Be Quiet! Dark Rock 2 CPU Cooler Review

The Be Quiet! mounting kit is one I am personally very familiar with. It has only changed slightly since the first instalment of the Be Quiet! Dark Rock series – the only noticeable difference has been a change in the type of spacer used. I am not the greatest fan of the Be Quiet! style of mounting – although it does tend to give the best contact – I prefer mounting mechanisms where the backplate can be secured into place without the cooler installed and you can then mount the cooler to the backplate without having to worry about the backplate screws falling out. Cooler Master use that type of design.

To mount the Be Quiet! Dark Rock 2 you have to install the backplate using the screws, backplate and the spacers to hold it loosely in place. With the backplate held on, you then install the correct brackets onto the cooler. With the correct brackets installed you screw the backplate screws into the cooler and this firmly secures the mount. This type of mount is best done inside the case, as if you do it outside there are just too many things to hold and it can become tricky.

The Be Quiet! Dark Rock 2, like its predecessor, blocks only the first DIMM slot of an LGA 1155 motherboard. As a result if you have only two high profile modules you can fit them in DIMM slots 2 and 4 no trouble at all. If you’ve got 4 high profile modules then you’re going to have to strip the first module to make it fit.

There is acres of space around the VRM heatsink area because the Dark Rock 2 is so “skinny”. You won’t have compatibility issues even with motherboards that have really wide and tall VRM heatsinks.

This is what the Dark Rock 2 looks like from above, as you can see it is quite small by high performance heatsink standards.