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The cooler itself has a stylish polished black and brushed steel aesthetic with a raised be quiet! logo and a large 135mm fan with wave contoured fins that make this cooler truly impressive to the eye. The fan is connected via a metal clip directly to the side of the heatsink along with an anti vibration rubber ring to reduce noise.
The Dark Rock 2 bears a very striking resemblance to the original Dark Rock Advanced and upon close inspection the heatsink appears to have remained unchanged but with the increased fan size this cooler should offer superior performance.
Being a tower heatsink, the cooler is 166mm tall so will require a rather spacious case as with most tower coolers, despite the size, the cooler feels really stable when mounted. The 135mm fan is incredibly quiet both idle and at load, sadly no option was included to mount a second fan for a push/pull configuration.
The 6 x 6mm copper heatpipes, 44 aluminium heatsink fins and the CNC machined copper CPU contact plate give the Dark Rock 2 a respectable 180TDP which, for a cooler this quiet, is a good amount.
Luckily the Dark Rock 2 comes with an installation guide for the various supported sockets; this guide is very simple yet effective to communicate the installation process. I will be documenting the installation on an AM2+ motherboard.
First we’re required to attach the backplate to the CPU socket which is secured by 4 long screws and held in place by 4 plastic clips, the remainder of the screws will later be used to secure the heatsink. If using a LGA 2011 motherboard, the backplate isn’t necessary.
Next, we attach the correct retention bracket for your socket as detailed in the instructions. Brackets for all supported sockets are supplied.
Then we must apply thermal paste before finally placing the cooler down and screwing it in via the back plate.
