Conclusion
When we started our adventure, we wanted to push air coolers to their limits and our test bench for AIO coolers with Intel 10980XE (18 cores clocked to 4.7GHz) was just too much for our air coolers. So, when testing the SilverStone AR01-V3 we went back to the drawing board and instead used our new air cooler test platform that sports an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X instead. Now, with this more appropriate platform, we can push our air coolers to their limits without burning down the house. So, let’s recap the performance below and see how the be quiet! Dark Pro 4 stood up!
Summary of Temperatures
The be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 was able to operate at its quietest configuration and maintain a temperature of 65.5 degrees Celsius with our test bench running at stock clocks. As we increased the overclock, we had to increase fan speed to prevent the PC from crashing. Ultimately, we were able to keep our AMD Ryzen 7 2700X in check at 4.1GHz at the Max fan setting, 1500 RPM setting, and 1000 RPM setting. Beyond that, the be quiet! Dark Pro 4 could not keep the system stable. Then again, the Dark Rock Pro 4 was the first air cooler we have seen to date that was able to keep our system running our Mild OC with just 1000RPM fan speed.
Summary of Sound Levels
At its fastest and slowest fan speed settings, the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 easily blended in with the ambient room sound levels and we could not hear a thing. This was sort of a trend for this unit as it was the quietest air cooler we have reviewed to date and, often, by a long shot!
Final Points
The be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is a slightly beefier cooler than our first entrant so our expectations are a bit higher than before as well. That said, after putting it through our gauntlet, we see that it compared well against all of our previous coolers when it came to cooling. Indeed not just well, it performed within a hair of our previous best air coolers just about across the board!
Trying to find a weak point with the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is mostly an exercise in futility. Indeed, this unit is, to date, the quintessential best of both worlds. This unit is best thought of as a performance option that doesn’t give up on noise profile to be that performance option. This is a very impressive engineering feat as, to date, we have not seen a cooler (be it air or AIO) that struck such a balance as this unit.
When it comes to price we find that the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 is available for $89.90 in e-tail. That is a big price to swallow but given the units noise profile and performance users will probably want to open wide and swallow away. If you are in the market for a sleek looking 135mm/120mm cooled hybrid HSF that will handle stock clocks along with some decent overclocking while being very quiet, the be quiet! Dark Pro 4 is certainly ready to rock, and we salute you!
Discussion
