Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
When it comes to a modern, no-nonsense, no-overclock build, Shadow Rock Slim 2 checks all of the necessary boxes. Be quiet!'s compact cooler is priced competitively and promises mainstream performance and lesser noise, albeit with a three-year warranty.
Performance
With a fan that is almost half the size of many other coolers, Be Quite not only competes on the thermal front, but they also do so with some of the lowest noise levels of any fan tested in the industry. While we state the Shadow Rock Slim 2 is definitely not a thermal ruler, it was never designed to be used in that capacity. That you'll need to keep in mind that, as this is a mid-range cooling solution from Be Quiet that is both affordable and reasonably effective. The symmetrical design, the thinness of the cooler, and the clearance for RAM in front of and behind the cooler are all wonderful, and the cooler was a breeze to install, as was the case with all of the other components.
Acoustics
Excellent, we can put this discussion to rest right there! With regards to the product's noise levels, we found it to be extremely quiet at default settings (not overclocked), and yes, we did achieve 32 DBa with the default fan profile, which cannot be heard, this was at full processor load. Even at 1.30-1.35 Volts (tweaked), the noise levels remain very silent as well. After 1.35 Volts, we simply don't have enough cooling performance left to continue. Overall, and particularly when set to defaults, this is a silent piece of technology.
Final Words
Honestly, when receiving the Shadow Rock Slim 2 CPU cooler from be quiet! I didn't have great expectations for how well it would perform. It is true that it has been seven years since the debut of the original Shadow Rock Slim model, but to put it plain, the inclusion of a single additional fin and an heatpipe base did not feel significant enough. The updated model offers close to the same performance. And yes, it is unable to compete with a larger model heatpipe cooler, of course. But again, this is intended as an affordable mainstream cooling solution. Exceptional is this; the Shadow Rock Slim 2 CPU Cooler is designed to be as quiet as possible and does exactly that. The price of this CPU cooler is actually reasonable, especially when you consider its low noise levels, and the fact that it has zero clearance on the motherboard. Installation is a breeze, thanks to plenty of room for memory and only a single connection to deal with. Some users may prefer a black finish, the silver brushed-aluminum finish works well for many. The be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 2 is an affordable cooler that you can't go wrong with if you stick at processor defaults. And silent, it absolutely is.
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