Introduction

We would like to thank be quiet! for supplying the review sample.

be quiet! is a German company that, as its name implies, specializes in the design and manufacture of silent products. Its portfolio includes cooling products, cases, and power supplies. The company is very popular in Germany, and its executives have lately tried to establish be quiet! as a presence in the US as well even though it is a pretty tough market because of such competitors as Corsair and EVGA. Last year, the Dark Power Pro 11 line and its three high capacity PSUs were introduced. These units replaced corresponding members of the Dark Power Pro 10 series Seasonic manufactured. be quiet! also choose to work exclusively with FSP for their new Dark Power Pro 11 line. To be more specific, this new platform is designed by be quiet! and manufactured by FSP.



As has already been mentioned, the three higher capacity units were introduced with be quiet!'s flagship line. be quiet! introduced the three lower capacity models several months later. The capacities of these Dark Power Pro 11 units range from 550 W to 1200 W. All feature 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency, and as per usual for be quiet!, only the main ATX cable is native. be quiet! insists on keeping one cable native, which differentiates their products from the competition. With that said, be quiet! should adapt since even a native cable can affect usability, and the implementation of only including one surely increases production costs.

The Dark Power P11-1000 is powerful enough for multiple VGAs, and be quiet! equipped it with more than enough connectors to make sure you won't have to leave something unplugged. This unit, unlike most PSUs, can also power and thermally control up to four external fans. Its multiple +12V rails can even be combined into a single, powerful rail through a jumper or a switch.

Specifications

Platinum efficiency and the ability to deliver its full power continuously at up to 50 °C are some of the unit's key features. It also has all the necessary protection features, and its top-notch cooling fan uses a Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB), which is the best bearing type around. As with most modern PSU, this one is also Haswell ready, and most of its cables are modular. be quiet! could have easily made all cables modular, but as has already been stated, keeps insisting on keeping the main ATX cable native. Strangely enough, there is no passive mode, a feature most high-end offerings in this category sport, and the PSU is large since it is more than 19 cm deep. At 5 years, its warranty is pretty long, and its price looks stiff, but this product screams of quality, which partially justifies the price.

At 150 W maximum power output, the minor rails are very strong, and there are four +12V rails that can be combined into one for almost 1 kW. The 5VSB rail is strong enough, but a few more watts would have been nice.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

The P11-1000 comes with a ton of cables and connectors, enough to easily make use of or even push a 1 kW PSU beyond its limits with several power hungry components. With eight PCIe connectors, it can power up to four high-end VGAs, but its maximum power output will set the bar here since multiple Nvidia GPUs at stock speeds can consume more than 800W. Power consumption would even be higher with AMD's offerings as their cards usually register a lower performance-per-watt ratio. Six PCIe connectors with a seventh for the mainboard would have been enough. Nine PCIe connectors might look great on paper, but are clearly too many for 1 kW, especially when combined with two EPS connectors.

There are enough SATA and 4-pin Molex connectors, and the P11-1000 can also power and thermally control four additional fans, which may make a fan controller for case fans obsolete. All PCIe and EPS connectors also use thicker 16AWG gauges, and the same applies to the +12V wires of the 24-pin ATX connector. All other wires are 18AWG, which is the norm.

Power distribution is optimal since EPS and PCIe connectors are kept separate. The photo below is of the modular board's rear panel, which shows the EPS and PCIe numbers we listed in the table above.

Packaging

The box is large, and at its front is a photo of the PSU with its modular panel exposed. The series name is given in large letters, and right below it is a brief multilingual features list.


Both sides of the box go over the PSU's features in different languages.


The rear of the box details all the cables and connectors and their lengths. You will also find the PSU's dimensions on this side, and the power-specifications table has been put into the bottom-right corner.

Contents

The contents are well protected and on a sheet of foam at the very top is the user's manual; it will be the first thing to greet you after you've opened the box.


A quite large box contains all the modular cables and accesories.


The bundle includes several Velcro straps, two set of screws, one of plain screws and another of thumbscrews, the jumper wire for permanently enabling single +12V rail mode should you not want to use the overclocking switch, and the modular cables.


This is the overclocking switch that will allow you to toggle between multi- and single-rail mode.