Introduction

From the be quiet! website:

#1 for power supplies in Germany

be quiet! products are convincing, which is proven by the company reaching the leadership position of Germany's PSU market in 2006 and defending it since. Their position has also been validated by numerous awards for both power supplies and cooling solutions.

Repeated winner of Manufacturer of the Year

Readers of the well-know German hardware magazine PC Games Hardware have awarded be quiet! the Manufacturer of the Year award six times in a row. Another first and second rank in the categories "fans" and "coolers" for two consecutive years underline the high acceptance of our products.

Having won various awards for their power supplies and fans, be quiet! is certainly among a cadre of elite manufacturers. However, their elite status primarily applies to the European market as they have only recently brought their wares to North America. Considering their six consecutive awards from PC Games Hardware, be quiet! obviously offers the quality and excellence enthusiasts demand, and it shouldn't take long for them to carve their name into the minds of enthusiasts here as they have in Europe.

be quiet!'s legacy of quality and excellence began with power supplies responsible for six consecutive awards. However, they have more to offer than just PSUs, and with their Silent Wings fans offering fantastic performance and low noise levels, it was only logical to manufacture CPU coolers next. be quiet!'s release of the Dark Rock Pro 2, which I reviewed previously, showed that they have what it takes to be the king of the hill when it comes to air coolers, and with such a solid assortment of products, it's no wonder be quiet! has enjoyed the success it has thus far.

Today's review will focus on be quiet!'s Shadow Rock 2. It has a lot to live up to considering how well the Dark Rock Pro 2 performed. Featuring four 8 mm heatpipes, a 120 x 25 mm 1600 RPM fan, and freely selectable fan mount, it has some interesting specifications and features, but will its features pay dividends in terms of performance and versatility or will they result in a cooler that offers a lot but comes up lacking?

Packaging & Contents

be quiet!'s Shadow Rock 2 comes in a box measuring roughly 14.5 cm in length, 17 cm in width, and 19 cm in height. The front has an image of the cooler along with its rated TDP of 180 watts. The left side has a paragraph describing the product and its features in French, Spanish, and Polish. The back details the CPU cooler's specifications along with a few features. A small paragraph talking about be quiet! is also located on the back.


The right side of the box has the same paragraph on the left side, but in English and German. It describes be quiet!'s desire to offer the quietest possible operation with "product conception, design, and quality control in Germany." The top of the box simply has the cooler's name and its TDP.

Contents

The box, once opened, showed everything to be packed away neatly and securely. The mounting hardware and all accessories are sealed into a small plastic bag that is held in place with cardboard. After removing the mounting hardware, the instructions can be found on top of a piece of black cardboard underneath of which is the cooler itself. The CPU cooler below is sitting on a piece of foam that cradles the base of the heatsink. The fan is pre-attached to the cooler.


be quiet!'s Shadow Rock 2 comes with everything one will need to install it on any modern socket. The heatsink and fan are of course the mainstay—there is no product without them, so those parts are definitely necessary. The backplate is a universal design and is, while bulky, very sturdy; it won't flex or bend. The fan clips are straight forward: They are not special but do the job well, holding the fan to the heatsink tightly. A small tube of thermal grease is included as well. be quiet! uses two sets of brackets, one for Intel and the other for AMD. Long screws for the backplate are included along with the plastic clips to hold them in place. Hardware for mounting to Intel's LGA 2011 socket has also been included, along with a spanner I hate with a passion. Trying to get in there to tighten nuts on any cooler with these small tools is a nightmare, but users on mainstream sockets won't run into that problem.


Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 4x Hexagonal nuts
• 4x LGA2011 spacer nuts
• 4x C profile spacers
• 4x M3x3 screws
• 4x M3x15 screws
• 2x AMD mounting brackets
• 2x Intel mounting brackets
• 1x Set of fan clips
• 1x AMD / Intel backplate
• 1x Heatsink
• 1x Fan
• 1x User's manual
• 1x Package of thermal compound
• 1x LGA2011 hexagonal nut spanner