be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12

[testman78]

Introduction

While many companies are still releasing Bronze rated power supplies, be quiet! is focused on higher grade Titanium rated units. be quiet! is a premium brand of power supplies, PC cases and cooling solutions for desktop PCs. The power supply experts from be quiet! present their new flagship power supply series Dark Power Pro 12. The be quiet! Dark Power 12 range starts from 1200W and goes up to 1500W in total. Given the high demand for units this size by crypto miners lately, it's always good to check them out to see how they do when put to the test. The Dark Power Pro 12 power supplies incorporate top-notch components and have been designed to deliver the highest level of performance. They feature Titanium level efficiency (80 Plus Organizations highest rating), fully modular cables, and they come backed by a 10-year warranty! Some of the beloved features of Dark Power Pro 11 carry over into the new generation of be quiet!'s flagship power supply as well, including the lauded Overclocking Key, which allows users to switch the power supply from multi-rail mode to single-rail mode with the flick of a switch, increasing the PSU's stability under extreme overclocking conditions. Digital control power supplies have long occupied a place in the business environment. They can communicate with other devices through PMBus. Although there is no urgency in the personal computer market, the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W power supply sets a good example. Precise voltage control makes it a leader in the flagship market. We will be taking a detailed look at the new Dark Power Pro 12 1200W Titanium power supply in this review.



Let's digest the specification of the 1200W sample on test today and see what we're dealing with.





Packaging & Contents

As always we start with the simple stuff, the packaging! So that you know what to look for in the stores, are people still purchasing stuff in stores. The outer box adopts a boutique box and a paper belt design, which can give a glimpse of the manufacturer's flagship positioning for this product. On the front, you will find a nice clear image of the power supply. You will also find the 80-Plus Titanium status on display. Just in case you had forgotten that this is a high-performing power supply.I do like that the iconography is minimal, and be quiet! in standard fashion keeps things relatively simple.



The rear of the package still carries quite a clean aesthetic. We see that there is a QR code where you can go to the be quiet! website to learn more about the product. This will be helpful if you are in a shop looking at the PSU and want more information than the snippets offered on the packaging. I do like that be quiet! even lists that the QR code is for more details on this supply, and they translate that note into ten languages, including English. We have the output table near the lower portion along with the array of safety and compliance iconography. The top is a small marketing blurb that tells the story of be quiet! and what their goal is.



When you open it up, you'll find everything is fantastically organized.



The small box inside the box contains manuals, wires, screw components... and other accessories. Some accessories have been exposed in the previous section of the power supply. In addition, it also includes fixed screws, hand-turned screws, and single wire harness Accessories such as belts, devil felt cable ties. The accessory bag even comes with many different styles of combs, which are beautiful and convenient to fix the wires.



The cables are assembled from individual wires in a fabric braid, and complete clamps will help in their laying. This shape will help improve the airflow inside the case compared to solid stubs. The number and length of wires should be sufficient for all tasks. The main power connectors are 20 + 4-pin ATX and 8- and 4 + 4-pin ATX12V. There are also ten PCIe connectors in 6 + 2-pin design. So you can connect even five video cards without any problems. And for the periphery, in total, we have sixteen SATA and two PATA with adapters to FDD. Up to ten PCIe connectors for powerful multi-GPU configurations. All cables are long enough. Sleeved cable lengths up to 120cm are perfect for large PC cases and allow for improved cooling in any size case.



The main high-current path cables such as ATX 20+4pin, ATX/EPS +12V, PCIe 6+2pin use 16AWG wire body, and peripheral devices such as SATA and Molex use 18AWG wire body. For all other wire specifications and wire lengths, please see the chart below.



A bracket is connected to a three-pin connector labeled "OCK", which is then installed in one of the expansion slots in the case. The sticker on the outside reminds of the connection with the power supply unit. And of the useful elements here we have only an LED indicator and a button for turning on the "Overclocking" mode. It allows you to combine all six + 12V lines into one single line with a maximum current strength of up to 100 A.




A Closer Look Outside

As you can see, a lengthy product alright with a length of 20 cm - it's complete dimensions are 200mm (L) x 150mm (W) x 86mm (H). Well we assume that if you opt to purchase this dark beast, you won't have a small PC anyways. But please do check out if you have the space for it as next to the 20 cm you will also need to lead out the cabling of course. Instead of steel, the body is made of anthracite-colored anodized aluminum, which, together with the grinding and modular cable connections, looks very premium. The largest panel in terms of area looks elegant. However, there are only four useful screws with a warranty seal on one of them.



At the top we also spot a huge restrictive air vent. Behind it you'll stumble into a big yet silent enough 135 mm Silent Wings 3 fan. A very silent ball bearing quality fan.



A rather large table with electrical indicators is located on one of the sidewalls. Among them is the use of six + 12V lines with a power of 420-480 W each. In general, they can deliver all 1200 watts, which is equal to the rating of the power supply. For smaller channels + 3.3V and + 5V, 150 W is allocated, that is, 25 A for each.



be quiet! applied metallic lettering for the brand and model of PSU.



As you can see, the PSU is fully modular. As you can see there are lot's and lots of connections. Even the ATX power header can be detached for reasons I do not know, well perhaps for custom sleeving. There's a plethora of connectors ranging from graphics to storage to ATX power. All connectors are carefully labeled, and it is even indicated which of the six + 12V lines they are connected to. This will allow you to distribute the load more evenly across the components. There isn't any software that allows for monitoring and configuration from the PC. Up to four case fans can be connected to, and regulated by the PSU, thus reducing overall system noise even further.



At the front we spot huge restrictive air vent. It allows for optimal airflow running through the PSU, cooling down its components and keeping them nicely efficient. Also, obviously we spot the C20 power connector and the on/off heavy-duty switch. The contacts are placed horizontally in it, so a regular cable will not fit here - only a complete one.




A Closer Look Inside

There's a clear plastic surrounding the PCB and isolating it from the body. be quiet! call it "custom shaped funnel". It is designed to increase air flow over the hot running components and to reduce turbulence and subsequently noise.



The frameless cooling fan is an interesting concept. It is mounted on a tripod. The power supply uses a high-quality 135mm Silent Wings 3 (BQ-SlW3-13525-HF) that incorporates a fluid dynamic bearing for quiet operation and long, reliable life. And the reduction of vibration and energy consumption (12 V, 0.56 A) ensures the use of a 6-pole electric motor.



For those interested in OEM partners, be quiet! are working with CWT on this product. They are pushing their technical skills to the limit with a feature set targeting flagship models from leading manufacturers. Here are a few pictures showing the layout and components inside the Dark Power Pro 12. As the core of digital control, Dark Power Pro 12 uses two Texas Instruments UCD3138A microcontrollers specially designed for isolated power supplies. One of them is responsible for APFC, and the other is responsible for full bridge LLC and +12V synchronization. The rectification, +5V and +3.3C is handled by Anpec Electronics APW7159, a dual-channel synchronous step-down controller.



Soldering quality is excellent.



The AC input socket and the main power switch are mounted on a metal bracket, welded to the same upright circuit board and two Y capacitors are added. Although the main power switch looks very large, it is actually not connected in series to the AC input end. It is connected to the internal circuit to control the operation of the power supply.



The AC socket of be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W is directly soldered to the main PCB. The seemingly huge double-pole double-throw switch actually only uses one set of switches, which is connected to the thin lead on the daughter board to control the power supply. The main circuit works. In addition, the 5VSB is independent of the main circuit, as long as the AC plug is connected and the power is turned on, the 5VSB standby circuit will start to work, for the peripherals and the motherboard RGB lights Power supply, no matter whether the main switch of the power supply is set to 1 or 0, it will not affect the operation of the 5VSB circuit. The difference is that when the main switch is set to 1, the main circuit of the power supply can be started. The fuse and surge absorber are all covered with heat shrinkable sleeve. In addition to many Cy capacitors, 2 Cx capacitors and 2 common mode inductors are also arranged on the mains input side.



The chip labeled CM02X is responsible for venting the remaining energy of the Cx capacitor after the mains power is cut off.



Two sets of closed core APFC of interleaved APFC circuit Inductance.



Bulk has 3 large capacitors, 2 with a capacity of 470μF and 1 with a capacity of 680μF. The total 1680μF has greatly exceeded the normal design of output power of 1W corresponding to 1μF. By the way, the internal cylindrical solid capacitors and electrolytic capacitors are all Japanese products.



There are two ON SEMI NCP81071B primary side isolation driver ICs on the back of the main circuit board near the APFC area. One is used for semi-active rectifier MOSFET drive, and the other is used for two sets of MOSFET drive of interleaved APFC.



The NTC thermistor between the APFC capacitor and the APFC power element heat sink is used to suppress the input surge current. After the power is started, a relay will be used to short-circuit it to remove the power loss caused by the NTC.



The LLC circuit uses two PQ35 core transformers, and the secondary side of the transformer is directly welded to the synchronous rectifier board. This approach is already common in high-efficiency power supplies.



There are two Silicon Labs Si8233BD primary side isolation driver ICs on the back of the main circuit board near the primary side, so that the digital controller can drive the primary side MOSFET of the full-bridge LLC resonant converter.



On the other side close to the module wiring board is a DC-DC circuit that generates 5V and 3.3V. You can see from the gap on the back of the PCB that 5V and 3.3V use a total of 6 ubiq-semi QM3054M6 (30V) / 61A / @100℃ / 4.8mΩ ). From this angle, you can also see that about one or twenty MLCCs are welded on the module wiring board as auxiliary output filters.



On the other side of the module wiring board, a large number of daily chemical and FPCAP solid capacitors are piled as the last-order output filter.



There is a Weltrend WT7518 power management IC on the front of the modular output socket board, which is responsible for four sets of output over current detection, and is linked with the power management circuit.



Six shunts on the back of the main circuit board to detect 12V output current.



The internal circuit of Dark Power Pro 12 1200W adopts wireless connection design to avoid the loss of wire transmission and reduce the conversion efficiency.



Looking back at the 5VSB standby circuit. The 5VSB standby circuit uses On-Bright's OB5282CP as the main control, InPower Semiconductor's ISD04N65A (650V, 4A, 2.5Ω) as the switch tube, and the PS1045L (45V, 10A) under the daughter board is the output rectifier.




Test System

In order to review power supplies the right way i needed some key pieces of equipment. Briefly those pieces of equipment are shown below.



SunMoon SM-8800 SMPS ATE
CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
Extech MultiMaster MM560 digital multimeter
Extech 380803 Power Analyzer
SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)
Oscium iMSO-104 signal oscilloscope
Oscium WiPry-Combo peak power meter and spectrum analyzer
Sperry DT-506 4 Channel Digital Thermometer
Powerstat Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA, 0-140 VAC


Load Regulation

The Intel ATX12V specification has clear requirements for the output range of each group of voltages. Within the entire load range, the output range of +12V, +5V and +3.3V should not exceed "5", and the requirement for -12V It is "10%".
3.3V voltage load regulation rate 2.91%.



5V voltage load regulation rate 1.89%.



12V voltage load regulation rate 0.91%.



All rails holding close to reference levels.


Efficiency

Efficiency is defined by the power output divided by the power input and is usually expressed as a percentage. If a PSU were a 100% efficient (which none are) 1200 watts of AC power going in would result in 1200 watts of DC power coming out (with no waste heat to dissipate). In the real world there are always inefficiencies and power is lost in the form of heat during the conversion process.



The overall efficiency of the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W Titanium power supply is excellent and easily meets the criteria for 80 Plus Titanium certification, even while operating on 120 VAC and at elevated temperatures. It has an efficiency of 94%@600W, 91.93%@Full Load respectively.


Ripple & Noise

Ripple & Noise is the AC component in the DC transmission of the power supply. Part of it may be the AC component that still exists after the AC power is rectified and stabilized. The other is the switching ripple and noise generated by the circuit transistor itself. Observing with an oscilloscope, you can see that the voltage fluctuates like water ripples, so it is called ripple. Excessive ripple will interfere with the digital circuit and affect the stability of the circuit. The test selects 8 meaningful gears, 50W represents the desktop standby situation, 100W represents the situation of office and Internet, overload represents the situation of high-end single-graphics game, full load and pull deviation are tested when the power supply is at the highest load Happening. Overload ripple is to test the ripple condition of the power supply when 123% is overloaded. The 50W, 100W, 300W, 1200W, 1500W test current configuration is the same as the balanced load.



The ripple suppression is very good overall.


Cross Load

The cross load is designed in accordance with the Intel ATX12V 2.52, SSI EPS12V 2.92 power supply design guidelines, combined with high-power core CPU, high-power discrete graphics, and low-power ITX/STX platform. The test is divided into 7 files in total. Cross load mainly assesses the stability of the output voltage of the power supply. Similarly, the output voltage must be within the range of "5%" specified in the Intel ATX12V specification . The smaller the voltage deviation from the rated value, the better. The load regulation is the fluctuation of the voltage with the load. The smaller the value, the stronger the voltage stability.



The Dark Power Pro 12 1200W handled the Cross load tests without any concerns.


Temperature

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




Noise

In the range of up to 800 W you will hardly hear it - the turntable rotates only at 500-720 rpm. Further, up to the 1000 W mark, the noise from its operation remained very quiet. And only at the maximum 1000-1200 W we would call it just quiet and, of course, comfortable. This is a super quiet PSU, ideal for users that hate noisy components, but still need lots of power.




Final Thoughts

It is true most gaming systems won't need a 1200 watt power supply, but ideally you want to be running between 40%-60% load to achieve the maximum efficiency levels. It is also worth pointing out that running a 600 watt power supply at 100% load will put a lot of strain on the capacitors and cause the fan to work very hard whereas you will be hitting that sweet spot on a Dark Power Pro 12 close to maximum efficiency with much lower noise levels. The efficiency rating for this power supply is awesome. It's that simple. Any power supply that nearly tips 94% efficiency at full load is one that has clearly been exceptionally well made. Not only that but in terms of all of its performance levels, this continually proved that its design and their component choices are beyond reproach. be quiet! have spared no expense here in giving you a top performer. The patented frame less fan concept with a Silent Wings fan guarantees an optimized cooling effect and a virtually inaudible operation at ordinary loads. Internally, be quiet! deliver in spades. Ripple suppression is top drawer and the power delivery is top drawer. We were able to hold 1200 watts solid for hours without any issue. The PSU looks fantastic by the way, but do people really care about that for a PSU that often is tucked and hidden away? I don't know. The pure modular design will be welcomed by a large audience, and there are plenty of high grade cables to support a wide array of sophisticated system builds, including high draw SLI and Crossfire gaming rigs. It's length is 20cm but we assume that if you opt to purchase this dark beast, you won't have a small PC anyways. But please do check out if you have the space for it as next to the 20 cm you will also need to lead out the cabling of course. Unfortunately there isn't any software that allows for monitoring and configuration from the PC. A mounting frame accessory to connect a C19 heavy-duty connector directly to the power supply can be purchased through the be quiet! customer service. Customers who have bought one of the listed cases and a Dark Power Pro 12 power supply can request this frame free of charge.



The be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200w power supply retails for a price in the region of 340 euros. That is clearly quite a lot of money, you do, however, have to consider what you are getting for that. Titanium rated power supplies are never cheap. If you found one that was, personally I'd advice you to run a mile from it! This is especially for those with power outputs above 1000w. Given that this is both 1200w and significantly at the rating requirement, this really is an exceptionally good power supply. Yes, it's a lot of money, but you are getting what is perhaps one of the best power supplies currently available on the commercial market. The be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 Titanium power supply is technically fantastic and able to power any system on the market today. No expense is spared internally and the class leading 10 year warranty is certainly reassuring. We can sum this up quite succinctly - You would struggle to find a commercially available power supply that had all the features of the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 and its incredible performance all within the same package.