Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 - 1500 Watt PSU Review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

One of the obstacles with testing 1500W rated power supplies is to actually physically create a condition that requires so much power. As clearly noted throughout the review we cannot pass 750 Watts load no matter how many components we fire off at it. That creates a conundrum all by itself, as the install/user-based for this type of power supply will be seemingly small. Thinking about it, perhaps crypto miners and LN2 Pro overclockers apply. The lineup of end-users quickly drops downwards thereafter. Would I recommend you to purchase this power supply? Well, as hardware all by itself, oh god yes. But as your normal PC users, even with high-end components, no of course not as it would be a tremendous waste of money. But that fact aside does not shy me away to state that this is a peachy-perfect power supply.

Look at that 125A just on 12V, yep I had to bring back my eyebrows with my fingers into a normal position, that's a lot.

A word about efficiency

As with any power supply, half the maximum load rating is the point of equilibrium, the sweet-spot where it'll be the most efficient and in this case that is 96% efficiency (at 230 Volts). As such, the ~750W range applies here, and 600W for the 1200W model. This line alone is the reason for what I wrote in the first paragraph. The current sweet-spot as your average gaming PC with one dedicated (yet high end) graphics card would consume roughly 350 maybe 400 Watts during a hefty gaming session (entire PC). Let's assume 250 Watts for the GPU + 100 Watts for CPU and cooling and then add to that the mobo chipset and your connected devices. And that already is stretching it as PCs have become far more energy consumption friendly over the past five years. See my point?

Stability

Stability-wise we cannot protest whatsoever, at half load 725~750 watts voltages remain drop dead in sync. But we'll trust that some other reviews will show some additional ripple tests yet have no doubt the product will come out very clean. Kick-ass is obviously are the six massive 12V rails, or in OC mode, the massive single +12V rail, it has just so much power to handle multiple heavy-duty graphics cards and an LN2 combined CPU overclocking session

Aesthetics

The Dark Power Pro 12 series looks majestic with its dark accents. The PSU slightly exceeds ATX length and measures in at 20cm, no biggy though but you do need a chassis to fit that size + cables. The cables are delivered in a dark black sleeving. Good to see is that the plastic connectors themselves are all black as well. Modular designs are the way to go. You use what you need in terms of wiring, keeping the innards clean and tidy, plain and simple. And overall it is a great looking PSU. 

Pricing

Euhm, yeah here it's gonna hurt my man. These are the final MSRPs. Dark Power 12 Pro will available in retail stores in the coming weeks, at the recommended retail prices you see listed below. The power supplies do include a 10-year warranty.

Final words

Regardless, what we have been able to measure here today is very impressive. The PSU was designed from the ground up to deliver as clean and stable possible current towards your PC real estate. We have no comments whatsoever that could even be negative. You'll obviously also read other reviews that can tell you a bit more about ripple and sich. I suspect it's clear skies for be quiet! to be honest. It's not just clean, efficient and stability that matters to brand owner Listan, aesthetics matter as well. You'll receive properly sleeved cables (I always refer to these as spaghetti), with small plastic combs to organize them. Now, not everybody respects sleeved cables, as it's a lot of them to route throughout your PC. But that's a personal preference of course. The end result is that you can build a beautifully designed PC, as the PSU is completely module, and has nice dark accents as well. You do need space for it with the 20cm length + cables popping out of it, but being 1200W/1500W, I expect you'll be building something eATX or bigger.  Very little is incorrect with the Dark Power Pro 12, but that was to be presumed for a flagship PSU. One remark we have is that at low load levels we feel that a hybrid mode on the fan should be available, e.g. opt to go zero-RPM ion the fan and thus 100% inaudible. Other than that this is the flagship product series from Be Quiet! and they have made sure all the boxes are ticked and all variables are done right. At this price though, I would have liked to see what ASUS for example has done with the Thor series, the inclusion of a small LCD panel displaying Wattage, it's merely desirous reasoning though, and nothing else.

It is an extraordinary power supply from A to Z and we can't really find anything that bothers us. The one thing that could hold you back is the pricing as roughly 399 USD the product steep for a 1200W mode, and a baffling 449 USD for a PSU is far out of my comfort zone even though we understand where the money went into. You do receive a 10-year warranty with this product so to that extent it is guaranteed to be long-lasting as an investment. The Dark Power Pro 12 is at a property and feature level different from the rest of the recommended gear. The all-digital design, the aesthetics, and acoustics combined make us feel strongly to award it with a Top Pick award. But a PSU in this price range obviously is something hard tor recommend overall, ergo the award is based on the quality hardware.

Note: bequiet! is working on a dedicated 12-pin power cable to be compatible with GeForce RTX series 30. Though final decisions still have to be made, it looks like if you bought this PSU and show proof of purchase for the GeForce RTX 30 series, you'll get a free cable. Otherwise, it'll likely become available in aftersales. The word on this is not yet final though. 

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