Be Quiet! Straight Power E9 680W Review

Be Quiet’s Straight Power 680W E9 CM power supply is currently hitting the UK shelves at £106 while availability in the USA is a bit hit and miss and many leading UK retailers don’t currently stock this product. That said it is available at Scan and Amazon which should be enough choice for our UK readers. As a power supply the Be Quiet Straight Power E9 CM ticks all the boxes with solid voltage regulation (bar the unimportant -12 volt rail), good efficiency, total silence thanks to the Silent Wings fan, good cable management options, good ripple and noise suppression and just a general feeling of quality.

That said the product isn’t perfect and I would still have liked to see a fully modular design as this leaves consumers with the option to fit their own custom cables. Additionally the minus 12 volt rail did let the results down quite a bit and Be Quiet (FSP) need to work on that, I also feel that the exposed cabling on the cables stands out like a sore thumb against the subtle black design we’ve come to expect from Be Quiet products. The use of Chinese capacitors is also not as desirable as that of Japanese capacitors but given the high airflow design the capacitors are unlikely to suffer from longevity issues so this can be overlooked as it allows Be Quiet to offer consumers a lower price.

Pros

• Excellent aesthetics
• Good selection of connectors and cables
• Quiet under all usage scenarios
• Slightly above its 80 Plus Gold Certification in terms of efficiency
• Well priced for its wattage and certification
• Good voltage regulation on the major rails (12v, 5v and 3.3v)
• Good Ripple and Noise suppression on major rails
• High PFC
• 5 Year warranty

Cons

• Not fully modular, though it is pretty close
• Cables won’t be to everyone’s taste in terms of braiding and colour schemes
• Availability is hit and miss in the UK and USA from some major retailers
• Mediocre Minus 12 volt rail regulation
• Chinese capacitors

eTeknix says: “Be Quiet have produced a power supply that is an excellent compromise between cost and quality. While the performance may not be best-in-class, the Straight Power E9 680W power supply certainly delivers a high level of performance, given its price, and does better than a lot of the competition. It also does that with one significant advantage – which is that the Be Quiet Straight Power E9 680W is totally quiet. The Straight Power E9 680W offers up Be Quiet’s trademark build quality and subtle aesthetics in abundance which is something that we’ve come to expect from them, and this is all backed by an impressive 5 year warranty. The Be Quiet Straight Power E9 680W power supply would be a great choice for any enthusiastic system builder.”

Thank you to Be Quiet for providing this review sample.