be quiet! Dark Rock 3 Silent Wings CPU Cooler Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The Dark Rock 3 is a little expensive at $69 / £45, but it is about on par with what we have come to expect from be quiet! who are often a little more expensive that rival brands. This is often due to their higher build quality and more expensive components that offer quieter performance.

Overview

The be quiet! Dark Rock 3 didn’t exactly blow us away with its performance, but for around £45 it is on par with what we can expect from many rival brands. Yes, there are more powerful coolers out there, but for this kind of money you’ll often be trading off for something that doesn’t look as nice, doesn’t feature build quality on this level and more than likely something that isn’t anywhere near as quiet as the Dark Rock 3.

Performance while overclocking was well within what I would call a safe margin, we run our i5 at 1.35v and 4.5Ghz, which isn’t exactly the easiest level to maintain for many coolers and the Dark Rock 3 may not be as cool as some competing brands, but we would certainly feel comfortable with the temperatures it provided to our test bench even if it was running 24 hours a day. Of course the thing that really impressed us is that throughout our overclocked full load test the acoustics of the cooler never once twitched above 41dBA, which is the quietest cooler I’ve ever tested under full load. Having a cooler that you effectively cannot hear is no bad thing and if you’re looking to construct a silent build then you’ll find a lot of love for the Dark Rock 3.

Build quality is on par with what we have come to expect from be quiet! by which I mean it is flawless. The metal work and finish is premium from top to bottom, the whole thing feels robust and rather solid, with the added benefit of also looking gorgeous, or at least as gorgeous as a CPU cooler can look. Add to that a rather smart-looking fan and you’ll find that the Dark Rock 3 wouldn’t look out of place in virtually any system build. be quiet! have tweaked and improved their latest range of CPU coolers, adding little fins and bumps that help is keep the noise down, and they’ve even made their new models a few millimetres shorter after user feedback that some chassis conflicted with the (previously) tall tower.

For me, this cooler scores really well, but it falls just a little short of our Editors Choice award due to its average cooling performance. However, I do maintain that for this price range the cooler does have a lot to offer and should you choose to fit one in your rig, I doubt you’ll be disappointed by its overall cooling performance.

Pros

• Stylish design
• Rock solid build quality
• Whisper  quiet performance

Cons

• Cooling performance could be a little better given price tag

“If you don’t mind paying a little extra for quiet performance, rock solid build quality and flawless style, then the be quiet! Dark Rock 3 is a great cooler, it’s cooling performance may not be ground breaking, but the trade-off is certainly worth it.”

Thank you be quiet! for providing us with this sample.