be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1600W Power Supply Review

How Much Does it Cost?

If you were worried that a massive, heavy, thick aluminium construction PSU with all Japanese capacitors and a class-leading power output, with class-leading efficiency would be expensive, well, you would be right. The Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1600W is an eye-watering £429.95 right now. That is a lot, but honestly, if you’re powering a pair of RTX 4090 or RTX 6000 workstation cards, with an i9-13900K or Threadripper, and about 12 flagship SSDs in RAID on a flagship motherboard, well, the PSU is still likely to be the cheaper part of your build list. Put simply, you get what you pay for, big power and peace of mind. Plus, with a 10-year warranty backing it up, that certainly adds to the overall value.

Overview

be quiet! has a strong reputation for high-quality products, and that certainly holds true. I may have only just fired up the new PSU load tester and this is the first PSU we’ve tested on it, but I can tell you now that I’m confident this will be one of the absolute best units we’ll test over the next few years. We will, of course, have more comparison charts in the near future, as we continue to test through a surprisingly large backlog of samples.

When it comes to build quality, be quiet! has made no compromise here. I have never seen so much aluminium on a power supply before. Slapping a thin layer on top to make it look nice is one thing, but this is black brushed anodized aluminium that is milled from thick blocks and then perfectly assembled to make an aesthetically pleasing PSU that feels practically battle armoured. It’s big, and it’s very heavy.

Of course, much of that weight comes from the plethora of capacitors and other hardware on the interior. The three main bulk capacitors are massive, but then again, to reach 1600W they would have to be. However, it’s over-engineered in every respect, so that 1600W is pretty much a walk in the park for this PSU and it’s designed to hold 100% loads around the clock. We managed to push over 2.2Kw from it before it decided to take a nap, so make no mistake, whatever you have, it’ll power it.

The cables are all exceptionally well made, with thick braiding, thick cores, and tight heat wrap on all the connectors. They are obviously designed to deal with the higher voltages and amps that this PSU can deliver, and I’m glad to see there’s been no compromise. However, if you want to go even more premium, the PSU is compatible with be quiet! braided cable packs too.

Should I Buy One?

The be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1600W is ATX 3.0 equipped, and with two 12VHPWR ports for next-gen PCIe 5.0 graphics cards and PCIe 6+2 ports for current graphics cards, there’s not really anything it can’t do. Combined with clean power delivery, exceptional efficiency, and a whisper-quiet fan even at extreme power loads, this is a fantastic PSU. Highly recommended!