be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 CPU Cooler Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 CPU cooler is available now from most major retailers and OCUK stock it for £59.99. While this isn’t cheap, but be quiet! build quality and their 3-year warranty go a long way to justifying that. Even one of those fans doesn’t get you change from £20 on their own, but they are very nice.

Overview

There’s certainly a market for this cooler, but it’s not a big one. For those building an HTPC system, perhaps one with a GPU in it, so there are at least a few inches of height, this cooler is ideal. A large tower cooler or AIO liquid cooler typically wouldn’t fit. The Top Flow 2 manages to keep a large surface area and lays the tower parallel to the motherboard. This cuts down on the space but doesn’t cut down the surface area.

Performance

The performance of this cooler is pretty decent. It’s certainly better than the piddly little low-profile coolers that are on the market. I mean stuff like a stock cooler or similar models from other manufacturers. However, how well it performs is very dependant on your CPU. For our overclocked i7-7700K, I think we need a bigger cooler. If you’re not overclocking though, and many don’t want to or don’t even have an overclocking CPU, then it’ll make light work of it.

The fan is whisper quiet too. If you are building an HTPC or living room focused system, silence is a big deal. Noctua’s NH-D15S just won’t fit in many HTPC chassis, and the be quiet! certainly, will.

Mounting Kit!

However, the bad news is I hate that mounting kit. Unfortunately, the whole thing feels outdated, clunky and like an afterthought. Cryorig and Noctua use holes in their coolers so a screwdriver can reach. However, rival products performed great even with those holes, so this is something I really hope be quiet! address in their upcoming products.

Pros

• Stylish design
• Great quality 135mm fan
• Trusted brand name
• Great for HTPC
• 3-year warranty
• Competitive performance

Cons

• Not ideal for heavy overclocking (i7-7700K 5 GHz tested)
• Clunky mounting kit

Neutral

• A little expensive and targets a small part of the market