Watts. The 850W, 1000W and 1200W power supplies are all 80 Plus Platinum certified. The other supplies in the range are 80 Plus Gold Certified.

The new 10 range of power supplies also feature an ‘overclocking switch’ which allows the user to change between a single and quad rail configuration. BeQuiet! are using a large 135mm SilentWings 2 fan in the new range. This is a custom made fluid dynamic bearing model with a 300,000 hour lifespan.

BeQuiet! ship their power supplies in large boxes which look great. The image of the power supply resides in the center of the box with the details underneath. There is plenty of ‘black space' around the image to increase the dramatic effect.

BeQuiet! don't spare any expense with their flagship products and the power supply is shipped protected within sculpted foam. On top is a user manual detailing the product. The cabling is supplied within a separate box with literature, screws and power cable stored in another section.

Above, the well written user manual, region specific power cable, mounting screws, overclocking key and cable box.

Sadly BeQuiet! don’t supply a felt pouch for cable storage, but the little box can be stored inside the main shipping box with any extra cables. They do however supply a variety of felt and plastic ties to enhance the appearance of cable routing.

The image above left highlights all the modular cabling, which is high grade sleeved. The power supply isn’t a pure modular design so there is a single hardwired cable as can be seen in the image above right.

There are also four fan cables which can be connected to the power supply to directly control chassis fans.

The diagram above details the cabling and relevant lengths. There are 6 x 6+2 PCIe power cables which is ideal for a high powered Crossfire or SLI system build.

The BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 850W power supply is beautifully finished, with deep, black paint, which is difficult to mark. The build quality is exceptionally good and all the side panels utilise rubber surrounds to help reduce vibration when installed into a chassis.

The fan is a 135mm unit, airflow optimised with a custom blade design to reduce turbulence and lower noise emissions. The fan is beautifully mounted behind a black grill, matching the overall appearance of the unit.

One side of the power supply is honeycomb vented to improve air flow. There is a power switch and connector at the side.

The modular panel is neatly laid out, with the hard wired cable residing at the other side. The PCIe cable connectors are all positioned in a row along the top of the chassis, with the peripheral connectors running underneath.

The Overclocking Key plugs into the white port on the modular panel. A flip of the switch on the Overclocking key switches from the default four rail factory setting to a high performance single rail mode.

Above, the overview of the BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W power supply. It can deliver up to 70A on the combined 12v+ rail.

The 135mm SilentWings 2 fan (BQT T13525-XF20). This fan is a fluid dynamic bearing model with copper core. The fan is decoupled from the case which helps reduce vibrations and subsequent noise. This fan is rated to 2,000 rpm with 0.38A of current, it requires 4.56W of power. This model can produce around 86 CFM airflow.

The fan in the 550W model (BQT T13525-LF15) is rated to 1,500rpm with 0.22A of current.

This is a Seasonic Full Bridge design. Full bridge describes the number of MOFSET's used in the PWM Stage of the block diagram (No.4). The MOSFETs are responsible for creating high frequency alternating current, which offers the best efficiency for the main transformation.

Half Bridge power supplies use two MOSFETs, which is perfect for lower wattages. Doubling the number of MOSFETs to four helps to reduce the load on every one of them, which is important for higher wattage units. The daughter PCB contains a control IC for the protection circuitry. The EMC/EMI filter is set to ensure immunity from radiation and conducted emissions.

The Dark Power Pro 10 also features zero voltage switching and zero current switching technology, which captures power “lost” by other topologies.

The DC to DC daughter PCB handles the conversion to 3.3V and 5V from the 12V DC. Next to the main transformer is the OPP control coil for current detection.

The primary capacitors are 390uF, 420V. All of the capacitors in the unit are Japanese high grade, 105c rated. The power supply has OCP (over current protection), UVP (Undervoltage protection), OVP (Overvoltage protection), SCP (Short Circuit safeguard), OTP (Temperature Safeguard) and OPP (overload protection).

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.

Additional technical assistance: Peter McFarland and Jeremy Price.

Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. Due to public requests we have changed our temperature settings recently – previously we rated with ambient temperatures at 25C, we have increased ambient temperatures by 10c (to 35c) in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.

We use combinations of the following hardware:
• SunMoon SM-268
• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
• Extech Power Analyzer
• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter
• Extech digital sound level meter
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)
• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

12V output is combined for our testing.

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB		-12V
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
100W	1.52	3.38	1.75	5.07	6.67	12.14	0.50	5.05	0.20	-12.03
225W	3.75	3.36	3.82	5.04	15.58	12.12	1.00	5.04	0.20	-12.05
450W	7.51	3.35	8.34	5.03	30.82	12.09	1.50	5.02	0.30	-12.07
675W	11.31	3.32	12.30	5.02	47.51	12.07	2.00	5.01	0.50	-12.10
850W	1.48	3.29	1.13	5.00	63.50	12.03	0.50	5.00	0.20	-12.11

Load regulation is fantastic, holding well on all rails, even at full load.

BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 850W	Maximum Load
	933W

We managed to get the PSU to achieve 933W before it would shut down, delivering around 83W more than the rated specifications.

Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.

Cross Load Testing	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		-12V		+5VSB
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
760W	1.0	3.37	1.0	5.06	60.0	12.02	0.2	-12.04	0.50	5.03
165W	15.0	3.31	18.0	5.02	2.0	12.13	0.2	-12.02	0.50	5.01

The power supply is well designed to cope with demanding situations. It was tasked with 60A on the +12V rail and it held at 12.02V. The other rails were equally as impressive.

We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum.

ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.

ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance
Output	Ripple (mV p-p)
+3.3V	50
+5V	50
+12V1	120
+12V2	120
-12V	120
+5VSB	50

Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard.

AC Ripple (mV p-p)
DC Load	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	5VSB
100W	5	5	10	5
225W	5	5	15	5
450W	5	10	20	5
675W	10	10	25	10
850W	10	15	30	10

Noise suppression results are superb, peaking at 30 mV on the +12V rail when under full load. The other rails fall between 5mV and 15V across the full range of loads. Class leading results and well within tolerance specifications.

Efficiency (%)
100W	86.92
225W	92.31
450W	93.83
675W	92.23
850W	91.77

The efficiency of the power supply is very good, hitting almost 94 percent at 50 percent load, dropping back to almost 92 percent at full load.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the power supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise (dBA)
100W	<28.0
225W	<28.0
450W	<28.0
675W	<28.0
850W	29.2

The power supply is basically silent right until around 750W load – at the accurate limit of our testing equipment. Then the fan spins up between 750W and 850W output, generating around 29.2dBa of noise. This is one of the quietest high end power supplies we have tested.

Just like the 550W model, even with our ear close to the chassis, it was difficult to tell that the power supply was actually turned on. The fan speed rated until 700 rpm until the last 100W of power output, peaking around 930 rpm.

Simply incredible results.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
100W	35	39
225W	37	42
450W	40	47
675W	43	51
850W	45	56

Considering the incredibly low noise emissions, the ambient temperatures are fantastic, rising to to a 11c above ambient intake level at full load.

Maximum load	Efficiency
933W	90.7

At 933w, the efficiency level is still strong, measuring 90.7%. Not a practical situation to be running 24/7, but worth noting.

We were impressed with the BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W when we analysed it in May, but the 850W model reviewed today is even better. Not only has this model achieved 80 Plus Platinum certification, but the full bridge design by Seasonic delivers class leading results.

The BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 850W delivers extremely stable regulation and can handle a diverse shift in load without a flutter. The test results today also highlight the fantastic efficiency results peaking at almost 94 percent at 50 percent load.

Noise suppression is improved over the 550W model, we recorded 10 mV and 15 mV from the +3.3V and +5 rail respectively under full load conditions. +12V peaked at 30mW when delivering a full load.

As we hoped, the whisper quiet operation will be one of the primary purchasing decisions for many people.

The SilentWings 2 fan is basically silent up to 750W output, with the speeds rising a little in the last 100W of ultimate output. Even at 850W you would be hard pressed to hear it running with your ear a foot from the exhaust panel.

BeQuiet!’s proprietary fan design has always attracted a specialist audience who want to build a high performance, low noise system and this power supply would be my first choice for a new gaming PC. Even with two high end graphics cards, there are very few situations when you will need more than 850W under load, so this power supply is ideal for noise sensitive gamers.

We tested this power supply with a system comprising 16GB of 2,400mhz DDR3 memory, two AMD HD7970 graphics cards in Crossfire, and an overclocked Core i7 3960K with liquid cooling. The BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 850W was perfectly silent and rock solid throughout.

A quality modular design with 80 Plus Platinum certification will demand a price premium. In the UK it retails for £166.79 inc vat from ARIA. If you want a no compromise design we can think of nothing else we would buy right now.

Pros:

• Technically class leading.
• Silent.
• extremely efficient.
• beautiful styling.
• bundle is extensive.

Cons:

• Its not cheap.

Kitguru says: Silent, pretty and one of the best power supplies on the market.

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