The be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU Review: Proficient Platinum Power
by E. Fylladitakis on April 5, 2024 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- 750W
- be quiet!
- 80Plus Platinum
Power Supply Quality
The electrical performance of the Be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU is very good overall. It achieves precise voltage regulation, with a deviation of only 0.9% on the 12V rail and even tighter control on the 3.3V and 5V rails. Ripple suppression is also well-managed, with maximum ripple values of 28 mV on the 12V rail, and 16 mV on the 3.3V and 5V rails, reflecting the PSU's ability to maintain clean power delivery under various loads and high ambient temperatures. While impressive, these results are consistent with what is typically seen in high-quality power supplies of this caliber.
| Main Output | ||||||||
| Load (Watts) | 151.73 W | 378.32 W | 565.76 W | 752.35 W | ||||
| Load (Percent) | 20.23% | 50.44% | 75.44% | 100.31% | ||||
| Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | |
| 3.3 V | 2.2 | 3.34 | 5.49 | 3.33 | 8.24 | 3.32 | 10.98 | 3.32 |
| 5 V | 2.2 | 5.09 | 5.49 | 5.08 | 8.24 | 5.07 | 10.98 | 5.05 |
| 12 V | 10.98 | 12.13 | 27.45 | 12.1 | 41.18 | 12.06 | 54.9 | 12.03 |
| Line | Regulation (20% to 100% load) |
Voltage Ripple (mV) | |||||
| 20% Load | 50% Load | 75% Load | 100% Load | CL1 12V |
CL2 3.3V + 5V |
||
| 3.3V | 0.8% | 14 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 10 | 12 |
| 5V | 0.8% | 12 | 8 | 14 | 16 | 8 | 14 |
| 12V | 0.9% | 14 | 18 | 24 | 28 | 26 | 26 |
During our routine evaluation, we examine the fundamental protection features of all power supply units we review, including Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), and Short Circuit Protection (SCP). The Be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU successfully passed all essential protection tests, validating its ability to safeguard itself and attached components under potential risk conditions. It showed a liberal setting for Over Current Protection (OCP) on the 3.3V and 5V rails, with activation points at 120% and 122%, respectively. The trigger point for the OCP on the 12V rail is somewhat more generous, at 130%, which, while higher, is still within a reasonable range for an ATX 3.0 compliant PSU. Additionally, the Over Power Protection (OPP) kicks in at 126% of the unit's rated capacity, indicating a high tolerance level designed to ensure stability during power excursions and protection under various operational stresses.
Conclusion
The Straight Power 12 750W PSU stands out as proof to Be quiet!’s capability to deliver high-quality engineering and exceptional performance. Backed by a 10-year warranty and with a reasonable power output, it seemingly is a wise choice for anyone looking to build or upgrade to a mid- to high-range gaming PC setup. While it offers an alternative for those seeking an ATX 3.0 compliant unit without having to resort to a product with an unnecessarily high power output, PC builders need to be careful with the balance of their system’s components. The 750 Watt version of the Straight Power 12 could theoretically power even the most powerful GPU currently available requiring one 600W connector but that would leave little headroom for the CPU and the rest of the system.
The design and build quality of the Straight Power 12 are nothing short of excellent. The fully modular design, coupled with all-black, nylon-sleeved cables, not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of any build but also facilitates easy cable management. The use of high-quality components from reputable manufacturers like Rubycon and Nippon Chemi-Con further underscores Be quiet!'s commitment to reliability and longevity. The included SilentWings 3 135mm fan, renowned for its quiet operation and efficiency, assists the PSU's ability to maintain low noise levels without compromising thermal performance.
On the electrical performance front, the Straight Power 12 excels with tight voltage regulation and exceptional ripple suppression. The PSU's efficiency meets the 80Plus Platinum standard, a clear indicator of its superior power conversion capabilities which lead to superior thermal performance and a slight nod towards energy savings and reduced operational costs. The OCP and OPP settings are slightly more generous than what is typically expected, allowing for a bit of headroom that could be particularly useful in high-demand scenarios and when dealing with multiple power excursions. This approach to electrical protection does not compromise the unit's safety or stability, providing peace of mind to users pushing their systems to the limit.
Conclusively, the Be quiet! Straight Power 12 750W PSU represents a solid investment for any PC builder or enthusiast. Its blend of efficiency, build quality, and electrical performance, backed by a reputable brand and a 10-year warranty, offers a compelling value proposition. While its current $140 retail price point is positioned higher than expected, especially compared to other models in the Straight Power 12 series, the quality and performance it delivers are undeniable. For those in the market for a reliable, efficient, and quiet power supply, the Straight Power 12 750W is undoubtedly worth considering, particularly if found during a sale.
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PeachNCream - Sunday, April 7, 2024 - link
It's safe to say there are more than PSUs, CPU coolers, and external storage devices worth reviewing. Companies still produce and sell laptops, phones, *graphics adapters (integrated and discrete)* and so forth. Might be good for Ananadtech to nudge Future about getting permission to write those sorts of reviews or it really will be nailing the coffin closed on the "AT suddenly redirects to THG and no one is surprised" outcome lots of us are expecting - just a thought from a couple decades-long reader in light of what the front page looks like two days after yet another power supply review loiters at the top with little acknowledgement it was even posted. Replyballsystemlord - Monday, April 8, 2024 - link
I'm not sure it's due to Future or the lack of staff at AT. Ian was the latest to leave and he's now doing his own YT channel, so it seems he wants to continue to contribute to the tech news readers. ReplyPeachNCream - Monday, April 8, 2024 - link
Future would have to invest in AT ad actually hire staff. It's pretty clear given that the writers are publishing on THG as well that this is a secondary interest at best and changes are afoot too. When a company only reviews samples its provided, it become beholden to them. There's something to be said about leveraging the budget a bit to buy things off the shelves when there isn't a much-hyped NDA deadline.As for Ian - well it's best to leave that hot mess unmentioned. Reply
GeoffreyA - Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - link
I think it would be great to see more general tech and science topics reported on as well. Just a few paragraphs on the latest dark energy news, Google's Jpegli, etc. ReplyGeoffreyA - Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - link
Also, though I understand it might not be possible at present, YouTube would a good, and necessary, way to diversify. Many go first to videos for news these days. ReplyTheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - link
The writing has been on the wall for a LONG time. Many of us called it when AT used the "california fire burned staff member house" excuse for why they could no longer do GPU reviews. They had "plans" to fix things, and apparently either that staff member never got a new house or AT just gave up.When you cant review tech because your company relies on home setups to test things, that says a LOT. AT has been a minor tech site for years, and with the loss of actual technical breakdowns, has little reason to exist.
Within 5 years, if AT still exists, it will be just a content mill, "aggregating" reviews from other sites. Hell look at this comment section, straight out of 2001. They have no interest in maintaining the site. Reply
GeoffreyA - Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - link
If AT could get free from its rotten publisher, get funding and more staff, things can turn around. AT was doing all right, but Ian seems to have spirited away their high-profile connections. ReplyPeachNCream - Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - link
Fine, let's open the Ian box. I think he was a good writer, but he also left many of us with the impression that he sold out to whomever it was that owned Killer NICs before Intel - Qualcomm IIRC - by selling the benefits of packet prioritization from from the assorted programs on the local machine to improve game performance. He 100% ignored the fact that once said packets leave the PC's local adapter, they are give no priority whatsoever through the dozens of traffic-agnostic routers and potentially thousands of miles of copper and optical fiber said data traverses to and from the game host. That prioritization ends at your ISP's hardware for a home user. He inexplicably foot-stomped those benefits without either a) understanding the most basic networking concepts and b) explaining why he was enamored and abusing the public-facing nature of his position at AT to spread what was at best a non-beneficial product. Given Killer's crappy software stack and Qualcomm's bad driver writing at the time along with garbo hardware, it was potentially a disservice to readers to end up with inferior networking hardware. The fact that he's gone off to chase that content creator gamble dream on YouTube is to *great* benefit of AT. Good riddance and despite the quality writing, no one needed that level of misdirection.Should AT transition to video? Maybe, but with clear limitations on budget and the need for what are effectively small production studios to make the leap in a competitive manner, it's not positioned to play catch up and Future probably has no appetite for it anyhow. They're just milking the money cow until it's skeletal and moving on like locusts to the next thing. Sucks for the employees and for the readers, but that's reality when profit not passion drives a publisher. Reply
ballsystemlord - Tuesday, April 9, 2024 - link
I think you're being a bit too harsh on Ian. The Ethernet in your computer isn't really something users normally have control over. No mass shopping site that I know of even has a toggle for which Ethernet chipset the motherboard supports. It's important, but not really vital.Worth noting is that he alone, of all tech reviewers, interviewed many of the developers of our chips. Granted, I think he could have asked better questions in some cases, but that's what we got from his skill set.
Additionally, Ian also developed some of the SW used to test CPUs for AT. I actually found his test code base, and it's revamped version, to be interesting benchmarks for how poorly written, vs. well written, code behaved on different CPUs and arch-es. Reply
GeoffreyA - Wednesday, April 10, 2024 - link
While Ian did interview many high-profile developers, and contributed a great deal to AT, I think his writing was obscure and too detailed. Anand, in contrast, made computers exciting: one was kept on the edge of one's seat as he took the reader through the innards of the CPU. He had an abstraction and made it accessible to the layman. And who can forget those memorable titles? It's Judgment Day, The Empire Strikes Back, AMD on the Counterattack, and if I remember rightly, the P4's heatsink was "Mount Everest." His words still linger on when I think of CPUs. Reply