be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1600W ATX 3.0 PSU Review

Conclusion – 1600 watts of premium power

If you are in the market for a power supply like be quiet’s Dark Power Pro 13, you are either planning to build an incredibly powerful workstation, hoping to heavily overclock your system, or simply plan to go full-on overkill when it comes to PSU power delivery. With up to 1600 watts of power at your disposal, you can do incredible things, and be quiet wants to make sure that you have access to a truly pro-grade power supply. 

Even based on the Dark Power Pro 13 1600W’s unboxing experience, you can tell that be quiet! has gone to a lot of effort to make sure that their flagship power supply feels like a premium product. From the PSU’s brushed aluminium exterior to be quiet’s choice of packaging materials, it is clear that be quiet wants users of their flagship power supply to know that they have purchased a premium product, and feel like they are a valued customer. Beyond that, be quiet’s 10-year warranty is a generous one, as a decade of usability is a big deal within the world of PCs. be quiet are confident that their Dark Power Pro 13 will last for several upgrade cycles, with a guaranteed decade of support.

In terms of voltage ripple and power efficiency, be quiet’s Dark Power Pro 13 delivers the results we expected when used with our SunMoon power supply tester. This PSU is incredibly efficient, and we never heard this unit’s fan while the PSU was in use, even at the highest loads we could test. This is a capable power supply, and one that we would trust to deliver ample power for your high performance workstation or overclocking rig. 

Unlike most modern power supplies, be quiet’s Dark Power Pro 13 features two 12VHPWR outputs, with the PSU being able to deliver up to 1000 watts of power when both connectors are used simultaneously. That’s enough to power two RTX 4090 graphics cards, a factor that makes this PSU ideal for multi-GPU workstations. Some overclocking-grade graphics cards also use dual 12VHPWR connectors, a factor that makes the Dark Power 13 Pro 1600W an ideal PSU for heavy GPU overclockers. 

Another useful feature of the Dark Power Pro 13 1600W power supply is its “Overclocking Key” feature, which can be used to transform this PSU from a unit with six 12V rails to a PSU with a single beastly 12V rail. This is a great feature for overclockers, as it can help users deliver huge amounts of power to components without triggering overcurrent protections on singular 12V rails. The Dark Power Pro 13 has been designed with overclockers in mind.

Our only complaint with be quiet’s Dark Power Pro 13 power supply is its supplied 12VHPWR cables, which do not feature the same individually sleeved cables as the power supplies other cables. While this does not impact the functionality of these cables, it is the only aesthetic aspect of be quiet’s Dark Power Pro 13 that we have found to be problematic. Thankfully, these cables use standard 12VHWPR connectors on both ends, allowing users to easily replace these cables with pre-sleeved cables from CableMod or other suppliers.

Aside from that one annoyance, be quiet’s Dark Power Pro power supply is thing of beauty. This is a power supply that truly looks and feels premium, which is what you want when you are spending so much money on a power supply. 1600W PSUs are not cheap, and neither are 80+ Titanium grade ATX 3.0 units. The good news is that if you buy this power supply, be quiet has it warrantied for a full decade, which means that you won’t need to purchase another anytime soon. If you need a uber high wattage power supply for your next high-end workstation or overclocking project, the be quiet Dark Power Pro 13 1600W is a great option. That said, almost all PC builders could get away with a lower wattage power supply, as not many PCs need 1600 watts of power delivery potential. 

You can join the discussion on be quiet’s Dark Power Pro 13 power supply on the OC3D Forums.