Introduction

On this side of the pond be quiet isn't as popular a company as many others here. I have seen the name out and about on forums and in various news blasts, but I never really took a deep look into this German manufacturer. One immediately assumes that with a name like be quiet, silence is the main thing addressed with all of what they sell that is actively cooled.

Backed with SilentWings fans and what keeps the noise levels down in such products, they claim that, specifically in the CPU coolers, that these fans offer a perfect blend of near silent operation and the performance needed to still push a processor well into the overclocked range and still have acceptable levels of control of the temperatures.

Being a company that has won various awards over their ten year history, one would think the US market would be flooded with their products, but it took me to go to their site to actually see the vast amount of products offered by be quiet. They cover power supplies for various factors including laptops, they offer various fans and a noise absorber kit and it seems they have six various designs in CPU cooling currently listed. Of these there is the Shadow Rock and Dark Rock series of coolers and it is from the latter series that our first sample derives.

As I looked around at all the products I found two things that seemed to be universal to all of their offerings. All of the coolers have the SilentWings fans attached to them and all of the offerings are black in color. What separate them are fan size, TDP capabilities and the style of the coolers with the C-type, the tower and the twin-tower designs.

With no preconceived notions, or anything to go off of with be quiet, this venture will be as new to me as I test and use the Dark Rock 2 CPU cooler. Looking at the information provided on the site, I do hope this cooler is in fact silent and is able to handle my hot processor as I put it through its paces. As I mentioned, with a company name like be quiet, I think the sound issues being taken care of is a given, it's more the fact of what is their version of "acceptable performance levels" when I turn up the heat and really push the Dark rock 2.

Stick it out through the specifications and the images, as I think the results will not only speak for themselves, but may make be quiet a name you won't soon forget when it comes to purchasing your next CPU air cooler.