be quiet! Dark Rock PRO TR4 review - Introduction

be quiet! Dark Rock PRO TR4 
Dual rad & dual fans good enough to cool 32 cores and 64 threads?

We review another be quiet! Dark Rock series cooler, this is the PRO TR4 with that TR short for Threadripper. The black look be quiet!  flagship cooler comes with two radiator towers, two fans and takes up that cooling performance towards 250 Watts of cooling power, enough for Ryzen Threadripper, or is it? 

The all too familiar looking flagship cooler comes with two radiators, two fans and takes up that cooling performance towards 250 Watts of cooling power, enough for any processor and some tweaking of course as well. Looking closer at the Dark Rock PRO TR4 one could say it kind of resembles the D15 here, however, this one is powder coated in an all black design, will that extra coating have an adverse effect on cooling performance? It comes fitted with two silent wing fans, in the middle a 135mm and at the top a 120mm one.

There really aren't any bad performing coolers being produced anymore. For every segment and budget, you can find something you need. The market stabilized and within the entire range and scope of heatpipe based coolers, there's a certain comfort zone with a corresponding product available. As a result, most of the coolers available on the market are all adequate at the very least. There are always exceptions to this, there's a handful of manufacturers out there that offer the really interesting stuff, the kit and gear that really stand out from the cooling crowd, the hardware you and me crave and need so badly... that is in the enthusiast domain of gaming hardware. And that's where we need to make a stop at Be Quiet! as they often tick all the right boxes. Actually, be quiet! launches two products in the Dark Rock 4 series, we'll split these into two reviews as both deserve their own content. The two models are the Dark Rock Pro 4 and Pro editions, successors to the Dark Rock Pro 3 processor cooler, both of them keeping most of its silence and performance features compared to the model 3 versions.

Dark Rock Pro TR4 offers a cooling performance of 250W TDP and virtually inaudible operation. Excellent for high-end systems and demanding workstations.

• Designed for AMD TR4 only
• Two virtually inaudible Silent Wings PWM fans 
• Funnel-shaped frame of the front fan for high air pressure
• Achieves only 24.3dB(A) at maximum fan speed 
• Seven high-performance copper heat pipes 
• Airflow-optimized cooling fins; cutouts enhance the RAM compatibility 
• Easily installable black installation kit can be mounted from above 
• Brushed aluminum top cover with diamond cut finish 
• 3-year manufacturer’s warranty 

The dual-tower design for the Pro TR4 (and Pro 4) increased the cooling TPD to 250W without losing the silence aspect. Have a peek at the model tested below; today we'll throw AMD's finest at it, that would be the Threadripepr 2990WX with its insane 32 cores and 64-threads. Next page, please.