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! is a top-tier manufacturer of a great number of PC products, including power supplies, heatsinks, fans, and, as of recently, cases. Not just padding shelves with products, many of their offerings have won numerous awards from reviewers and readers alike, which goes to show that be quiet! has earned its popularity by following through on its mantra of "no compromise silence and performance." Offering coolers that occasionally beat out Noctua in terms of noise, be quiet! has certainly earned its rock-solid reputation. Should they continue to follow their mantra, be quiet! will undoubtedly continue to grow and expand with a large degree of success.

In today's review, I will be taking a look at the Dark Rock TF, a dual-fan, top-flow design that features six Ø6 mm heatpipes and two 135 mm SilentWings fans. Much like the Noctua NH-C14S, be quiet!'s offering is similar, but does stand apart with its dual-heatsink design. It will be interesting to see if the extra surface area and second fan give it an edge over the Noctua cooler since both belong to the same price segment.

Packaging and Contents

The box be quiet! is using for the Dark Rock TF measures in at roughly 20.9 cm in length, 19.7 cm in width, and 21.2 cm in height. On top, we simply find the product name and its stated TDP rating of 220W. The front shows the cooler itself in all its dual-fan, dual-heatsink glory. Again, the product name and TDP are shown, as well as a short list of features. The left side has short paragraphs that detail the design and features in various languages.


Moving on to the back of the box, you will find the cooler's specifications table and features list, along with a short paragraph about be quiet!. The right, much like the left, again details the cooler's design and features in various languages. Overall, a dark box for a dark cooler.

Contents

Opening the box, I was greeted with a glimpse of a SilentWings fans and various installation guides hidden just underneath. Beyond that, the cooler was encased in foam, which I was happy to see. It never hurts for a product to be well protected.


be quiet!'s mounting hardware for the Dark Rock TF, much like previous Dark Rock coolers, looks to be ridden with too many small parts. However, everything users will need to install it has been included.

• 4x LGA2011 screw posts
• 4x Screw pillars
• 4x Mounting arm screws
• 4x nuts
• 4x C clips
• 4x Phillips backplate screws
• 4x Fan clips
• 2x AMD mounting arms
• 2x Intel mounting arms
• 2x 135mm x 135mm x 22mm SilentWings fans
• 1x Y cable
• 1x backplate
• 1x Tube of thermal paste
• 1x Wrench
• 1x heatsink
• 1x Installation guide