be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1500W (Titanium) Review

It is worth pointing out – never open your power supply, you will invalidate the warranty. We are here to do that for you.

When the initial screws are removed. the mesh grille slides out of place, exposing the unique, patented fan.

The fan is sandwiched between two plastic pieces on either side. be quiet! call these a ‘custom shaped funnel' which is designed to increase air flow over the hot running components and to reduce turbulence and subsequently noise.

It is clear be quiet! do not want you to open this unit, it was extremely difficult to disassemble and it was the only time I can remember that i cut my hand open trying to get inside a power supply. Perhaps I am a bit rusty!

The fan is mounted directly to positions on the main PCB underneath. It is removed by three screws between the blades.

The SilentWings fan (made in China) is labelled ‘BQ SIW3-13525-HF' and is rated up to 2,600 rpm at 12V, 0.56A. This fan has similar properties to the Silent Wings 3 retail fans that get plenty of positive media attention. The six pole motor and fluid dynamic bearings help improve life span and lower noise levels for quiet operation.

Looking a bit closer into the technical specifications of the fan, we can see that he can produce up to 92.90 CFM airflow. Maximum noise levels are said to hit 44.6dB at 2,600rpm. be quiet! say that microprocessors inside the Dark Power Pro 12 are constantly adjusting the fan curve ‘perfectly' without any user input.

The Dark Power Pro 12 power supply offers six 12V rails which are configured as below:

be quiet! recommend you use connector A if two or less PCIe-connectors are needed. Connector A is linked to rails 5 and 6, so the load can be distributed between the two. If more than a total of two PCIe-connectors are needed, start using the connectors marked with B first and connector A last. This leads to a balanced rail distribution. Users should always use as many different 12V-rails as possible for a stable system.

It is worth pointing out that none of this is explained in the user manual supplied with the power supply.

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The new Dark Power Pro 12 uses a fully digital control for PFC, Full Bridge LLC and SR/12V. Two UCD3138A micro control units (MCU) are in charge of the digital control. The MCU on the primary side controls the Power Factor Correction (PFC) which helps enable higher efficiency levels and improved signal quality. The MCU on the secondary side controls the LLC-SR circuit with 12V regulation and Full Bridge MOSFETs on the primary side with the help of optocouplers helping again to improve efficiency while boosting voltage stability and regulation. The fan is digitally controlled as well.

As mentioned earlier in this review, be quiet! also supply an ‘overclocking key' which allows for a switch between high powered single to a multi six rail setting.

be quiet! are using quality Nippon Chemi Con 105c Japanese capacitors in this power supply, with two rated 400V 680uF and a third smaller one rated 400V 470uF. This gives a staggering total of 1830uF.

This full bridge design comprises a series of MOSFETs in the PWM stage. The MOSFETs are responsible for creating high frequency alternating current to improve efficiency for the main transformation.

The second part of the topology is called LLC referring to a circuit that follows the Full Bridge part. ‘L' is the switching symbol for a coil and ‘C' for a capacitor. Accordingly, the LLC series resonant circuit consists of two induction coils (L1+L2) and one capacitor (C1).

The LLC circuit is designed to smooth out the alternating voltage. This process tries to replicate a perfect sine wave as input for the main transformation process, giving the best possible efficiency. The Dark Power Pro 12 uses an advanced LLC technology adapting pulse width modulation (PWM) and frequency modulation (FM) to adjust power transformation. Around 10 to 15 percent load the LLC circuit modifies the frequency, which enhances the results. The best results are achieved at low frequency and high load or at high frequency and low load.

The Dark Pro 12 features zero voltage switching and zero current switching technology which retains power which can be lost by inferior topologies. Older topologies cannot control the switching point to the same level which will result in switching loss.

After passing through the main transformer, the alternating current gets rectified and becomes 12V DC current required by most PC components. A series of twelve or 16 MOSFETS achieve this, depending on the wattage of the power supply (16 in the 1500W unit). These are synchronised using a micro processing unit.

Instead of generating all necessary voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V) from the AC on the primary side, the 3.3V and 5V voltages are generated from 12V DC after the main transformation.

The Dark Power Pro 12 models are equipped with two parallel placed main transformers, resulting in lower heat emission and higher efficiency results. In addition, the lower design makes room for better ventilation.

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