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The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced manages to capture the attractive aesthetics of it's bigger brother, the Dark Rock Pro, despite the more compact form factor. The black and nickel colour scheme is sure to fit in well aesthetically with many system builds so we expect to see a number attractive looking rigs based around this cooler.
Our main concern with this range is the fiddly mounting mechanism that really complicates the installation process. Even though the cooler is compatible with every socket used for the last few years, we wouldn't mind sacrificing compatibility with some of the older AMD sockets for a simpler design like Noctua's.
We were quite pleased with the temperature results that we recorded with the Dark Rock Advanced and we were able to achieve a reasonable stable overclock without too much work. We did manage to achieve some higher overclocks without any more voltage demands, but these weren't completely stable. The low noise level of this cooler is a big selling point and really lives up to the Be Quiet!'s name. Those with sensitive ears will love this design.
As we mentioned earlier in the review, the Dark Rock Advanced can be purchased for a shade under £40 at Overclockers which we think offers reasonable value for money. That said, there is a lot of competition in the market around this price point from a handful of different manufacturers. For example, the impressive Noctua U12P cooler can be had for only around £4-5 more and the mounting mechanism is far superior.
Pros
- Beautiful design
- Good cooling performance
- Very quiet fan
Cons
- Complicated mounting system
- Can only be mounted vertically on AMD
KitGuru says: If you value low noise and don't want to compromise on cooling efficiency then this certainly is a great product.
They really are some of the best looking coolers on the market.
I have this cooler and its fantastic. I use it on a 2600k and I run it with a moderate overclock. the noise is superb. thats why I bought it. good review Henry
Excellent looking cooler. THey should do a giant one like the D14…… with their quiet fans. id buy it
After about 5 minutes of BIOS buildup tweaking, I got my Phenom II x4 955 to 4GHz and it idles at 28-30C and stays at 45-46C under 100% load.
This cooler is amazing!
going from my old PC where the temperatures range from 44C(idle)-60C(load) (using the same 955 CPU + stock cooler)
The new build uses the antec 300 case with 5 fans if anyone is interested
I am sure this cooler is brilliant on most rigs, however i dont think i can get it sitting right with my 990fx asrock board. my fx8120 hits 62/63c easily under load which indicates to me its not cooling properly. the cooler plate is still cold and before i put some better thermal paste on my cpu was hitting 70c on prime95.