be quiet! Dark Power 13 850W PSU Review – Impressive Efficiency, Dead Silent & Decent Performance

Epilogue

The be quiet! Dark Power 13 850W is a quality power supply, offering top efficiency on all load ranges and a dead silent operation. The cherry on top is the ATX v3.0 compatibility, allowing the PSU to deliver up to 1700W for short periods (0.1ms) while keeping its voltage rails in control. As most brands do, be quiet! didn’t follow Intel’s guidelines by installing a 12VHPWR cable set at 600W output through its sense pins. Moreover, when OCP triggering points are set so high, I cannot see the purpose between the multiple 12V rails. It would be far better if the proper Amp values were mentioned on the power specs label. This won’t be a problem, though, and I actually suggest that you use the OCK slot bracket or the OCK jumper to combine all 12V rails into a single, powerful one. This means you won’t have to bother studying the manual and power distribution a bit before connecting the modular cables. I am not a fan of multi-rail PSUs, but the truth is that they are safer than single 12V rail ones.

be quiet! continues delivering quality products, not caring so much about overall performance but mostly focusing on efficiency and noise output. The competition is tough in this category and price range, so I would try to tune up the platform for higher performance in some areas, namely, load regulation, power factor at 230V, and the 5VSB rail also needs an efficiency boost. There is also no need for such high output on the minor rails, especially at 3.3V. No normal system will draw more than 20A on this rail, so why allow more than 33A?

In general, the be quiet! Dark Power 13 850W is a highly efficient PSU with top build quality, offering a dead silent operation. Its performance doesn’t put it among the best units in this wattage category, and with a 250-dollar price tag, you cannot call it affordable. The Seasonic PRIME 850 Titanium has a similar price tag but doesn’t offer ATX v3.0 compatibility or a 12VHPWR connector. With a price closer to 220 dollars, the Dark Power 13 850W will get more attention. If you don’t want to spend so much, you could look at the Corsair RM850x Shift, which is sold for 160 dollars as we speak. It loses 3-3.5% in average efficiency, and it is not as quiet, but it has higher overall performance, and above all, it costs 90 dollars less!