be quiet! Dark Rock PRO TR4 review

Cooling 189 Page 10 of 10 Published by

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Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

It is of course rather unique to test a Threadripper cooler, it's a small market segment, but a product range with a huge impact. So it's nice to see cooler manufacturers provide solutions for it. Now, we fired off AMDs biggest and most bad-ass processor at the Dark Rock Pro TR4, and admittedly I am impressed. The 32-core beast is tamed really well by the cooler. Also, I need to say that AMD, of course, made an excellent processor series that remains fairly cool, but this 250 Watt cooler with the processors at default will keep the product chilled totally at incredibly low noise levels.

Aesthetics

The reason I like the Dark Rock Pro 4 series this much has a lot to do with its all dark looks, the coated fins, the dark black top cover, even the heatpipes received that dark treatment, and then sure, the fans are dark as well. Most motherboards these days are all based on a black PCB, ergo this is a cooler that matches. So from an aesthetic point of view, these just look great. However, taste is a subjective thing. One remark I must make is that powder coated products are very sensitive, it damages quite easy and thus scratches and what not are visible fast. Even clipping on the metal fan retention clips, resulted in a tiny bit of damage, making that metal underneath is visible. BTW even these metal clips have received a treatment to make them look dark.I do have to say one thing though, the X399 motherboards are made and design to look fantastic with a stealthy design and RGB  fun. The Dark Rock pro TR4 is taking away the looks of the motherboard, personally, I'd prefer a nice LCS kit, then again, if you really hate liquid cooling, a heat pipe cooler is your next best alternative. 


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Cooling performance

The cooler performs well. We tested with the incredible Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, on purpose. At defaults your hit the ~65 Degrees C marker with all cores under load, I do have to state that you will need proper ventilation inside your chassis. If the heat gets trapped inside the chassis, temps will rise/ryze ;) Overclocked at 4100 Mhz/ all 32 cores / 1.4v the cooler still can manage, albeit that 83 Degrees C domain is a little too hefty for my taste ling term. Here I would definitely opt LCS for a bit more cooling capacity. 

Acoustics

Absolutely brilliant, for noise levels, at defaults (not overclocked) this is an incredible silent product, on our MSI motherboard we simply leave the default fan profile for what it is, and yeah we reached 31 DBa under full processor load. Overclocked the fan RPmM goes up significantly though at 38 DBa you are still at a normal acoustic level. 

Pricing

The kit as tested today will cost roughly 89 USD / Euro, street prices are a bit lower. be quiet! offers a 3-year manufacturer’s warranty.



Guru3d-recommended

Final Words

There is little you can't like about this product. With our 32-core headed beast remaining at default clocks, it cools well and remains totally silent. Tweaked things change quickly however that is expected and still at an acceptable threshold. The looks are great, however with motherboards becoming sexier each year in looks, aesthetics, and design I do think that the big dark block sitting on top of the motherboard takes away a lot of eye-candy, visually that is. For those that hate applying any form of liquid to their setup, yeah for them this probably is among the best heatpipe based coolers available. If you leave things at defaults you'll be amazed by the sheer silence. And specifically for that category of people, the cooler comes highly recommended. 

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