Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced Cooler4. Installing the Dark Rock Advanced5. Testing Methodology and Performance6. Final Thoughts7. View All Pages

Unfortunately, the Dark Rock Advanced shares the same troublesome mounting mechanism as it's bigger brother.  This isn't helped by the installation guide which isn't the best we've ever encountered.

First of all, we must locate the appropriate holes on the cooler backplate for the socket type of the motherboard.  We used a Crosshair V Formula motherboard for our tests which uses the AM3+ socket type.  There are mounting accessories provided for all recent socket types for both Intel and AMD systems.  More specifically, the cooler supports Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155 and LGA775 and AMD Socket AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, 939 and 940.

Once we’ve identified the correct holes in the backplate, we can push the four screws through it and secure it to the motherboard using the four rubber bands provided.

Next we must attach the appropriate brackets to the CPU block of the cooler using the four provided screws.  Then we have to apply the TIM to the CPU. For our tests we are using Arctic Cooling MX-3 thermal compound rather than the one that Be Quiet! provide.

Next comes the most difficult part of the installation process, screwing down the CPU cooler. This has to be done from the underside of the motherboard, securing the screws into the cooler.  This could be very awkward to do if the motherboard is already installed in a case as you have to hold the CPU cooler in place while you screw it in from the other side.

With the motherboard removed from the system, the easiest way to do this is to place the CPU Cooler and motherboard upside down which allows you to hold it all in place from the reverse side of the motherboard.

As we are forced to mount the cooler facing upwards on our AMD motherboard, there is a possibility of RAM clearance issues.  On our motherboard we were able to easily access the rightmost three RAM slots but this will depend on your motherboard.  If you use low-profile memory, though, there shouldn't be any issues at all.

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