be quiet! just made one of the best CPU air coolers

The be quiet! Dark Rock Elite is a premium CPI air cooler with two fans, a beefy twin heatsink, and easy AMD and Intel system installation. The company's array of products isn't the flashiest on the market but is designed with function in mind. A similar sleek all-black design is found throughout the be quiet! hardware catalog, but every case, cooler, and power supply has a list of useful features.

Cooling the latest AMD and Intel processors can prove challenging, especially if going all out with an Intel Core i9-14900KS for an impressive gaming PC build. There's more heat than ever and PC cooling solutions must work overtime to keep temperatures in check. Not the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite. This CPU cooler makes cooling even an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X look like child's play.

Interested in learning more about this impressive CPU cooler? It's certainly one you should shortlist for your next PC build. In a sea of AIO liquid coolers, it's great to see an air cooler capable of hitting back against the best and nailing all the essentials with the performance to tame even the most demanding CPUs on the market.

About this review: be quiet! supplied XDA with a sample for this review but had no input to its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

be quiet! is a premium air cooler costing $100 and backed by a three-year limited warranty. The heatsink is made of aluminum and the baseplate is nickel-plated copper, allowing this CPU cooler to be used with liquid metal thermal compounds. There's full support for Intel LGA 115x, 1200, and 1700 sockets, as well as AM4 and AM5 from AMD. be quiet! rates the Dark Rock Elite to handle up to 280W of heat output from the processor. The cooler measures 145 x 136 x 168mm and weighs 1.34 kg.

Design and features

The be quiet! Dark Rock Elite looks like any other be quiet! product in that it has an all-black sleek design. Unlike the similarly priced and built Dark Rock Pro 5, there's some RGB lighting and be quiet!'s flagship Silent Wings fans here. A box of accessories is included with the Dark Rock Elite with all the mounting hardware required for the compatible AMD and Intel platforms. There's ample padding to protect the heatsink and fans during shopping and I saw no damage to our review sample upon delivery.

Two Silent Wings fans handle the removal of heat from the twin heatsink with seven 6mm thick copper heat pipes. One fan slides between the two heatsinks and links with the preinstalled front fan for a single 4-pin header connection. This is great, aside from the fact the front fan uses proprietary mounting that appears to be part of the blower itself and the Y splitter uses a non-standard fan connection. be quiet! did make the Dark Rock Elite easy to install, regardless of which branded processor you plan on cooling.

Two Silent Wings fans handle the removal of heat from the twin heatsink with seven 6mm thick copper heat pipes.

This cooler can be used with an Intel LGA 1700, 1200, and 115x, as well as AM5 and AM4 on the AMD front. A long screwdriver is included as this will be required for securing the cooler to the motherboard and there's a probability your screwdriver will not fit between the two heatsinks. Once installed, the ARGB cable can be plugged into an available motherboard header, driving the subtle LEDs on the top plate. The front fan may interfere with your RAM, but be quiet! made it possible to slide it vertically up and down the heatsink to provide clearance.

Installation and performance

The installation process of the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite is easy for AMD and Intel platforms. A backplate is supplied for Intel motherboards whereas AMD's preinstalled backplate can be used. Two brackets need to be screwed to the backplate on either side of the socket. Thermal paste can then be applied and the Dark Rock Elite carefully lowered into position atop the CPU. The extra-long screwdriver comes in handy here when screwing the cooler to the brackets and no considerable force is required, unlike some other coolers.

Both fans run at up to 2,000 RPM depending on the mode settings, which can be switched between quiet and performance. To test this CPU cooler, I used the trusty AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, a Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX Ice motherboard, and 32 GB of DDR5 RAM with large heatsinks. The 7950X has a TDP rating of 175W, though it can produce much more heat through stock settings. The Dark Rock Pro 5 handled the CPU well and the Dark Rock Elite is a similar affair with additional headroom.

The Dark Rock Pro 5 handled the 7950X well and the Dark Rock Elite is a similar affair with additional headroom.

A few Cinebench test runs saw a temperature reading of 81C, which is very good for an air cooler and a full 3C better than the Dark Rock Pro 5. The CPU shouldn't run at this load continuously with the cooler installed. I'd opt for an AIO liquid cooler if you run heavy sustained loads such as video editing. Playing a few CPU-intensive games such as X4: Foundations saw a temperature of around 55C. The VRMs are able to take advantage of the increased airflow over the motherboard with the two larger fans, reducing in temperature compared to an AIO.

Should you buy the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite?

You should buy the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite if:

• You want one of the best CPU air coolers on the market.
• You don't want to buy and install an AIO liquid cooler.
• You won't be overclocking an already powerful processor.

You shouldn't buy the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite if:

• You want the best-performing CPU cooler.
• You plan on using the Intel Core i9-14900KS.

I'm a fan (pun intended!) of be quiet!'s Dark Rock Pro 5 with its slightly more affordable price tag. The Dark Rock Elite is the same aside from the fans and top cover. Instead of handling "just" 270W of heat, the Elite bumps the limit up to an impressive 280W. It's not quite enough to handle the Intel Core i9-14900KS, but I found it difficult to cool the CPU with even the largest AIO liquid kits. For the normal 14900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite will easily handle these processors at stock settings.

For the normal 14900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite will easily handle these processors at stock settings.

I've typically used liquid for cooling inside most of my personal rigs but this will likely change with the Dark Rock Elite. It's so good that I feel little need to swap my trusty old 360mm AIO for a newer direct replacement. There are some serious contenders from be quiet!, Noctua, and Deep Cool taking on some of the heavy-hitting AIO solutions and the Dark Rock Elite is right up there with the best. Priced at $100, the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite is also considerably more affordable than some of these AIO coolers.

Installing an air cooler such as this is straightforward without the preassembled radiator to mount to the PC case and your voltage regulator modules (VRMs) will thank you for the additional active cooling. Both the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5 and Dark Rock Elite will play a part in future CPU testing on our local test benches.