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be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply Review

The be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W PSU proves to be a hit and a miss. Make sure to read the full review to find out why.

be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
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TweakTown
Published
Updated
Manufactured by be quiet!
7 minutes read time
TweakTown's Rating: 83%

The Bottom Line

The be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W is a good unit that suffers from poor pricing more than anything. Unless you can score a killer deal on it, we recommend passing for something priced better.

Introduction & Specifications, Availability and Pricing

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Over the course of the last five years, be quiet! has probably made more ripples and waves in the power supply industry than anyone else, and rightfully so. The company came swinging out of Germany with some uncompromising products, including power supplies. They have been rapidly expanding and now provided cases, coolers, and more.

We've looked at many of their products in the past ranging from low wattage, quiet units to high wattage enthusiast units that are, well, still quiet. Every unit that we've seen from be quiet! so far has shown superior quality inside and out, and the performance given by each unit has been nothing short of awesome. We are expecting the same level of performance and quality out of the unit that we have on the bench today.

The power supply in question is the Straight Power 10 800W PSU. The Straight Power series is aimed at those who don't want to spend as much as a full out enthusiast grade unit, but also don't want to be stuck with a cheap quality unit you get when you scrape the bottom of the barrel. The Straight Power 10 series is available in modular and non-modular varieties although the 800W model is only available as a modular unit.

be quiet! promises to be true to their name and keep the sound down with this unit, utilizing their Silent Wings 3 fan.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

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The Straight Power 10 800W power supply features a quad 12V rail design. The first two 12V rails are rated for 20A each with the last two rated for 24A each. Combined they have a maximum output of 65A or 780W. The minor rails are rated at 25A each with a combined maximum output of 160W. The 5VSB rails is rated for 3A or 15W. Maximum combined output for the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W power supply is 800W.

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Keeping true to their ability to deliver uncompromising quality, the be quiet! Straight Power 10 comes with all the protections and features you could want. The unit features SCP, OVP, OCP, OP, and OTP. All of the cables are modular except the 24-pin Main connector and all are fully sleeved in black mesh. The power supply is rated for 80 PLUS Gold Efficiency. Finally, the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W power supply is rated for 100% continuous output at 50C.

be quiet! has an MSRP of $169.90 on the Straight Power 10 800W. This makes it one of the more expensive 800W 80 PLUS Gold units on the market, but thankfully, you can do some searching and find them a little cheaper at most etailers. The be quiet! Straight Power 10 is easily found at most common online shopping destinations. The Straight Power 10 series is backed by a five-year warranty.

Package & Inside the Box

Package

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be quiet!'s packaging is always simple and to the point. The front presents us with an image of the unit, as well as some highlights, such as nearly silent operation and promises of high efficiency.

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The left half of the back is all about dimensions and measurements. The top portion tells us how many cables of what kinds are present and the intervals at which connectors are spaced. On the bottom, you will find the dimensions of the power supply itself.

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The other half gives provides the I/O specs, along with a few points of interest in multiple languages.

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All sides of the box simply repeat information found on the front and back.

Inside the Box

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Inside, we find a different take on packaging for be quiet!. Normally things are padded with quite a bit of foam. This time around, the accessories surround the power supply to provide protection with a layer of cardboard separating it all. It is functional, but less protective than what they've provided in the past.

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The top of the unit gives us nothing more than a good look at the semi-gloss black finish on the unit.

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This side of the unit features all of the information about the Straight Power 10 800W unit.

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The other side features the be quiet! logo stamped into the case.

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Moving to the front of the Straight Power 10, we find that all connectors are clearly labeled. There is some additional venting in the front of the unit found here as well.

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The back of the unit features the on/off rocker switch and AC input. Standard honeycomb mesh is used to provide ventilation out the back of the unit.

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Also included with the unit are the mounting screws, cable ties, a case badge, and AC input cable.

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All of the modular cables are fully sleeved in black nylon mesh.

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Along with the power supply and modular cables, you will receive a user manual, zip ties, AC input cord, and mounting screws with the Straight Power 10 power supply.

Cabling Arrangement & A Look Inside

Cabling Arrangement

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One of the things that I have always been pleased to see from be quiet! are cables of varying lengths. This time there aren't as many as usual, but there are a few different lengths of SATA cables which should help with some of the cable clutter inside a case. Aside from this, there are plenty of cables to make full use of the 800W available from the Straight Power 10 800W. I would like to see the FDD connector included as an adapter, though, as it simply isn't needed these days.

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Rail distribution is split up quite well for the Straight Power 10 800W power supply. 12V1 powers the 24-pin Main and all peripheral cables. 12V2 handles the ATX 4+4 cable for auxiliary power to the motherboard. 12V3 and 12V4 each supply power to a pair of PCIE connectors. In this layout, the power supply is self-load balancing and you really shouldn't have to worry about overloading a single rail.

A Look Inside

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Here's part of the secret to be quiet! being able to keep the noise down on the Straight Power 10. The clean layout with reduced component count helps fresh air get to the hot areas of the power supply easier. This means that less airflow is needed and the fan can run at lower RPM's to keep the unit cool.

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A single Taiwanese Teapo capacitor can be found on the primary side of the unit.

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The secondary side of the power supply features a random grab bag of capacitors including more Teapo, some Nippon Chemi-Con's, and more. It could be worse, but it certainly could be a lot better.

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be quiet! uses their own Silent Wings 3 135mm fan to cool the Straight Power 10 series.

Test Results & Final Thoughts

Test Results

Our load tests utilize a couple of FAST ATE active load testers, and a variety of other equipment such as an oscilloscope, power conditioner, temperature probe, and a power consumption meter. You can read more about our standard testing approach here.

The tests performed are based around six conceivable setups that are out there, and progressively load down the PSU up to the power supply's limits, or 1000W; whichever comes first. Since our test equipment's limits are higher than that of the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W power supply, we can test it to its maximum.

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The above tests represent typical loads that we have measured from various systems, and are meant to give a rough idea of where your computer might fall in line with our tests. Please keep in mind that each system is different, and actual loads can vary greatly, even with similar hardware.

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Let's start by taking a look at the voltages, to see how well this unit did during testing. Starting with the 12V1 rail, we see 2% regulation from start to finish, with a total drop of .14V. 12V2 manages 2% regulation with a total voltage drop of .19V. 12V3 with 1% regulation and a total voltage drop of .13V. 12V4 fairs the best and manages 1% regulation with a total voltage drop of .14V. The 5V rail managed to stay within 1% of specification, with a total drop of .07V from start to finish. Moving towards the 3.3V rail, we see that regulation was within 2% of specification, with a total voltage drop of .09V.

DC Output quality for the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W was good overall, and well within specifications. During Test One, we saw 11mV of noise on our scope at 28% load. When we increased the loads in Test Three, the ripple climbed to a mere 24mV at around 70% load. Increasing loads even further showed that the noise on the 12V rail climbed to 47mV at 800W.

The be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W is rated for 80 PLUS Gold efficiency. This means that the power supply must perform at 87% / 90% / 87% efficiency, at 20% / 50% / 100% loads respectively. As you can see, the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W is performing exactly as it should and passes without issue.

Final Thoughts

There are less than a handful of power supply units that I would consider near perfect and not have anything bad about them worth mentioning. The be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W doesn't fit in that hand. The unit is certainly a strong power supply, but it has a decent mix of good and bad.

Aesthetically, the be quiet! units are always stellar. They always have a slight edge on the competition with little things such as the grommet around the natively wired cables, the fan grill, and more. From a performance standpoint, the be quiet! does a great job until we get to the DC output quality. This simply suffers because of the poor choice of sub-par capacitors. We've seen it time and time again and the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W is no exception.

What really hurts the be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W, though, is the price. With an MSRP of $169.90, that simply puts it way out of the price range of what most consumers are willing to pay for a mid-range mid-wattage PSU. Even if you can catch it on sale, you're still not quite matching what the competition has to offer and that is unfortunate.

Performance85%
Quality including Design and Build85%
General Features85%
Bundle and Packaging90%
Value for Money70%
Overall83%

The Bottom Line: The be quiet! Straight Power 10 800W is a good unit that suffers from poor pricing more than anything. Unless you can score a killer deal on it, we recommend passing for something priced better.

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