be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1500W (Titanium) Review

1. Introduction2. Bundle & Cabling3. External4. Internal5. Testing Methodology and Results6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

It has been some time since I have taken an in depth look at a power supply so when I was offered one of the new be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 Titanium rated power supplies for review, I was excited to see what they had to offer in 2020. These new 1,200 watt and 1,500 watt units are digitally regulated (PFC and SR/12V) and have a wire free interior design on the AC and DC side. According to the company high grade components are used throughout, which goes some way to justify the high asking price (£369.99 for the 1,200 watt and £419.99 for the 1,500 watt). As you may already guessed by the price points these are the German company's flagship units.

No expense has been spared in the design of these new power supplies. be quiet! have patented a frameless fan inside the unit which sits in a funnel shaped opening to enable optimal air circulation to improve cooling efficiency. This unique new fan design is based on be quiet! successful Silent Wings technology – and according to the company it delivers ‘almost' inaudible operation.

be quiet! also stand behind the new units – offering a 10 year warranty ‘without geographical restrictions'. be quiet! told me that customers in Germany and France also benefit from the be quiet! ‘express exchange service' for the first year after purchase.

As a further extra – be quiet! have included the overclocking key from previous Dark Power units, allowing the end user to switch between multi and single rail operation.

bequiet Dark Power Pro 12 1500W key points:

• 80 PLUS Titanium efficiency (up to 94.9%).
• Fully digital control (PFC, LLC, SR/12V) and full bridge topology.
• Patented frameless Silent Wings fan for virtually inaudible operation at ordinary load.
• Full mesh PSU front with redesigned funnel shape opening.
• Overclocking key switches between six 12V rails and one massive 12V rail.
• Japanese 105°C capacitors ensure highest stability and reliability.
• Aluminum case and modular individually sleeved cables for magnificent appearance.
• Ten-year manufacturer’s warranty.
• Product Conception, design and quality control in Germany.

be quiet! stay true to tradition – the box artwork is mean and menacing with the only colour being the be quiet! orange accented logo.

The rear of the box contains some key selling points. As a side note I was stunned at how heavy the box was initially when I first lifted it.

The box is ‘layered' inside, with the user manual on top. The power cable and some accessories are underneath the (very disappointing) multi language manual.

The ‘second' layer contains the ‘drive' cables, all neatly laid out.

The ‘third' layer contains the ‘main' system cables.

At this price point you would expect high grade cables, and I am happy to say the quality is stellar. be quiet! have sleeved the cables and supplied a ton of little extras with the supply. There are a variety of cable combs in different sizes, felt and plastic cable ties, the overclocking key, a power supply cable, a jumper cable for quick starts, and mounting screws.

Yes, you saw it right – this power supply has support for up to 10 PCI express connectors. 16 SATA connectors, 1 P4+4/1xP8, and 8 Molex.

This is a very substantial unit, very heavy in the hand and very striking to look at. It is crafted from brushed aluminum and feels like the proverbial tank.

The dimensions are 86mm x 200 mm x 150 mm.

A large fan can be seen at the top of the housing. There is a fine meshed fan grill in front of the fan. This is quite a unique design and I will go into this a bit deeper shortly.

One side of the power supply is home to the power switch and venting port – there is also a power connector which accepts a heavy duty C19 cable (60320). These are not interchangeable incidentally with a standard power cable you will find in most other power supplies. These cables are often supplied with high demand power amplifiers as well.

The modular drive bay is cleanly laid out and labelled for ease of use during the build phase.

The 1500W unit delivers 25A to both the +3V and +5V rail. The 12V rails are split 40A/V1, 40A/V2, 40A/V3, 40A/V4. 45A/V5 and 45A/V6, although as discussed earlier in the review, you can use the supplied overclocking key to set the unit to a single 125A 12V rail. The 1200W unit is able to deliver 100A in a single rail +12V mode.

It is worth pointing out – never open your power supply, you will invalidate the warranty. We are here to do that for you.

When the initial screws are removed. the mesh grille slides out of place, exposing the unique, patented fan.

The fan is sandwiched between two plastic pieces on either side. be quiet! call these a ‘custom shaped funnel' which is designed to increase air flow over the hot running components and to reduce turbulence and subsequently noise.

It is clear be quiet! do not want you to open this unit, it was extremely difficult to disassemble and it was the only time I can remember that i cut my hand open trying to get inside a power supply. Perhaps I am a bit rusty!

The fan is mounted directly to positions on the main PCB underneath. It is removed by three screws between the blades.

The SilentWings fan (made in China) is labelled ‘BQ SIW3-13525-HF' and is rated up to 2,600 rpm at 12V, 0.56A. This fan has similar properties to the Silent Wings 3 retail fans that get plenty of positive media attention. The six pole motor and fluid dynamic bearings help improve life span and lower noise levels for quiet operation.

Looking a bit closer into the technical specifications of the fan, we can see that he can produce up to 92.90 CFM airflow. Maximum noise levels are said to hit 44.6dB at 2,600rpm. be quiet! say that microprocessors inside the Dark Power Pro 12 are constantly adjusting the fan curve ‘perfectly' without any user input.

The Dark Power Pro 12 power supply offers six 12V rails which are configured as below:

be quiet! recommend you use connector A if two or less PCIe-connectors are needed. Connector A is linked to rails 5 and 6, so the load can be distributed between the two. If more than a total of two PCIe-connectors are needed, start using the connectors marked with B first and connector A last. This leads to a balanced rail distribution. Users should always use as many different 12V-rails as possible for a stable system.

It is worth pointing out that none of this is explained in the user manual supplied with the power supply.

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The new Dark Power Pro 12 uses a fully digital control for PFC, Full Bridge LLC and SR/12V. Two UCD3138A micro control units (MCU) are in charge of the digital control. The MCU on the primary side controls the Power Factor Correction (PFC) which helps enable higher efficiency levels and improved signal quality. The MCU on the secondary side controls the LLC-SR circuit with 12V regulation and Full Bridge MOSFETs on the primary side with the help of optocouplers helping again to improve efficiency while boosting voltage stability and regulation. The fan is digitally controlled as well.

As mentioned earlier in this review, be quiet! also supply an ‘overclocking key' which allows for a switch between high powered single to a multi six rail setting.

be quiet! are using quality Nippon Chemi Con 105c Japanese capacitors in this power supply, with two rated 400V 680uF and a third smaller one rated 400V 470uF. This gives a staggering total of 1830uF.

This full bridge design comprises a series of MOSFETs in the PWM stage. The MOSFETs are responsible for creating high frequency alternating current to improve efficiency for the main transformation.

The second part of the topology is called LLC referring to a circuit that follows the Full Bridge part. ‘L' is the switching symbol for a coil and ‘C' for a capacitor. Accordingly, the LLC series resonant circuit consists of two induction coils (L1+L2) and one capacitor (C1).

The LLC circuit is designed to smooth out the alternating voltage. This process tries to replicate a perfect sine wave as input for the main transformation process, giving the best possible efficiency. The Dark Power Pro 12 uses an advanced LLC technology adapting pulse width modulation (PWM) and frequency modulation (FM) to adjust power transformation. Around 10 to 15 percent load the LLC circuit modifies the frequency, which enhances the results. The best results are achieved at low frequency and high load or at high frequency and low load.

The Dark Pro 12 features zero voltage switching and zero current switching technology which retains power which can be lost by inferior topologies. Older topologies cannot control the switching point to the same level which will result in switching loss.

After passing through the main transformer, the alternating current gets rectified and becomes 12V DC current required by most PC components. A series of twelve or 16 MOSFETS achieve this, depending on the wattage of the power supply (16 in the 1500W unit). These are synchronised using a micro processing unit.

Instead of generating all necessary voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V) from the AC on the primary side, the 3.3V and 5V voltages are generated from 12V DC after the main transformation.

The Dark Power Pro 12 models are equipped with two parallel placed main transformers, resulting in lower heat emission and higher efficiency results. In addition, the lower design makes room for better ventilation.

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 single rail 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
150W	0.90	3.35	0.84	5.02	11.65	12.10	0.5	5.02	0.20	-12.04
300W	1.63	3.35	1.65	5.02	23.75	12.08	1.0	5.01	0.20	-12.04
750W	3.01	3.35	3.02	5.02	59.66	12.05	1.5	5.00	0.30	-12.04
1125W	4.05	3.34	4.05	5.02	90.00	12.02	2.0	4.98	0.30	-12.02
1500W	15.56	3.33	15.55	4.98	113.30	11.96	2.5	4.95	0.50	-12.01

Load regulation is very strong indeed with little fluctuation.

be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1500W	Maximum Load
	1724W

We managed to get the PSU to achieve 1724W before it would shut down, delivering around 224W more than the rated specifications. Excellent results.

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
1150W	3.0	3.34	2.0	5.02	92.0	12.03	0.2	-12.04	0.50	5.02
250W	20.0	3.33	24.0	4.97	5.0	12.09	0.2	-12.04	0.50	5.01

The power supply did very well in our Cross Load tests, indicating a very stable design.

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
500W	5	5	10	5
750W	5	5	10	5
1000W	10	5	15	10
1250W	10	10	15	10
1500W	15	10	20	10

Ripple results are very good across all the rails – falling well within the rated tolerance parameters.

Efficiency (%)
500W	94.45
750W	96.41
1000W	96.23
1250W	95.46
1500W	94.23

The efficiency ratings are class leading, peaking at 96.5% around 55% load. this drops to over 94% 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 Refrigerator
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)
500W	<28.0
750W	<28.0
1000W	31.3
1250W	32.1
1500W	33.4

This power supply is very quiet under 100% – barely noticeable at all with our noise meter. At full load noise levels rise to around 33dBa, higher than the rating be quiet! gave us, but we are not testing in an acoustically perfect environment.

In real world terms, the custom fan in this system is extremely quiet, and at loads of up to 1000 watts it spins very slowly. It never reached the 2,600rpm maximum rated fan speed, even when we loaded it with 1,500 watts. It is definitely quieter in operation than the Dark Power Pro 11 1200W model we tested some time ago.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
500W	36	37
750W	38	39
1000W	41	42
1250W	43	48
1500W	44	52

Due to the incredible efficiency of this unit, it never runs hot, even when delivering huge amounts of load. The fan and cooling tunnel system works well at expelling any heat that residing inside the chassis.

Maximum load	Efficiency
1724W	93.23

At 1724W, the efficiency level is still above 93%, an incredible result for be quiet!

I have been reviewing PSUs for decades now and I remember a time when the demand seemed never-ending for powerful supplies to deal with multi GPU systems for mining and gaming.

In recent years, Nvidia have basically all but dropped SLI support for gaming, and we have noticed our readers now focus on a more powerful single GPU system to fulfil all their demands in 2020. Unless you are trying to break 3DMark records and use LN2 cooling, a single GPU seems the best solution for most people.

So is the demand for a 1,500 watt even realistic in 2020? To me, it is certainly a super niche market – very few people would really need such a powerful unit. That said, our own Luke Hill noticed a demand close to 1,000 watts when he tested AMD's latest 64 core 3990X Ryzen Threadripper.

There is no doubt in my mind that the be quiet! DarkPower Pro 12 power supply is technically very capable. It managed to remain operational while delivering more than 1,700 watts of power. A testament to the design and the use of very high grade Japanese Nippon Chemi-Con capacitors.

The Dark Power Pro 12 passed our demanding cross load tests without a hitch, and the efficiency levels are staggering hitting over 96 percent around 50% load. Noise levels are kept to whisper levels throughout the load range, thanks to a clever frameless modification on a Silent Wings fan sandwiched between two pieces of plastic which when together form a ‘custom funnel' to improve airflow and reduce noise caused by turbulence.

If you are in the market for a class leading supply and need a lot of power for a high end system build then based on all our results and the fact be quiet! are offering a 10 year warranty it is hard to go wrong with the Dark Power Pro 12 units. The 1200W model is priced at £369.99 and the 1500W model is priced at £419.99. We have no dealer links yet to share but will update the page later.

Pros:

• extremely well built.
• super bundle.
• titanium efficiency.
• 10 year warranty.
• delivered over 1,700 watts.
• whisper quiet.
• 105C rated Nippon Chemi Con capacitors.

Cons:

• It is quite an investment.

KitGuru says: It is one of the finest power supplies we have tested in 2020. It can deliver over 1,700 watts of power and is one of the most efficient power supplies you can buy. Built to last, and with a 10 year warranty as well.

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