be quiet! Dark Rock 5 Review

Enos Tech Verdict

Purchase the Dark Rock 5 – £69 on Amazon UK / $80.66 on Amazon US

The be quiet! Dark Rock 5 is a stylish all-black air cooler that packs a punch for its size when it comes to cooling performance. For those who are not interested in RGB, this will be a solid cooler to help keep your CPU temps within reason.

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Be quiet! has released a mainstream air cooler named Dark Rock 5. This is a single tower configuration comprising 6x copper heat pipes with nickel-plated copper base and stepped fin design. The salient features include:

• 6 advanced high-performance heat pipes
• Silent Wings 4 120mm PWM fan for perfect air pressure and virtually inaudible operation
• High RAM and VRM cooler compatibility thanks to an asymmetrical design and cut-outs on the heat sink
• Achieves only 29.8dB(A) at maximum fan speed
• Special black coating with ceramic particles enables perfect heat transfer and elegant look
• A second fan can optionally be installed at the exhaust for even higher air pressure

Product:               be quiet! Dark Rock 5

Price:                    MSRP €69.90

Specifications

Packing and Unboxing

The product is shipped inside a cardboard box in a black color theme.

The following are provided in the box:

• 2x AMD Mounting Brackets
• 4x AMD Spacers
• 4x AMD Screws
• 1x Intel Backplate
• 4x Intel Screws for backplate
• 4x Intel Rubber washers for backplate
• 2x Intel Mounting Brackets
• 4x Standoff Screws
• 1x Thermal Paste
• 1x Long Neck Screwdriver

Closer Look

Let’s take a look at the cooler and see its design and layout.

The dimension of the cooler is 101x136x161mm. Here 161mm is the height of this unit. The Dark Rock 5 has a weight of 1.03Kg. The new cooler is compatible with Intel LGA1150/1151/1155/1200/1700 sockets. It is compatible with AMD AM4 and AM5 sockets. There is no support for Intel LGA20xx so keep that in mind. The complete assembly is black ceramic color spray painted. The special black coating with ceramic particles makes a perfect transfer of heat possible.

There is a stylish plastic shroud on the top. It is vented and has be quiet! branding in the center. It is magnetically attached, making its handling convenient. You can change the direction of the cover as well which would come in handy regardless of the orientation of the heatsink.

I have removed the top cover. You can see a single piece large size magnet with a strong force to keep the cover in its place. The terminating tips of the heat pipes are also visible. There is a hole on the side of the magnet holder. This is where you will pass the long-neck screwdriver during the installation.

The front side of the heatsink has a simple layout. There are 48+3 fins in total. These are also in black finish. The fins have a rounded design on the edges. This is a wise design that provides safety for the user. Sharp edges pose a threat to the hands. The step design provides clearance for the motherboard near the socket/VRM area.

I am showing the rear of the heatsink. Here we have an alternate arrangement of the fin plates in the groups of 8 and 7. The 7 groups are in an inset layout compared to the full width of 8 groups. There are three fin plates per group in 8 plates.

Looking at the side of the heatsink, we can notice three things:

1. The interlocking mechanism of the fins is located on the side.
2. The heatsink has an offset design to provide universal clearance for the DIMM slots.
3. There are insets where the hands of the fan clips are rested on.

The cooler comes with the mounting plate that is pre-installed on top of the base. This base area also has an aluminum heatsink design to provide maximum heat dissipation coverage. There are two screws for installing the cooler on the CPU socket.

There are a total of 6x copper heat pipes on this cooler. Each heat pipe has a thickness of 6mm. be quiet! has done a fantastic job by providing 6x pipes in a single tower configuration ensuring no performance compromise. Each heat pipe is also ceramic black color spray coated.

There is a nickel-plated copper base on this cooler measuring 42x40mm. There is a protective cover over this base. Don’t forget to peel it off before installing the cooler.

The cooler comes with a new generation of fan from be quiet!. It is Silent Wings 4 120mm PWM fan. I am not going into detail as we have done dedicated reviews of this generation. This fan has a dimension of 120x120x25mm. Its maximum speed is 2100 RPM generating 55 CFM at 12VDC at an air pressure of 2.73mmH₂O.

The fan uses a fluid dynamic bearing and has a 6-pole fan motor. The input current is rated at 0.10A. The input power is 2.4W. 29.8dB(A) is the sound level rating.

I am showing the backside of this fan. There is a 4-arms assembly on the backside. Each arm has a curvature providing a directional airflow. The funnel shape, closed frame design is apparent. One arm has a wider body and catches the wires coming from the center.

The power cable uses a 4-pin PWM connector.

Installation

We are not covering the installation of the coolers any longer. Please refer to the user manual. I have installed this cooler on AMD AM5 platform and did not observe any issue. The overall installation was quick and simple.

Clearance

This cooler has universal clearance for the RAM.

There is no obstruction for the PCIe slot.

The cooler provides a good clearance for the motherboard areas.

The height of this cooler is 161mm. You would need a 165mm clearance in your PC Case. Leaving some margin is fruitful.

Testing

I have used below mentioned configuration: –

• AMD Ryzen 7950X
• GIGABYTE X670E AORUS MASTER
• Kingston Renegade Fury 32GB 6400MHz CL32 DDR5 kit
• ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7600 Graphics Card for Display
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVME SSD
• Be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W Platinum PSU
• Open-Air Test Bench

Here is the settings table for testing:

Clock (MHz)	Auto
Voltage (V)	Auto
PBO	Advanced
PPT	165000 and 200000mW
TDC	480000
EDC	640000
Boost Clock Override	Auto
Platform Thermal Throttle Limit	Auto
Thermal Paste	Noctua NT-H1
Thermal Paste Application	Dots Method
Test Run Time	30 minutes
Idling Time	10 minutes
All Fans Speed	100% PWM Duty Cycle
Stress Software	CINEBENCH R23.2
Monitoring Software	HWINFO64

The testing is done on an open air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.

Result

Our main test is testing AMD Ryzen 9 7950X with 205W package power. I was hoping that this cooler would be able to handle this daunting task but I was wrong. However, the package power of 170W results in an 81ᵒC which is a good result from this cooler. The cooler was not loud at full speed.

Conclusion

Earlier I tested be quiet! flagship coolers which are the Dark Rock Pro 5 and Dark Rock Elite. This time I have tested a mainstream air cooler named Dark Rock 5. This cooler is rated for 210W TDP. I am sort of the person who ignores the TDP rating given the fact we don’t know the basis on which Intel and AMD set their power ratings. But still, it is a good indicator of what to expect from the cooler. This cooler is compatible with:

• Intel LGA1150/1151/1155/1200/1700 sockets
• AMD AM5 and AM5 sockets

There is no support for the Intel LGA20xx socket anymore.

This is a single tower configuration. The cooler has a dimension of 101x136x161mm where 161mm is the height of this cooler. The heatsink has a dimension of 76x136x161mm. It uses ceramic black color spray coating on the assembly for better heat transfer. The complete assembly is black in color including the heat pipes.

The heatsink has a step and offset design at a same time. The step design provides a better clearance for the near socket area of the motherboard whereas the offset design provides a universal clearance for the RAM. There are a total of 51 fins (48+3). The interlocking mechanism is on the side of the heatsink.

There are a total of 6x copper heat pipes with a thickness of 6mm. This is a beefy air cooling solution on the paper. The nickel-plated copper base can safely be used with liquid metal. It has a dimension of 42x40mm.

Be quiet! uses Silent Wings 4 120mm PWM fan with this cooler. This fan has a dimension of 120x120x25mm and is rated for a maximum of 2100 RPM speed. The airflow rating is 55 CFM. The air pressure is rated at 2.73mmH₂O. The sound level is rated as 29 dB(A). This fan does run silent. The fan is PWM regulated and uses fluid dynamic bearing. Optionally, you can buy a second fan for a push/pull configuration. Be quiet! has provided an extra set of fan clips for this purpose.

Installing this cooler on AMD AM5 platform requires 10x items. The bundled long-neck screwdriver is needed for the installation since the rear screw on the mounting plate is under the heatsink. Overall installation is a walk in the park and I did not observe any issue.

This cooler has MSRP of €69.90 and comes with a 3-year warranty. This cooler, like the ARCTIC Freezer 36 A-RGB Black cooler could not handle the 205W load on the 7950X but its performance was too good on 170W package power. It beats the ARCTIC cooler by over 4ᵒC margin.