Bengal System Upgrade Time

BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11

Of course if you have new cables then you need a power supply to plug them into, and the BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 is a great choice. The Platinum certification is vital for providing efficient power delivery even under hard loadings. The large Silent Wings fan which is decoupled from the main PSU chassis and thus quiet. Silence is something which I value particularly highly given how much of my life is spent sitting next to my system. If you’ve ever had a loud fan somewhere you know how frustrating it can be and too often power supplies don’t pay as much attention to quiet operation as they should.

      

Unlike my previous V850 the Dark Power Pro 11 has the 24pin ATX cable hard wired. Although a fully modular PSU is nice, there is a level of reassurance that comes from the most important cable being bolted to the power supply. Even if it does mean the Cablemod 24 pin will be an extension rather than shining in all its glory. 850W is plenty for my current Z97 setup with a single GTX980Ti, but still providing plenty of headroom should I want to move to SLI in the future.

      

There is plenty of connection options on the business end of the Dark Power Pro. Two CPU outputs, four PCI Express ones, five Molex/SATA ones and four three pin fan inputs. At the bottom is the OCK switch which allows you to combine the four 12V rails into a single option.

      

If you just want to run with the Dark Power Pro 11 then the provided cables are of a very high standard with decent braiding and plenty of cable ties and velcro straps to keep everything tidied away. If you’re short of back plate spaces then BeQuiet even provide a jumper enabling you to combine the 12V rails without needing to take up valuable space.