be quiet! Dark Rock Elite Air Cooler Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The be quiet Dark Rock ELITE CPU Air Cooler is available now at OCUK for £109.99, which obviously puts it on the high-end for an air cooler, but as we’ve seen from today’s review, the build quality, features and performance on offer certainly match the retail price. Plus, it’s in line with other high-end colours, such as the Noctua NH-U12A (£109.99), and Cooler Master MA824 Stealth (£99.95).

Overview

I loved the recent be quiet! Dark Rock Pro, it is a fantastic addition and a step up from their previous coolers. It came with a significantly better mounting system that not only doesn’t suck, much like the old be quiet! mounting system, but is very good and easy to use, so just a huge upgrade overall. Thankfully, the same is true of the Elite.

Actually, I think it’s fair to say that the differences between the Pro and the Elite are pretty minimal. The Pro has the more traditional exposed fan on the side, using little metal clips to hold it in place, and it also lacks RGB. While the Elite has a more elaborate fan mount that encloses it in a streamlined and airflow-friendly way, that just looks better but clearly will come with a higher material and manufacturing cost, hence the slightly higher price.

There’s also ARGB lighting on the Elite, which I like, it’s subtle and not in your face like many ARGB coolers. That’s true of how be quiet! handles their ARGB lighting in general, such as we saw on their recent case (review coming in a few days) and their latest Pure Loop 2 AIO cooler.

As for performance, well, it’s clearly a great cooler, and in either quiet or performance it delivers great cooling performance, and while it’s (obviously) quieter in quiet mode, even in performance mode, it managed to stay pretty kind to the ears too, so top marks all round!