be quiet! PURE POWER 12 M 1000W 80+ Gold PSU Review

Meet Be Quiet’s PURE POWER 12 M 1000W PSU

be quiet! has updated its PURE POWER series to meet the latest power supply standards, with those standards being ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0. If you are building a new PC and have a new power supply on your parts list, that PSU should probably be a unit that is ATX 3.0 certified and PCIe 5.0 ready. PSUs have long warranties these days, and if you plan to make use of your units for that whole lifespan, it makes sense for you to invest in the latest standards. 

Like prior PURE POWER series PSUs from be quiet!, their PURE POWER 12 M 1000W is an 80+ Gold Rated unit that is designed to be quiet under load. With 1000 watts of power, this PSU is capable of handling most modern PCs, and with its included PCIe 5.0/12VHPWR connector, users will be able to power the latest high performance graphics cards without the need for PSU adaptor cables. 

The PURE POWER 12 M is designed to be a quiet high performance power supply that meets the latest power specifications. To give buyers additional confidence, be quiet has also backed up this new unit with a 10-year warranty, which means that you can be sure that your PSU will stand the test of time.  

ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 compatibility

ATX stands for Advanced Technology eXtended and is a design guide that defines specifications for cases, power supply units, motherboards, and more. The standards have been available in one form or another since 1996, and has been frequently updated to include new requirements for modern PC components. 

With ATX 3.0, which was released in early 2022, adding the specifications of the PCIe 5.0 high power consumption standard (adding the 12VHPWR connector into the standard), and new high power consumption considerations that force compliant PSUs to be able to greatly exceed their nominal power capacities for limited times. This allows PSUs to handle large spikes in load for a limited time. 

Unlike older ATX 2.4 PSUs, ATX 3.0 PSUs are designed to absorb high load peaks in power demand, which is great news for heavy overclockers and users of ultra power hungry components. Be Quiet’s DARK POWER 13 series can handle massive power excursions, something that older PSUs aren’t designed to do.

With 12VHPWR support, Be Quiet can also deliver up to 600 watts of power to graphics cards using a single compact cable. This cable is currently used by Nvidia’s RTX 40 series graphics cards, even models that do not need that much power. This new power cable is intended to replace older PCIe 6-pin or 8-pin power cables in time, allowing PSUs to be produced with fewer cables, and for cable management to become a simpler process in future PCs. Routing a single 12VHPWR cable is easier than routing 3-4 8-pin cables.    

Noise levels

Like all be quiet products, the PURE POWER 12 M 1000W is designed to be quiet under load, using a temperature controlled fan  that is designed to balance effective cooling capability with low system noise levels. To be quiet’s credit, we did not hear this power supply over the ambient noise levels of our testing environment during testing, even when the PSU was placed under 100% loads for extended periods of time. This is a quiet power supply, and we do not expect many users to hear its 120mm fan. 

Up close with the PURE POWER 12 M