be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 (1500W) PSU Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the first thing you notice about this power supply is that it’s big. While not absolutely massive, it is at least around 2-3″ longer than you would usually expect to see and as such, some consideration will be required for pc case compatibility.

In terms of it’s aesthetics though, it carries all the styling you’d expect from a be quiet! product. It’s black, sleek, and looks exceptionally well put together. While there is some branding located to the side, it’s very understated and with the silver lettering, looks absolutely fantastic.

The fan section of the power supply looks fantastic with a huge vented grid covering practically the entire area. While this is only cooled by a single be quiet! 120mm fan, this should still allow for some excellent levels of air flow.

The other side of the power supply contains all of the technical information which is nice as, unlike other power supplies, it’s located in a more discrete location (that can be hidden within a case build) rather than, for example, on the ‘top’ where it is plainly visible.

The cable input bank is exceptionally large and clearly accommodates the connection of a lot of different power cables. With each port clearly marked, it’s a pretty foolproof system and although removing cables can be a little fiddly (when fully loaded) due to them not being in the ‘back to back’ style. That being said though, it’s honestly not that bad, just a job that’s probably easier when the PSU is outside of the case.

The ventilation part of the fan provides a nice and large area for airflow to pass from the PCB (and its presumably warm components) when running at full whack. It is somewhat curious that this seemingly has two separate vent cover areas (a larger external cover with a tightly packed honeycomb interior).

Cabling

The cabling provided with the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 is of a decent length with each individual cable coming with a braided protective cover. As you may have noted in the accessories, you are provided with clips to keep this well organized within your case while still offering you the flexibility of good cable management where you don’t utilize these clips.

Although not applicable to all of the cables, most are marked to designate their use and which end goes where. The cables are, however, yet another example of how be quiet! has not cut any corners with this power supply and its components.

Internals – A Look Inside!

Like many be quiet! power supplies, getting inside the Dark Power Pro 12 wasn’t easy (and putting it back together was even harder – Honestly, it took me about 20 minutes to happily get this reassembled). Once in, however, the power supply looks exceptionally well designed.

With a 1500 watt power output, particularly one with Titanium efficiency, it really was a matter of curiosity if the inside would be a tangled mess or not to accommodate this rather expansive specification. Well, be quiet! has done it again by providing an exceptionally clean look throughout.

While it is clearly very busy in there, everything looks exceptionally well organized with even some accommodation given to allowing a decent amount of spacing between the components.

A look at the power input bank shows a surprising array of capacitors that are not usually found in this location on power supplies. It is, however, a testament to the overall build quality that be quiet! was able to utilize this space to ensure the most optimum layout. I would, however, express a little moderate concern over how warm this area must get. Particularly since it has so many capacitors present and there is no apparent airflow to this area.

Finally, a look at the main capacitor reveals it to be a ‘Nippon Chemi-con’ design. As noted in the features, this is indeed a Japanese brand and although harder to read on the smaller capacitors, it does appear that (as per the marketing information) this power supplies capacitors are indeed 100% Japanese made. A very good sign as they make the best ones in the world!

Overall Thoughts!

Make no bones about it, the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 looks like an exceptionally well-designed power supply on both the inside and outside. Externally, it carries a sleek and strong professional aesthetic that wouldn’t look out of place in any system whereas internally clearly a lot of effort has been made in ensuring this has been as well put together as possible.

In a nutshell, it looks pretty fantastic, but for a power supply of this type from this brand, we expected nothing less!