Be Quiet Dark Power 1000W PSU

Packaging and Bundle

The DarkPower Pro 1kW unit comes in a fairly large and well designed package. Listan is one of the few companies that bother providing some extra things with their power supply units, so along with the 4 black mounting screws you will also get some cable ties, 5 colored cable management strips and a bag full of rubber seals for those connectors that will be left unused in your case. We never saw an unused connector causing any kind of problem, but safe is better than sorry and they will also look better. There is also a 24pin to 20pin ATX adapter, although we fail to see who would use a 1kW unit to power an older 20pin ATX system. There is also a comprehensive manual written in 4 languages (English, German, Spanish and French). Finally, there is a box full of the cables you can attach to the unit. These 18 cables offer these connectors:

24 Pin Mainboard Connector with adapter to 20 Pin
P8 8 pin CPU connector
5x PCI-Express Connectors (3x 6-pin, 2x 6+2-pin)
12x SATA Connections on two wiring harnesses
10x 4 Pin Molex Connectors (HDD)
2x 4 Pin Connectors (FDD)
3x 3 Pin Fan connectors

The Unit

The DarkPower Pro 1kW unit is entirely black with a golden cooling fan grill, a standard trait of Be Quiet units. That said, the paint finish on this unit is extraordinary. Despite the black color, the surface is extremely reflective and the paint is very smooth and scratch resistant.

The unit should fit inside any ATX case since it is not larger than any typical ATX unit, despite its great power output. At the rear you can only find an oversized on/off rocker switch as the rest is perforated in order to allow the air to escape to the outside of your case. There are three cables pre-attached, the 24pin ATX cable which you will surely use, the P4 12V CPU power cable and a fan speed monitoring cable which you can attach to your motherboard and check the speed of the PSU fan at all times. The fan cable is not necessary for the unit to work, it is only meant to monitor the speed, meaning that the fan will work properly even if it’s left unplugged.

At the right side you will find a sticker with its basic specifications and approvals. You are certainly going to hate this if you have a clear side panel as it ruins the remarkable paint job of the unit. It would be much more aesthetically appealing to place the sticker at the top of the unit rather than on its side. At the front you will find the connectors for the modular cables.

The PCIe connectors are colored and there is also a helpful sticker above the connectors, so confusing them will be hard. An interesting note is that the P8 and PCIe 5 connector is the same; you cannot use the P8 connector and the 5th PCIe connector at the same time.

The interior of the DarkPower Pro is very well organized, the cables are carefully routed from the side in order to enhance airflow. A high quality Adda fan is used for the cooling, which is aided by very good black heatsinks. All components used come from renowned electronics manufacturers and Be Quiet took the time to shield and secure most of them individually. To keep a long story short, the interior of the unit is certainly an excellent example of a high end power supply.