be quiet! Dark Rock SLIM review - Introduction

be quiet! Dark Rock SLIM 

be quiet! has been quite successful with their Dark Rock series cooler, this round they offer the Dark Rock SLIM. With totally black looks the cooler comes with a single radiator, one fan and takes and all that offering cooling performance up-to 180 Watts of cooling power, enough for any modern processor and some tweaking of course as well. The cooler is called Dark Rock for the sole reason that in its entirety it is all black with even the radiator fins powder coated in an all black design, will that extra coating have an adverse effect on cooling performance? It comes fitted with one silent wing revision 3 fan, 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. Be quiet! has made an announcement for their Dark Rock Slim, a compact high-end CPU cooler that offers high physical clearance for any memory module. With a supported TDP of up to 180 watts, Dark Rock Slim offers enough headroom for silently cooling any mainstream processor while keeping the space above occupied RAM slots clear. Dark Rock Slim is part of the Dark Rock 4 cooler family and works with all current Intel and mainstream AMD sockets. Cooling characteristics, performance and appearance are inspired by the Dark Rock 4 series, with the new compact heat sink providing high clearance for better RAM compatibility. Its high 180-watt cooling performance is achieved with a low noise level, which is a result of a perfect synergy between cooling fan, heat sink and heat pipe design. Dark Rock Slim will hit retail and online stores at an MSRP of €57.90 / £54.99 / $59.90.

With that out of the way, let's have a peek as to how it looks and what the cooling performance looks like.