Specifications

Efficiency is platinum and the max operating temperature is limited to 40°C while ATX recommends 50°C. We suspect that Be Quiet intentionally decreased the max operating temperature not because this platform cannot handle 50°C, but due the fact that at such high temperatures the fan will operate at full speed and at 2000 RPM the output noise will be really high. During our tests we will confirm this since we will crank up the heat inside the hot box.
All available protections are available on this unit including OTP, which is essential to all PSUs. Also a high quality SilentWings fan is used and, according to Be Quiet, its lifetime reaches the amazing amount of 300,000 hours (at 25°C). The PSU itself has a large footprint considering its capacity and its quite heavy, too. Finally the warranty is set at satisfactory five years and its price is quite stiff.


The unit ships configured for four +12V rails, which however can be combined into a single one by exploiting the OCK (overclocking) switch or jumper. In both cases +12V can deliver almost the full capacity of the unit, something very convenient since modern systems heavily utilize this rail. The minor rails are unnecessary strong at 140W combined while the 5VSB rail has a typical capacity, for the category of the PSU.

Cables & Connectors, Power Distribution

One thing is for sure, this PSU can take a serious amount of cables; probably more than many >1kW high-end units. There are three EPS connectors, a single ATX12V, seven PCIe (six for three high-end VGAs and one for the mainboard), nine SATA along with eight peripherals, two FDD and a motherboard connector, which simply is a cable with only a peripheral connector on it for usage on mainboards that support it. There are also four fan connectors and finally there is one more cable which feeds the overclocking key PCB. At the same time you can have all seven PCIe and two EPS connected, something impressive for the capacity of this unit.
All cables are fully sleeved and their length is suitable even for extra large full tower cases. Moreover the distance among connectors is ideal. Finally, all PCIe and EPS connectors use AWG16 gauges for lower voltage drops while all other ones utilize AWG18.

Now let's take a look at the power distribution of the +12V rails.


Power distribution is good since the EPS connectors don't get mixed up with the PCIe ones. More specific the 10pin modular socket for the EPS cables is fed from 12V2 while the two left-side 12pin modular sockets on the bottom of the modular PCB are fed from 12V3 and the rest from 12V4. Finally all peripheral and SATA connectors along with the 24pin ATX are handled by 12V1.