be quiet Dark Rock 2 Heatsink Review

Heatsinks come in a variety of shapes and sizes and while you may think that heatsink design is universal across the globe that isn't always the case.  Generally speaking the American market is often more concerned with heatsink performance whereas in Europe there is an overriding drive to make things as silent as possible.  Can a silent heatsink make noise in the performance arena?  Let's find out.  

In this review we will be looking at the bequiet! Dark Rock 2.  This is a performance cooling solution that is designed to bridge the gap between a silent cooling and the inherent performance issues associated with silent cooling systems. The Dark Rock 2 is a tower style heatsink constructed from 6mm heatpipes, 44 thick aluminum cooling fins and fully machined copper baseplate.  Everything is coated in dark nickel plate for style and protection.

Overall construction is extremely good thanks in part to the thicker aluminum radiator fins and solid construction,  In fact due to the material choices we have only noticed two areas where locking tabs were used to maintain proper fin spacing.

Dark Rock 2 is only supports a single 135mm cooling fan and is designed for silent running with the aid of bequiet! SilentWings technology.  The fan is rated at 21dBA @ 1300rpm under full load with a minimal noise profile of 8.7dBA!