INTRODUCTION

   Even though the technology behind CPU air coolers has remained pretty much the same for the past two decades or so thanks to the R&D departments of some manufacturers certain changes have been made to further improve cooling efficiency. So from time to time we've seen different fin configurations which can help increase airflow levels, larger fin area which translated to increased heat dissipation and last but not lease different heatpipe configurations which can also help with heat dissipation. Of course, the final ingredient is always the fan used and of course its specifications including airflow and air pressure levels. As a matter of fact, many manufacturers have focused quite a bit more on fan specifications rather than heatsink design. Be quiet! further expanded their award winning Dark Rock family of CPU air coolers with the Slim model which landed in our lab roughly 2 weeks ago.

   be quiet! is a premium brand of power supplies, PC cases and cooling solutions for desktop PCs. Consistently the leader in the German PC power supply market since 2007*, be quiet! is one of the most successful PSU brands in Europe. This enduring success is largely thanks to the typical German passion for quality and precision. All product conception, design and quality control is performed in Germany. German expertise is evident the moment an idea is born and throughout the entire design and production process. be quiet! never releases a product until it meets the highest expectations. All materials used – from the smallest screws to the metals in the cases – are tested to rigorous standards. That is why be quiet! power supplies, PC cases, CPU coolers and case fans are among the most silent, powerful and reliable on the market. Innovative engineering concepts coupled with an uncompromising choice of premium materials and world-class manufacturing quality make be quiet! second to none when it comes to noise reduction. With over ten years of experience, be quiet! are truly the quietness experts.

   The brand new Dark Rock Slim CPU air cooler by be quiet! sports a TDP (thermal design power) of 180W and as its name clearly states it was designed for PC cases were compact size is of the essence (no clearance issues with memory modules). Compared to let’s say the previously released Dark Rock 4 model (159x136x96mm/920g) the Dark Rock Slim (159.4x127x72mm/620g) is roughly 30% smaller and so it should be a lot easier to fit/mount inside compact mini-ITX and micro-ATX cases. Of course, since both the Dark Rock 4 and the Dark Rock 4 Pro models went on to become two their best CPU coolers to date be quiet! used the same wave-contoured pattern and black coating with ceramic particles for the fins. Cutting down on size however also means cutting down on the number of copper heatpipes so again compared to the Dark Rock 4 and its six 6mm heatpipes the Dark Rock Slim has a total of four 6mm ones. To offset the difference in size and number of heatpipes be quiet! paired the Dark Rock Slim with a new Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM fan and although we do know that it's faster (1500RPM/1400RPM) and also a bit noisier (23.6dBA/21.4dBA) compared to that of the Dark Rock 4 we don't have numbers regarding its airflow and air pressure levels. So, let's see whether or not the compact Dark Rock Slim can compete with its larger brothers.