be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Power Supply Review

By Aris Mpitziopoulos
published

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Performance, Performance Per Dollar And Noise Ratings

Performance Rating

The following graph shows the total performance rating of the PSU, comparing it against other units we have previously tested. To be specific, the tested unit is shown as 100 percent, and every other unit's performance is shown relative to it.

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The Dark Power P11-850 unit did well here, although it wasn't able to take the lead from the tough competition. But it was close enough to the next three units ranked above it, with only the top-notch Corsair AX860 easily outdistancing it, showing a nearly four percent difference in performance. 

Performance Per Dollar

The following graph may be the most interesting, because it depicts the unit's performance-per-dollar score. We looked up the current U.S. price of each PSU on popular online shops and used those prices and all relative performance numbers to calculate the index. If the specific unit wasn't available in the United States, we searched for it in popular EU shops, converting the listed price to USD (without VAT). Note that all the numbers in the following graph are normalized by the rated power of each PSU.

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The expensive price of the Dark Power P11-850 didn't allow for a better ranking on this graph. be quiet! should consider lowering this unit's price or proceed with some discount sales or offers in order to make it more appealing to buyers. However, we should note that if you want an inaudible PSU of this capacity, you don't have many choices; the premium might be worth it.

Noise Rating

The graph below depicts the cooling fan's average noise over the entire operating range of the PSU, with an ambient temperature between 28 and 30 °C.

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In this comparison, the PSU easily took first place, leaving all the other PSUs far behind. We believe that the strongest selling point of this unit is the combination of high performance and enough wattage to support a strong system, along with its inaudible operation.

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Xivilain
    For lower wattage units, I'd be interested in seeing fanless designs. But it doesn't seem like BeQuiet! is targeting that market, which is sad, because there are lots of HTPC builders out there demanding silence in their living rooms. Anyawy, great review!
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    fanless designs target a very specific market segment mostly because of their increased cost. From the moment you can have inaudible operation at light-mid loads with a proper designed, normal PSU I would highly prefer it especially since it can deliver more power when needed (but with the fan spinning at high enough speeds), than a passive one which will be restricted at 550 - 600 W tops.
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    For lower wattage units, I'd be interested in seeing fanless designs. But it doesn't seem like BeQuiet! is targeting that market, which is sad, because there are lots of HTPC builders out there demanding silence in their living rooms. Anyawy, great review!

    I don't see why you cannot have a lower powered unit at 80PG and have the fan run at a low speed. I got a HX750i because I need to give a FirePro W9100 very stable power, but the principle is the same: fan turns on at some higher wattage usage (for me it's 300, but for 80PG I'd say 200 is safer). Even when the fan turns on, can't hear it at all (it has a test button).

    If someone makes a 600W PSU that has this kind of fan profile, that would be a score. It won't technically be fanless quite, but the fans won't even get past 15dB for average user power usage, and around 20dB at max settings. Why all this? Will lower the price since a lower efficiency can be used.
    Reply
  • Giannis Karagiannis
    Since you can have the fan spinning at very low rpm or not at all during light and normal use I can't see a point in having a fanless PSU. During heavy loads, when you need more than 300 watts of power, I believe the noise from the PSU fan would the last thing that would be annoying you.The heat produced be the rest of the system components would be so much that you would need active cooling anyway

    Another very comprehensive review. Keep up the good work! I would also like to see more reviews for power supplies in the sub-100$ price range.
    Reply
  • dudmont
    "The prices of the 850, 1000 and 1200W units in the U.S. are $200, $240 and $280, respectively." Yikes!
    I'm not convinced that a quieter PSU is where it's at. It's cooling fans that create the big noise, not the PSU and it's fan.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    be quiet! informed me that this design/platform was actually designed by one of their engineers and not by FSP, which only helped them build it through their production facilities (since be quiet! doesn't have a PSU manufacturing line).

    So in other words be quiet! didn't just bought this platform from FSP but they designed it on their own and FSP just produced it for them.

    Until now I wasn't aware of it but now that I am, I wanted to make things right and provide the proper credit to be quiet's engineer that designed this platform (whose name is unknown to me).
    Reply