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be quiet Dark Power Pro 850w PSU Review

Written by Maxit

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be quiet Dark Power Pro 850w PSU Review
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Price: Expected £150+ Manufacturer: Be Quiet
Supplier: Be Quiet

be quiet! have delighted us with their Straightpower 700w Power supply, so you can imagine our excitement when DHL dropped off their new top of the range powerhouse, the Dark Power Pro 850w PSU. Unless you have been living in the big brother house for the last few months, you'll be aware that NVIDIA released their next generation of graphics cards. The 8800 series provide incredible performance gains in 3D applications in single mode - check out our review of the ASUS EN8800GTX graphics card, and absolutely jaw dropping levels of eye candy in SLI. The only trouble is the hefty power requirements required by these beasts. Drop in a quad processor, bunch of Raptor hard drives and maybe even a touch of the wet stuff and that all singing, all dancing 650w power supply is going to look positively OAP. Luckily for us, be quiet have upped their award winning Dark Power range with a juiced up 850w model. Offering modular design, quad PCIe connectors and bunch of other stuff, it's the power supply of your dreams.

be quiet! power supplies always impress us with their sleek styling and build quality. The Dark Power Pro 850w model is no exception to the range, offering a mirrored gun metal finish and great packaging. Don't believe us - checkout the eyecandy.

So the Dark Power Pro looks great but how about under the hood. The high-end power supply features four plus points - Top Efficiency, Thermal Control, Service Plus (be quiets excellent warranty service) and High Connectivity. It's extremely high efficiency of up to 83% takes care of the saving power consumption and so lowers electricity costs. Okay running a system that requires a 850w power supply probably won't win you many brownie points with Friends of the Earth, but at least you know power is being used efficiently. All electronic components conform to the current RoHS Guideline and the ECASO (Enhanced Cooling After System Off) technology protects your hardware from overheating, even after you have switched off your PC. The power supply fan and the fans connected to the power supply are supplied with power for 3 minutes after shutting down. The thermal electronics regulates the rotational speed of the power supply fan and of the 3 housing fans connected directly to the power supply. The speed indicator signal of the power supply fan can be read out over the mainboard. A load of thermal electronic components integrated into the power supply to control thermal convection make this possible and help reduce the noise level in the power supply and in the case through connected system fans.

Connectivity is very impressive.

flexible cable management (up to 19 cable strands, 17 of them removable)
high quality processing, with nylon weave cable sheath
greatest compatibility with available mainboard technologies
four separate 12V circuits ensure an independent power supply of the CPU
the use of SLI, CrossFire systems and Quad SLI solutions is made possible by four 6-pin PCIe VGA connectors!
P8 connection for dual server mainboards
12 x SATA connections

The Dark Power Pro has enough features and juice to serve the current and next generation of system requirements. We can't see you upgrading this one for some years to come. The technical data reads as follows.

850 W Power
ATX12V Version 2.2
24 Pin Mainboard Connector with adapter to 20 Pin
4x PCI-Express Connectiors
12x SATA Connections on two wiring harnesses
11x 4 Pin Connectiors (HDD)
1x 4 Pin Connectiors (FDD)
1x 120mm Silent fans
Active PFC with PF up to 0,99
2 separate 12V Connections
P4 and P8 Connnector
3x 3 Pin Molex fan Connectors
Specification: +3,3V: 24A, +5V: 30A, +12V1: 20A, +12V2: 20A, +12V3: 20A, +12V4: 20A, -12V: 0,8A, +5VSB: 3A

The Dark Power Pro 850w is the equivalent of a 6 litre turbo charged American hot rod. Alls it needs is a big fat exhaust and some fluffly dice. Oh yeah. We forgot that silence rules here so maybe the exhaust isn't such a good idea but you get the picture. It looks cool and kicks some serious PSU bottom in the specs department.

The 120mm fan is a Sanyo Denki San Ace model that helps keep everything cool when under full load without turning the PSU into a wind tunnel. Maximum noise on full blast is 40 dBA producing an air flow of 2.5 metres cubed per minute with a rotational speed on 2850 rpm. In use it's very quiet and worthy of the be quiet! label.

For warranty work you'll be please to hear all Dark Power Pros come with a 3 year guarantee, 1 year more than legally required. If you live in Germany they also offer a 1 year of free on-location replacement service within 48 hours. For everybody else you'll have to ship it back.

In The Labs

While we don't have access to fancy psu testing machines for mega loads, ripples, fluctuations, hot boxs and all sorts of other methods of psu torture - we did look at a Chroma Systems C8000 power supply tester but we figured we'd never work out how to turn it on (the $50000 price tag also sent our editor into a coma for 3 weeks). We do have the next best thing.

A watercooled Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor running at 3.6GHz, two 8800GTX graphics cards in SLI, a couple of raptor 10000rpm hard drives and the usual gubbins that makes up a games PC. With Orthos Prime running 24/7 and various applications jamming away including the completely useless but oh so pretty 3DMark 2006 benchmark software, the rails remained rock solid during simple measurements and so did the system. The power supply remained quiet even under abuse - not totally silent but ideal for those seeking a quiet unit in a top of the range system.

At this time the unit isn't listed on the SLIzone website as an approved power supply for twin 8800GTX graphics cards but we have no trouble recommending it for this purpose. be quiet! have assured us that it is due to be certified soon so don't be put off if you can't see it listed yet - it's coming! It's worth mentioning that 850w power supplies aren't cheap and you really need to have a stella system to justify one. Anybody planning on running 8800GTX SLI will definitely wan't to spend the extra money on a 850w supply to make sure there is plenty of power on tap.

The Bottom Line

be quiet! have risen to the challenge of Quad Core processors and SLI monsters to produce a feature packed unit with enough juice to power even the most power hungry PC. It's unlikely you'll ever need 850 watts of power but having a beast such as this will mean future system upgrades are well covered. be quiet! offer a generous 3 year warranty as standard adding to the lifespan. The bottom line is you won't be upgrading this power supply for years!

We loved the plastic caps to fit on unused connectors be quiet! bundle with this unit - a great touch for the ultimate in case tidyness. It's quiet, modular, packed with connectivity and oozes build quality. If you want the best for your monsta Intel or AMD rig, the Dark Power Pro 850w should be top of your shopping list. Champion.

The be quiet! Dark Power Pro 850w PSU receives our Editor's Choice Silver Award

PROS

Modular
High connectivity
8800GTX and GTS Ready
4 PCI Express connectors
Quiet Operation
850w of power!
3 Year warranty
Top efficiency
Thermo control
12x SATA connectors

CONS

Availability in UK
Likely to be expensive

Special thanks to be quiet! for providing this sample for evaluation. For more details on their entire range of power supplies, visit their website at www.be-quiet.net

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