be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000W PSU Review

Up Close

Up Close

There are two different versions of the Pure Power 12. There is the 12M, which has modular cables, and this one, the vanilla Pure Power 12. It’s old school. All the cables attached. As you can see from the box though it promises 80 Gold efficiency, which for £120 is way beyond what else is available.

We can’t remember the last time we had a non-modular power supply in the office. We’re so used to showing the cables separately that having them all bundled together like this reminds us of our days with Intel Pentium processors. Albeit with the Pure Power 12 looking infinitely sleeker.

It’s just so weird having a single hole on the back rather than a swathe of holes and labels. It’s so old school. There is a modular one available if you’re willing to pay a tenner more. We definitely would. But that’s a discussion for later on.

As befits a power supply with the famous be quiet! branding, the fan is big, quiet and gorgeous to look at. You wouldn’t imagine it costs this little. We’re not entirely sure how BQ are managing it. A 1000W power supply built like this for barely north of £100 is almost witchcraft.

Non-modular designs do have the problem of cable spaghetti. Without the ability to leave off the ones you don’t need, you get them all and need to tuck away those you aren’t using. Or just not care about cable routing.

They might be non-modular but that doesn’t mean be quiet! have scrimped on the cable quality for the Pure Power 12. The connectors are clearly labelled, sturdily built, and the cable braiding might be plastic, but it’s of a high standard.