Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 24. Installing the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 25. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Since their release of the Dark Rock series of CPU coolers, Be Quiet! has made quite an impact on the high end CPU cooler market.  Their products have a reputation for combining fantastic appearance with great performance.  We have looked at a number of their products in the past, all of which have won awards.

Today we are going to look at the latest addition to their CPU cooler range, the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 which is a refreshed version of the existing Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro which we reviewed here.  This replaces the old model as the flagship of the Be Quiet! range with a few updates including an improved mounting system and larger fans.

Features

Be Quiet! supply the Dark Rock Pro 2 in an attractively designed cardboard box which mimics exactly what we have seen with their products in the past.  It features a black livery with white text.

There is a sizable photo of the cooler on the front of the box.

The cooler is sandwiched within two slabs of polystyrene for protection inside the box so it should survive shipping!  Turning the box around reveals details of the features and specification alongside a couple of blueprint style diagrams illustrating the key features of the cooler.

All of the necessary mounting accessories are included inside the box with a tube of thermal paste.  The two fans are preattached to the cooler to save mounting them during installation.

Be Quiet! have adhered firmly with the dual tower design of the original Dark Rock Pro.  Each stack features 44 nickel-plated aluminium fins and there is a black brushed aluminium plate resting on the top of the stack which gives the cooler a unique visage.  It should fit in aesthetically with most configurations and features a Be Quiet! logo in the centre.

The aluminium fins are arranged around seven nickel plated heatpipes.  These are U-shaped and pass through both heatsinks and the CPU block in the middle.  Both the CPU block and heatpipes are made from nickel-plated copper.  The CPU block has a polished finish which should ensure good contact with the CPU.

Like many high end air coolers on the market, the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 is quite large and heavy, measuring 147 x 138 x 166 and weighing 1250g.  There could be some compatibility issues with the  Biostar motherboard as the fan clips jut out into the area where you install the graphics card, preventing installation.  To prevent this you would need to install the cooler vertically on the motherboard or move the graphics card to a different PCI slot.

As a result of the mounting mechanism that Be Quiet! have used, they can pre-attach the fans to the cooler without the user having to remove them during installation.  The Dark Rock Pro 2 features two Be Quiet! SilentWings PWM fans.  One of these is 135mm in diameter and the other is 120mm.

One of the aspects that Be Quiet! has improved with the Dark Rock Pro 2 is the mounting mechanism.  It has to be said that it was that only negative aspect of the original cooler.  Be Quiet! include a comprehensive installation guide with the cooler which guides us through the process.

First of all we must attach the CPU cooler backplate using bolts which pass through the holes in the motherboard.  These are held in place by clips which prevents the backplate or screws from falling out during installation.  On the original cooler these were held in place by rubber rings which had a tendency to fall off.

Then we can attach the appropriate mounting brackets to the CPU block.  If you're installing on an Intel system there are two different types of bracket, one for sockets 1155 and 1156 and one for sockets 775, 1366 and 2011.  There are some additional mounting accessories included for installing the cooler on a socket 2011 motherboard.  We installed the cooler on an Ivy Bridge motherboard which features socket 1155.

Once this step has been completed it's a simple matter of applying the thermal paste to the CPU and then placing the cooler on the top.  We used Arctic Cooling MX-4 thermal paste rather than the paste included with the cooler.  It can then be screwed into place from the reverse side of the motherboard.  This seemed much simpler than when we installed the original cooler.  This could be because we have now had a fair amount of practice installing coolers with this mounting mechanism but it wasn't too difficult.

The only difficult part is holding the cooler in place when screwing it in from the back.  This isn't too difficult if you're installing it with the motherboard in the case but can be more complicated if it's not.  However, there is a simple way to install the cooper in this situation, by placing the cooler upside down then placing the motherboard on top and screwing it in.

Due to the size of the cooler, there could be some potential compatibility issues with tall RAM headspreaders.  We had no trouble with the Kingston HyperX Genesis low profile memory we used in our test system but this doesn't have protruding heatspreaders.

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.

Overall we are left with generally positive impressions of the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2.  As we have come to expect of Be Quiet! CPU coolers it offers a winning combination of sleek design and solid build quality.  It is sure to compliment most other components aesthetically and the brushed black aluminium finish really looks fantastic.

Despite the cooling performance of the Dark Rock Pro 2 being very good, our Intel Core-i7 3770K chip proved to be a little hot for it to handle when overclocked to 4.7 GHz.

If you've read any reviews of the i7-3770K on the the internet you'll know that it gets very hot when the voltage is cranked up to this level so this isn't really the fault of the cooler.  We expect that everyone with a moderate level of overclocking knowledge could hit 4.6 GHz with a i7-3770K, without the temperatures getting too high. The voltage can be dropped to around 1.25v at this speed.

The Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 can be yours for a price of £59.99 from Aria.  It is fairly expensive, although you pay for the low noise levels.  It is worth bearing in mind however that the Phanteks PH-TC14PE is £65 and handled the heat of our overclocked i7-3770K at 4.7ghz with 1.3 volts.

We wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro. If noise is a primary concern then it makes for a great first choice.

Pros:

• Looks fantastic.
• Good cooling performance.
• Very quiet.

Cons:

• It is expensive.
• Outperformed by the Phanteks PH-TC14PE.

KitGuru says: A very good cooler, but it is expensive.

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