be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler Review

Installation

When it comes to cooling products, we’ll freely admit that we always have something of a little reticence when it comes to be quiet! Bad experiences in the past have taught us that, by and large, be quiet! doesn’t always utilise the most straightforward of installation methods. The good news though is that while it might have taken them a while, they have clearly learned from their prior mistakes.

Starting off with the manual, a combination of excellent written instructions along with some reasonably well-detailed diagrams means that, as long as you pay attention, you shouldn’t have any notable issues getting this cooler mounted to your system.

Mounting

Although not the simplest installation method we have ever encountered, be quiet! is definitely starting to improve its reputation here at eTeknix. While the Shadow Rock Slim 2 still isn’t perfect, and more than a little bit fiddly in parts, overall their methodology has gotten a lot easier meaning that this cooler shouldn’t pose any problems whether you are an experienced hand or brand new to the world of CPU cooling!

Overall Thoughts

As we suspected earlier in this review, despite the lack(?) of any RGB lighting effects, the be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2 looks absolutely fantastic mounted to our test bench and I daresay would be exceptionally suitable for practically every system build you could think of. And in terms of time factors, this cooler took us no longer than around 7 minutes to install which is both perfectly reasonable and expected from most ‘good’ air cooler designs. – With it successfully strapped to our system, therefore, and with all that build quality clearly evident throughout our look at the individual aspects of the Shadow Rock Slim 2, let’s turn our bench on and see what results we get in our testing!