be quiet! Dark Rock Elite

[crazyeyesreaper]

The Dark Rock Elite, be quiet!'s newest premium air cooler, stands head and shoulders above its competition. With a blend of distinctive features, impressive aesthetics, and unparalleled performance, it effortlessly claims the performance crown in the realm of traditional CPU air coolers.

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[SN2716057]

Dayum, that performs really good. Dual 135mm ftw!

And they finally added the screws on the cooler.

 

[Deleted member 237269]

Editor’s Choice to this Aircooler This must be an honest mistake.

Front fan uses semi proprietary mounting setup + non traditional connector
168 mm height before fan adjustment limits case compatibility

It’s already a red alert.
And the noise profil is not good...

Will it cool a very high W Intel CPU. YES.
But there is better out there, the new Corsair A115 is doing a damn fine job and look good. They are both 105-115€ where i live.

Now let’s see on AMD

And it’s a

You can send them back the sample

A big thank you to be quiet! for supplying the review sample.

 

[Ravenmaster]

Been using one of these since launch. It's super quiet and does a really good job cooling my 14900KF. For normal use (gaming/productivity) the temps never really go very high. Gaming under full load has me at 80 degrees. Idle it sits around 45 degrees. I have mine in a BeQuiet Dark Base Pro 901 with 2 roof fans, 1 rear fan and 2 front fans and there's plenty of space for clearance. I managed to just fit my Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5 RAM underneath the front fan with it extended all the way. Those are the tallest RAM sticks i've ever seen so anything smaller will fit under the front fan even easier.

 

[Chrispy_]

Thanks, I hate it.

Proprietary fans, a lot of plastic weight and cost bolted on that adds nothing to cooling, but adds to compatibility issues and a very high price. If I'm looking for a >$100 disposable cooler with coloured lights I'll get an AIO.

It sure looks like it outperforms cheaper coolers, partly because it's so big - but it's more than three times the price of a TR Peerless Assassin - something that's consistently reviewed well, is ridiculously capable and well-made even if you ignore the low price. BeQuiet! are clearly aiming for the understated looks here, but The PA120 is arguably more understated than this Dark Rock Elite.



I simply don't understand where the extra $80 is going for the Dark Rock Elite, other than pointless proprietary fans that don't need to be like that. Just stop, please! Make a shroud/cover if you must but why make a unique-to-this-cooler shroud-cover-clip-frame combo that requires it's own rails, too?!

 

[chrcoluk]

My next cooler will probably be AIO, mostly because the bulkyness I think is annoying.

Also yep owned a propriety fan cooler before, and what happens when a fan stops working properly? you have a problem.

 

[Minus Infinity]

I'll stick to my Dark Rock Pro 4, which runs much quieter.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Likely not a review I will earn a great deal of love for, but looking at the performance I got from it, I will stand by it. For air coolers, it crushed everything else in fact the review was essentially a week late because I went back and retested it multiple times because I thought something was weird. But after double checking all settings the results remains consistent between runs / mounts / etc.

While I still have misgivings over the proprietary fan marlarky. The fact is every be quiet cooler/fan I have here still works its one of the few reasons I went with an Editors Choice over a Highly recommended award. I have 17 be quiet coolers here. and a further 6-7 fans. Some are going on 11 years old. An old Dark Rock Pro 2 I reviewed still sits in an old Intel build for a buddy. Granted 8_+ years of use later it's still just fine.

That said, at the very least the pinout looks to be standard PWM so in theory it should be possible to swap / connect / adapt them easily enough. and looking at the towers themselves it should be easy enough to make it work with other fans. But still that's just excuses for bad situations should them appear.

Lets be real. Performance was exceptional Low noise operation was phenomenal as well. Hopefully be quiet! in a future revision or replacement will tweak the design to be more user friendly ie fan rail works with normal fans. Standard PWM connectors etc.

That said, if anyone does have one of these coolers and has issues with quality etc. Let me know. I would be interested to know what your experience is.

 

[usiname]

Looks like they traded the fan noise for performance. On Intel is really close to D15 and with same noise level probably will lose. On AMD there is significant difference of few degrees, I am curious if the free mounting shift kit that noctua is giving for all noctua owners (you cover ~$3-4 shipping) will be enough to make both equal in terms of performance

 

[theouto]

Paying that much for an air cooler is insane, but at the very least the performance backs up the price.

 

[Hugis]

Hey @crazyeyesreaper any chance we can get some Thermalright coolers in to your lab? PA120, PS120, FC140, FS140 ?

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Hey @crazyeyesreaper any chance we can get some Thermalright coolers in to your lab? PA120, PS120, FC140, FS140 ?

Yes, we need a review on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin because what that single coolr does at a price of $35 is render most of these other coolers obsolete. I'm sure if we compared the peerless assassin to the cooler in this review, it would be so close in performance that it makes the $115 price tag seem ridiculous, heck, you could get a peerless assassin at $35, two noctua fans at $30 each (tonreplace the stock fans which arent bad at all), and STILL be cheaper than this cooler.

 

[Deleted member 237269]

Hey @crazyeyesreaper any chance we can get some Thermalright coolers in to your lab? PA120, PS120, FC140, FS140 ?

What happen if a 35-45€ aircooler beat the 3× more expensive ones ?
With all these ”editor’s choice” awarded. It’s gonna make TPU look bad no ?
I don't see the website executives authorizing this. Lot of ads from these brands

 

[Chrispy_]

Likely not a review I will earn a great deal of love for, but looking at the performance I got from it, I will stand by it. For air coolers, it crushed everything else in fact the review was essentially a week late because I went back and retested it multiple times because I thought something was weird. But after double checking all settings the results remains consistent between runs / mounts / etc.

Nothing wrong with the review. Your results are what they are and any difference in performance to other sites just indicates that these coolers are susceptible to manufacturing variations or that the difference in testing methodology has a significant impact on this model.

Looking at the HardwareCanucks review, they also questioned their results in the opposite direction - they thought it was going to be a stellar performer and when it wasn't they went back and retested and checked for external variables, but it just sucked.

There's clearly some issue with these coolers - looking at a quick sample of google results for "Dark Rock Elite Review" there's a glaring lack of consistency.

• TPU - Editor's choice, best air cooler to date, vastly outperforming the Noctua D15
• Anandtech - Decent, but no better than a Noctua D15
• THG - Decent, ties a Noctua D15 but only tested on Intel LGA1700. Marginally better than the $33 Peerless assassin but worse than the Frost Commander 140 and Assassin IV.
• eTeknix - Good, but found zero difference between the Dark Rock Elite and Dark Rock 5, which is in stark contrast to most other reviews of both and an inconsistency of its own.
• OC3D - Decent, but inferior at both fixed fan speed and max fan speed to both the AK620 and Assassin IV
• Guru3D - Poor, barely creeping ahead of the single-tower 120mm AK500
• Hardware Canucks - disaster, despite restesting and high expectations.
• Hardware Busters - poor, matches an old Assassin III and way behind the Noctua D15.

I'm sure there are more reviews, but those are the ones I found first and skim-read. What's obvious is that performance is all over the place, which is fine if you're gambling at under $50, but this is the single most expensive air cooler ever released.

I've used a few BeQuiet! coolers, both air and AIO - and the the manufacturing quality seems decent - but the mounting system always used to be utter garbage and I remember early reviews of their first tower coolers were hurt by poor performance from uneven surface finish and concave base plates. It took BeQuiet a couple of revisions to iron out those base plate issues and now - a good 15 years later, their mounting hardware has only just caught up with the competition. I do wonder if they're struggling with either the mounting pressure still, or there's a heatpipe manufacturing issue - since there's no way the bad results in that review summary above should be achieved by a massive 7-heatpipe 140mm dual-tower.

 

[Deleted member 237269]

Nothing wrong with the review. Your results are what they are and any difference in performance to other sites just indicates that these coolers are susceptible to manufacturing variations or that the difference in testing methodology has a significant impact on this model.

Looking at the HardwareCanucks review, they also questioned their results in the opposite direction - they thought it was going to be a stellar performer and when it wasn't they went back and retested and checked for external variables, but it just sucked.

There's clearly some issue with these coolers - looking at a quick sample of google results for "Dark Rock Elite Review" there's a glaring lack of consistency.

• TPU - Editor's choice, best air cooler to date, vastly outperforming the Noctua D15
• Anandtech - Decent, but no better than a Noctua D15
• THG - Decent, ties a Noctua D15 but only tested on Intel LGA1700. Marginally better than the $33 Peerless assassin but worse than the Frost Commander 140 and Assassin IV.
• eTeknix - Good, but found zero difference between the Dark Rock Elite and Dark Rock 5, which is in stark contrast to most other reviews of both and an inconsistency of its own.
• OC3D - Decent, but inferior at both fixed fan speed and max fan speed to both the AK620 and Assassin IV
• Guru3D - Poor, barely creeping ahead of the single-tower 120mm AK500
• Hardware Canucks - disaster, despite restesting and high expectations.
• Hardware Busters - poor, matches an old Assassin III and way behind the Noctua D15.

I'm sure there are more reviews, but those are the ones I found first and skim-read. What's obvious is that performance is all over the place, which is fine if you're gambling at under $50, but this is the single most expensive air cooler ever released.

I've used a few BeQuiet! coolers, both air and AIO - and the the manufacturing quality seems decent - but the mounting system always used to be utter garbage and I remember early reviews of their first tower coolers were hurt by poor performance from uneven surface finish and concave base plates. It took BeQuiet a couple of revisions to iron out those base plate issues and now - a good 15 years later, their mounting hardware has only just caught up with the competition. I do wonder if they're struggling with either the mounting pressure still, or there's a heatpipe manufacturing issue - since there's no way the bad results in that review summary above should be achieved by a massive 7-heatpipe 140mm dual-tower.

Good summary and thanks for listing a few other reviews.
Yes the issue of offset + heatpipe design is glaring.

 

[Chrispy_]

Good summary and thanks for listing a few other reviews.

It can't just be offset, since that would only affect AMD results and @crazyeyesreaper got great results on AM5 without offset - yet some of the middling results in that list of reviews are on Intel where offset shouldn't matter.

Hey @crazyeyesreaper any chance we can get some Thermalright coolers in to your lab? PA120, PS120, FC140, FS140 ?

I would love to see the PA120 and FS140 added to TPU's set of cooler results.
The FS140 is insane value here at £26 including delivery AND 20% tax.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermalright-Cooler-Aluminium-Heatsink-Technology/dp/B0B9396W8Y

edit - fixed my broken link ^

 

[theouto]

I would love to see the PA120 and FS140 added to TPU's set of cooler results.
The FS140 is insane value here at £26 including delivery AND 20% tax.

If they were tested then so many coolers would have their awards put into question, both are such good value propositions that it makes it hard to consider any other air cooler.

 

[Deleted member 237269]

@theouto hope they test this one Mugen 6 Black Edition
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...and-mugen-6-black-edition-cpu-coolers.318621/

 

[theouto]

@theouto hope they test this one Mugen 6 Black Edition
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...and-mugen-6-black-edition-cpu-coolers.318621/

That looks like a candidate for a winner.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Thanks, I hate it.

Proprietary fans, a lot of plastic weight and cost bolted on that adds nothing to cooling, but adds to compatibility issues and a very high price. If I'm looking for a >$100 disposable cooler with coloured lights I'll get an AIO.

It sure looks like it outperforms cheaper coolers, partly because it's so big - but it's more than three times the price of a TR Peerless Assassin - something that's consistently reviewed well, is ridiculously capable and well-made even if you ignore the low price. BeQuiet! are clearly aiming for the understated looks here, but The PA120 is arguably more understated than this Dark Rock Elite.

View attachment 332538

I simply don't understand where the extra $80 is going for the Dark Rock Elite, other than pointless proprietary fans that don't need to be like that. Just stop, please! Make a shroud/cover if you must but why make a unique-to-this-cooler shroud-cover-clip-frame combo that requires it's own rails, too?!

Yep, non-standard fans is a hard pass for me as well.

 

[wheresmycar]

Thanks for the review.

Performance looks good, i can see some people may fancy this type of aesthetic but personally i prefer the sharp edged industrial looking types... i'm still hoping one day we'll see an all black dual tower+fan Scythe Mugen 5 with heatsink ends for fat studs eg. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41k+B5K0wUL.jpg

Too pricey for my liking.

I would love to see the PA120 and FS140 added to TPU's set of cooler results.

Me too! The 7-heatpipe Phantom spirit deserves a mention too incl the newer EVO variant with premium/faster fans. Available @ $35-$45

 

[THU31]

A pity the Peerless Assassin is not included in the line-up.

I never really got the point of these insanely expensive air coolers. I'd rather buy an AIO if I wanted to spend that much. But I guess there are cases where an AIO won't fit.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Hey @crazyeyesreaper any chance we can get some Thermalright coolers in to your lab? PA120, PS120, FC140, FS140 ?

Yes, we need a review on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin because what that single coolr does at a price of $35 is render most of these other coolers obsolete. I'm sure if we compared the peerless assassin to the cooler in this review, it would be so close in performance that it makes the $115 price tag seem ridiculous, heck, you could get a peerless assassin at $35, two noctua fans at $30 each (tonreplace the stock fans which arent bad at all), and STILL be cheaper than this cooler.

If they were tested then so many coolers would have their awards put into question, both are such good value propositions that it makes it hard to consider any other air cooler.

I have reached out to Thermalright in the past but never had any real luck getting samples in at those particular times. That said, I am looking to get Thermalright products in but am swamped with reviews now that the tradeshow is over and everyone wants products reviewed that were shown off. I want to get one in for review but I am basically drowning in samples as is.

 

[W1zzard]

What happen if a 35-45€ aircooler beat the 3× more expensive ones ?
With all these ”editor’s choice” awarded. It’s gonna make TPU look bad no ?
I don't see the website executives authorizing this. Lot of ads from these brands

Not only Editor's Choice but also Great Value in such a case. There is no authorization required to give awards, or for reviews in general. In some rare cases reviewers ask me "what do you think?" just to get a fresh pair of eyes on some product, but that's about it

 

[Hugis]

I have reached out to Thermalright in the past but never had any real luck getting samples in at those particular times. That said, I am looking to get Thermalright products in but am swamped with reviews now that the tradeshow is over and everyone wants products reviewed that were shown off. I want to get one in for review but I am basically drowning in samples as is.

Cheers for letting us know, would be great if we can secure some samples to test against these "in my opinion" expensive alternatives from the likes of noctua and be quiet.
Wish i could give you hand knowing youve got a full diary of testing ahead , any way keep up your great work!

EDIT:
Maybe one of us here could reach out to Thermalright again and secure some samples when you have time of course?