A Closer Look

The completely black heatsink is quite nice in its simplicity compared to the ARGB-illuminated designs I am used to seeing. I would go so far as to say it is downright elegant in its simplicity. It is made up of 55 aluminium fins, which dissipate heat from the four direct touch heat pipes, and the entire fin stack is offset for maximum memory compatibility.


I didn't notice any bent fins out of the box, but the little "wings," essentially the outermost corners of the fins, can bend if pushed on directly. It's not something I would anticipate happening to actual users, but I did check all the same.


The top plate is black like the rest of the cooler; it looks rather nice with the simple be quiet! logo in white across the middle. Meanwhile, the heat pipe caps complete the look, giving the cooler a clean finish that certainly looks quite stylish to me. Also, for the "I hate RGB" crowd, the lack of LEDs will likely be a nice plus because you're not paying for a feature you don't need. When it comes to the base, the cooler uses direct touch heat pipes rather than a solid copper cold plate, while the finish is relatively flat at a glance, and I didn't notice any gaps or raised areas that could pose a problem, either.


The Pure Wing 2 fan used by be quiet! on this particular heatsink uses a rifle bearing and has a maximum RPM of 1500. The fan also has an exceptionally wide PWM response range, with the fan easily dropping down toward 300 RPM at low loads. This means you should never hear this cooler over your other components in a system.