Gadgetory

this video was brought to you by fractal design make sure to check out their new Integra M modular power supplies you can find the link in the description below how's it going guys so I recently asked German manufacturer be quiet if they had one cool product I could check out for the channel to which they responded by immediately sending me a box full of components that's when I learned the German word for five is one and honestly I probably won't get around to reviewing everything they sent me because ain't nobody gets half of that I did however ask you guys on Instagram and Twitter which component you fancied the most and was met with a lot of favoritism for their dark rock 3 CPU cooler so that's the one I'll be reviewing today I'm going to be testing it against the more modest shadow rock slim and I'll also be running it in a push-pull setup with one of the quiet silent wings 2 fans to see how many more degrees we can shave off of my 59 30k but for now let's have a closer look at the cooler the dark rogue 3 measures in at 97 millimeters long by a hundred and thirty seven millimeters wide by 160 millimeters tall making it a whiter cooler than most RAM clearance can pose an issue if the dim slot nearest to the socket is occupied but fortunately the fan mounting clips allow the fan to be moved higher up on the heatsink I can't tell if these clips are intended to work this way or if I've just thought of a brilliant patent idea that's going to make me millions of dollars excuse me just bear in mind that moving the fan to a higher position on the heatsink increases the overall height of the tower you can expect support for any of the widely adopted AMD and Intel sockets with included mounting accessories thermal paste and instructions right on the box we see this cooler has a 190 watt TDP which offers great cooling capacity for most processors with a few exceptions such as AMD's high-end of a share CPUs which can reach TDPS of up to 220 watts for something like the FX 95 90 for instance I'd recommend something besides the dark rock 3 like a different processor working alongside the heatsink as big quiets very own 135 millimeters silent wings pwm fan which does have a black sleeved cable 220 millimeters in length the fans rated at 1,400 rpm and uses nine blades lined with the number of grooves which aim to increase airflow while maintaining near silent operation I certainly came to respect the quietness of this cooler after nearly losing my finger due to thinking the fan was off to further aid in acoustics and the potential for lost limbs the fan uses a 6-pole motor design and the heatsink itself is lined with two long rubberized pads for the fan to rest up against reducing noise and vibration while introducing some rubber in-between things is a great preventative measure the padding is nowhere to be found on the other side of the heatsink which is odd seeing as how the cooler supports an additional 120 millimeter fan although I do have a theory explaining this conundrum that I'll share with you later the metallic fan clips make installation a breeze and as I mentioned earlier facilitate the option for vertical adjustment also vital to the coolers performance of course is its heatsink this one has 51 aluminum fins which are entirely dark nickel-plated giving them a near black matte finish heat from the CPU is effectively carried up through the thinner a via six six millimeter copper heat pipes topped at the ends with aluminum caps a diamond cut finish Grace's the brushed aluminum top cover complemented by a subtle yet stylish touch of be quiet branding at the base of the cooler is a copper base plate and looks to be a much smaller heatsink for additional heat dissipation although since this little guy didn't bother making an appearance on the retail box I can only assume he's a passive heatsink installing the dark rock 3 on a 2011 - 3 socket proved to be a bit challenging the 4 threaded posts kept getting snagged on the non threaded holes of the mounting bracket which made it difficult to mount the cooler evenly on the CPU after enough fiddling tightening the nuts with the included excuse for a wrench wasn't much better next time I'd asked for an easier mounting solution altogether or at least a wrench with an angled head that isn't made by fisher-price now I ran this cooler on top of my stock 59 30 K and compared it to two other setups in my testing including the shadow rock slim being a budget-friendly option for lower tvp's and the dark rock 3 itself equipped with a 120 millimeter silent wings to pwm fan and here's where I revisit my theory on why the dark rock 3 only has rubber padding on one side of its heatsink the outer rims on both sides of the silent winks to fan are already lined with rubberized material so there's really no need for additional padding on the fin stack immediately this makes you marvel at bee quiets brilliant German engineering right before realising hey they're forcing me to buy their fans out that may not be such a bad idea as the temps they were able to achieve show great promise the dark rock three stayed well below eighty and CPU intensive synthetics and kept things cool when gaming temps were also knocked down in a degree or two once the cooler was configured for push-pull even the shadow rock slim trailing behind it's bigger brother by a wider margin saw acceptable temperatures overall so there you guys have it clearly this cooler is a great performer I personally love the brushed aluminum look in style and so far every be quiet component I've handled has been crafted with tip-top quality and design as it Germans as always guys toss me a like on this video if you found it helpful you can also leave me a comment down below letting me know what you thought of this cooler and perhaps any other be quiet products you may have dealt with in the past before you go don't forget to bookmark my Amazon affiliate link and use it every time you buy stuff you can also pick up a torso chassis while you're at it you can also make a monthly contribution on patreon to help the awesomesauce cause and Calva las absolves network thank you guys for watching subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see you in the next video out