be quiet! Dark Rock 4, BK021, 200W TDP, CPU Cooler

While looking for a sleek black CPU cooler that wasn’t too loud I ended up looking at the be quiet! line of coolers. I had been recommended Noctua’s coolers but their rollout of black coolers had been quite slow at the time.The Dark Rock 4 offers solid cooling for my Ryzen 5 3600X (and probably others in a similar tier), looks great and is very quiet compared to its immediate counterparts. As is the case with all CPU coolers there’s a bit of installation required but it’s relatively straightforward. If you’re looking for more cooling you can check out the bigger Dark Rock Pro 4.

NOTE: I had never installed a new cooler before, so this is a review from someone who watches too much YouTube but doesn't have a lot of experience building PCs. Shoutout to LTT & JTC's videos!SETUP:- Case: NZXT H500- CPU: Ryzen 7 5800x- Cooler: Dark Rock 4- Motherboard: Aorus B450 Elite- Case Fans: 2x (later upgraded to 4x)- GPU: RTX 3080NEGATIVE(S): The only annoying thing is that the cooler ships only with one side of rubber rails to separate fan from cooler (to minimize vibration, increase tension in mount, etc.), meaning you basically can't (by default) put a fan on the other side (whether just for orientation, for pull / push-pull fan setups). HOWEVER, I reached out to Be Quiet support, and within a few hours they responded and already agreed to kindly ship extra rubber rails so I can mount a fan to the other side. Super responsive, professional, and fast customer service, easily the best I've had in a long while. In all, while annoying to discover this issue during installation, meh.KEEP IN MIND: For people wanting to run 4x RAM slots with the air cooler & fan mounted in the standard way (push or push/pull air from front -> back), you will likely run into the issue I mention above, and I'd recommend my solution of mounting the fan the same but moving the fan to the back for a Pull configuration while asking Be Quiet for the extra set of rubber rails. However, if you're only running 2x RAM slots or you're orienting your fan vertically (push or pull air from bottom -> top), you should be totally fine (though again, depending on your motherboard).POSITIVES: Other than the issue above, installation was straightforward, and I made sure to make some beautiful modern art with my Thermal Paste application. For people who haven't watched as much YouTube... thermal paste application style in general doesn't matter (thermals test very similar) as long as you don't use too much or too little, but the Dark Rock 4 provides a good amount in the box. All the parts were present, with an added bonus that they actually ship a GREAT free screwdriver in the box, which actually was better than my 2 screwdrivers I already had.Performance is surprisingly top-tier for what seems like a mid-tier model. For others looking for an air cooler for the new Ryzens (without doing some intensive CPU OC), I don't think you even need to go for the Pro model (though I'm sure it wouldn't hurt). My 5800x runs incredibly cool and nowhere near the max temp (90C), with idling at ~35C and peak loads at ~65C or 70C occasionally. The fan is much quieter than my other fans so I don't think I can even notice it. I was afraid I'd need a bigger air cooler (think Dark Rock Pro 4 or larger Noctua), but clearly I was completely fine. Running stock (no OC), this has helped me get above-average benchmarks.SUMMARY: In general, this air cooler is fantastic and customer support is great. Unless you're doing some crazy stuff (e.g. OCing on a 5950x), I'm pretty sure this cooler will be completely fine for your daily use. One issue did exist, but their great customer service handled that like pros and inspired me to write this review simply based on their performance.

** If you are getting this for a 12th gen intel CPU, you many need an additional 1700 bracket!**This cooler is compatible, but since intel switched up their mounting so much, manufacturers have not yet had time to include the newest bracket with all their products. be quiet! handles this very well though, as they sent me one for free. On their website, you can buy one for cheap, or upload an invoice for a 1700 socket mobo and an invoice for a compatible be quiet! cooler, and they'll send it. I got mine in less than a week.I have built dozens of PCs, and I come back to be quiet! dark rock CPU coolers whenever I get the chance. Their performance rivals top water coolers with a much cleaner look in my opinion. I much prefer air coolers to AIO water loops as they are often quieter, take up less space, and most importantly, they have a MUCH longer life span. The Dark Rock series has great performance, is always quiet, and I really just like the way it looks.

This review is for the Dark Rock 4 installed on a Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 5 with an i5 8600k. The Dark Rock 4 is a very good cooler as far as quality of materials goes but I did have some problems with installation.So first the good. Like I said, the quality is good, the metal for the fins is nice and thick unlike others I've had and there is no worry of bending plus the black just looks great. The fan wires already come sleeved so that's another plus. The distance of the fan from the motherboard is easily adjustable using the wire clips so it makes it easy to clear your RAM because this cooler is huge. They even include a lengthy screwdriver to make the installation a little easier. So far I'm getting idle temps of around 37C and full load temps of 78C on a 4.7Ghz overclock using 1.32v from the stock 3.6Ghz.Now the bad. I only had one issue with this installation but it was a pretty big deal. When securing the heat sink to the motherboard, it was not tight against the CPU and there was a gap of about 0.4 of a millimeter which allowed the whole cooler to rotate side to side and move up and down. I checked and rechecked the installation. All of the correct hardware was used and everything was installed correctly with the correct tolerances. I took the cooler off, cleaned the thermal paste, and reinstalled everything three times just to make sure it wasn't user error. Nothing I did made a difference. The only way I could get the cooler to properly seat on the CPU was to put a piece of heat shrink tubing in between the brace that screws into the bracket and the heat sink.Overall I would still recommend this cooler to people but just be aware of possible issues when it comes to clearances and do not install it and power everything on without checking first.