5-way High-End 1KW+ PSU Round-Up
Be-Quiet Dark Power Pro 1200w
First up under the spotlight (which we’ll shine in alphabetical order just to be fair) is the Dark Power Pro 1200w. We first got introduced to the Dark Power series a short while ago when Be-Quiet asked us to take a look at their rather sexy, yet slightly expensive 650w model.
The Dark Power Pro 1200w features exactly the same packaging design as its little brother, with a fairly minimalistic front complete with a flap that can be opened to reveal the PSU’s 120mm fan area sitting behind a plastic window. Modular cables are spread out over three seperate compartments with a final fourth compartment for the mains cable, screws and cable ties.
Measuring in at 180mm long, the Dark Power Pro is not only the PSU with the highest output rating, but it’s also one of the shortest. Coming complete with a highly reflective electroplated finish, gold plated fan grill and colour coded modular plugs, some may also say that it’s one of the most visually appealing too.
Those of us with a keen eye will also notice that Be-Quiet have made a departure from the normal kettle lead style plug, in favour of the new European style. This is significantly larger than its predecessor and looks much more capable of handling the 1200w+ that this unit will be drawing from the mains during our testing.
The modular connector system on the Dark Power features a total of 11 connectors (not including the four fan headers) with a combination of PCI-E and flat 5-Pin style plugs being used for an extremely robust connection. Additionally, each of the PCI-E style sockets is also colour coded to prevent any of the cables finding their way into the wrong sockets and potentially damaging your precious hardware.
Hard-wired into the unit are a total of two cables. Normally we’d expect these to be the 24-Pin ATX and EPS12v connectors, however Be-Quiet have decided to substitute the EPS12v connector with what they call a “PHYSX PCIe Card Connector”. This may sound strange considering probably only 1% of all enthusiasts own a PHYSX card, but we’re happy to report that this cable can be used as an ordinary 6-Pin PCI-E VGA cable without any issues.
Getting under the hood of the Dark Power Pro we can see that the size of the casing has taken its toll on the inside of the unit with everything being quite cramped up. However, despite this, Be-Quiet have still managed to keep all cable routing quite tidy and overall airflow through the unit should be pretty good.
Positioned middle-left of the unit is the primary transformer (yellow) responsible for powering each of the six +12v rails. This is accompanied by a smaller transformer over to the right, which will more than likely deal with the +3.3 and +5v rails along with any other requirements of the ATX spec. A single 320uF, 400v capacitor manufactured by CapXon with a max operating temperature of 85c can also be seen at the lower left of the unit.
It’s quite surprising that such a small amount of components can generate a stable 1.2KW of power, but we’ll certainly find out for sure when we get the Be-Quiet on the load tester.
