Water coolers have slowly become the norm thanks to it becoming more affordable than ever. However, that does not mean air coolers have lost their place in the CPU cooler market. As a matter of fact, there are many reasons to still stick with them, such as better reliability, easier to maintain, and cost.
Which brings us to the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, a dual tower air cooler that promises high thermal performance and low noise.
Table of Contents
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 – Specifications
| Model | Dark Rock Pro 4 |
| TDP (W) | 250 |
| Dimensions W/O Mounting (L x W x H) | 121 x 136 x 163mm |
| Total weight | 1.13kg |
| Socket Compatibility | Intel: 1700 / 1200 / 2066 / 1150 / 1151 / 1155 / 2011(-3) Square ILM AMD: AM4, AM5 |
| Noise Level @ 50/75/100% (rpm) | 12.8 / 17.9 / 24.3 dB(A) |
| Number of fans | 135mm x 1 120mm x 1 |
What’s In The Box?
- Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
- User manual
- Screwdriver
- Mounting hardware
- Fan splitter
- 135mm fan
- 120mm fan
- Thermal paste
Design
The Dark Rock Pro 4 is a beefy dual tower air cooler in an all-black finish. The top of the cooler is finished with a cover in a brushed metal finish. The cooler uses a 120mm Silent Wings fan, while the inner fan measures at 135mm. The smaller front fan allows more clearance to install memory kits.
Despite the size, the Dark Rock Pro 4 measures at only 163mm tall, which should fit in most ATX cases, though you might want to check clearance for mATX and smaller cases. You also get a variety of mounting options for Intel and AMD, all neatly packed in individual plastic packaging for ease of installation.
Installation
Due to its sheer size, There is little clearance around the motherboard to install the CPU cooler. As it may block off the fan headers and memory slots, I recommend getting to those before installing the tower.
There is a specific step there I had to screw the mounting hardware from the top cover. Fortunately, a screwdriver is included to make this process much easier.
All in all, it only took me 10 minutes to install the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4.
Test System
| CPU | Ryzen 7 5700G (OC |
| Motherboard | MSI B450M Mortar Max |
| RAM | Antec Katana 3,600Mhz 8GB x 4 |
| SSD | 2TB Western Digital SN770 |
| GPU | Sapphire Pulse RX 5600 XT |
| Case | NZXT H5 Flow |
| Thermal Paste | Cooler Master CryoFuze Violet |
Thermal Performance
The Dark Rock Pro 4 is rated up to a whopping 250W TDP, which is much higher than modern CPUs today. I set up two fan separate fan profiles, a silent profile which caps fan speed at 70%, and a performance profile that has a more aggressive fan curve that caps at 100%. I then ran Cinebench R23 for each profile. Here are the results for both.
Scenario 1 – No Overclock
| Fan Profile | Temperature |
| Silent | Idle: 49°C Peak: 65°C |
| Performance | Idle: 48°C Peak: 61°C |
Scenario 2 – All Cores Overclocked to 4.6Ghz
| Fan Profile | Temperature |
| Silent | Idle: 52°C Peak: 83°C |
| Performance | Idle: 50°C Peak: 79°C |
Noise
Using my silent profile, the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is barely audible even with the case open; and with the case closed, it is dead silent. Ramping up to the performance profile only increases the noise marginally. While it is audible at this profile, it is comparable to silent profiles on other air coolers. Impressive indeed.
Final Verdict
4.5 / 5The Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is a high performance air cooler that is also dead silent, easily trumping many water coolers at a similar price range.
As far as air coolers go, the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 combines exceptional thermal performance and dead silent fans, making it one of the best performing air coolers in the market.
For more information, please visit the Be Quiet! official website.
Where to buy: www.suncycle.com.my/where-to-buy
