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

Peter Donnell / 1 year ago

A Closer Look – Internal

Taking it apart proved to be quite a challenge, it is so well built, but I figured it out in the end. You have to remove the entire backplate. However, that does mean we can see all these extra capacitors which are used to provide various stability and protections to each of the connectors. With this removed, you can then slide the fan grill out of the way.

The fan is frameless but comes with a two-piece shroud that helps better direct the airflow.

I love that it’s a proper be quiet Silent Wings fan too, one of the best fans on the market, and I wouldn’t have expected anything less in here to be honest. With it removed, we can see that despite the enormous size of this PSU, it is positively packed with hardware in here.

There are three bulk voltage doubler capacitors, starting with a 680 uF 400V unit at the front.

Then another one at the back, and a 470 uF one next to that, which account for 1200V on their own. However, these are all Nippon Japanese capacitors rated for 105c, which are the best in the business, and again, I wouldn’t have expected anything less here.

There are two transformers in here, with be quiet! labels on the top, perhaps because they’re in-house made? I’m not sure, but they look to be pretty robustly built, again, as you would expect really.

It’s worth pointing out that all the capacitors in here are Nippon-branded, including all the smaller ones on the filter, PFC, and other components. One thing that is nice to see though is there are no trailing wires and everything is surprisingly neat in here too, some PSUs look like a horror show of glue and cables, but not this one.

Everything comes mounted on thick PCBs and daughter boards, and there’s copper shielding between all the major components too, which is again uncommon to see.

There’s seemingly a separate PCB mounted for each major voltage output too, such as this one for the 5VSB. With large filter inductors and amps all mounted towards the back before passing through to the connectors that go to your system.