We recently had the chance of taking a closer look at the Dark Power P6-470W power supply unit from Be-Quiet, a company based in Germany. For this review we will be concentrating on a similar power supply unit by the same company, the Dark Power Pro 530W. The Dark Power Pro line is not intended to replace the Dark Power P6 line; it's merely an evolution of the latter with more features. There are several differences between the two units, with the main difference being the fact that the Dark Power Pro unit is modular, where the older P6 was not. The Dark Power Pro is designed to be as silent as possible while delivering high power loads and reliable enough to be an assessable part in high end systems.

Much like the Dark Power P6 line, the Dark Power Pro line consists of three units: one rated for 430W maximum output, one for 530W and finally one for 600W. In this review we will focus our testing on the 530W unit, but bear in mind that there's little difference between the 3 units, except their maximum rated output and MSRP.

Overall product features (from the manufacturer):

More Power

Dark Power Pro will never let your PC down, it develops optimum power, and is once again setting new standards in terms of noise emissions, quality, economy and voltage stability. You'll be particularly pleased with the numerous advantages of its three superlative performance packages: Top Efficiency, Thermo-Control and Service Plus. Removable cables and Intel ATX 12 V 2.2 are, of course, standard features.

Thermo-Control Package

- The fan follow-up control unit (ECASO) offers reliable protection to your hardware (sensitive components such as graphic cards or hard disks) against overheating. The PSU fan as well as the fans connected to the power supply unit will continue to run for 3 more minutes after power has been switched off.
- The thermo-electronic system regulates the speed of the PSU fan, as well as the speed of 3 additional case fans directly connected to the power supply unit. As a result, sound effects are also reduced within the system as a whole.
- The tacho-signal from the PSU fan can be read off via the mainboard.

Top Efficiency-Packet

- Extremely high efficiency of > 80% at loads of 50% for reduction of your electricity expenses.
- Active PF with PF of up to 0.99 for stabilizing and enhancing output voltage values.
- The power supply unit is manufactured in line with ROHS Guidelines.

Service Plus-Packet

- 3-year guarantee
- including 1 year with free replacement service at site within 48 hours free domicile at the end user’s premises
- a free service hotline 0800-0736 736 (within Germany).

Technical Data (from the manufacturer):

Technical Data 430W:

- MODEL - Dark Power Pro 430W (BQT P6-Pro-430W), ATX
- 430W Power
- ATX12V Version 2.2
- 24 Pin Mainboard Connector with adapter to 20 Pin
- 2x PCI-Express Connectors (SLI compatible)
- 6x SATA Connectors on two wiring harnesses
- 2x protected VGA/HDD 4 Pin Connector (SLI compatible)
- 6x 4 Pin Connectors (HDD)
- 1x 4 Pin Connectors (FDD)
- 1x 120mm Silent Wings fan
- Active PFC with PF up to 0,99
- 2 separate 12V Connections
- P4 and P8 Connector
- 3x 3 Pin/4 Pin Molex fan Connectors
- Specification: 3,3V: 26A, 5V: 28A, 12V1: 20A, 12V2: 20A, -5V: 0,5A, -12V: 0,8A, 5VSB: 2,5A

Technical Data 530W:

- MODEL - Dark Power Pro 530W (BQT-P6-Pro-530W), ATX
- 520W Power
- ATX12V Version 2.2
- 24 Pin Mainboard Connector with adapter to 20 Pin
- 2x PCI-Express Connectors (SLI compatible)
- 6x SATA Connections on two wiring harness
- 2x protected VGA/HDD 4 Pin Connector (SLI compatible)
- 6x 4 Pin Connectors (HDD)
- 1x 4 Pin Connectors (FDD)
- 1x 120mm Silent Wings fans
- Active PFC with PF up to 0,99
- 2 separate 12V Connections
- P4 and P8 Connectors
- 3x 3 Pin/4 Pin Molex fan Connectors
- Specification:  3,3V: 28A, 5V: 30A, 12V1: 20A, 12V2: 20A, -5V: 0,5A, -12V: 0,8A, 5VSB: 2,5A

Technical Data 600W:

- MODEL - BQT P6-Pro-600W, ATX
- 600W Power
- ATX12V Version 2.2
- 24 Pin Mainboard Connector with adapter to 20 Pin
- 2x PCI-Express Connectors (SLI compatible)
- 6x SATA Connections on two wiring harnesses
- 2x protected VGA/HDD 4 Pin Connector (SLI compatible)
- 6x 4 Pin Connectors (HDD)
- 1x 4 Pin Connectors (FDD)
- 1x 120mm Silent Wings fans
- Active PFC with PF up to 0,99
- 2 separate 12V Connections
- P4 and P8 Connectors
- 3x 3 Pin/4 Pin Molex fan Connectors
- Specification:  3,3V: 28A, 5V: 40A, 12V1: 20A, 12V2: 20A, -5V: 0,5A, -12V: 0,8A, 5VSB: 2,5A

Packaging and bundle

The Dark Power Pro 530W comes into a considerably large box for a power supply unit. The main theme of the box is the eyes of a panther, which is Be-Quiet’s company logo. It is well designed and the manual is written in four languages, and details most of the unit’s features. Everything is well packed, with the cables and most of the bundle placed inside a second box and the unit separately wrapped with bubble bag. Apart from the typical AC power cable, you also get a 24pin to 20pin adapter, 5 coloured cable management wraps and rubber caps. The rubber caps are used to seal off the unused connectors on the unit. It's the first time we actually saw a manufacturer trying to seal off the remaining power connectors on a modular unit, making it look much better.  Inside the package you will also find a very thorough manual and a case badge.

The first obvious difference between the Dark Power Pro and the older P6 unit is that the Dark Power Pro is cooled by a single 12cm fan instead of two smaller 80mm ones. The chassis has a titanium colour, or as some people tend to call it, silvery black. The black fan of the unit is covered by a golden grill with the company logo in the middle. The rear part of the unit is covered by a honeycomb pattern, which allows air to escape via the rear of the case. There is also your typical on/off switch but no voltage selection switch. At the right side of the unit you can find a sticker with thorough power specifications. The front part of the unit is covered with the 9 power cable connectors. The ATX and 12V cables are fixed on the unit, since you are going to use them anyway no matter what.

All of the unit's cables are sleeved, apart from the  very thin fan cables. As mentioned before, the ATX and 12V power cables are permanently attached to the unit. The 12V power connector is for a P8 motherboard, but also provides a P4 output for normal motherboards. There are two PCI-E power cables which are enhanced with power filters and are mostly suited for people that have SLI or Crossfire systems. There are also three cables with combined molex and floppy connectors and two cables which provide a single molex connector. For SATA devices there are two cables, which each of them providing 3 SATA power connectors. Finally there are 3 fan cables, which allow you to connect up to 6 fans directly to the unit and allow it to thermally control their speed. Bear in mind that even though Be-Quiet provides all these types of cables, you can only connect four of them at the same time since there are only 4 ports on the unit itself. We didn't find that to be a problem though, since the wide range of available cables should allow you to choose whatever fits your needs.

The 12cm fan used by the unit is a typical black fan made by Globe. It has a ball bearing so it should last for quite a long time. The basic design of the unit appears to be identical to that of the Dark Power P6, with only minor differences. The large black heatsinks are common and so are the rest of the quality components. The cable clutter is reduced to a minimum, despite the modular design of the unit. All of the cables are very well organized and do not get in the way of heatsinks or other critical components. The PCB of the unit is also fibre reinforced for maximum durability.

To test the power supply unit, we opted not to connect it to an everyday system, since we would be unable to know the exact load of the system at any given time, and furthermore, we would not be able to vary that load according to our likings. So instead, we used power resistors which are nothing more than normal resistors with the capability of consuming a good amount of power.  The exact amount of power depends on the resistance and capability of the resistor, and can be easily calculated using Ohm’s law (Amperes = Voltage / Resistance, Power = Voltage * Amperage). For instance, a 1Ohm resistor attached to the 3.3V line will allow 3.3A through it and consume about 10W of power. When adding two of these resistors in parallel, you double the power consumption and allow 20W to be consumed as you halve the resistance this way. Adding more will increase the power consumption. Of course that is not entirely accurate on paper as the fault tolerance of these resistors is high and almost none are exact to their resistance specifications, but after using them we could calculate how much power each bunch of them would consume accurately. This way we can add a fake load to any power supply unit and on any power line we want to, with pretty good results.

In order to test the Dark Power Pro 530W, and after taking into account its design and power specifications, we took the following steps:

The room temperature when the test took place was 26 degrees Centigrade.  The Dark Power Pro 530W worked flawlessly throughout our testing. We tried to overload the unit, but we were unsuccessful since the unit would shut down in seconds if loaded any further. This kind of behaviour was actually expected, since I suspected it would have an overload safety switch; plus it is already overloaded at 530W as the manufacturer’s rated maximum output through the 3.3V/5V/12V lines of the unit is 510W and the remaining 20W are reserved for the -5V/-12V/5VSB lines only.

The voltage regulation of the unit was very good throughout the load testing, never  violating the ±5% rating and barely fluctuating despite the power load. Not one of the power lines weakened below the specification point, not even at 100% load. The unit remained completely silent up to 50% load. At 75% load we could barely hear the sound coming from the unit's fan and at 100% load, the unit became audible after working a little over than a minute, but it did not become annoying at any point of time. The unit claims to have a >80% efficiency factor at 50% load, which agreed with our findings, since the chassis of the unit was almost cool at 50% load

What we liked:

There are a lot of good things worth mentioning about this unit. Sticking to the basics, the unit is good looking, modular, strong, stable, silent and has a very high efficiency factor of >80% at 50% load. Be-Quiet was not stingy concerning the cables as all of them are properly sleeved and considerably long. It also comes with a 3 year warranty. We could be considered greedy if we actually asked for more.

What we did not like:

There is not much to dislike about this unit, except perhaps its price. You usually get what you pay for, but still, the average price of the Dark Power Pro on store shelves makes it one of the most expensive power supply units of its league.

Who we would recommend it to:

The Dark Power Pro 530W is made to serve the enthusiast and hardcore PC user. It is exceptionally silent, efficient, and very powerful. It is also very good looking, modular and all of the cables are properly sleeved and have black/blue connectors. One could find it hard to actually notice a design or quality flaw. It appears to have excellent efficiency, thing that matters a lot to people who leave powerful systems on 24/7. Because of its silent operation and modular design, it could also be a very noteworthy addition in powerful HTPC systems. Unfortunately, on the other hand the unit is considerably expensive, a thing that would certainly drive away people that are on a strict budget.

So all in all, we have no hesitation to present the Dark Power Pro with our Heavenly Hardware Gold Award. It is an excellent choice for a power supply unit, given that you are searching for a unit around its price range.

The average retail price of the Dark Power Pro 530W unit in the EU is 120€ at the time of publication.