The Be Quiet! Straight Power 12 isn’t the first Be Quiet! power supply we have had in the offices. In fact, I’ve had a lot of experience with them, and are running a Dark Power in our main test bench because Be Quiets! priorities line up well with my own. They value quality, efficiency, and aim to keep noise to a minimum. Their Straight Power 12 lineup was announced back in June and it sits behind the Dark Power lines with a Platinum 80 Plus rating. This is a lineup targeted at users and builders who want efficiency and features but don’t need to go completely on the high end with the Dark Power lineup. Today I’m going to take a closer look at that Straight Power 12 1000 watt and see what it has going on.

It wasn’t that long ago when anything above a 450-watt model in the true SFX form factor wasn’t possible at all and even in the larger SFX-L form factor you could only find 600 watts. That has changed quickly over the years and Cooler Master has been one of the companies leading the charge with higher wattages and improvements in the small form factor focused SFX and SFX-L sizes. They even have a new model that reached 1300 watts which is just insane. That power supplies brother is the Cooler Master V SFX Platinum 1100W which I have in the office today. As a big SFF fan I’m curious to see what all Cooler Master has to offer with their new power supplies, so let's check it out and see what is going on.

While the big names have been around for what seems like forever, that isn’t really the case. They all get their start at some point and brands that everyone are used to now weren’t always a big name 5-10-15 years ago or more. In this case, the Yeyian Gaming brand is new to me but after some digging, it does come from Vadeto Group which has a few other brands like Qian and Getttech and others. They have been popular in Mexico and growing starting in the States in 2017 but really starting to grow from 2020 and beyond. The Yeyian Gaming brand started off building custom PCs and has expanded to have a whole lineup of products. I have been curious to see what they were all about, so today we are going to check out the Pegasus 1000W ATX 3.0 PSU from them and see what it has to offer.

This past March I took a look at the new Dark Power 13 from Be Quiet!, their first ATX 3.0 power supply. I have been planning on upgrading the power supply on our test bench to a new high-power PSU that is ATX 3.0 with the new 12VHPWR connection. The Dark Power 13 850W fit that bill but was a little low in power for the test bench. But Be Quiet! now has their Dark Power Pro 13 models which sit above the standard Dark Power 13 models with their 1300-watt and 1600-watt capacities. At those wattages, I don’t see us ever lacking power, and being from Be Quiet noise and quality shouldn’t be an issue. But before it gets put into use, let’s check it out and see what the Dark Power Pro 1600 Watt is all about.

If going completely over the top with lighting in your build is what you are after, one of the biggest go-to’s has to be the Lian Li Strimer lineup. Rather than the standard color-matched individually-sleeved cable extensions, the Strimer lineup offers cable extensions with RGB lighting that run the length of the cable. Lian Li even upgraded the lineup with the Strimer Plus V2 last fall. The one thing missing however are cables to go with the recently introduced 12VHPWR plug that some GPUs have been moving to. To remedy that, they now have three new 12VHPWR Strimer Plus V2 cables and today I’m going to check two of them out.

I took a look at the FSP Hydro PTM Pro two years ago when we used it in our TrueNAS project build and I have been happy with its performance so I was excited to see FSPs latest power supply be announced, the Hydro G Pro which like with a lot of new power supplies is FSP moving into the latest ATX 3.0 standard. That includes the addition of the new 12VHPWR connection. The Hydro G Pro is available in 850-watt and 1000-watt options and both are rated at 80 Plus Gold which means decent efficiency while potentially also being a reasonable value where the higher efficiency ratings get expensive quickly. Reasonably priced ATX 3.0 options would be great to see so I’m excited to see what FSPs latest power supply has going on.

With Nvidia’s latest generation of cards all having the new 12VHPWR connection (at least with the Founders Editions), it didn’t take long for power supply companies to follow suit with Intel’s new ATX 3.0 standard which adds the new cable into the mix. This also means that we are seeing a lot of new power supplies hitting the market as most companies have been adding ATX 3.0 into their product stack and be quiet is no different. Their first generation of ATX 3.0 power supplies is the Dark Power 13 lineup and they have sent their 850-watt model over. Today I’m going to check out what features they have included, be quiet power supplies have been quality units for a long time now and I’m excited to see what they have done to put their spin on things with the Dark Power 13 so let’s dive in.

Last year Lian Li introduced their SP750 SFX power supply which focused on the high-end/high-wattage SFF builds and today they are expanding on that with their new SP850 which ups the wattage to 850 watts. The SP850 is SFX, not the usual SFX-L and while this isn’t the first 850-watt SFX option out there, it is only one of a few. This is however the first that is also coming with a new PCIe 5 power connector included which can deliver up to 400 watts to one supported device which means no need for adapters on the last generation of Nvidia Founders Edition cards and if the rumors are correct the next generation of cards as well. So let’s dive in and check out what the Lian Li SP850 is all about.

While Cooler Master has been in the power supply game for a long time at this point, their most recently introduced mode the XG Plus Platinum is their first in-house designed platform. Having outside help for PSU design isn’t anything unusual but I am interested in seeing what Cooler Master is up to now that they have more of a hand in their designs. The XG Plus Platinum line is available in 650-watt, 750-watt, and 850-watt models and we have the 850-watt XG850 Plus Platinum ARGB on hand to check out today.

FSP originally announced their Dagger Pro line of SFX power supplies back in 2019 but last year they updated the lineup with a few more wattages. The original lineup was the Dagger Pro 550 and 650 and then last year they introduced the Dagger Pro 750 and the 850. I’m a little late to the party but we did get their Dagger Pro 850 in for us to check out and today I’m going to take a look at its features to see what it is all about. I’m a big fan of small form factor builds and having options in the true SFX size range for high wattages like this 850-watt model is huge so let’s see what it is all about.

Storytime gather around. I remember back in the day when Be Quiet! first approached us and sponsored one of our LANs. That first time while they were established in Europe, the US market was still new to them. So new that all of the power supplies that came in had their EU power cords. Well, things have changed, the Be Quiet! brand is well known and they have established their reputation for quality and as the name would imply, for keeping the noise down. So I’m always excited what something new from the Be Quiet! team comes in. This time around we have the Pure Power 11 FM in the 1000 watt variation. Their Pure Power lineup is their more budget-friendly lineup and the FM means full modular which should fall right in the range that most people are looking for so let’s check out what they have going on.

Thermaltake has been doing the RGB power supplies for just about longer than anyone. They have had USB-controlled models as well as simpler cheaper models that keep things simple with push-button controls. One of their latest models, the Toughpower GF2 ARGB mixes things up by combining the push-button controls while also adding in the ability to tie itself into your motherboard's lighting to sync everything together. They are also aiming for a happy medium when it comes to efficiency. Some of those cheaper models have been 90 Plus Bronze and they have also gone to the other end of the spectrum with expensive platinum models. For the Toughpower GF2 ARGB, it is 90 Plus Gold rated. So today I’m going to check out the GF2 and see what else it has going on and find out feature-wise if it has the potential to be a happy medium for someone looking for a power supply with addressable RGB lighting.

Last fall MSI announced that they were entering into the power supply market. It isn’t a huge surprise. MSI has been slowly branching out their product lineup with lots of peripherals for years in addition to the normal motherboards and GPUs. They are also a big name in laptops and prebuilt systems as well. We have seen similar companies like Asus do the same thing over the last few years and Gigabyte as well. You can now pick a brand and nearly build a complete themed out PC with a lot of companies. I did that with Asus not long ago and here soon MSI could be a possibility as well now that they have PSUs, new cases (they did a few cheaper cases years ago), and water cooling all being added. The new power supplies have the same MPG branding that MSI uses on their motherboard naming and their first units are available in 650w, 750w, and 850w options. The MPG A750GF that I’m checking out today is of course the middle option. SO let’s see what they are all about.

I don’t think there are any companies who have embraced the RGB trends more than Corsair has, both with their product lineup which has some of the best RGB fans, RGB lighting for your office, RGB memory, and of course keyboards and mice as well as on the memes side of things as well. Corsair has been on point with RGB memes, embracing it and doing April fools jokes like RGB thermal paste. Even the first gif that pops up on Twitter when you type in RGB is their social media manager with RGB glasses and keyboard. But even with all of that their PSU lineup hasn’t had an RGB model available with the competition doing it years ago. But that changed recently with the Corsair CX-F lineup, and today I’m going to check out the CX750F RGB and see what the new lineup is all about so put on your RGB glasses and get ready!

Cooler Master has been known to mix in a few different popular small cases into their case lineup over the years. But it might come as a surprise, up until this year they hadn’t released anything with an SFX power supply, even though SFX has been around for a long time now. I think we used one in our Lunchbox 2 build over 7 years ago! Well, this year they introduced their NR200 and NC100 SFF cases, and to go with them they were also working on an SFX power supply to add to their PSU lineup as well. In fact, I’ve got the NR200 here in the office, just waiting for the new V850 SFX Gold to come out and after a few delays, it looks like it is finally time. Today I’m going to check out the V850 SFX Gold and see what Cooler Master has going on with their first SFX PSU, then maybe here soon we can use it in a build in the NR200!

Back in 2015 Cooler Master introduced their V Series of power supplies which over the years they have filled in with a variety of different wattages and 80 Plus ratings. In fact, I’ve been using a few of them in our builds as well as one of our test benches. But think about how much has changed in those 5 years in other areas of PC hardware. It’s not a huge surprise that they might be looking to change things up and today is that day. They are introducing the V Gold V2 which is as the name might indicate an 80 Plus Gold rated power supply. They have it available in 550, 650, 750, and 850 Watt models which is spot on for the mid to higher-end PCs, and this time around they have both a black and a white model. Cooler Master has never had a white power supply though they did have the MWE White which wasn’t white at all. So I’m excited to see what is new with the V2 as well as check out the new white model so let’s go take a look.

One of my favorite SFX power supplies for a long time now has been the Fractal Design Node 202, they have a small size with its 10.2-liter capacity while keeping the pricing down compared to similar community made designs with its console-like form factor. With that Fractal Design has been in the SFX market for a while now, they even had an SFX power supply to go with it with the Integra 450W. Recently Fractal Design introduced their newest SFX PSU series, the Ion SFX series and I’m excited to see that Fractal Design is continuing to push into the SFX market and to give even more options for power supplies in the form factor. Hopefully, this also means new cases are coming as well. Anyhow, they did send over the new Ion SFX 650G and today I’m going to take a look and see what sets it apart from the competition from companies like Corsair and Silverstone.

Not too long ago I took a look a the Silverstone SX700-G which at 700 watts is one of the highest wattages per square inch power supplies there is. As far as traditional sized SFX PSUs it is also one of the highest wattages available as well. But there is one that beats it. That would be the SF750 from Corsair. I’ve had great experiences with Corsair power supplies and run them in a few of my own PCs. Well Corsair actually sent the SF750 over to use in our Dr Zaber Sentry 2.0 review and build but it came in late. I didn’t want to miss checking out Corsairs powerful little SFX, so today let’s check it out!

If you visit LanOC often you might notice I love checking out and using SFX power supplies. Early on they were limited in power, heat, and even in options with most models not even being available with modular cables but over the years that has changed significantly. I even took a look at an 800-watt Titanium model just last year. But a lot of the innovation has been with the SFX-L form factor which is similar but not as small as the normal SFX form factor even though a lot of cases only support the latter. But Between Corsair and Silverstone big strides have been made in SFX as well like Silverstone’s SX700-G. It doesn’t have the same Titanium 80 Plus rating as the SX800-LTI but it does win in wattage per liter with an impressive 882 watts per liter. Today I’m going to check out the SX700-G and see what Silverstone has been up to in the true SFX form factor, check it out. 

At this point, I couldn’t even count how many SFX power supplies that have come into the office. I love the form factor, even when building in smaller cases that can fit a full ATX power supply. Early on the SFX form factor was limited in power and because of the overall density struggled with heat and with that noise. That has improved a lot over the years, especially with Silverstone being a champion for SFX all the way from the start. They used to be the only option available if you wanted an SFX power supply with modular cables. Recently they introduced a few new SFX power supplies and one really stood out. This time it wasn’t about the jump in wattage, this model, in fact, has the same 450-watt rating of the early Silverstone SFX PSUs. The NJ450-SXL stands out for two reasons, it is 80 Plus Platinum rated which is great and also because it has no fan at all. The noise issues of the past can’t be an issue if there isn’t a fan to make noise right? Well, today I’m going to check it out and while we don’t do full PSU testing I am going to take a look at the thermals of the NJ450-SXL while under load to see how it does for cooling with no fan.