be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 33. Installation4. Testing Methodology5. Thermal Performance6. Acoustic Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Thermal Performance Test Procedures:

• Idle temperatures are obtained after sitting at the desktop for 15 minutes.
• Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95 in the ‘Small FFTs' mode for 15 minutes.
• We tested with our CPU set at 3.9GHz (typical multi-core turbo speed of most motherboards) using a BIOS-set voltage of 1.200V (in the region of most common MCT voltages).
• We repeated testing with our CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz (45x multiplier, 100MHz base clock) using a BIOS-set voltage of 1.325V.
• The cooler's fans are set to 100% to eliminate inaccuracies due to dynamic PWM fan speed adjustments.
• The supplied thermal paste is used to provide an accurate interpretation of the cooler's out-of-the-box performance.
• We use HWMonitor to measure the CPU temperature.
• CPU temperature recording is precise to +/- 0.5°C. Ambient temperature recording is precise to +/- 0.05°C.
• Ambient temperature was maintained at 22°C.

Acoustic Performance Test Procedures:

• We measure the noise output of our entire system from a distance of 1m while the CPU cooler's fans operates at 100% (indicating the maximum noise output).
• We set the case and motherboard fans to minimum speed (hence noise) and avoid using a discrete GPU to isolate the CPU cooler's noise output.

Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 4770K Retail (3.9GHz forced turbo [manually set to 1.200V] and 4.5GHz OC [manually set to 1.325V]).
• Motherboard: ASRock Z87 OC Formula.
• Memory: 8GB (2x 4GB) G.Skill RipjawsX (F3-2133C9Q-16GXL) 2133MHz 9-11-11-31.
• Graphics Card: Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum 3GB.
• System Drive: 500GB Samsung 840 Series SSD.
• Case: NZXT Phantom 630.
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000W.
• Thermal Paste: Supplied Corning TC-5121 thermal paste.

Comparison Coolers:

• Noctua NH-D14 (100% fan speed).
• Corsair H100i (100% fan speed).

Software:

• CPUID HWMonitor.
• Prime95.
• Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit.

Become a Patron!