Introduction

From the be quiet! website:

#1 for power supplies in Germany

be quiet! products are convincing, which is proven by the company reaching the leadership position of Germany's PSU market in 2006 and defending it since. Their position has also been validated by numerous awards for both power supplies and cooling solutions.

Repeated winner of Manufacturer of the Year

Readers of the well-know German hardware magazine PC Games Hardware have awarded be quiet! the Manufacturer of the Year award six times in a row. Another first and second rank in the categories "fans" and "coolers" for two consecutive years underline the high acceptance of our products.

be quiet! has established itself as a premiere manufacturer with its mantra "no compromise silence and performance". Having won numerous awards for their power supplies and cooling solutions, it is no wonder they have become so popular in Germany and abroad. Their popularity, built on a legacy of quality and excellence, sets them apart from the competition. It doesn't hurt that their products are also appealing aesthetically, which allows them to stand out in a crowded market.

Today's review will focus on be quiet!'s Dark Rock Pro 3, the heavyweight brother to the Dark Rock 3 I reviewed earlier. It features seven 6 mm heatpipes, 135mm and 120 mm SilentWings PWM fans, and ninety wave-contour, nickel-plated aluminum fins that are spread across two towers. The Dark Rock Pro 3 is most definitely an enthusiast class air-cooling solution. The big question is whether it stacks up to its predecessor, the Dark Rock Pro 2, which I also reviewed earlier; it proved to be an exceptional CPU cooler. With be quiet! slimming the Pro series down in weight and size, it will be interesting to see how performance is affected, so let us see just what the Dark Rock Pro 3 has to offer!

Packaging & Contents

be quiet!'s Dark Rock Pro 3 comes in a fairly attractive box that measures 18 cm in length, 21 cm in width, and 21 cm in height. Plainly visible with its TDP rating of 250W on the front are an image of the cooler, the company logo, and the cooler's name. The left side details some of the cooler's features in French, Spanish, and Polish. The back of the box covers the Dark Rock Pro 3's specifications and features in great detail.


The right side of the box again details specifications and features, although in English and German, and lists various awards be quiet!'s products have won from various review sites. The top of the box only holds both the name and company logo with the cooler's TDP of 250W. While the box isn't ground-breaking in appearance, it does the job by offering a great deal of information to prospective buyers.

Contents

Opening a be quiet! box is always a treat as the contents are always packaged away well through the use of foam inserts. As such, users won't need to worry about any potential damage to the cooler during shipping. It is nice to see good packaging as it is usually one of the first items manufacturers compromise on to keep costs down.


Everything one would need to install the Dark Rock Pro 3 on nearly any system is provided. From the heatsink and fans, which are mandatory, to detailed instructions and thermal paste, everything you need is here and accounted for. The mounting hardware is rather simple in part due to its partially universal design, although I can't help but be disappointed whenever I see a spanner; here is to hoping the installation procedure can be simplified through future revisions.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 4x Hexagonal nuts
• 4x Hexagonal nuts with sleeve
• 4x LGA2011 spacer nuts
• 4x C profile spacers
• 4x M3x3 screws
• 4x M3x15 screws
• 2x AMD mounting brackets
• 2x Intel mounting brackets
• 2x Sets of fan clips
• 1x AMD / Intel backplate
• 1x Heatsink
• 1x Fan
• 1x User's manual
• 1x Package of thermal compound
• 1x Hexagonal nut spanner