be quiet! Straight Power 12 1500W Power Supply Review

Hi folks! Today we have the opportunity to take a look at the all new Straight Power 12 1500W Power Supply from be quiet!. Headquartered in Germany, be quiet! was founded in 2001 and has garnered a reputation for high quality premium products in the PC enthusiast space. Their product range includes fans, heatsinks, AIOs, cases, and power supplies. As their name suggests, they always strive for excellent performance with quiet operations.

Let’s see what be quiet! has to say about this new power supply.

Features and Highlights

Straight Power 12 is a future-proof ATX 3.0 power supply with 80 PLUS® Platinum certification and virtually inaudible operation.

Source

• 80 PLUS Platinum efficiency (up to 94%)
• ATX 3.0 PSU with full support for PCIe 5.0 GPUs and GPUs with 6+2 pin connectors
• Handles massive power excursions
• Virtually inaudible Silent Wings 135mm fan
• Funnel-shaped fan opening on PSU case for high airflow intake
• Full bridge LLC technology for unmatched signal stability
• One massive high performance 12V-rail
• Japanese 105C capacitors ensure highest stability and reliability
• Wire-free DC side inside the PSU for enhanced cooling and longevity
• Modular cable management for maximum convenience
• Up to 2 PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR and 4 PCIe 6+2 connectors for overclocked high-end GPUs
• 10-year manufacturer’s warranty

Technical Specifications

The Straight Power 12 1500W power supply has been certified 80 Plus Platinum, meaning up to 94% power efficiency under 50% load. For reference: 80 Plus

The 80 Plus certification results for this power supply can be found at CLEAResult here.

Unboxing

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The Straight Power 12 1500W PSU comes packaged within a sturdy and heavy duty black cardboard box. On the back, be quiet! provides relevant technical specifications, certifications, and features. There is also a QR code that takes you to the Straight Power 12 1500W product page. I did notice that this QR code takes you to a German page with one link to the full product page (which is in English), and another to download the manual (multiple languages).

The box is a “flip top” style once the tab has been removed. Inside is another piece of cardboard over the contents which once flipped up reveal the user manual, PSU in the center inside a bubble wrap bag with desiccant pack. The left compartment contains the power cable, some of the modular cables, as well as a small bag with mounting screws and 4 zip ties. On the right side compartment are the rest of the modular cables.

A Closer Look

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The Straight Power 12 1500W PSU is quite beefy, yet of a very reasonable size considering its wattage compared to many similar wattage competitors. This should make for easy installation in most cases without concern for length. On the back, there is plenty of space for ventilation with quite the hefty power button and plug. Looking at the top, we see the 135mm Silent Wings fan. The fan grill seems a bit too flexible for my liking, but realistically you shouldn’t have any problem with it. This design is very open to allow for as much unrestricted airflow intake as possible.

Now I personally have never opened a power supply to look at the internals. Without the guidance of someone trained to handle that, I do not intend to start today. So instead here is a render provided by be quiet!. Here we can see the no wire internal design.

NOTE: Unless you know what you are doing, you should never open your power supply. Touching the wrong internal components can cause serious injury or death.

The two sets of modular cables come bundled together with velcro ties. Each cable is fully sleeved and feels of high quality. The wires underneath the sleeving is black. Here is a complete list of all cables provided:

• 1x 20+4 pin ATX
• 1x 8 pin EPS
• 1x 4+4 pin EPS
• 2x PCIe 6+2 pin (x2)
• 2x PCIe 5.0 (12VHPWR)
• 1x SATA (x2) Molex (x2)
• 1x SATA (x4)
• 1x SATA (x3)

Test System

Now I really wish I had a 13900ks and an RTX 4090 HOF I could use to really put this PSU through its paces, but alas, I currently do not…yet. For now I took my most power hungry GPU on hand, paired with my current Zen 3 based daily rig. Sadly the 5900X isn’t going to stress the PSU much, but the 3080 Ti Founder’s Edition can at least eat up 400W with the power slider to max. Here are the full specs:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founder’s Edition
• ASUS Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
• G.Skill DDR4-3600 32GB (2x16GB)
• 2x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB
• Crucial MX500 1TB
• Lian Li O11-Dynamic

Note: 5900X set to PBO with +200MHz offset. 3080 Ti FE with an OC of +120/+1000 and 114% power limit

For cooling, we are using a custom loop with the following components:

• Optimus Foundations AM4 CPU block
• Alphacool Eisblock 3080 Founder’s Edition GPU block
• EK Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 with D5 pump
• Hardware Labs 360GTX and 360GTS radiators

Before installing the Straight Power 12 1500W, I first hooked it up to the Kingwin Digital LCD Power Supply Tester just to make sure things are looking good. Readings looked great and in line with expectations for each voltage rail and Power Good signal. Try as I might, I had a bit of a hard time getting a good picture of the device LCD which was glowing a very bright blue, but this should be legible.

Installation and Testing

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With that out of the way it was time to install. I found the PSU quite easy to work with. The unit itself is not overly long at 180mm (7.08 inches), and fit without issue in the O11-Dynamic, leaving plenty of room for plugging in and routing the modular cables. One thing I discovered was that the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector is actually pin compatible and usable with it’s predecessor Nvidia 12-pin used in 30-series Founder’s Edition products. This was very handy for my 3080 Ti, ensuring I no longer needed to use an adapter.

For idle and load monitoring, I will be using the P3 International Kill A Watt.

Idling on the desktop we saw a draw of approximately 130W. Seems a bit high to me, but this is likely just due to how the 5900X works combined with the Windows power plan. For load testing, I wanted to properly stress both the CPU and GPU simultaneously. What better test then some good old fashioned Folding@Home? For this test, we were seeing an average draw of approximately 600W total system power from the wall.

Truthfully, I am barely stressing this monster PSU! It handled everything no problem! At 40% of total usage, the unit was dead silent and 10% away from its peak efficiency.

Pricing and Warranty

All models of the Straight Power 12 are backed by a 10 year warranty. Details for scope, exclusions, and processing can be found here: be quiet! Warranty

The Straight Power 12 is available for the recommended retail prices below:

Conclusion

With support for the latest ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards, massive 1500W 12v rail, 80 Plus Platinum efficiency, and all the bells and whistles you need, this is truly an impressive offering from be quiet!. As the enthusiast PC space has seen the rise of CPU and GPU power draw over the previous two to three generations, this PSU is clearly ready to handle any current or future high end power needs. The inclusion of not just one, but two 12VHPWR 600W (1000W if using both) connectors makes the PSU perfect for your RTX 30-series or RTX 4090 with XOC BIOS, while the included 8-pin and 4+4-pin EPS means you’ll be equipped for high powered CPU’s and LN2 runs.

The included Silent Wings fan makes for inaudible operations, though I would have liked to see a zero RPM mode for low load states.

I found the inclusion of a single modular cable containing both SATA and Molex thoughtful in design for reducing cable clutter, but ensuring I could still power both my SATA SSD in addition to the D5 pump and Aquacomputer Octo fan controller with a single cable. I always hated having to plug in an additional modular cable in other PSUs just to plug in one device.

Taking a look at the competition, pricing feels in-line, and feature set outstanding. With the inclusion of a 10 year warranty, this is definitely a compelling offering.

All in all this is a fantastic product and I can’t wait to really put it through its paces as I get the Z790 based test bench setup with more modern enthusiast hardware that can really make use of the 1500W available.

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