Visual inspection
The be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2 is a single tower air CPU cooler that sports an aluminum heatsink and copper made heatpipes. The active cooling is done by a single 135mm be quiet Silent Wings 3 fan. Outside of these features, this CPU cooler is basic in its shape and look, as its main purpose is to be affordable and offer a good performance. In addition, the reduced foot print of the heatsink allows the Shadow Rock Slim 2 to have a good clearance for the RAM and graphics card.
The be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2 has a height of 161mm a length of 74mm and a width of 137mm with a weight of 690g.
The heatsink used with this CPU cooler has no less than 53 aluminum made cooling fins and only four copper made heatpipes. These are what moves the heat away from the CPU and into the dissipation area of the CPU cooler.
This heatsink can accommodate up two 135mm fan in a push pull configuration.
The top of the heatsink is covered by a thick aluminum plate that acts as a decoration. This top plate has a linear brushed texture and the be quiet! logo engraved into its surface. In addition, the heatpipe endings are covered by aluminum caps.
The decorative top plate has a brushed texture and can be removed if necessary. This plate is attached to the heatsink with only two hex screws. With those removed, the entire plate can be lifted up from the heatsink revealing the heatpipe endings.
The side of the heatsink is shaped to create a mounting point for the fan clips. This shape has been used before as it is effective when installing fan mounting clips.
The CPU cooler has four copper made heatpipes, each with an outer diameter of 6mm. The heatpipes are arranged in a U shape to facilitate the heat transfer and to provide a base for the cooling fins. Fortunately, the heatpipe endings are covered by aluminum caps which not only improve the look of the heatsink but hide the uneven surface of the copper.
The baseplate of the Shadow Rock Slim 2 has a direct touch design. What this means is that the heatpipes are integrated into the surface of the baseplate. While this makes that the heatpipes make direct contact with the CPU surface, this type of baseplate is considered inferior performance wise. The reasoning behind this is that a solid copper baseplate will provide a better contact on the CPU and thus, a better heat transfer.
The active cooling is done with the help of a single 135mm fan. This fan is part of the Silent Wings 3 series of fans, and has the model number: BQ SIW3-13525-MR-PWM.
This fan has been widely used on be quiet! air CPU coolers because its silent, looks great and has a reasonable maximum speed, 1400RPM.
Unfortunately, this fan has no rubber pads which means that some vibration might occur at maximum speed.
