Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced

Results Analysis

Noise wasn’t an issue with the Dark Rock Advanced – it’s one of the quietest coolers we’ve had the pleasure of barely hearing. Even with the fan at full speed, it was far quieter than both of the Thermaltake coolers on their lowest fan speed settings. The Gelid Tranquillo and Alpenfohn Matterhorn were also noticeably louder.

Despite the low noise levels, the Dark Rock Advanced’s fan still moves a lot of air. It was just 4˚C warmer than the Thermaltake Frio with its fans on full speed in our LGA1155 system with a delta T of 53˚C.

Our Socket AM3 system continued its trend of favouring high airflow coolers however, with the Dark Rock Advanced earning a less distinguished delta T of 33˚C, which is 13˚C warmer than the Frio but still 9˚C cooler than the Gelid Tranquillo and a massive 32˚C cooler than the reference cooler.

The Dark Rock Advanced’s performance in our Socket AM3 system was a little disappointing given its prowess in our LGA1155 system, but our overclocked 6-core Phenom II CPU demands high airflow to get rid of all its waste heat. Given how quiet the Dark Rock Advanced was, though, it’s still worth considering.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a cooler for your shiny new LGA1155 system the Dark Rock Advanced has everything you want. It coped admirably with our 4.6GHz overclocked Core i7-2600K CPU and put many other coolers to shame with its ultra-low noise levels. At £40, it’s the same price as the Frio, but while the latter was 4˚C cooler, this was using its maximum fan speed, which is unpleasantly noisy.

In contrast, the Dark Rock Advanced is quieter than the Frio at its lowest fan speed, but just 2˚C warmer. That’s a worthy compromise for a more pleasant PC experience.
 
AMD Socket AM3 Scores

• Cooling
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Design
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

Intel LGA1155 Scores

• Cooling
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Design
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• 9/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• 8/10

Score Guide