be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 80 PLUS Platinum PSU Review

TweakTown's Rating: 95%

The Bottom Line

be quiet!'s Straight Power 12 1000w PSU delivered rock-solid results and was whisper quiet while at full load. Being future ready and having a 10-year warranty makes the Straight Power 12 lineup of ATX 3.0 PSUs a winner in our book.

Pros

• + Super quiet
• + 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency
• + 100% Japanese capacitors
• + Full bridge LLC
• + 10-year warranty and a great price currently

Cons

• - Aesthetically the same as the previous Straight Power 11 models

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Buy at Newegg

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Today, we have another product from our friends at be quiet!, the new Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU. The Straight Power series of PSUs from be quiet! have always been all about performance, future-proofing, and reliability. Sitting just below the Dark Power 13 series of ATX 3.0 PSUs, the Straight Power 12 lineup provides the latest technology at a lower price tag.

This model, the Straight Power 12 1000w, has an MSRP of $230, is 80 PLUS Platinum rated, and includes a full 600-watt 12VHPWR cable-other models in the Straight Power 12 lineup range from 750w to 1500w. In the past, we have looked at be quiet!'s Dark Power series and had great results, so we are assuming that the Straight Power 12 line of ATX 3.0 PSUs from be quiet! should be no different. So, let's dive right in.

be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 80 PLUS Platinum PSU

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$189.90	$189.90	$189.90	$189.90	Buy
	$189.99	$189.99	$189.90	$189.90	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 7/27/2024 at 6:44 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging

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Kicking things off, the Straight Power 12 packaging is fairly unchanged from the previous, or, for that matter, the rest of the packaging will be quiet! PSU lines. "World Class Quiet and Efficiency" is the mantra of the Straight Power lineup.

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Again, fairly unchanged from previous models, the backside of the packaging shows some product information with 83.3 amps on a single 12V rail. A QR code also allows users to have the manual in a digital format.

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Cracking the packaging reveals some cardboard packaging, bubble wrap, and the user manual laid on top.

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The modular sleeved cabling comes all bundled up, a power cable, as well as four zip ties, and four screws.

Outside the be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU

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Removing all the packaging from the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU is a familiar sight; almost everything is the same as the Straight Power 11 PSU aesthetically. In any regard, it still looks awesome.

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Under the straight grille is a signature be quiet! fan, specifically the Silent Wings 3 135mm variant. More on the fan later.

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The backside of the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU shows a fairly standard array consisting of ventilation holes, a power cable input accepting 100 to 240Vac, and a power rocker switch.

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be quiet! has an embossment of their name on the side of the Straight Power 12. Tastefully done.

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The business end of the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU is all the modular cable connections. Starting from left to right is the larger 20-pin (MB) motherboard input and another 8-pin input labeled MB. Below the 8-pin are two 10-pin inputs for two CPU EPS inputs. The three 5-pin connections in the middle are for drives such as HDD, SSD, and other peripheral devices needing internal power.

A full 600w 12VHPWR connection is located off the right, labeled PCIe 5.0. The far two 12-pin connections are for devices, mainly AMD GPUs, that use the older 8-pin power connector on the GPU side.

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The other side shows the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU specifications, model number E12-1000W. The single 12V rail provides 83.3 amps, which is enough to juice to power any thirsty machine. The Straight Power 12 is rated at 80 PLUS Platinum for efficiency, which we will be testing for later in this review.

Inside the be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU

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Cracking the seal on the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU shows off the Silent Wings 3 135mm fan, as well as the internals of the PSU itself.

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I was looking closer at the be quiet! Silent Wings 3 135mm fan is rated for .56 amps at 12V at 2100 RPM. These fans are known to be very quiet while performing very well.

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Here is the main overall view of the entire internal layout of the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU.

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Not skimping out on quality, be quiet! has opted to use capacitors from Rubycon, which are known for being one of the best capacitors in the industry and are 100% made in Japan and rated at 450V at 390µF each, totaling 780µF in total capacity with a temperature rating of 105C.

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The main transformer, which be quiet! has slapped their name on, is located at the center of the action, and is responsible for changing AC to DC.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: B650 AORUS Elite AX (AMD B650) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360 - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 5600 RGB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: APNX C1 - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22631 - Buy from Amazon
• Testing Software: AIDA64 Engineer 7.00.6700, HWiNFO64 v7.68-5300, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.57.0, and CPU-Z 2.0.9.0.x64.

Final Thoughts

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Looking at the testing data we collected while testing the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU, it was uneventful for the most part. The Straight Power 12 1000w performed exactly what it was rated for and never missed a beat. The test PC with the ATX hardware suite, which consists of a Ryzen 7 7700X, an 8-core / 16-thread CPU on the B650 AORUS Elite AX AM5 motherboard, was used for testing. Cooling the Ryzen 7 7700X AM5 CPU was the Arctic Freezer II 360mm AIO. In the two DDR5 memory slots were two sticks of Patriot Viper Venom 32GB RGB running at DDR5-5600 MT/s.

The GPU used was the NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition, which has two fans to help move air. Storage was handled by the Corsair MP600 PRO XT 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD. The Straight Power 1000w was dealt around a 50% load, reading 508 watts via a KillaWatt P3. The Ryzen 7 7700X drew about 67 watts alone; the discrete GPU, the NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition, was limited to about 370 watts via MSI Afterburner. Adding in the power needed for the motherboard, along with the two sticks of DDR5 and PCIe M.2 SSD, averages about 30 watts of power. Totaling all the wattages up is a total of 467 watts, thus making the Straight Power 1000w hit its 80 PLUS Platinum rating with a 92% efficiency at a 50% PSU load.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.00.6700 for about 9 hours; the ambient temperature was 19C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v7.68-5300, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.57.0, CPU-Z 2.0.9.0.x64, and MSI Afterburner v4.6.4.16255.

So, in closing, the Straight Power 12 1000w ATX 3.0 PSU from be quiet! was rock solid and performed up to its rated specifications. Priced at $170 on Newegg, this 80 PLUS rated ATX 3.0 PSU is a steal compared to others in its rated power class. Let's be honest: a PSU isn't the most glamorous component of a PC build, but it needs to be good enough to keep your other parts juiced up while not overloaded. That said, only some people want to pay top-of-the-line prices for the latest technology, which is where the Straight Power 12 line comes into play.