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

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Dark Power Pro 11 is available for retail immediately at a suggested retail price of $199/£161/€225 (850 watt), $239/£186/€259 (1000 watt) and $279/£207/€289 (1200 watt). Buyers of these high-end power supplies receive a five-year warranty and free 48-hour on-site replacement service in the first 12 months. The Dark Power Pro 11 series will be extended with lower-wattage models in August.

Conclusion

Previous entries in the Dark Power Pro series have been regarded as some of the best power supplies money can buy. They look gorgeous, they’re super quiet and they’ve consistently delivered great performance and award-winning reliability. Now that the Dark Power Pro 11 is here, we can see that be quiet! are not content with being great, as they’ve once again improved almost every aspect of the power supply.

The FSP manufactured power supply is one of the best we’ve seen, it promised to deliver super quiet performance, as well as clean and efficient power; it certainly ticks all those boxes and as far as performance is concerned it has exceeded my expectations.

Of course, the only downside for some, may be that this is still quite an expensive power supply, but when you look at the price of the current Dark Power Pro 10, which currently retails between £230-250 here in the UK, the Dark Power Pro 11 is already expected to cost less around £70-90 less! Although, this could be reflected with price drops in the previous generation too, but it’s still nice to see the prices of enthusiast grade power supplies coming down and this is a great price for a 1200w Platinum rated PSU.

The addition of an overclocking switch to jump from multiple to single rail setups, as well as being able to power four fans directly from the PSU are very welcome additions and perfect for the enthusiast overclocking market who will likely have this PSU fitted to a test bench.

If I could see any aspect of this PSU that could be improved, it would be the design of the cables. It’s a small gripe, but I know many enthusiasts that love neat looking cables and the sleeving on the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 shows off a lot of the interior cable colours, cheapening the PSUs premium-grade looks.

Pros

Modular cables
5 Year Warranty with 12 Months on-site replacement
Excellent ripple suppression
Good PFC performance
80 Plus Platinum Efficiency
Lower Price than previous generation
Super-quiet performance
Overclocking Key Switch
Built-in fan connectors

Cons

Cable sleeving

“The be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 is easily one of the best power supplies on the market today. It promised premium performance and didn’t disappoint, with the added bonus of the OC key, fan hub, Silent Wings 3 fan, a great warranty and a very competitive price.”