Introduction
be quiet! Straight Power 11 series 750 Watt
Atomic number:79 - Gold
In this article, we'll have a peek at the all-new be quiet! Straight Power 11 750 Watt power supply. The series has been improved internally and comes with a few new hardware tweaks. More silence and a more efficient design are the keywords for this 80 Plus Gold certified product series. With the ever-growing demand for power consumption, this is a highly modular, with multiple 12V rails. The PSU series will be available in a wide range of models running from 450W up-towards a 1000W.
The Straight Power 11 Series will be more efficient as the inside of the PSU does not use any wires anymore. They receive a Gold 80plus certification. A side effect of stripping away cables is not just better efficiency, also better cooling which in the end needs less fan RPM which is, more silent. The new models are designed by BeQuiet and fabbed by FSP. You'll spot high-quality Nichicon and Chemi-Con capacitors. The unit is 100% modular, our 750 Watt review unit comes with four 12V rails, highly energy efficient product that remains very silent. Efficiency wise in the year 2018 the overall differences honestly do not matter that much anymore, we have seen most if not all power supplies move into the region of gold/silver/platinum. This 750 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 somewhat more affordable units, but truthfully Gold or Platinum and Titanium is what you want, that upper stack in hardware is more expensive though. So, it's at least 92% efficient at 50% load at 230V and 90% at 110V. Efficiency matters; years ago PSUs were as low as 70% efficient (that's not a joke as power consumption simply was not a topic of discussion back then), meaning that 30% of the used power simply vanishes somewhere in that electric circuitry, whilst you are paying for it on that electricity bill.
A couple of years ago a new trend picked up, the consumers all created a demand for modified PCs. The 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. By organizing cables and by giving you the option to actually choose the wires you want to use, another problem was solved. We call it cable management these days. Acoustic 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 and I have to say it, Straight Pure Power 11 is a very silent product.
The fan used on the model 11 is an iteration based on the Silent, a newer Silent Wings 3 135mm fan. It has a funnel-shaped vent that provides good airflow and reduces turbulence. be quiet! applies a low RPM to it, making the product perform at incredibly low acoustics. The be quiet! Straight Power series 11 will become available in several models ranging from 450 up-to 1000 Watt models with the Gold 80 plus certification. Have a peek at the product and then let's head onwards into the review.