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To test the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro we used an Asus Crosshair V Formula motherboard combined with an AMD Athlon II X4 635 Processor. For our overclocked results, the CPU was clocked to 3.56 GHz using a baseclock of 245 MHz. This processor is locked so we used the standard multiplier of 14.5x with a core voltage of 1.5V.
Test System
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 635
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula
Memory: 4 GB (2x 2GB) Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3 1600MHz
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-3
Graphics Card: HIS Radeon 5550 Silence
Chassis: Enermax Hoplite
For our temperature tests we set both fans to maximum and loaded the system for 15 minutes using Prime 95. We then restarted the system and left it idling at the desktop for 15 minutes before recording temperatures. Room temperature was maintained at 20 degrees Celsius for the duration of the tests.
The Dark Rock Advanced let us achieve a decent overclock with the Athlon II 635 processor and produced good temperatures all round. We dare say there is room in this cooler for a bigger bump in voltage although this may affect the longevity of your CPU.
In our noise level tests we switched off all the case fans so we are just taking into account the noise generated by the cooler fan itself. The Dark Rock Advanced proved too quiet for our noise level meter, though, emitting less than the 30 dBA minimum sensitivity when at maximum speed. It is quieter still in PWM mode! This means the cooler is very quiet and isn't audible at all over the other fans in our system when they are switched on.
