be quiet! DARK POWER 13 1000W Titanium PSU Review

Conclusion – A quiet, efficient PSU that meets all the latest standards

All PCs need a good power supply behind them. You don’t want to trust your components in the hands of a no name PSU from the bargain bin, especially if you plan to build a system that is in any way power hungry. This is why everyone recommends PSUs from trusted brands and why looking out for 80+ ratings and other certifications are important. 

be quiet! is one of our trusted brands, and their DARK POWER 13 1000W continues their legacy of creating solid power supplies that simply do everything that we can ask of them. With ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 support, the DARK POWER 13 series is ready for the latest graphics cards and are designed to handle huge power excursions, factors that set this PSU above older ATX 2.4 units. While there is nothing wrong with most ATX 2.4 units with today’s hardware, ATX 3.0 PSUs are designed to be, for lack of a better term, overbuilt, ensuring that they can handle massive power spikes if they ever should occur. 

As their brand name suggests, noise levels are a huge focus for their DARK POWER series of PSUs. Their new DARK POWER 13 units feature new frameless Silent Wings fans that promise to be “virtually inaudible” during operation. We will say here that we never heard be quiet’s 1000W DARK POWER 13 during testing, even under full 1000W loads. While we wouldn’t expect 80+ Titanium efficiency power supplies to be loud, it is good to see that this PSU can be used to create ultra quiet high performance PCs. 

In our efficiency and ripple tests, be quiet’s DARK POWER 13 1000W PSU performs exactly as expected. Efficiency levels are above 92% at all tested loading levels, and ripple is well below 20mV in all cases. These are impressive results, and they prove that this PSU is as efficient as be quiet claims.

Design-wise, be quiet’s DARK POWER 13 is simple and elegant. While this PSU will no be winning our exceptional aesthetics award, this PSU is far from being ugly. The DARK POWER 13 has a refined prescience that calls you to sit back and let it handle power delivery. No needless RGB, LCD screens or whatever else the more game-focused brands want to slap on their PSUs. The be quiet DARK POWER is designed to do one thing and to do that job impeccably, deliver power.

So do we recommend the DARK POWER 13? Yes. The unit does exactly what it claims and does so quietly. The only negative that we have about this power supply is that it would have been nice if it featured pre-braided cables, but we do have companies like CableMod who can address that issue with custom cable kits should you require them.

be quiet’s DARK POWER 13 1000W is a solid power supply that is whisper quiet and is ready for the needs of your current and future systems. If you want a high wattage unit that’s ultra-efficient and boasts all of the latest certifications, this PSU should be on your shortlist. This PSU has given us very little to criticise, and it has excelled in every area that it needs to. 

You can join the discussion on our be quiet! DARK POWER 13 1000W Titanium PSU Review on the OC3D Forums.