Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products, because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects must be taken into consideration. Certain criteria consist of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We are not going to try to create useless test results by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, are not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 6.1W as measured by our wall meter unit, indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is very good. Unfortunately, as mentioned on Page 2, there are no independent sources with professional load testing equipment to accurately verify the efficiency or capabilities of the be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000W. This power supply is rated 80 Plus Gold.
Voltages with minimal load are within 3% of the expected voltage, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. This power supply is ATX 3.1 compliant and officially supports Alternative Sleep Mode with 100 to 150ms PG specifications, and this is indicative of the 120ms power good signal. The ATX design specifications state a PSU's PG is required to be between 100ms and 500ms, with 250ms maximum for Non-Alternative Sleep Mode and 150ms for Alternative Sleep Mode.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it, as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P divided by S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. The be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000W has active PFC, and the power factor will approach 0.99 with a nominal load.
The be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000W is a surprisingly good power supply when it comes to noise. This unit does not have a Cybenetics LAMBDA rating for noise. Under nominal loads, the be quiet! QF2-12025-HS fan does not spin much at all. On a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000W at 1.5/10 under moderate loads.
be quiet! provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
With the be quiet! Pure Power 12, there are notable things to appreciate because it offers a decent set of features, including a 600W 12V-2x6 PCIe 5.0 connector and ATX 3.1 compliance. Better yet, the cables, while they are fixed to the power supply, are sufficient in length. Furthermore, its fan is both quiet and capable of keeping the internal components cool. The other parts inside are of average quality, which is expected given this power supply’s price point. The 10-year warranty is sufficiently long, while the 80 Plus Gold rating is good to see. You will have the drawbacks of cables that are always in your build as a non-modular power supply, even if you do not need them. At the time of the review, the be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000W is available for $130, which is more wallet-friendly than its modular brother. Overall, this power supply is a reasonable offering for a unit of this power output and efficiency class.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
