Introduction
be quiet! Pure Power 11 FM review (650W)
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Meet the review candidate for today, the be quiet! Pure Power 11 FM. A mainstream fully modular power supply available in 550W, 650W, and 750W and being gold-certified by 80Plus. The Pure Power 11 FM is basically a fully modular version of the Pure Power 11 aimed at more mainstream computer users who enjoy the versatility of modular cables and 80 PLUS Gold efficiency. There are also multiple form factors available; small form factor builds can now opt for the SFX Power 3 or TFX Power 3, which offer high performance in compact SFX and TFX form factors.
Efficiency wise in the year 2021, things do not matter that much anymore; we have seen most power supplies move upwards into the realm of gold towards platinum. Everything else is already invented. So the only thing left is efficiency and making the best quality PSU your money can get you. The 650 Watt PSU as tested today has an 80 Plus Gold certification, meaning at 50% load, this puppy is 92% efficient (at 230V). Bronze, Silver are the more affordable units, but preferably Gold or Platinum and Titanium is what you want; that upper stack in hardware is more expensive, though. The age of dull beige-painted PCs had to go. We wanted nicely shaped, cooled, and preferably lit PCs with side windows so we could actually look at the inside of the PC. Really cool to look at, but that created another issue. We now had the beautiful looking cases where you could look inside, but that resulted in pulling the hairs out of your head as there were yellow, red, and black wires coming from the PSU everywhere. So the power supply received another function; aesthetics. It needs to look nice. Another problem was solved by organizing cables and giving you the option to choose the wires you want to use. We call it cable management these days. Sound levels coming from your PSU; the high-rated PSUs typically have one fan, and up to a few years ago, a lot of manufacturers did not pay attention to all that noise then... I have to say it; the Pure Power 11 is one of the more silent products we've ever tested. For Be Quiet!, the third factor was utilizing silent high-performance fans, preferably with smart-fan technology (variable fan speeds based on heat).
Bronze, Silver, but really Gold, Platinum, and Titanium sit at the end of the energy efficiency spectrum from the entire scope of certifications. And while we're sure that if ever a 98% efficient model can be made, we'll see a Plutionuim model, Titanium currently is the best the industry can offer. If your PC is on 24/7, this is what you want. It surely does cost a pretty sum of money. And you know it by now, efficiency does matter; many years ago, PSUs were rated as low as 70% efficient, meaning that 30% of the used power simply vanishes somewhere in that electric circuitry, while you are paying for it on that electricity bill.
The Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 FM series will become available in three models initially, 550, 650, and 750 Watts. Admittedly, we see little reason for kilowatt power supplies these days unless you are a hefty overclocker or need something really efficient for cryptocurrency mining. An average high-end PC these days (and yes, multi GPU isn't a thing anymore these days also) will be fine with, say, a 650~750 Watt PSU as a modern Ryzen 9 5800 XT PC under full computational load paired with, say, a GeForce RTX 3080 consumes maybe 400~450 Watts. We do always state this though, calculate and double up your wattage, as at half the PSU load, your power supply will be the most efficient. But let's start up the review.
