1. Introduction
Registered as a trademark of Listan GmbH & Co. KG in 2002, BeQuiet! is a brand who manufactures Power Supply units, CPU coolers, PC cases, and case fans. The main target groups for products in the BeQuiet! range are PC enthusiasts and gamers as well as smaller and larger PC integrators. The company’s headquarters is in Glinde, close to Hamburg. At the present time the company also has branches in Poland, Taiwan and China. The major market of the Be Quiet! brand is Europe.
Official product link:
http://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/572
2. Packaging and accessories
The cooler is packaged in a black box with orange & white accents, the standard Be Quiet! Packaging.
The front side presents the cooler using an overview image of it. In the middle there are both the name of the product and its cooling capacity measured in W (220W TDP). In the top right corner, we find the manufacturer’s logo while on the left corner there is mentioned the name of the included fan’s line “SilentWings”.
The side of the packaging present the features of the cooler in 5 different languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Polish.
The back side of the packaging presents the BeQuiet! brand. Below there are presented the features of both the cooler and the included fans, which belongs to the SilentWings line of fans.
The cooler is packaged in soft foam to protect it during shipping.
Accessories
The product comes with the following accessories:
– 1x Manual
– 4x Fan Clips
– 1x Backplate
– 2x Intel mounting brackets
– 2x AMD mounting brackets
– 1x Hexagonal nut wrench
– 1x Fan splitter
– 1x Tube of thermal compound
– 4x Plastic C profile spacers
– 4x M3x15 screws
– 4x M3x3 screws
– 4x Hexagonal nuts with sleeve
– 4x LGA2011 spacer nuts
– 4x Hexagonal nuts
3. Specifications
Model: Dark Rock TF
Colors Available: Black
TDP: 220W
Supported sockets:
Intel: 775 / 115x / 1366 / LGA2011(-3) Square ILM
AMD: AM2(+) / AM3 (+) / FM1 / FM2(+)
Heatsink:
Materials: Aluminum (Fins) Copper (Heatpipes & Base) Dark Nickel-plated
Dimensions (L x W x H): 162.6 x 140 x 108.8
Heatpipes: Ø6 mm – 6pcs
Weight: 0.81g (w/fan)
Fan(s):
Model: SilentWings BQSIW3-13525-MF-PWM
Dimensions(mm): 135 x 135 x 22
Fan Speed: 1400 RPM (PWM)
Fan Airflow: 67.8 CFM
Fan Noise: 21.5 dBA
Bearing type: Fluid Dynamic Bearing
Rated voltage (V): 12
Input current (A): 0.20
Input power (W): 2.4
Lifespan (h / 25°C): 300,000
Features:
Extremely high cooling capacity of 220W TDP supports even overclocked CPUs in compact PCs
Two powerful nickel-plated aluminum heat sinks
Dark nickel-plated finish with brushed aluminum covers
Six high-performance 6mm heat pipes with aluminum caps carry heat to the optimal location on the cooling fins
Top-flow layout enables ideal cooling not only for the CPU but also for surrounding components
Two SilentWings® 135mm PWM fans: advanced fluid-dynamic bearing with copper core/ advanced six-pole motor for smoother operation and less turbulence/ nine airflow-optimized fan blades/ dynamically-balanced impeller
Anti-vibration rubber inserts on the heat sink cooling fins further dampen noise
4. Visual inspection
The Dark Rock TF model has a Top Flow design which has as main purpose apart from cooling the CPU, the cooling of the surrounding components of the motherboard, it measures only 108.8mm in height. The cooler has the elegant look of the Dark Rock line, the heatsink being completely black, also it uses two heatsinks and is accompanied by two 135mm Silent Wings fans.
In the case of the Dark Rock TF model the top heatsink features rubber strips for vibration dampening and a better grip for the included fans.
Both heatsinks use black nickel-plated aluminum fins, these are slightly inclined in the middle of the heatsink for a better airflow. Also their edges are cut obtaining an angular design.
The cooler uses 6 heatpipes each with a diameter of 6mm, these are arranged in a U shape to facilitate heat dissipation, these make contact both heatsinks and are made out of nickel plated copper.
The base of the cooler just like the heatpipes is made out of nickel-plated copper for a better thermal transfer. Also the base is brushed.
On the sides of the lower heatsink there is placed the Be Quiet! Logo, it is chromed being in contrast with the overall look of the cooler and thus offering an elegant design.
The ends of the heatpipes are covered with caps that are made out of aluminum and painted black. Also the metallic plate that covers the fins of the heatsink is brushed maintaining the design of the cooler.
The two 135mm fans of the cooler are part of the SilentWings series, both are model BQ SW3-13525-MF-PWM and have a max speed of 1400 RPM and feature PWM.
The cable of the fans is covered in black high quality sleeving, and these use a 4 Pin Molex connector.
5. Testing
The following system was used to test the cooler:
– Processor: Intel i5 4690K @ 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz
– Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 9 ACK
– RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB DDR3 @ 2133MHz
– GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Armor 2X 4G
– SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
– HDD: WD Blue 1TB
– PSU: Antec Edge 550W Gold
– Display: AOC i2769VM
– Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe White
– Thermal compound: Arctic Cooling MX-4
Software used for testing the cooler:
– AIDA64 Extreme Version: 5.80.4000 (Oct 25, 2016)
– Intel Burn Test v2.54
– Prime95 28.5
The cooler was tested with the CPU at the default turbo frequency of 3.9 GHz and overclocked to 4.5 GHz with a core voltage of 1.187 V.
Also the included fans have been used at their maximum speed.
The room temperature was approximately 26°C (78°F), with 2°C margin of error.
The idle test consists of the CPU sitting idle at the desktop for 30 minutes, the temperature was measured at the end of the test.
The settings of the software used are the following:
Intel Burn Test v2.54 – Stress level: Maximum
Prime95 28.5 – small FFT
AIDA64 Extreme Version – Temperature monitoring.
Each test was conducted for 40 minutes.
The test results are as follows:
Idle
Full Load
The noise level was measured at three different distances from the fans (10cm, 20cm, 30cm.) the noise was measured with a margin of error of ± 5 db.
The space between the DIMM slots and the front fan is approximately 56mm.
6. Final thoughts
The Be Quiet! Dark Rock TF cooler has a good performance, due to its two 135mm fans and its design which uses 6 nickel plated copper heatpipes. The main advantage of a Top-Flow cooler is the active cooling of the motherboard components that surround the CPU socket.
The build of the cooler is exceptional, just like the rest of the Be Quiet! Products, the main materials used are nickel plated copper and aluminum. The base and heatpipes are made out of copper while the fins are made out of black painted aluminum.
The mounting system is robust and the installation process is done with relative ease if the user follows the manual.
The performance of the cooler is very good, being close to liquid cooling AIO-type coolers, but being more silent.
The only inconvenient is the fact that the cooler covers the RAM slots, also the lower heatpipes can touch(or be very close) in some cases the side of the RAM DIMMS, this however depends on the type of memory modules used (and their heatsinks).
In conclusion, the Be Quiet! Dark Rock TF model is a cooler which offers a good performance being silent at the same time. The build quality is very good, also the cooler is accompanied by two 135mm fans from the Silent Wings line.
