be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W Power Supply Review

Technical Wire Specs
Length of each Wire with Connector
PSU Wire length diagram

be quiet! PSU power and pin out 1

be quiet! PSU power and pin out 2

Modular Connections and Wires
Dark Power Pro 10 850W Modular part of PSU

Case Fan Modular Wires
The first thing you probably notice when looking at the modular connections side of the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 / 850 watt is the four fan pin outs to the far left. They come with their own custom white and black wire that fits in each terminal and is great for case fans. I would not suggest you use them for your custom or all-in-one radiator fans as the unit is made to control ambient temperatures around the power supply location in the case and less for the individual cooling requirements of the processor or the graphics cards that you are using. These are great for your front, lower or back case fans that have the traditional 3 pin design or Molex connection is the best use for these neat fan modular features.

Dark Power Pro 10 850W wires Fan

Overclocking Switch or Single to Multi-Rails Switch
The single white modular terminal on the power supply is for the over clocking feature of the unit which can switch between multi-rails to single rail unit. The power supply comes with a wired switch that fits into an empty PCI slot in the back of the case and also allows for a permanently switched Jumper to fit directly into the plug and eliminates the switch all together. WARNING!!! (DO NOT CHANGE THE OVERCLOCKING SWITCH) while the unit is powered on or you could damage your computer or its components.

 overclock switch

Here is the Switch mounted onto my Lian Li test bench. While I used the switch for this test I will be replacing it with the jumper afterwards just so the switch doesn’t get accidentally switched during regular use as I am constantly changing my orientation and parts in my unit for testing. But for this test the switch was placed in the multi-rail mode.

be quiet PSU overclock switch

Graphics Card Power Connectors
Going further into graphics card side of the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 / 850 watt the power modules are located at the very top or very bottom depending on the orientation of the power supply and have a very specific way that should be plugged in depending on the setup that you are using. This specification diagram explains in detail what I mean here.

Bequiet PSU GPU Wiring instructions

The modular PCI Express graphics card power wires that come with the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 / 850 Watt power supply are very nice and the length is great. This power supply is specifically made for Triple SLI or Triple Crossfire configurations depending on whichever the user prefers and the wires are made to fit any wiring scenario you may have with your new or old graphics cards for a maximum of three graphics cards. Well “I see four wires.” Yes you do Captain. The top wire is a graphics wire but it is made for a six pin power connection on the motherboard as my EVGA DARK X79 has this connection so it was a great to have a wire just to fit that terminal of my motherboard.

Dark Power Pro 10 850W wires Graphics card

CPU Power Connector P4/8/8×8
One thing that is a pet peeve of mine and that the be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 / 850 Watt delivers on is the right amount of CPU P4/P8 connections that so many different motherboards require. The motherboard that I am using needs requires 2 x P8 connectors which I had to buy a splitter for my last power supply to give the motherboard what it needed. This power supply gives a simple 4 pin or a single 8 pin or a double 8 pin connection with the unit to fit any ATX board on the market today. This is very nice if you have an enthusiast motherboard as most power supplies are made for the average power needs of the average computer build and anything more must be custom in some way or another. But with this one I only had to choose the modular connection that I needed.

Dark Power Pro 10 850W wires CPU P8

Another thing that I love about this power supply is the fact that they thought of older users and newer users with the different types of either older Molex connectors or the newer 15 pin Serial ATA or Sata connectors. They also include a nice Molex that is also part of the Extra power needed by the graphics cards for some ATX style motherboard. There are some that have the old style with a Floppy connector and Molex like the last generation had and the SATA connectors that we need so much now for the newer unit. You can choose depending on the needs for your motherboard and the connections should be great for either old or newly designed systems.

SATA Connectors
Dark power pro 10 850W Sata wire connectors

Molex Connectors
Dark Power Pro 10 850W wires Molex

The power plug is even special on this unit. It is made very thick using wires that follow a code for the amperage that must be followed by manufactures. This one absolutely follows that code and maybe even over does it as the diameter of the wire is made for a number #14 AWG (American Wire Gauge) standard for high output devices. So it won’t be getting hot or burning up if it uses all 850 watts of highly regulated power that this powers supply is rated for.

Dark Power Pro 10 850W wire Wall Outlet

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