be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W PSU review

1. Introduction2. be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W (Bundle & Cables)3. be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W (External)4. be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W (Internal)5. Testing Methodology and Results6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Today we are looking at one of the new power supplies from leading German brand be quiet! The new Pure Power 9 range is a dual 12V rail design which has achieved 80 Plus Silver certification. The new design adopts a 120mm noise optimised fan and is modular, with high grade flat cables set to aid the appearance of the final system build.

The Pure Power 9 supplies will be offered in 400 watt (£54.99), 500 watt (£64.99), 600 watt and 700 watt (£89.99) capacities. Today we look at the 600 watt model, which is set to hit retail around the £74.95 inc vat mark.

It is not a shock considering their name, but be quiet! have always placed a focus on releasing near silent products, and we have been impressed over the years with their coolers and fan designs.

ABOUT PURE POWER 9 CM

• Continuous power and two 12V rails ensure rock-solid voltage stability for powerful multi-GPU systems (Pure Power 9 CM can provide up to 96% of its power only on 12V rails).
• 80PLUS® Silver certification and up to 91% power conversion efficiency.
• Exceptionally quiet operation achieved through an array of careful optimizations, including use of a silence-optimized 120mm be quiet! fan.
• Stable operation in its class thanks to Active Clamp + SR power conversion technology.
• Modular cable management with high-quality flat cables for PCI Express connectors and drives.
• All black DC wires for a clean and modern look.
• NVIDIA SLI Ready and AMD CrossFireX certifications allow you to build powerful multi-GPU systems.
• Extensive compatibility with latest specifications, including energy-saving requirements of Intel C6/C7, ErP 2014 and Energy Star 6.0 guidelines.
• Product conception, design and quality control in Germany.

be quiet! box artwork is very distinctive – the black and orange colour scheme is very effective. There is a nice high resolution image of the supply on the front of the box.

The rear of the box lists some specifications and diagrams of the power configuration and cable management.

Inside, the unit is protected by some bubblewrap, however it is not locked firmly in place inside the box, which is not ideal.

be quiet! include a user manual, mounting screws and some cable ties to help with routing.

Top left are the modular cables, these are all flat ‘ribbon' style which are easy to route. The other two cables top right are sleeved, and hardwired into the power supply chassis. They are however the primary ATX and EPS cables, which are used in every system build.

be quiet! include 4 x 6+2 pin PCIE connectors to support two card SLI and Crossfire system configurations.

The be quiet! Pure Power 9 follows the traditional company design – high quality paint, with thick metal bars to protect the user from the fan. The orange accents are both subtle and attractive.

Nice to see the company have adopted an orange surround behind the grill, in front of the fan. We noticed with their Straight Power 10 CM that be quiet! opted for no trim (HERE). Personal opinion, but I love the little touches and the orange trim is very appealing – it always reminds me of KTM motorbikes. Never a bad thing.

One side of the power supply is vented to help with air flow. Beside the vent is a power switch and connector.

The other side of the power supply is home to the modular connector bay and the hardwired cables. The modular connectors are neatly laid out horizontally with the names above them, in white. The PCI connectors are dual width so impossible to mix up with the peripherial connectors.

One side of the chassis has the name ‘be quiet!' embossed into the metal work. Another nice touch.

be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W
DC Output	+3.3V	+5V	+12V1	+12V2	-12V	+5Vsb
Max Output	25A	18A	32A	28A	0.3A	3A
Total Power	140W		48A – 576W		3.6W	15W
	600W

The be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W can deliver 576w via the +12V rail.

Above, the schematic of the rail distribution for all the power supplies in this range.

be quiet! are using a 120mm fan made in China. The model number is BQ QF1-12025-MS. This fan is rated 12V, 0.3A at 1,800 rpm. be quiet! class this fan as ‘silence optimised'. The fan blades are ‘airflow optimised' as well to reduce turbulence (and noise).

The overall build quality is quite high with several small heatsinks scattered around the PCB to help maintain decent temperatures. Soldering quality on the PCB is quite clean throughout as well, which is reassuring to see.

This unit is based around an Active Clamp + SR (Synchronous Rectifier) topology. The design uses additional active components such as a set of MOSFET's, capacitors and an IC on the primary and secondary side. These are adopted instead of passive diodes, allowing control over individual parts. A second IC controls rectification on the DC side.

The IC's on primary and secondary sides can communicate and are able to monitor components to improve efficiency. This is called Zero Voltage and Zero Current Switching technology (ZCS, ZVS).

The daughter card for the modular management is using high quality solid capacitors. When compared directly to electrolytic models, they can help improve residual ripple across the rails. This particular design ditches the use of an MOV and adopts a surge absorber to protect against voltage spikes. This is supplied by Mitsubishi and can handle up to 10 kilovolts.

Two metal plates are placed a small distance apart inside a gas filled body which elimates the surge to an exothermic reaction. It is further packed inside a heat shrink sleeve to reduce the impact of outside influences.

I can't help but feel disappointed that be quiet! have opted to use a lower grade 85C rated primary capacitor from Chinese manufacturer TEAPO. I have had several TEAPO caps leak and explode on me over the years, so I don't have a lot of faith in them as a company. Some people may argue that Chinese branded capacitors are getting better but I strongly feel that a company such as be quiet! should be using 85c-105c Japanese capacitors throughout. Especially with their focus on German quality engineering.

The hardwired cables are sleeved into the chassis, and protected against direct contact with the metal chassis via a plastic grommet. No problems here.

Additional technical assistance: Peter McFarland and Jeremy Price.

Correctly testing power supplies is a complex procedure and KitGuru have configured a test bench which can deliver up to a 2,000 watt DC load. Due to public requests we have changed our temperature settings recently – previously we rated with ambient temperatures at 25C, we have increased ambient temperatures by 10c (to 35c) in our environment to greater reflect warmer internal chassis conditions.

We use combinations of the following hardware:
• SunMoon SM-268
• CSI3710A Programmable DC load (+3.3V and +5V outputs)
• CSI3711A Programmable DC load (+12V1, +12V2, +12V3, and +12V4)
• Extech Power Analyzer
• Extech MultiMaster MM570 digital multimeter
• SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa)
• Digital oscilloscope (20M S/s with 12 Bit ADC)
• Variable Autotransformer, 1.4 KVA

12V output is combined for our testing.

DC Output Load Regulation
Combined DC Load	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		+5VSB		-12V
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
75W	1.09	3.33	1.47	5.02	4.92	12.07	0.50	5.02	0.20	-12.04
150W	2.09	3.33	2.97	5.02	10.02	12.05	0.50	5.02	0.30	-12.04
300W	4.30	3.33	6.00	5.01	20.58	12.03	1.00	5.01	0.30	-12.05
450W	6.57	3.31	8.48	4.99	31.79	12.00	1.50	5.01	0.30	-12.06
600W	9.94	3.31	12.20	4.98	41.78	11.97	2.50	5.00	0.30	-12.07

The be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W delivers great results in the Load Regulation test, within 2%.

be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W	Maximum Load
	665W

We managed to get 665W out of the be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W before it shut down gracefully.

Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly.

Cross Load Testing	+3.3V		+5V		+12V		-12V		+5VSB
	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V	A	V
590W	1.0	3.33	1.0	5.02	46.0	11.96	0.2	-12.02	0.50	5.01
145W	12.0	3.31	15.0	4.98	2.0	12.05	0.2	-12.03	0.50	5.00

The be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W handled the cross loading tests with flying colours, with minor fluctuation on the +12V rail.

We then used an oscilloscope to measure AC ripple and noise present on the DC outputs. We set the oscilloscope time base to check for AC ripple at both high and low ends of the spectrum. ATX12V V2.2 specification for DC output ripple and noise is defined in the ATX 12V power supply design guide.

ATX12V Ver 2.2 Noise/Ripple Tolerance
Output	Ripple (mV p-p)
+3.3V	50
+5V	50
+12V1	120
+12V2	120
-12V	120
+5VSB	50

Obviously when measuring AC noise and ripple on the DC outputs the cleaner (less recorded) means we have a better end result. We measured this AC signal amplitude to see how closely the unit complied with the ATX standard.

AC Ripple (mV p-p)
DC Load	+3.3V	+5V	+12V	5VSB
75W	5	10	10	5
150W	5	10	15	5
300W	10	10	20	5
450W	15	15	30	10
600W	15	25	40	10

Noise suppression rates as fairly good, with both +3.3V and +5V rails peaking at 15mV and 25mV respectively at full load. The +12V rail peaks at 40mV at full load. All well within rated industry parameters.

Efficiency (%)
75W	84.34
150W	86.67
300W	89.63
450W	88.68
600W	86.32

Efficiency peaks at 89.6% percent at 50% load, dropping to 86.3% at full load. This falls in with what we would expect from an 80 Plus Silver certified power supply.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the Power Supply we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter (6-130dBa) one meter away from the unit. We have no other fans running so we can effectively measure just the noise from the unit itself.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 Player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise (dBA)
75W	<28.0
150W	<28.0
300W	<28.0
450W	32.3
600W	33.4

The be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W is an extremely quiet power supply, rating below the sensitivity of our meter until load rises to around 400 watts. Even at full load the noise levels are very low and will be masked out by a single case fan.

Temperature (c)
	Intake	Exhaust
75W	35	39
150W	35	43
300W	37	48
450W	41	54
600W	44	59

The large fan manages to hold a good thermal curve rising to +15c above ambient at full load.

Maximum load	Efficiency
665W	85.2

At 665W the be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W drops to 85.2% efficiency. This is not a viable ‘real world’ situation, but its interesting nonetheless.The be quiet! Pure Power 9 is a very capable supply that will deliver quality power to a system – well above the rated capacity of the unit. In our tests, this 600w model could deliver 665 watts before it would shut down safely. As we would expect from be quiet!, the chassis is beautifully finished, with deep paintwork and dramatic orange accenting on the chassis.

On a cosmetic level there is little, if anything to fault – it may seem like a small point, but we are pleased to see be quiet! have incorporated an orange trim around the fan this time, as it seemed like a strange omission on the last generation Pure Power L8 series. Equally so, the modular cables are all very high quality, and the be quiet! fan is exceptionally quiet, even when tasked with a full 600 watts.

Load regulation proved another plus point for the be quiet! Pure Power 9, with all rails holding close to reference. Ripple suppression rated as very good in this price category and technically it didn't give any issues over a solid week of stress tests.

While I can praise be quiet! for all they are doing properly I do have an issue with them adopting lower grade 85c rated Chinese TEAPO capacitors in these power supplies. Some may argue that the Chinese are producing better capacitors in the last 6 months, however I can only judge their quality by my own tests.

I have had first hand experience of 85c rated TEAPO capacitors exploding and leaking in budget power supplies over the last 2 years, and it is far from reassuring to see them adopted by be quiet! in these units. From my own point of view, it seems a bad move to even take a risk – especially as be quiet! place a focus on ‘quality German engineering'. For me there would always be a little question mark over long term reliability based on my own findings over the years. Exchanging these for Japanese grade Nippon Chemi Con or Rubycon capacitors would remove all doubt in my mind and only force a minimal price increase.

We have no store links as yet, but the be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W will be available around the £75 inc vat price point in the UK in the coming weeks.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• quality paint work and exterior build.
• very low noise fan.
• high grade modular cables.
• can deliver 665 watts before shutting down.
• technically a very solid design.

Cons:

• 85C Chinese capacitors used. disappointing to see.
• shipping box could be better, the power supply can move around a little during transit.

Kitguru says: Another very capable power supply from the German market leader be quiet! Technically the be quiet! Pure Power 9 600W proved an excellent performer in our tests.

Become a Patron!