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.

Product Name: Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 13 1600 Watt

Review Sample Provided by: Be Quiet!

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

**Disclaimer**

LanOC Reviews only cover the features of power supplies due to not having the equipment to test them up to our standards. Because of this, you will not see a performance section, a final verdict, or awards. Therefore, we prefer to call this a preview rather than a review. Thank you for understanding; we keep our standards to the absolute highest for you, our reader.

Packaging

The Dark Power Pro 13 is a large power supply and large power supplies have large boxes. The Dark Power 13 that I took a look at back in March had a standard PSU box but for this one, you can see that Be Quiet considers this to be in a class above. The box has a color sleeve that slips on which has a picture of the power supply as well as the 1600-watt wattage, the be quiet logo in the bottom right corner in color, and the 80 Plus Titanium badge as well. This slips onto the flat black box which just has the Dark Power Pro 13 name across the front in a chrome finish. The back of the box has the be quiet logo in chrome and down in the bottom right corner the serial number with a barcode and the UPC as well. The slip-on has some information about be quiet and a large QR code that takes you to the product website. The 80 Plus Titanium logo is here as well alongside of all of the normal certification logos. Then they have a breakdown of how the 1600 watts are split up. There is a small logo that shows that this supports PCIe 5.0 with the new 12VHPWR cable but that’s about it for information on the box.

The top of the box lifts off once you take off the plastic and slide off the slip-on ring. It opens up similar to a shoebox but with a lot more protection. The lid has foam cut to fit around the power supply and the be quiet branding etched out. The power supply comes wrapped in microfiber to keep it from getting scuffed up then it sits in more dense foam to keep it safe. On the right there is a second box inside of the main one, this box has the same flat black finish and the Dark Power Pro 13 and be quiet branding all in chrome.

When you open up the second box it has the user manual for the Dark Power Pro 13 which covers both the 1300-watt and 1600-watt models and an accessory bag. Under that they have a thick cardboard layer which has the same flat black finish and chrome letters, this time letting us know this is the drive cables with all of the cables sitting under there. Under that there is a second divider, this time it says main cables, and under that you have the rest of the Dark Power Pro 13’s cables. That last layer also has the power cable as well.

With a wattage of 1600 watts the Dark Power Pro 13 is capable of pulling up to 13.33 amps which technically is possible with the traditional C13 power cable that most power supplies have which supports up to 15 amps. But that doesn’t leave much headroom so for the cable the Dark Power Pro 13 has a C19 connection on the power supply end of the cable which can support up to 20 amps. The cable itself is extremely thick and the picture below doesn’t really give it justice then on the other end it still has a NEMA 5-15 connection, I am surprised with going for the C19 that they didn’t also go with a Nema 5-20P connection. But we know that if they did it would hardly work with any wall outlets, almost no houses use the 20 amp outlets.

In addition to the user manual, the Dark Power Pro 13 does come with a bag of accessories. You get a lot more than the average power supply comes with. This includes on the far right the OCK slot bracket with switch and OCK jumper, you can use this to switch the Dark Power Pro 13 to single rail operation when needed for overclocking. For wire management, you get five small black zip ties and then a pack of 10 reusable Velcro straps which have the be quiet branding on them. To go with the individually sleeved cables you get a whole pack of wire combs to help clean those up if you want that look. Then for mounting the power supply, you get two small baggies with mounting screws. One set are standard black mounting screws, the other bag gets you large black thumbscrews, and both come with 5 screws which give you an extra if needed.

Photos and Features

While the Dark Power 13 lineup is be quiet!’s top of the line power supplies, it is the Dark Power Pro models that sit at the top with their hold-nothing-back designs whereas the standard Dark Power 13 is still trying to keep things compact and keep pricing in line. Both of the Dark Power Pro 13 models are 80 Plus Titanium certified with an efficiency rating of up to 94.5% and pull just 0.1 watts when on standby. Like with the standard Dark Power 13 PSUs the Pros move up to ATX 3.0 with the addition of 12VHPWR connection support. They use Japanese 105°C capacitors and a digital full bridge LLC tech to reach the high efficiency and have a topology of full bridge, to LLC, to Synchronous Rectifier to DC/DC. Then being be quiet! they have their own custom fan design to help keep things running cool and quiet. All of that is then housed inside of a different housing than your standard power supply. Where most are in stamped steel the Dark Power Pro is an aluminum framed and black brushed aluminum clad case which gives it a unique look. They haven’t used any fancy RGB lighting or integrated a wattage readout or anything like that. The design is simple and to the point with the brushed aluminum and chromed branding on it paired up with black individually sleeved cables.

The Dark Power Pro 13 with its 1300 watt and 1600 watt capacities is of course the largest of be quiets lineup. Both models have the same size housing which has the standard 150 mm wide and 86 mm tall sizing of a standard ATX power supply. But to gain more space it is 200 mm long. For comparison, the Dark Power 13’s are all 175 mm long. Comparing this to other 1600-watt PSUs from the competition it is the same size as the Corsair AX1600i and the EVGA SuperNOVA 1600. The Seasonic PRIME TX-1600 is 210 mm and Asus’s Thor 1600W is 190 mm so the Dark Power Pro 13 is right in that range but you will need to make sure your case can handle the length.

The top or bottom of the Dark Power Pro 13 depending on how you install it in your case has a black brushed aluminum frame around the outside, then inside of that the rest of the entire side is covered in a wire mesh. This is the fan side and we can see the fan just behind the mesh with its be quiet logo on the center. They have used a Silent Wings fan with a PSU-specific size of 135 mm, with that you can see the rippled fan blades' signature to be quiet fans and to help direct the airflow with the fan in the center of the large opening they also have a fan shroud to help improve airflow. That shroud isn’t attached to the fan at all, in fact, the fan is a unique frameless Silent Wing design which helps eliminate any of the bars that cross through eh airflow to hold the fan motor on a traditional fan design. Cutting those out helps cut down on noise. The fan uses a fluid dynamic bearing and has a 6-pole fan motor to keep vibration down and have a long life.

The other side of the Dark Power Pro 13 has the same aluminum frame around the outside edge with the black brushed aluminum finish. But inside of that, the mesh has been replaced with a full brushed aluminum panel that matches the outer frame. There are screws in each of the four corners as well as the warranty void sticker in the corner but nothing of importance is going on this side at all. It does help give a better look at the brushed finish though and if you have ever worked with true brushed aluminum before the entire casing is like sandpaper, it will pick up fingerprints quickly. Not as much from oils in your hands, but from the dust that it sands off of your fingers. So once you get the Dark Power Pro 13 installed you will most likely have to plan on cleaning it up.

The outside-facing end of the Dark Power Pro 13 is an even better example of the aluminum housing with the main housing here having tall vents that run from the bottom up to the top and then a second layer behind them with a honeycomb design to help prevent anything from being stuck inside. Over on the left, the power switch is huge and has the power cable connection right above it. This is the C20 power connection designed to work with the included C19 power cable and like with the cable this supports up to 20 amps to handle the 1600-watt capacity of the Dark Power Pro 13.

The sides of the Dark Power Pro 13 both have a few things going on. The left side of the power supply if you are facing the modular cable connections is designed to be what faces out when you install the Dark Power Pro 13 in a standard case. This has the full brushed aluminum finish across it and it has both the be quiet! logo and the Dark Power Pro branding all with a chrome finish that looks great on the black brushed aluminum finish. The other side has the Dark Power Pro and be quiet logos again in chrome, but this time smaller to make room for the PSU information. This includes the certification logos and a legal warning. There is also the wattage breakdown to show the different rails. Surprisingly all of this is printed onto the side, not a sticker like most power supplies would use. It is all on the brushed aluminum. There is one small white sticker in the bottom right corner, this has the PSUs serial number on it.

The inside end of the Dark Power Pro 13 is where most of the action is. This has all of the modular cable connections and with the 1600-watt capacity, the Dark Power Pro 13 has a LOT of cable connections. On the left side, there is a full stack of peripheral cable connections which they call the Drives cables, there are six in total. Next to that up top is the OCK connection, this works with the included jumper or the PCI bracket-mounted switch allowing you to switch to overclocking mode. Switching to that turns the Dark Power Pro 13 into a single rail design when needed. Below that and to the right of it are two connections that combined handle the motherboard's 24-pin power cable. Then along the bottom, they have two CPUs, EPS, or as they have it labeled here the P8 connection. There are three PCIe connections which have 12 pins each and then on the far right, there are two 12VHPWR connections which use the same compact design on this end of the cable as well. The 12VHPWR connections are labeled for their 600-watt support for each connection. There are also small legends around each plug that let you know which rale each runs on and for one of the PCIe connections you can see that it is split between two rails which is interesting.

With the Dark Power Pro 13 1600W having such a high wattage it does have a lot of cables to be able to put that wattage to use. Almost all of the cables are individually sleeved with black sleeving, this matches the blacked-out look of the Dark Power Pro 13 and also means that you don’t have to get aftermarket cables or cable extensions for the individually sleeved look. You of course have a 24-pin motherboard power cable which on the power supply end has two connections, that cable is 25 inches long. To go with it there are two 8-pin EPS/CPU/P8 power cables, both have 10-pin connections on the PSU side. Those are close to 29 inches long, longer to reach up to the top corner of your motherboard where they are normally located. There is then a whole assortment of peripheral cables, six in total. Each of those has a 5-pin connection on the PSU side and there are a few different lengths and connection options. There is one with all Molex connections which has 3 in total at 24, 30, and 36 inches. Then there are two that have three SATA connections at 24, 30, and 36 inches. One cable has four SATA connections at 21, 26, 32, and 37 inches. Then the other two both have a mix of SATA and Molex power. One of those has 4 connections, two being SATA and two Molex. The first two are SATA power at 24 and 30 inches, then the Molex power connections are at 36 and 41 inches. The last is similar but has three SATA power connections and one Molex at the end. The SATA are at 24, 30, and 36 then 41 for the Molex. These are all individually sleeved as well, often a lot of power supplies with individually sleeved cables will just do it for the cables that are visible ignoring these cables.

Of course, while your CPU/motherboard can pull a lot of power, a majority of your power is still going to be going to your video card or video cards in some cases. The Dark Power Pro 13 has a variety of options there, especially now with the addition of the new 12VHPWR cables. It has two 12VHPWR cables and both are 24 inches long. These are the only cables included that aren’t individually sleeved, instead having one larger black sleeve to cover everything. They have the 12VHPWR connection on both ends and the cable ends indicate that these support 600 watts each. The combination of the two being capable of 1200 watts. There are also three PCIe power cables as well. These are individually sleeved and each cable has two 6+2 connectors. Like with the standard Dark Power 13, be quiet didn’t use the daisy chain design that most power supplies use. That design is convenient but also doesn’t provide as much power as having dedicated cables for each like this does. If you by any chance end up using a card that uses one of the 6-pin connections the cable design here allows for the extra 2-pin connection to be pulled all the way back to the power supply, those cables aren’t attached to the 6-pin in any way meaning you don’t have to have that extra 2-pin dangling like most power supplies have. All three of the PCIe cables are 25 inches long and you get a total of 6 possible 8-pin connections which can support two crazy high-end cards that use 3 connections, three cards that use 2 8-pin connections, or 6 cards that support one connection. That is without figuring in the 12VHPWR, but keep in mind the overall wattage.

Overall

The new Dark Power Pro 13 models are a great example of what be quiet! can do when keeping costs down isn’t a concern. Which is funny because all of their products feel the same way, only this time around this really is the tip-top of the market. Once you look past miners, the market for high-wattage power supplies like this is going to be overclockers and for crazy hold nothing back PC builds and be quiet touches on features for both situations. The Dark Power Pro 13 is a multi-rail design that when using the included jumper or the PCIe bracket-mounted switch, overclockers can switch over to a single-rail design. Then for high-end builds, the build construction with the brushed aluminum housing and the custom Silent Wings fan offers a very premium feel and look. Real brushed aluminum does pick up skin cells that it sands off of your hands when you handle it so keep in mind you will need to wear gloves or clean it up when you install it. That premium styling is also carried on into the individually sleeved cables which look great. Speaking of cable, for overclockers and crazy builds you have all kinds of flexibility in connections with two of the new 12VHPWR cables capable of 600 watts each or 1000 watts when both used. You also have six 6+2 PCIe cables with a design that allows you to hide the extra 2 pins if you don’t use them and also no daisy chaining for the best possible power connection. So there is support for new Nvidia cards with 12VHPWR or AMD and some aftermarket cards with the traditional PCIe options allowing for a mix of both if needed. All with the most efficient design possible, premium components, and an impressive 10-year warranty which with the latest standard should be usable for those 10 years and more. While the 10-year warranty is impressive, the direct competition to this is the Seasonic Prime TX 1600 Watt and that power supply has a 12-year warranty, be quiet may need to step it up to keep up with the competition there. Overall though, every step of the way gives a high-end experience from the completely unique packaging design, custom cables, overall construction, and even with the accessories where you get cable ties, the overclocking switch bracket, and cable combs for the individually sleeved cables. They even include two sets of mounting screws, one being thumbscrews.

As I mentioned at the start of our coverage, I do still recommend hitting up a few of the outlets that have the capability to confirm the power regulation performance. But beyond that aspect, the Dark Power Pro 13 covers everything else. I do think that the 1600 wattage is a little crazy especially now that SLI isn’t really a concern. But with CPU and GPU power usage going up every year the lower-end 1300-watt model isn’t out of range for someone who wants to make sure they never have to worry about power with a long-term investment in a quality high-end power supply. The 1600-watt Dark Power Pro we have here sells for $459.99, which is a LOT for a power supply. For comparison though, the Seasonic Prime TX 1600 watt is its direct competition and is $529.99, so it isn’t out of line with the competition. It is just in that range of high-end stuff that people with a lot of extra spending money can afford, which is a category that is well beyond my means normally lol.

Live Pricing: HERE

Author Bio

Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org

Editor-in-chief

You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.