be quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler Review

be quiet! Dark Rock 3 Overview
The Dark Rock 3 is a single tower cooler. Its official dimensions with the fan attached are 97 mm x 137 mm x 160 mm (LxWxH). The cooler also weighs in at 976 grams and has a cooling capacity of 190W TDP.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

The fan on the cooler comes attached and is one of be quiet’s own Silent Wings fans. This fan is 135 mm x 135 mm x 22 mm (LxWxH). The fan has a maximum speed of 1400 RPM which equates to 67.8 CFM. The fan is attached to the heatsink tower by metal clips. be quiet! actually gives you an extra set of metal clips if you wanted to install a second fan on the backside of the cooler.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

On thing that I’ve always liked about be quiet! CPU cooler is that most of them have a metal top cover. The metal top cover on the Dark Rock 3 is made of aluminum and has the be quiet! logo on it. Of course this is what everyone will see if you do have a window on your case.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

Looking at the Dark Rock 3 from the side we can see that it is a single tower cooler and it is not overly thick. This should provide room for memory that has larger heatspreaders attached.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

The back of the cooler is plain and there is no fan attached. be quiet! does include fan clips if you wanted to add a secondary fan.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

There are a total of six, 6mm copper heatpipes. These heatpipes are designed in a “U” formation to take heat from the base of the cooler up into the heatsink stack. These heatpipes go directly into the base of the cooler, but will not make direct contact with your CPU.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

One thing that is interesting about this cooler is that there is a smaller secondary heatsink that is right on the cooler base itself. This should add another helping hand in the cooling process.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

The Dark Rock Pro 3 has a nice smooth base that will make direct contact with your CPU. There are no visible machining marks here. The base is made of nickel-plated copper.

be quiet! Dark Rock 3

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