Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
The reason I like the Dark Rock series this much has a lot to do with its all dark looks, the coated fins, the dark black top cover, even the heatpipes received that dark treatment, and then sure, the fans are dark as well. Most motherboards these days are all based on a black PCB, ergo this is a cooler that matches. So from an aesthetic point of view, these just look great. However, taste is a subjective thing. One remark I must make is that powder coated products are very sensitive, it damages quite easy and thus scratches and what not are visible fast. Even clipping on the metal fan retention clips, resulted in a tiny bit of damage, making that metal underneath is visible.
Cooling performance
The cooler certainly performs good enough for any modern mainstream processor, actually up-to a Core i9 9900K / Ryzen 7 2700X you will be fine as long as you do not need to get too heavy on voltages versus tweaking. We test our system (deliberately) with the still difficult to cool Core i7 4790K, on purpose. It's a 95W processor, and realistically these produce as much heat as a modern 9900K, that's what the TDP tells us. The default clock frequency performance is good, nothing more, nothing less. Overclocking based on voltage normally with a CPU like this is ill-advised. With our 4790K processor at 1.30 Volts/4600 MHz heat jumped to 78 Degrees C, that is on the threshold of acceptable though. But for short burst of CPU stress I would be fine with it.
Acoustics
Brilliant, for noise levels, at defaults (not overclocked) this is an incredible silent product, on our ASUS Sabertooth we simply leave the default fan profile for what it is, and yeah we reached 30~31 DBa, mind you that is at full processor load, even up-to 1.30~1.35 Volts (tweaked) the noise levels remains very acceptable, after 1.35v we simply don't have cooling performance left. Overall, and especially at defaults really this is a silent product.
Pricing
The kit as tested today will cost €57.90 / £54.99 / $59.90, obviously, you will certainly not reach the 'enthusiast' levels of cooling. You will, however, reach a very premium acoustic experience. be quiet! does offer its 3-year manufacturer’s warranty.
Final Words
The new 'SLIM' model in the Dark Rock series does not offer 'uber performance' (to use German superlatives here) when it comes to cooling, it's, however, more than adequate and even when you overclock your processor it'll manage to stay on top of things. Where the Dark Rock Slim once again shines though is the sheer acoustic level. Our 95 Watt TDP processor at default would not result in any audible or even hearable noise. Only once you start to overclock the processor the fan RPM ramps up a bit, but even then in a closed chassis (we test open bench) I doubt you could hear the product. Be quiet is managing all this with the brilliance of the Pure Wings 3 fans, these are high airflow fans, yet they slow them down towards a lower RPM, at BIOS fan profile defaults (normal setting) this fan spins at roughly 500 RPM. So low RPM with decent airflow is the magic that is helping trivial factor here. Where the company reaps success, however, are the looks. Really anno 2019 when i think about heatpipe cooler merely a handful of brand names come up, CM, Noctua and be quiet are high up that list. Noctua might be the best, but their aesthetics are superseding them, and it's exactly here where be quiet! gains ground. That said, the cooling performance remains good and the noise levels up-to 1.30 Volts extremely silent.
So yeah the closing line, any up-to 8-cores proc or any proc up-to a 95 Watts TDP can be chilled at default clocks just fine. The one remark I have is that this cooler does not offer a compatible mounting kit for Ryzen Threadripper. The Slim model does what it needs to de, offer decent cooling perf, be silent, look good and make sure that all your tall DIMMs can be installed without and in a jiffy. For its purpose definitely worthy a Guru3D recommendation.
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