be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler Review

TECHNOLOGY X TEST PROTOCOL

At Technology X, we test our CPU coolers slightly different depending upon the cooler’s marketed purpose, whether it be for a silent operation or extreme overclocking.  Our goal is to test in a system that has been optimized with our SSD Optimization Guide, however, CPU C State alteration may or may not have occurred depending on the motherboard and BIOS configurations. Additionally, we also try to include links to the benchmarks used in our report so that you as the reader can replicate our tests to confirm that your cooler performs the way it should.

TECHNOLOGY X TEST BENCH

This Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchases; our appreciation goes to the below mentioned manufacturers for their support in our project. All of the components we use for testing and evaluation can be easily purchased at a relatively affordable price. The links provided below can assist in pricing, as well as availability for those of you who may find interest in our equipment.

AIDA64

In order to test our CPU cooler, we’ll be running a CPU stress test and monitoring our temperatures using AIDA64, which is a great utility for benchmarking, testing the stability of, and monitoring your system.

COOLING PERFORMANCE

To test our cooler, we ran AIDA64’s ‘System Stability Test’ for 1 hour and recorded the highest temperature reached on any core. We did so at both the stock core frequency of our Intel Core i7 3770K, as well as overclocked to 4.2GHz.

During all tests our ambient temperature was approximately 26C while the cooler’s intake temperature was a slightly warmer 28C.

Once overclocked, we can see an increase of 52C from our air intake temperature. The overall performance of the Dark Rock Pro 3 is fairly decent, and that of what we would expect from a high performance cooler.

REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS

The be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 is a little pricey, even for that of a high-end performer. However, it is big, quiet and performs exceptionally well under pressure. So the price is a small trade off that may be worth it, if your budget allows it.

With the exciting performance to keep our older CPU cool under a decent overclock, and a dead silence while doing so, we can definitely recommend the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3! This is perfect for anyone serious about achieving a decent overclock without going to LN2 or AIO coolers. We are proud to award be quiet! with our Gold Seal of Approval!

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