At last, be quiet! is renewing its range of high-end aircooling ventirads. To do so, the company is highlighting two references with the Dark Rock Elite and Dark Rock Pro 5. If you’re familiar with the brand, you’ll have an idea which product we’re dealing with. Anyway, we’ve received both models, so we’ll see what concrete difference there is between them, here we go!
Presentation:
The Dark Rock Pro series of heatsinks represents the top-of-the-range range from be quiet! To achieve this, the company opts for a double-tower design for its fans, backed up by top-of-the-range fans. Ultimately, the difference between the Dark Rock Elite and Dark Rock Pro 5 lies in the ventilation and TDPs managed by these two models.
In both cases, our German heatsinks boast top-level performance. This is made possible by the use of a total of seven copper heat pipes and a black coating containing ceramic particles.
Otherwise, our two heatsinks benefit from a nickel-plated copper base. This makes them compatible with liquid metal. As a reminder, this type of TIM(Thermal Interface Material) is absolutely not recommended if your heatsink uses an aluminum base. On the other hand, it performs much better than traditional paste, helping to gain degrees on the processor.
To easily manage fan speed, there’s a selector positioned under the upper fan cover. Depending on its position, the selector allows you to increase silence or temperature. The maximum speed of the mills can be set to 2000 rpm or 1500 rpm.
In both cases, ventilation promises to be high-performance, since we’re dealing with Silent Wings-type grinders. There is a slight difference in the choice of fans. The Dark Rock Elite uses two 135 mm Silent Wings, while the Pro 5 benefits from a 120 mm model at the front and a second 135 mm fan in the center. As the Dark Rock Elite uses a double 135 mm, the fan will be rail-mounted to ensure good RAM compatibility.
As for prices, the be quiet! heatsinks are set to be highly priced, with the Dark Rock Pro 5 already priced at €99.90 and the Dark Rock Elite at €114.90. It remains to be seen whether these prices will be met in retail outlets. In the meantime, they’re obvious rivals to the Assassin IV and MA824 Stealth.
