be quiet! has always been a brand which has had silence as a fundamental attribute in their product development and Dark Rock TF uses this to strike a fine balance between low-noise and performance. Included with this cooler are two SilentWings 135mm fans which, even when running at the full speed of 1400RPM are barely audible.

If we took Dark Rock TF on just its physical appearance we’d whole heartedly confess this cooler is a exquisite piece of kit. Aesthetically, be quiet! has done a great job – Dark Rock TF will easily pair up with a wide-selection of hardware and will look superb while doing so.

In our testing we found Dark Rock TF to be a great all-round offering. The standard of dual-heatsink coolers is very high and top-flow configurations like Dark Rock TF will always struggle to achieve the same results yet this cooler still performs very well with Intel’s high-end enthusiast chips under stock conditions. We have to reinforce that our overclocked testing involves some very challenging hardware – we use the Intel Core i7-3930K with a significantly big overclock applied and this can be regarded as one of the most severe “worst case scenarios” and as expected Dark Rock TF did struggle. One of the factors involved is probably the limitation of just 1400RPM, but as previously stated, it is be quiet’s philosophy to stand by silence.


Through the passive testing – with no cooling fans attached and the CPU at stock settings the Dark Rock TF did an admirable job at cooling and likewise, monitoring the chipset temperatures revealed significant benefits when using a top-flow cooler like this against a standard dual-tower design.

Dark Rock TF’s appeal will likely stem from its ability to be situated in cases with restrictions for the physical dimensions.

The SRP for Dark Rock TF is as follows: $79.90 USD / £62 GBP / €86 EU. This translates to good value for money when carefully considering the entire package which includes two SilentWings fans, a low-profile cooling solution, decent performance and low-noise operation.

Dark Rock TF is an aesthetic masterpiece. This delightful top-flow cooler oozes quality and strikes the fine balance between low-noise and performance.





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