The be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU Review: Proficient Platinum Power

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient Temperature)

In our elevated ambient temperature test, the Be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU experiences a notable dip in efficiency, dropping to an average of 90.6% under a 115 VAC input and 92% with a 230 VAC input. Despite this marked decrease from its optimal performance levels, the PSU remarkably exhibits no thermal stress indicators, even when operating at its maximum capacity.

The Be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU's fan operates with a controlled strategy, ramping up as needed to manage thermal output. Despite the very high ambient temperature, the speed of the fan is fairly low when the unit is lightly loaded, maintaining comfortable noise figures. This is achieved via the PSU's large heatsinks and its efficiency levels that surpass the norm for its category, leading to superior thermal management. Despite the fan's increased speed under heavy loads, the noise remains manageable with a constant load of up to 600 Watts, striking a fine balance between cooling effectiveness and noise control across most of its operating spectrum. While the fan becomes more audible with heavier loads, the internal temperatures remain remarkably low, evidencing the unit's adept balance between thermal regulation and acoustic performance.

As the fan accelerates under the thermal control system's command in the Be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU, the unit adeptly regulates its internal temperatures, keeping them commendably low for its category. Still, the low internal temperatures would suggest that the designer had more headroom to lean towards low-noise operation at the expense of some thermal performance. In situations where the load exceeds 90%, the thermal control circuitry prompts the fan to reach its highest speeds, while the internal temperatures are far from the OTP trigger point. This is adeptly calculated for a top-tier performance PSU, where the designer wants to make sure that there will be no thermal stress reducing the performance of the active components while the PSU is heavily loaded, especially with a design that is likely to have to combat heavy power excursions from a gaming GPU.