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In this review we are going to measure the temperatures of the Intel i7-3770K at reference clock speeds and when overclocked to 4.7 GHz using a CPU voltage of 1.3V.
Test System:
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6
Cooler: Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-4
Memory: 4GB (2x 2GB) Kingston HyperX Genesis RAM
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6950
Power Supply: Corsair HX850W
System Drive: Intel 520 Series 2400 GB
Monitor: Viewsonic VX2260WM
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Software:
CPUID Hardware Monitor
Prime95 64-bit
Furmark V1.9.2
To test the thermal performance of the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 we loaded our test system for 15 minutes using Prime95 and Furmark and recorded the maximum temperatures reached using CPUID Hardware Monitor. We then restarted the system and left it for 15 minutes before recording idle temperatures. Room temperature was maintained at 19 degrees C for the duration of our tests.
The temperatures recorded at stock settings were quite impressive but we were a little disappointed with the overclocked results. These temperatures would be unhealthy for the CPU in the long run so we wouldn't recommend pushing the voltage to this level if you're looking for a good long term overclock.
To test the noise performance of the cooler we placed our digital dBA meter 1m from the front of the case and replaced the Radeon HD 6950 with a HD 5550 Silence. We also momentarily detached the case fans fans so we were only taking the noise into account from the CPU cooler.
The noise level generated was below the 30 dBA minimum sensitivity level of our noise level meter. It was barely audible in a quiet room so this case is ideal if you're looking to build a quiet system.
