be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W Power Supply Review

A Closer Look – Interior

Being a premium grade product, be quiet! have invested in some great hardware for the Straight Power 11 and the PSU has been manufactured by FSP. Now that we have the top cover removed, let’s take a closer look at the interior. It’s certainly worth pointing out that all Dark Power Pro 11 PSUs that are rated at 850w or above have eight daughter boards, which offer a range of features and performance improvement.

The two main bulk capacitors, of which there are clearly two, are rated up to 420v, 470uF and up to 105c.

The output capacitors, the four larger brown ones pictured below, are rated at 3300μF. be quiet! only uses Japanese brand capacitors, which are all certified to 105C. There’s also 39 aluminium secondary side output solid capacitors, which help negate any noise from extreme load changes, such as those generated by your GPU.

There’s a range of improvements on here, with a new PFC diode, capacitor, 12v Output Coil Diode and EMI Capacitor; all are higher quality than previous models to provide better performance, efficiency and in true be quiet! style, less noise. The use of noiseless PFC capacitors is a welcome addition, as they’re known to produce high-frequency noises, although that’s often a trait of cheaper PSUs and not something be quiet! would tolerate in their design.

The new Silent Wings 3 fan is one of the biggest improvements overall, as it uses the new 6-pole motor for a smoother and quieter operation, as well as a very low start up RPM, helping further reduce unwanted noise from the unit. Overall, everything has been built to provide clean and stable power, then refined to provide ultra quiet and reliable performance, so I’m expecting great things from this PSU once we get it on our load tester.