About six years ago, I reviewed, tested and installed a be quiet! 550 watt power supply in my son’s gaming computer. It was a decent budget power supply and provided surprising efficiency of 50% at the time. In fact, the PSU is still in my son’s massively used and abused gaming PC and has yet to be the source of any issues. Recently, another box with assorted be quiet! products including the Dark Power Pro 10 650W arrived. It looks like the Germans are coming to North American market and they wanted us to look at one of their new 80Plus Gold efficient models known as the Dark Power Pro 10 650W power supply.
Features and Specifications
The Dark Power Pro 10 series feature 80Plus Gold efficiency. The heart of the unit has FSP Group fabrication written all over it. These guys have the expertise needed to make some impressive power supplies. The dark modular theme is used across them all. In terms of power efficiency, these are the ones you want powering your high end graphics cards and pro level computers. Here are some of the features the Pro 10 offers.
- Virtually silent operation – Achieved with a broad array of meticulous optimizations which includes a custom-designed 135mm SilentWings® fan.
- 135mm SilentWings Fan – Airflow-optimized fan blades, fluid dynamic bearing with copper core and high quality IC 1800RPM (max) motor controller for quiet operation – 12.9dB up to 50% load, 17.5dB at 100% load.
- 80PLUS Gold Certified – Up to 93% power conversion efficiency to do more work, waste less power and reduce power bills.
- 650 Watts continuous power – Provide deep power reserves and four independent +12V power rails.
- Full Bridge with synchronous rectifiers – Instead of using only two MOSFETs in the PWM stage, the unit uses four MOSFETs followed by LLC to smooth out alternating current for best possible efficiency.
- Modular cable management – Extra long modular cables simplify component installation, reduce annoying clutter, increasing airflow and improving case cooling potential.
- Overclocking key – Allows switching between independent quad +12V rail mode and high-performance single +12V rail operation to optimize current.
- High quality components – Meticulous German product conception, design and quality control: CapXon and all solid state capacitors, Panasonic main stage capacitors, noiseless PFC capacitor, Infineon PFC and LLC MOSFETs.
In terms of power support, the Dark Power Pro (DPP) offers new engineering power conversion technology as well as 300K hour component protection. Having looked inside, only good quality solid state and Japanese capacitors were used in assembly. Power plant wise, the diagram below explains the output, amperage, and noise levels to be expected, which we will try to validate in our testing.
Overall, this is the ideal amperage and power balance. The Dark Power Pro 10 series come with a 5 year warranty. Interestingly, Denmark and France consumers are offered Pick-up and return service in the first year, much like what NZXT has done with their “less than three” program introduced back at CES 2012.
Currently, the DPP 10 650W looks to be pricing in around $140-150 US/CA making it a bit more expensive than comparable PSUs available. But at the end of the day, we expect things engineered with “German Precision” but made in China, to be better than things that were not engineered with the same precision (but still made in China).
What’s In The Box?
The Dark Power Pro 10 650W is a modular power supply so it comes with all the cables that are modular, plus velcro cable ties that are both reusable and useful for things other than bundling up power supply cables if you still prefer to use zip ties. You of course get the manual and mounting screws. There’s also something called an “Overclock Key” which we’ll talk about in a bit. Everything seems to be organized very well in the packaging for easy use and assembly.
Dark Power Pro 10 650W At a Glance
The North American market should be very receptive of be quiet!’s design philosophy. The Dark Power Pro 10 (DPP) is a very “dark” yet interesting PSU in that it features a unique fan grill that covers the very quiet rated 135mm cooling fan. The fan is from their successful SilentWings series, which is also found as a regular case fan in their product line. It has a max 1800 rpm, needs 3.36 W, operates on 3.3 V to 13.8 V, moves 75.3 CFM (cubic feet of air a minute), and only generates about 18dB. Naturally, the fan specs increase as you go up in the line up.
Also, the front and back chassis edges are covered with matching molded black rubber intended to control, or eliminate any vibration during operation. We’ve seen PSU boots of sorts used before but these are not removable nor need any special maintenance. The chassis is smooth matte black which has en embedded brand badge plate on the side rather than just stickers.
Moving right along, let’s check out the some of the major features and start the torture testing!