Overall, be quiet!'s Pure Rock 2 is a solid offering that delivers not on looks but performance. For a single-tower design, it does quite well, keeping the Intel Core i7-8700K used in our test bench cool enough to handle even the heaviest loads with the CPU overclocked. It does face stiff competition from ID-Cooling's SE 224 XT Basic, which is more affordable. That said, the be quiet! Pure Rock 2 does win when you take noise into account by being a full 5 dBA quieter when both are delivering their maximum performance. It goes without saying, but a higher RPM fan would improve performance here at the expense of more noise. So when you look at price, performance, looks, and noise level, the be quiet! offering does feel like the more premium option, which also means it's not the best value and has it come down to what you're looking for—whether nearly complete silence and slick looks are a must for you.

In terms of build quality, the Pure Rock 2 is well made, and its offset design ensures there are no memory or graphics card clearance issues. Granted, I feel the mounting hardware could be further simplified and improved, but it is still good. That said, good doesn't mean best, so be quiet! does have some more room for improvement here—a crossbar that is secured to the cooler would be nice. However, with the smaller nature of the Pure Rock 2, it's not as much of a necessity as for massive coolers.

The lack of RGB lighting on the Pure Rock 2 will be a blessing for some, while others will prefer all the LED lighting they can get. If you are of the former camp, the lack of LED lighting and sleek design might make this a great entry to lower midrange cooler for your build. If you need something a bit more in your face, the silver version is brighter and should stand out in darker build themes while still looking great. It is also more affordable, coming in at $39 as opposed to the $44 for the black version.

Overall, the be quiet! Pure Rock 2 is a good-looking low-noise offering that delivers solid performance, making it an easy cooler to recommend for those wanting something a bit more fancy than your traditional tower cooler while avoiding RGB lighting.