Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced Cooler4. Installing the Dark Rock Advanced5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Final Thoughts7. View All Pages

We recently looked at Be Quiet!'s flagship cooler, the Dark Rock Pro, and were impressed by the strong cooling performance and attractive appearance.  Today, we are looking at one of their less expensive coolers in the Dark Rock range.

The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler costs around £15 less than the flagship cooler, meaning it is available on the market for only £40.  With this reduction in cost, Be Quiet has removed one of the heatsink stacks and one of the fans.  Let's see how it performs.

Features

Extremely efficient

• The six three-dimensional moulded heat pipes work rapidly to transport the heat with the help of an oxygen-free copper layer (OFC) to the optimum point within the cooling lamellas.
• The single-tower layout with six heat pipes enables excellent heat dissipation within a small space.

Nice and quiet

• The 120-mm SilentWings PWM fan guarantees the best ratio of cooling efficiency to noise level.
• The wave-shaped contour of the cooling lamellas prevents noises and optimises the airflow.

High-quality materials

• The fan surfaces are coated in dark nickel.
• The brushed, fully aluminium cover protects the cooling lamellas.
• The stable backplate ensures a shockproof attachment, even when transporting the computer.

The packaging of the Dark Rock Advanced is pretty much identical to that of it's bigger brother the Dark Rock Pro.  Even though the box is slightly smaller, it has a very similar design which is decorated in a series of blueprint-like images of the cooler.  Details of the cooler's features are scattered around the box.

On the reverse side there is a detailed breakdown of the cooler's specification alongside a list of features which is repeated in both English and German.  Inside the box, the cooler is smothered in polystyrene padding for protection during transit.

In the box, the bundled items are identical to those included with the Dark Rock Pro.  All the mounting accessories are supplied in a small cardboard box which sits above the cooler alongside an installation manual and a small tube of thermal paste.

The Dark Rock Advanced consists of a single stack of nickel-plated heatsink fins which are positioned directly above the CPU block.  Be Quiet! include one of their SilentWings PWM fans with the cooler which is pre-attached to one side of the heatsink using rubber fastenings.

Like the Dark Rock Pro, the Advanced features a black anodised aluminium plate on the top of the heatsink stack which has small caps over all of the heatpipe ends.  This gives the cooler a very attractive appearance when it's installed in your case.

Be Quiet!'s SilentWings PWM fan is a very high quality 120mm model which features a fluid dynamic bearing to keep noise to a minimum.  At the maximum speed of 1500 rpm, Be Quiet! claim that it can shift 50.5 CFM of air whilst only emitting noise of 18.8 dBA.  It connects to the CPU fan header on your motherboard using the standard 4-pin PWM connector.

For those who want to add a second fan on the other side of the cooler, Be Quiet! include a spare set of metal fan clips like those present on the Dark Rock Pro.  This is a nice touch and is sure to be appreciated by those who want to achieve the best possible performance with this cooler.

There are six nickel-plated heatpipes in total, arranged in a U-shaped configuration, passing through the CPU block at the bottom.  The CPU block itself has a mirror finish which is sure to help it achieve good contact with the processor when the thermal paste has been applied.

Unfortunately, the Dark Rock Advanced shares the same troublesome mounting mechanism as it's bigger brother.  This isn't helped by the installation guide which isn't the best we've ever encountered.

First of all, we must locate the appropriate holes on the cooler backplate for the socket type of the motherboard.  We used a Crosshair V Formula motherboard for our tests which uses the AM3+ socket type.  There are mounting accessories provided for all recent socket types for both Intel and AMD systems.  More specifically, the cooler supports Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155 and LGA775 and AMD Socket AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, 939 and 940.

Once we’ve identified the correct holes in the backplate, we can push the four screws through it and secure it to the motherboard using the four rubber bands provided.

Next we must attach the appropriate brackets to the CPU block of the cooler using the four provided screws.  Then we have to apply the TIM to the CPU. For our tests we are using Arctic Cooling MX-3 thermal compound rather than the one that Be Quiet! provide.

Next comes the most difficult part of the installation process, screwing down the CPU cooler. This has to be done from the underside of the motherboard, securing the screws into the cooler.  This could be very awkward to do if the motherboard is already installed in a case as you have to hold the CPU cooler in place while you screw it in from the other side.

With the motherboard removed from the system, the easiest way to do this is to place the CPU Cooler and motherboard upside down which allows you to hold it all in place from the reverse side of the motherboard.

As we are forced to mount the cooler facing upwards on our AMD motherboard, there is a possibility of RAM clearance issues.  On our motherboard we were able to easily access the rightmost three RAM slots but this will depend on your motherboard.  If you use low-profile memory, though, there shouldn't be any issues at all.

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.

The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced manages to capture the attractive aesthetics of it's bigger brother, the Dark Rock Pro, despite the more compact form factor.  The black and nickel colour scheme is sure to fit in well aesthetically with many system builds so we expect to see a number attractive looking rigs based around this cooler.

Our main concern with this range is the fiddly mounting mechanism that really complicates the installation process.  Even though the cooler is compatible with every socket used for the last few years, we wouldn't mind sacrificing compatibility with some of the older AMD sockets for a simpler design like Noctua's.

We were quite pleased with the temperature results that we recorded with the Dark Rock Advanced and we were able to achieve a reasonable stable overclock without too much work.  We did manage to achieve some higher overclocks without any more voltage demands, but these weren't completely stable.  The low noise level of this cooler is a big selling point and really lives up to the Be Quiet!'s name. Those with sensitive ears will love this design.

As we mentioned earlier in the review, the Dark Rock Advanced can be purchased for a shade under £40 at Overclockers which we think offers reasonable value for money. That said, there is a lot of competition in the market around this price point from a handful of different manufacturers.  For example, the impressive Noctua U12P cooler can be had for only around £4-5 more and the mounting mechanism is far superior.

Pros

• Beautiful design
• Good cooling performance
• Very quiet fan

Cons

• Complicated mounting system
• Can only be mounted vertically on AMD

KitGuru says: If you value low noise and don't want to compromise on cooling efficiency then this certainly is a great product.

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