Gadgetory

what's up guys today I will be reviewing a new low profile cooler from be quiet this is their shadow rock LP the LP standing firt and low profile now generally low-profile coolers are great for small form-factor bills making them a viable solution for things like HT pcs or portable land rigs typically the trade-off here for compatibility is performance due to the cooler smaller Finn stack so to test this correlation and see what we can expect in terms of thermal dissipation we'll also be comparing this coolers low temperatures to its bigger brother the shadow rock slim but first let's have a closer look the hardware with the fan mounted the shadow rock LP measures 137 millimeters wide by 161 long by just 74 millimeters tall making it short enough to fit in a wide variety of mini ITX cases despite having a 25 millimeter thick fan if you do the math that makes the heatsink alone just 49 millimeters tall all of today's popular AMD and intel sockets are supported by the shadow rock LP and you do get all the mounting accessories and instructions required for installation a generous TDP of 130 watts means plenty of cooling capacity for most overclocked CPUs although I'd still recommend double checking that you're not exceeding this crucial limit blowing hot air away from the heatsink is be quiet very own peer wings to 120 millimeter fan which features a rifle bearing design for an 80,000 our lifespan 9 silenced optimized blades that spin at 1500 rpm and a 4 pin pwm connector the other half of the cooler is made up of an aluminum heatsink sporting 48 fins with a beautiful brushed aluminum edge where we can see the ends of our 4 6 millimeter copper heat pipes it should be pretty evident to most of us by now that be quiet knows how to make an air cooler look good though as a personal aesthetic preference I really do love it when manufacturers use nickel-plated heat pipes which look far superior to me than copper steampunk modders I mean no offense please lower your pocket watch the pipes make their way through the entire fin array before entering the copper base plate which comes pre applied with a layer of thermal paste inconveniently adding an additional step to the installation process now while a low-profile heatsink helps to solve issues with K square they're often whiter profile can potentially cause interference with your memory as such you only get 30 millimeters of ram clearance for any modules going underneath the heatsink so pairing this cooler with a low-profile kit is highly advisable since I was using dims with taller heat spreaders in my testing I actually had to rotate the cooler 90 degrees which allowed just enough space for my 4x4 kit although in this orientation the cooler still overhangs the two DIMM slots closest to the socket stopping any chance of me adding an identical quad channel kit another shortcoming of this rotated configuration is that the heatsink now overhangs the top PCI Express slot on my x99 you d4p which could indicate even bigger problems if you're building in a mini ITX rig with dedicated graphics much to my relief installing the cooler on socket 2011 was much easier than the nightmare I had with the shadow rock slim a simple mounting bracket held in place by two easily-accessible screws does a nice job of securing the cooler in place while I tighten the screws with a screwdriver you also have the option to use the included wrench which is somewhat improved over the wrench that came with my shadow rock slim it's now thinner features an angled tip and has a longer reach which is what she said still the screwdriver proved to be the better tool for the job snapping the fan to the heatsink with the two metal brackets was also done with little difficulty making for an overall quick and hassle-free installation now at this point just about everything on the shadow rock LP looks great on paper but it was only after firing up the test bed and seeing its performance when it earns my full respect for a fair comparison I removed the lp's pre-applied thermal paste and used cooler masters ice fusion compound for both coolers each model is tasked with cooling by 59 60 X overclocked to 4.3 gigahertz at one point to 6 volts in my open air test bed though I was ready for testing I was unprepared for the results I was about to see though it did run 4 degrees hotter than the shadow rock slim when idling cooling performance was identical during my prime 95 stress test skeptical of the numbers I quickly moved on to Asus reel bench where again the vertically challenged cooler left me awestruck matching its Big Brother at a max temp of 89 degrees Celsius considering the shadow rock Slim's larger Finn array and 140 millimeter fan I was absolutely shocked with the lp's ability to maintain the same low temps however if your performance is the only factor you're looking for you'll be doubly impressed to know that the LP also stayed whisper-quiet under load here's a sound comparison between the two coolers as you can probably tell the pier winks - runs noticeably quieter than the 140 millimeter silent wings - fan on the shadow rock slim even under load in an open-air chassis I could barely hear the faint War of the shadow rock LP / the light stream of cars softly whizzing by my house another test barring unexpectedly welcome results and that ladies and gentlemen brings us to the conclusion apart from its high quality parts and contemporary Flair the shadow rock LP does what it promises by being a cool and quiet low-profile solution for even the most high end of CPUs noise generated by the pier wings - is sure to be near inaudible inside of an enclosed case and builders can expect to see more than satisfactory performance not just for a low-profile cooler but as an air cooler in general the only real thing I could nitpick about was the lack of slim fan support and non nickel-plated heat pipes - minor critiques that could easily go unnoticed given the results I've seen today I'd even go so far as to say that the shadow rock LP would be a good fit for mid tower case if not for the scattered airflow from having a downward-facing fan this cooler has the whole package and for an attractive retail price of just 45 USD it's a tough candidate to ignore for your next Mini ITX system before you guys go toss me a like on this video if you enjoyed it and let me know what you guys think of this cooler in the comments in closing I want to give a special thanks to vase sponsor lynda.com if you guys haven't used my link for a free trial yet check it out and start learning how to make your own website or become so good at online marketing that you can sell pills that make your poop glitter wait but that's already a thing Wow at any rate the web site has thousands of HD tutorials that are good for your mind body and soul but not your poop you're going to need the pills if you're at all interested in educating yourself more better check out lynda.com slash awesomesauce for 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