Be Quiet! Pure Power 9 CM 600W Review

Be Quiet! Pure Power 9 CM 600W Review

Manufacturer: Be Quiet!
UK price (as reviewed): £74.99 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): TBC

The Pure Power 9 range of PSUs is the update to last year's Pure Power L8 power supplies. Currently, there are four in the range, occupying mainstream wattage levels (400W, 500W, 600W and 700W) but, as we understand it, lower wattage and non-modular varieties will expand the range further in a month or two.


We've snagged the 600W version for review and, like the other Pure Power 9 PSUs, it's staying at the same price point as its predecessor, which is £75 on these shores. 600W is a good choice for a system with two mid-range GPUs or perhaps one high-end one – generally you want to give yourself a bit of leeway to keep efficiency up and noise output down.

The Pure Power 9 600W is rated at 80 Plus Silver, which is an upgrade over the Bronze rating from before. This has been achieved by combining an active clamp design with a synchronous rectifier, which replaces diodes with active controlled MOSFETs for better efficiency in the AC/DC conversion process. While great efficiency is always great, others are offering PSUs rated at 80 Plus Gold for a similar price.


Electrically, Be Quiet! sticks with a dual 12V rail design despite most others having moved to single rail designs. Still, as long as it delivers solid performance, we're not fussed. The Pure Power 9 can deliver virtually all of its capacity along these two crucial rails. It is rated for 600W at a 40°C ambient temperature; not bad, but we'd still prefer to see 50°C here.


Another upgrade here is the move to a semi-modular cabling design. The ATX and CPU power cables are the only fixed ones. These are round and braided, but the five modular cables have switched to a flat design, which tends to be more useful for cable routing. The cables, including the connectors, have an all-black aesthetic which is also appreciated. Cable lengths are fine: 550mm for the motherboard one, 600mm for the CPU one and 500mm at least for all modular connections. You get two PCI-E cables, each with a pair of 6+2-pin connectors at the end for full multi-GPU support, as well as three more with various combinations of SATA and Molex plugs (six and three connectors in total). This helpfully includes a dedicated SATA cable with three connectors spaced 150mm apart. Pleasingly, the Pure Power 9 600W is designed to accommodate all five cables should you need it to.


The PSU sits at 160mm long, so in certain smaller cases it may be a squeeze – most will be fine, however. Be Quiet! still only manages to fit in a 120mm fan, but it has been upgraded to a new, quieter design. The improved efficiency should also lower noise levels, but sadly the fan isn't one that switches off completely at low loads.

The last thing to note is that Be Quiet!'s warranty period here is three years. With certain competitors now offering seven or even 10 years, it could do with following suit.