What is the best 720-750W Power Supply?

Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 750W Review

Manufacturer: Be Quiet!
UK price (as reviewed): £135.30 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $169.99 (ex Tax)

The Dark Power Pro 10 750W is part of Be Quiet!’s highest end series of power supplies. The brand has a steady hold on the German market, and the manufacturer has gained popularity in the UK in recent years too. Like most of the other PSUs on test, the Dark Rock Power Pro 10 is 80 Plus Gold certified (no less than 87% efficient), and also comes with a five year warranty, but its £135 price tag makes it the second dearest of the group.

The unit itself is finished all in black, and looks fairly stylish as PSUs go. The honeycomb mesh on the back takes up basically the whole panel, while a wired grille sits above the 135mm Be Quiet! SilentWings intake fan. The PSU is also wrapped in a pair of rubber strips, with one at the front and one at the rear, to help soften any vibrations it emits. All of the cables are nicely sleeved, and the captive 20+4 pin motherboard connector is recessed into the unit with the remaining cables modular.


As well as eight molex and nine SATA connectors, a total of seven PCIe connectors are provided, more than any other on test. Large case owners will be pleased with the lengthy cables, and zip and Velcro ties are supplied to keep things tidy. There's even a four channel fan controller, which will adjust the speed of your case fans automatically. We're not convinced that many will want to use their PSU for this, but we can't fault it for being there.

The PSU's four +12V rails are rated at 25A, 25A, 30A and 30A respectively, and it can supply up to 62A across the four rails collectively. In an attempt to quell the bickering about whether single-rail or multi-rail power supplies are better, Be Quiet! also supplies an Overclocking Key, which enables you to switch between the two modes. It's essentially a PCI bracket with a single switch that connects to the front of the PSU, but a jumper is also provided to avoid you having to fill a PCI slot and the extra cabling.

Like every other PSU tested, the Dark Power Pro 10 750W is able to supply its maximum capacity without falling over. At each load interval, voltage output across all three rails is rock solid, so stability is nothing to worry about. At the highest load of 700W, the 12V1 output falls to just 11.89V, which is an excellent result that places it behind only the XFX unit.

Its average efficiency is 89.93 percent, and it's over 90 percent efficient in all but the 200W load tests too. This is a very good result for an 80 Plus Gold certified power supply, but four other PSUs are able to better it, demonstrating just how high the calibre of PSUs on test is. The Dark Rock Power Pro 10 750W is at its most efficient in the 500W load test with a result of 90.75 percent.

The PSU's maximum ripple is observed, like most others, in the 700W load test, where it reaches 67.6mV. Again, this is a very respectable result, and comfortably within the 120mV maximum set by Intel, but numerous other power supplies are able to achieve even lower ripple results.

With no load applied the Dark Rock Power Pro 10 draws 0.3W from the wall, which is again mid-league. Noise testing reveals that the PSU is able to live up to the namesake of its manufacturer, as even under 500W it registers just 31 dB(A), which is virtually inaudible at regular listening distances. Other than the semi-passive offerings, only the Enermax PSU is able to outperform it here.

The main thing holding back the Dark Rock Power Pro 10 750W is its price tag. Without doubt, it's an excellent PSU, but a fair number of the other brands provide a similar (or even better) quality for a lower price. It is one of the best looking but its extra features are somewhat superfluous, and while its long cables and large number of PCIe connections in particular are handy, they're only likely to be truly needed by those whose systems require an even higher wattage than this 750W model provides.