be quiet! Dark Rock Elite & Pro 5 Review - Air Cooling gets Complicated

[@HardwareCanucks]

Just a small note, we have had more than a week of back-and-forth communication with be quiet! about our concerns. A lot of their feedback is worked into this video. Also, it turns out both coolers are now, post launch, selling for LESS THAN MSRP on Amazon. *$90* for the DRP5 and *$103* for the Elite. There's no indication of this being a permanent price change and it hasn't affected other regions. Even if the price reduction is permanent, our conclusion still stands. - Mike

[@Driftwood420]

For half the price they still wouldn't be worth it

[@teish]

F Be Quiet!

[@kbasemuzik]

You should check out the cooler master Ma824

[@lege3018]

On the AM5 temps, I'd like to see a 3D CPU on the tests. The thermals are different on a 7800x3D than on the 7700x and 7950x due to that 3D cache, lower Tjmax, and the much lower power consumption. I'm curious if all these coolers see less benefit from an offset mount on a 3D (especially the 7800x3D, which I own) than on a non-3D AM5 CPU. That could be a saving grace for the Dark Rock. Yes, I know the 7800x3D in particular doesn't demand much of a CPU, but I still want to confirm whether that 3D cache changes cooler and offset mount performance in some way.

[@Irohbot]

Someone who’s in the market for one of the coolers at this price-point surely is also in the market for a Phantom Spirit or Frost Spirit with a fan swap…new video idea?

[@Squilly4]

8:23 i love this tiny detail in the editing where the viewer is notified that the video is going to go back to someone speaking, because at these points it's very likely that the viewer has their volume turned up for the fan noise tests. That's such a nice and considerate choice from the editor here

[@chris_3729]

yeah I was surprised by that as well

[@HardwareCanucks]

We try to do some small stuff to make our videos a bit more digestible. Glad you saw it.

[@leonardog.2491]

@@HardwareCanucksgive the editor who did this a raise

[@VintageSTX]

The longevity of the D15 is truly astounding!

[@viniciuseduardobomfim]

That's Noctua for you. Best quality control, best construction, best materials, best tooling, best customer support. The next-gen NH-D15 will arrive next year and remain the best premium choice for another 10 years.

[@Bilut]

I bought mine for 4970k, so 2014 era. Still using it today after I've got free AM4 mounting kit for it years later. I am planning to retire it withing the next upgrade cycle - but then again, I'm not planning to upgrade my 5800x3d for another 2-4 years.

[@Davinmk]

@@viniciuseduardobomfimthey just made a bigger air cooler and called it a day, you can’t really compare a nah-d15 with other air coolers

[@Tkozuh]

Yes, next to the gtx 1080ti it is the best tech purchase i ever made.

[@Tkozuh]

​@@Davinmkwell this one from be quiet is just as expensive but a lot worse. So yeah you can absofuckinglutely compare. Others can make bigger coolers to compete but they dont. Dont make excuses for companies. Fact is noctua made a beast long ago that is still sitting on top.

[@k1ng617]

Crazy cuz even us regular folks understood that the concentration of heat on AM5 was offset and that was the reason why the Pro 4 performed terribly. Yet Be Quiet completely ignored that fact in the new design. Blows my mind.

[@HardwareCanucks]

All it took was four more holes on their AMD bracket.....

[@jevc900423]

@HardwareCanucks Regarding the position of heatpipes, I find it as well puzzling, since PA120 and PS120 from Thermalright have 6 and 7 heatpipes and we could argue distributed in a similar fashion than Bequiet's and they perform superbly, so maybe is something like the type of heatpipes. TR has some secret sauce going on, we need to go deeper like GN style and start making cross section of the heatsink just for funs. Overall disapointing and at the same time glad it failed, it was a point a year ago the dark rock pro 4 was "very" attractive price wise being like 75USD for some weeks and was about to get it, although decided to wait and Thermalright took the market by surprise (a good one fortunately). So lets go Thermalright, disrupt the market. (Even PAs and PSs are getting bit more expensive and hard to come by, so take them while they last)

[@farmerowga5890]

@@HardwareCanucksAre there any aftermarket offset brackets?

[@Kokinkun]

Yep, even AM4 waterblocks and some AIOs from years ago had an offset for Ryzen CPUs and this was way before AM5 was released. Even if Be Quiet has been developing the DR5/DRE for a while, it's disappointing that they completely ignored this or even worse, were not competent enough to implement a few holes on their mounting bracket.

[@HardwareCanucks]

That's an interesting observation since both the Dark Rocks and the PS120 have 7x 6mm heatpipes and the bases are approximately the same size. Overall the PS120's is about a millimeter smaller but that shouldn't make a difference.

[@maozedowner5915]

The more I watch the cooler reviews you guys make the more I'm a Thermalright fan. Simply unbeatable in every way.

[@hl236]

Its amazingly well priced too. IMO it's the benchmark for price:performance.

[@derbigpr500]

Nonsense, the most overrated products in the last couple of years. They perform well, but they're very cheaply made and loud.

[@derbigpr500]

@@hl236 If by performance you mean cooling. If by performance you mean silence AND cooling, they're not even the best at budget price range category.

[@maozedowner5915]

@@derbigpr500 Countless KZbinrs have proven their product in reviews, I'm not saying KZbinrs are always right, but at least they do their research. What about your claim?

[@khoifoto]

Hats off to the veteran Noctua nh-d15. A decade later and it's still kicking ass.

[@rrj6919]

@unholydonuts Agree, and sorry for the blogging but I've been holding on to my Dark Rock TF for the longest time but with the 5950X it's performing too close to the limit to my liking, and almost pulled the trigger on the D15 a few months ago. Yesterday my board died while I was installing a new M.2. So new board (not waiting for RMA), new cooler! With no ETA in sight and 360 AIO coolers out of the question unless I buy a new case, I had to grab the current-gen D15. If anything it has great resale value and I'm sure many budget-conscious enthusiasts will jump at the chance to get a used D15 when I upgrade.

[@ethereal41]

If they make the successor, oh it will blow the competition away, not that it already isn't. Noctua however said that the reason they haven't made a successor yet is because heat pipe designs are already super optimised. I hope they make a successor soon.

[@Troynex]

Is noctuah silence ?

[@ethereal41]

@@Troynex yes it's really quiet. BeQuiet's fans themselves are really good, but they messed up with their coolers cause they aren't well optimised to am5 or lga1700. Go Noctua for now, because of 2 reasons: 1) nh-d15 gen 2 came out 2) nh-d15 is relatively cheap right now and it's still among the best

[@Troynex]

@@ethereal41 I search a CPU Air cooler for ryzen 7800x3d. Which would you take? Noctua NHD15, Thernalright Peerless Assasine 120se or alpenföhn brocken max4?

[@mateofantasma]

I was impressed with prior products and I wanted these coolers to be so much better than they appear to be. Cannot fault your testing though. Thanks for your work.

[@La_sagne]

they are better than the previous ones. how much improvement did you expect from an air cooler?

[@McBane.]

Cant believe how well the frost spirit 140 V3 holds up ... and its significantly cheaper then other non thermalright products. Great vid!

[@xblur17]

Yeah the Frost Spirit 140 V3 ($40 atm) and the Phantom Spirit 120 SE ($38 atm) are just mind-blowingly good. They are cheap, quiet, and lead the pack in air cooling performance. Every other air cooler is moot unless you care about aesthetics/brand loyalty.

[@dianaalyssa8726]

Have the PS120 cooling 12900KF low temps it's really a great cooler, PA120 SE also is great on 12700KF etc. Had looked at the FS140 also. Great value coolers though. @@xblur17

[@IlGrandeRio]

​@@xblur17Thermalright Is a great brand. The unique brand that fought with Noctua with the legendary Silver Arrow in early 2000's

[@derbigpr500]

Until you hear it and realize how loud and annoying it is when cooling, while those more expensive fans are inaudible.

[@sephondranzer]

This channel was the reason I moved my Fractal Torrent from my floor to a second desk. Yes, the term “desktop”…. “Desk top” now I get it ❤

[@3of12]

I have my new DeepCool Earlkase on a TV stand in a similar fashion and its quite a looker.

[@4Leka]

Why?

[@lugaidster]

You guys are pretty much my go to for air cooling. I trust your findings so thanks for going the extra mile for testing these.

[@DmitriWeissman]

I've seen this channel love for Be Quiet for (many) years ! And there were points in time when I wanted to buy some Be Quiet component. But never actually did. Even though I'm a (custom) liquid cooling person, I still own NH-U14 for backup and side projects. New socket - no problem here is you mounting kit, new CPU - here is your offset kit, lost a fan clip - here you go. Oldest Noctua fans I own are 3 pin and were simply retired to the storage room. NF-F12 and NF-A14 (Industriallppc) are working almost 24/7 from around 2015. And that's probably why I'm going to continue to "overpay" for Noctua products even if they are not the very top performer.

[@HardwareCanucks]

We absolutely love be quiet products which is why I admitted bias going into this. They make awesome stuff. But we have to call it how it is...

[@julianc691]

@@HardwareCanuckswill the Dark Rock Pro Elite be enough for my 7800x3d? I just bought it yesterday

[@louisglen1653]

The best review I have seen. As you mentioned the other reviewers don't seem to be using the AM5 CPU. Your testing is very revealing!

[@klaustheklengonian2892]

thanks for the extra work. I too had positive bias towards these so I am thankful for you guys making sure. 👍👍

[@gianluca844]

Phantom Spirit always ruling, it's incredible

[@SpecialEdvard]

Great review. And thank you for focusing on things like fan replacement. Recently have gone to air after an AIO failed and the appeal is ease of working the cooler for a long time

[@bothellkenmore]

In a few Be Quiet air cooler reviews I've been critical that they don't even sell their 135mm fans on their site. I'm glad Mike validated my concerns about the one thing you might need to replace on an air cooler that may doom it other than eventual socket incompatibility.

[@GSP-76]

The Peerless Assassin is still one of the best air coolers on the market..and only costs $40.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Or less. ;)

[@GSP-76]

@@HardwareCanucks true, there's multiple iterations of it available. It really is crazy how good that cooler is given how long it's been around..you guys should run some test on it using the Noctua offset kit.. unless you already have ;)

[@Koolj12]

isnt the phantom spirit 120se better though?

[@Jeroenneman]

​@@Koolj12 Yup, the Phantom Spirit is the new king.

[@triliner254]

​@@Koolj12A little bit. You'd be good with either, though.

[@MikesTek]

thank you so much for covering these on current platforms. I hate when I see big and sometimes decades old review sites ( cough Tom's hardware cough) still using older processors when they have the new ones, but it is easier to just keep using their old data from previous gen testing. At this point, except of astetics there is no reason not to just go with one of the Thermalright coolers. top performance and usually sub $50.

[@kinzie3915]

I'm glad I bought Phantom Spirit 2 months ago for 40€.. could not be happier.

[@gersongaete1574]

same, got the ARGB version and it beats by a long mile the hassles of having a liquid cooler

[@kinzie3915]

I was using Arctic LFII 280ARGB so I didn't need to buy this.. but I was curious how this actually performs and I was really surprised.. I have it installed for 2 months now and don't want go back to LFII 280. Classic Phantom Spirit 120 version (non-se) 5900X stock

[@gsm_liv8980]

Artic P12 Max for case fans, Thermalright PS 120 for CPU cooler and I've got the best value for money combo

[@dull_Asian_dad]

Thanks for the insight. Looks like Thermalright products such as Frost Spirit 140 and PS120SE Phantom Spirit @ $46 CAD are clear winners in bang for buck performance.

[@ethanculp]

Man, the quality of HC videos puts other channels to shame. Not that it's a competition, but geez - watching videos from this channel is so much more satisfying.

[@sergeys2505]

At last, I was waiting it from your channel 👍thank you, God bless you 🤗

[@DEZ7ROYER]

I was waiting for your review about them. Now I'm complete ❤

[@EinhanderSn0m4n]

I like how the PA120 just stays in the background steadily racking up wins.

[@ragtop63]

Out of all the air coolers I’ve used, the build quality of Noctua is still my favorite. It feels and performs like a premium product. I haven’t used the specific products in this video but I’d love to get my hands on them.

[@Gaius__]

"It feels and performs like a premium product" ... that's hardly surprising, since it *is* a premium product.

[@djvidual8288]

The middle fan of this cooler @02:55 doesn't appear to be a standard fan. Looks proprietary with the plastic shroud all around. I am really not a huge fan of that design. Rather have the possibility later on when the official support is discontinued, that I can still replace it with something else off the shelf. Edit: OMG! Why in the hell do a proprietary fan header? This will literally die in the next iteration and no one else will adopt it. Edit2: @04:00 Thanks for pointing that out Mike!

[@HardwareCanucks]

The way you commented as watching the video actually reflects how I ready your comment. First I was "WTF, I tore them a new one for this later on. Then I was like "yeah, proprietary header too". Then I gotcha. ;) ;)

[@neinnein3972]

Congrats that you were able to overcome your bias, nice!

[@samoh4u]

I got the Fuma 3 because of your review and it's been cooling my 7800X3D real good. I even swapped the fans to the Noctua A12's and using the Fuma fans as the 3rd out the back and the cooling is even better. Best of all these fans are so quiet so you don't notice the fans ramping up and down during CPU usage. Coming from a 240 AIO this Fuma 3 beats it!

[@HardwareCanucks]

The Fuma 3 is an excellent value for AMD

[@trojan7x2]

i heard fuma 3 fans spin on opposite direction for better static pressure/air flow can you just replace them with any fans?

[@zalmay1]

@@trojan7x2 I am still looking for this answer as I have 2 extra Noctua A12 if possible to replace it with.

[@trojan7x2]

@@zalmay1 theres definitly wrong with yt rn since this is my 4th time replying to you and it wont show my comments but short answer yes you can replace the slim fan (front fan) with any regular size fan

[@trojan7x2]

the second fan is the one spinning at opposite direction so you might want to keep it there

[@petertrex]

DeepCool and ThermalRight has been killing it with just pure performance and noBS. DeepCool coolers look sleek too, good compatibility, great performance and good simple modern aesthetics, at right price. also D15 just doesn't die, and Noctua's long term suppport is just so insanely good. I don't think DR5 series is bad per say, the $100 price tag isn't really justified. hopefully we see discounts on those cooler especially the one I can swap fans just in case. If not well I'm just gonna keep usinng my Ak620/PR120. seriously though, I just hope they learned thing or two after seeing this

[@denisnatera3633]

Thanks for the review youre def the go to channel for cpu air coolers period

[@krazyfrog]

You should test the Cooler Master Hyper 622 Halo and the MasterAir MA824. Those are the only major coolers that are missing from your current database.

[@McBane.]

Notion seconded!

[@ilaion11]

I share your interests for those two, mostly for the MA824. Its heatsink looks phenomenal for heat dissipation with the flattened heat pipes. I just wish they'd have used standard middle fan... and have mounting brackets for a third fan.

[@TimberWulfIsHere]

There are some reviews around. They really aren't that competitive. CoolerMaster used to be a good budget brand but thermal take kicks their ass atm.

[@dennissmith1435]

I've been waiting for your review of these.

[@paradonym]

[@pentecost_]

Be Quiet is no longer relevant when it comes to performance value. People who get them will tend to do so out of aesthetics preference. Gotta admit, Be Quiet makes insanely good looking air coolers. So if it's within your budget, you don't require the absolute best cooling/you don't have a high-performance CPU to keep cool and it's what you're looking for AESTHETICALLY, it could still be a good choice.

[@tsd74]

They've always been like this

[@Boorock70]

$45 ThermalRight Frost Commander 140 (TR FC140) is the "monster" again... Hell of a Performance for that price ! 💪

[@gwpp957]

I've loved your channel when you talk about coolers this is very eye-opening. I thank God that there are people who are willing not to go with the norm and reveal the truth of technology today😊

[@autoglobus]

I've been using an NH-D15 on my 7700x for almost a year now, but this is the first time i hear about these offset bars. Looking into it seems like they came out this summer , guess i need to go find a local seller. Thanks!

[@antonyhermens9985]

Fantastic Review. I was wondering why other reviews where so good - Well done and thanks.

[@laszlosarkozi1385]

Finally, the review I was waiting for!

[@DaveAndrus]

Wow, thanks for the great info! I appreciate all the hard work that went into gathering all this data!

[@mybluecx7]

Thanks for this review. Leaning towards Noctua D15 now.

[@AlleonoriCat]

Your best bet is either wait for the next gen D15 next year or buy Thermalright Peerles Assassin for a fraction of the cost right now

[@nullvektor9922]

Wow, even included a timer to give time to reduce the volume after noise testing - Small detail but much appreciated

[@YourFellowBrother]

15/10 for thumbnail Absolutely spot on

[@ConeruZ]

This makes it so clear for me that the choice of picking the Phantom Spirit 120 se argb is correct.

[@canyouread]

Love the detailed review as always. I think this simply solidifies my stance on the PS120 SE. Truly the best value cooler of all time.

[@konga382]

An offset mount not being on Be Quiet's radar is inexcusable. This has been a known technique for improving cooling on AM4 and AM5 for years now. Arctic provided offset mounts for their coolers years ago! A company in the business of designing coolers need to know better, and the fact that they didn't is a huge red flag.

[@chrismacy1968]

Thank you for this review. I was head over heels with this product (Elite) looks sharp with some nice low key rgb. I was moments away from getting it but just wanted a little time to think it over. Was planning on getting using now but was going to move it over to the next build but now the assassin IV is looking better. Thanks

[@krazyfrog]

Dark Rock Elite rocking the bathroom exhaust fan aesthetic.

[@michaelscholz4252]

at 13:15 you said deepcool flagship sucks at gaming / ambient case temps.. do you really mean deepcool or are u referring to be quiets flagship (dark rock elite)?

[@HitokiriShin]

Right? That's what I noticed aswell, that the heck

[@KAL-589]

I love CPU air cooler reviews. Something so nostalgic, yet utterly interesting. I'd purchase an air cooler over water every day of the week. ❤

[@nexy84]

Well, this was... disappointing. Only Noctua left to finally release their new air cooler. I think that cooler will be a make or break moment for them. As the price will be above £100 for sure, they will need to justify that with something.

[@schwazernebe]

just get a thermalright cooler for 40 or even under 40$/€ and ur good to go

[@rodhester2166]

They look so good.. I was pulling for them too. Great review.

[@nevinalmanza6039]

I have a Dark Rock Pro 4 paired with a 7700X I built the system back in december the irony is that I had an older system with a 2700X that had an AIO that died so I bought a Perless Assasin 120 to replace it because I saw you guys video about it and when I went to build a new system I went with the Dark Rock Pro 4 because of the great reviews from the 5000 series and because I now had a good paying job I decided I will buy a premium cooler, you should have seen my face when I saw the newer videos and seeing the Dark Rock Pro 4 getting beaten by many Thermalright coolers, I did regret buying the Dark Rock Pro 4 a little but since I only game and do occasional 3D renders my cpu is not really pushed to the limits so at least my cooler is quiet, I was hooping that the Dark Rock Pro 5 would have better performance while still being quiet but man it was really a disappointment especially for the 100 and 115 usd price tag.

[@Funny_Milkman]

Yes, that's crazy expensive! I did a budget build with 7600X and cooler choice was difficult as I realized it's hard to cool Ryzen 7000 and silent for cheap at the same time. Luckily I checked reviews here as I was going to get BQ Dark Rock 4 and decided to go with , it's $40 in the US! Take a look at 9:35 how it beats everything. just a joke to TR. I have 75C at stress tests and long lasting render jobs I believe cooler is around 70% of it's max speed (I use PBO -15).

[@safcnono]

I will stick with my TR PA $40 and its 18 months no issue super quite and runs super cool on AM5.

[@NextEevolution]

Still rock a Noctua NH-D14 and I'd be open to replacing it with something more modern. I really like how all these rival companies are starting to give the NH-D15 a run for its money with cheaper, smaller products. Except this one. Be quiet! completely missed the mark with the proprietary fans/ fan header combo. I was incredibly happy to see them get torn a new one for that. Subscribing and can't wait to see more reviews

[@CyberBeep_kenshi]

had the 4, still running for years. new rig will get the 5 pro. i love be quiet.

[@graelstream2353]

On another note, will the thermalright Phantom spirit/peerless assassin work well with fans like the lian li p28 or the unifan?

[@HardwareCanucks]

I'm sure it would though when it comes to pairing third party fans with a cooler there could be an issue with diminishing returns. A lot of the top air coolers tend to be tuned for the fans that they come with. Some better than others.

[@hatisbig95]

While I understand the lack of replacing the middle fan, I still think it is a good deal if I want the seamless quiet in my large PC. I might switch from my D15 to the Elite since I don't have high ram. Thank you for a good review. (Plus I love the be quiet! screwdrivers). I am sorry to all of the AMD users. Offsetting is no joke.

[@HardwareCanucks]

I really don't think you are going to gain much at all by going with the Elite over the already amazing D15.

[@coryc3401]

The main issue is fan replacement, from what I have seen. Not a fan of the metal clips, but I can swap the fan easy enough on my Pro 4, if I have to.

[@GedichtederZeit]

Thanks a lot! Bought now the TR Phantom Spirit 120 SE...

[@rickylia]

Very good comparison, It seems it would be helpful to put the default Intel and AMD factory cooler on the chart too. That will show a baseline specification Intel/AMD trying to meet.

[@gail_blue]

So... peerless assassin? is it just me or should they have named the "Phantom Spirit" the "Peerless Assassin 2"?

[@HardwareCanucks]

Both are being sold in parallel which is odd... But amazing at the same time.

[@gail_blue]

@@HardwareCanucks They probably have a bunch of old stock of the PA, the PS offers some finish level (I think black without exposed heat pipes) that I wasn't available on the PA.

[@BattleToads]

I just bought a DeepCool AG400 and slapped a BeQuiet LightWings on it. The fan cost more than the cooler, bringing the total cost to $55. It's a beast, though. Looks great and is very quiet.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Sounds like a beast!

[@vonwerderc]

Would be interesting to see testing done with standardized fans, just to isolate heatsink/heatpipe quality. Would I get any benefit swapping my extra arctic P14s onto the PS120SE?

[@HardwareCanucks]

Standardized fans gets thrown out the window when a cooler has...you know...proprietary fan mounts.

[@vonwerderc]

@@HardwareCanucks oh for sure. Especially in this case. I just thought it would be interesting to see. Like would a pse120 pull even further ahead if it had better fans while still being cheaper? It would really make the price difference hard to justify.

[@timothypreseau8741]

Great review Mike. Thanks.

[@after_glow3912]

Thanks for that well done review! Its kind of a Bummer, since in recent years and with an AM4 Platform, and before Deepcool and Thermalright were well known, Be Quiet! was my go-to choice for coolers, especially the PureRock Series with the symmetrical Brushed Aluminium look, silent performance and fair price. I will still consider their Fans and PSUs though, and might go with Arctic, Thermalright, Deepcool or Noctua for cooling solutions for the next build.

[@BrownieX001]

Dang. Bequite not getting the memo of having more repairability and replacing standard parts.

[@BRB499]

So its just a "refresh" product... great.. thx BeQuiet.. thankfully u guys are epic at making cases

[@conza1989]

I am so glad I got a trusty D15, I am so so glad. I know they'll be a D16 in the not too distant future, but I don't care, D15 is working wonderfully on AM5.

[@hornsteinhof7592]

The D15 is just amazing. I don't need a large cooler yet, because I'm turning everything down to 65W. So I run a 92mm 25 euro heatsink that is inaudible during gaming. With today's tdp numbers, I feel like we're back to Pentium 4 and AMD Bulldozer extreme edition times. Yet, you can get a large share of CPU performance with a really humble chip like the 5800x3d and save money on the cooler and the motherboard.

[@mytube2894]

This is a great review. If only I knew before buying the Dark Rock Pro 4 for my AM5 system. Ended up replacing the Dark Rock with a Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 and replaced the stock fans with two be quiet Silent Wings 4 fans. Now my system (Ryzen 9 7900X) is pretty quiet even under full load and temperatures are much better than with my old Dark Rock Pro 4. From my impression the PS 120 stock fans are really loud. Given the fact that the PS 120 + 2 Silent Wings 4 are cheaper than e.g. the NH-D 15 I‘d love to see some testing for this combination. From my subjective impression, in noise normalized testing this should absolutely crush the stock PS 120.

[@jamesgunn9056]

Can we all appreciate the 5 sec warning for the noise test. 🎉❤

[@PregnantFreddyKrueger]

All in seeing is Thermalright demolishing price/perf in those graphs. I'd like to give a shout-out to the Thermalright Silver Soul 135: for $30-$35, you're getting a lower-profile Peerless Assassin with a single fan and performance to match when a second fan is added. I have both (realized the Peerless Assassin was too tall for my case) and they performed within 1°C of each other. This is on my 7950X, by the way.

[@graelstream2353]

This is sad, I was hoping to get a new aircooled but I guess I'd have to go for a aio now. Quick question, does the noctua offset mount works even on non noctua aircoolers? I currently use a deepcool ak620 zero dark. Thank you for the informative video! Keep it up!

[@dukemandu]

I would love to hear this sound test for the Frost Spirit 140. I looked for it on your page but could not find it.

[@Aidel2305]

Great videos 🙌🏼 I would very much like you to do a review of the new Thermalright Phanton Spirit Evo air cooler. Thanks 🙏🏼

[@HardwareCanucks]

We are DONE with Thermalright Spam for the time being.

[@paulbantick8266]

@@HardwareCanucks What? I know your reply is 4 months old, But the Phantom Spirit SE is about the best air cooler out there. I brought two about a month ago for a total of £66.00 ($82.00 us) and the job they do in my two AMD computers is excellent.

[@bonanzabrandon6877]

I know it's an older model, but it is sad to see the Deepcool Assassin 3 not on the charts anymore, considering that it is one of the best aircoolers out there. The NH-D15 is also super old, but still makes it onto the chart.

[@farmerowga5890]

Are you planning to test the AK620 digital?

[@HardwareCanucks]

No. Same performance as the AK620 in our charts.

[@dnashj33]

Great review and outstanding presentation! I wondered how Be Quiet would handle the newer CPU's, as I am upgrading my system to the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, and am rather disappointed to see the performance results (compared to the competition). I suspect too much engineering emphasis went into Quiet performance, at the expense of Cooling performance. For example, the more open stack (fewer) radiator fins = less resistance = more quiet operation, but also less surface area to dissipate heat.

[@JMatrx]

I guess I'll gladly keep my modified DRP4 with a Silent wings pro 4 120 at the front and a 140 Pro 4 shoved into the middle. It improved abou 2-3C on my 5800x3D. This if Be Quiet will keep churning out mounting kits for the DRP4.. as I fear they won't. These new ones, I was eagerly awaiting your review, but I was already baffled again, by their dense decision to keep that central, proprietary fan.. which already sent me into letdown mode even before seeing the results. Should I get another cooler, definitely the Frost Spirit 140 from Thermalright.. but I also have an AK620 in use and I'm totally happy with it.

[@bereveanu]

Congrats for being one of the too few reviewers covering the Thermalright coolers, other than the Peerless Assassin, even that one seldomly appearing in tests. Since discovering the Phantom Spirit (before you guys :P), I never looked back. Guess Thermalright doesn’t have the sponsorhip power of other brands :P

[@Sturmx]

Wow those are some toasty temperatures. Curious whats the point of getting any air cooler thats even close to $100 (aside from looks) when you have AIO's like the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280/360/420 that are $100-$120.

[@HardwareCanucks]

On most air coolers its a concept of less things that can go wrong and what can go wrong (the fans) can easily be replaced. And most people game anyways and for that you can literally run a 7950X off a low profile cooler without having a negative impact on FPS.

[@BreOfAnna]

Man Thermalrigh beats these Dark Rock coolers so easily, and for much cheaper. I wonder what went through the designs minds when they made these new terrible coolers. In fact, thanks to this video, I've decided to go with the TR Phantom Spirit for my own build, lol!

[@JustinCrediblename]

probably brand recognition. Kinda like Sony audio, lol

[@valhallasashes4354]

I have a 7950X that I'm going to be building within the next 2 months. With the build aesthetic I'm going for, I'm wanting to build an air cooled rig, but want a CPU cooler that doesn't cover the RAM modules. I know most of the coolers you test are dual towers, but all of them cover the RAM modules, which I'm trying to avoid. It would be really helpful if you could include a few more than just the Noctua NH-U12A. Such as I would really like to see how the Deepcool AK500 (Digital or Black, doesn't matter which) stacks up and I would especially like to see how the NH-U14S (with and without the offset bracket due to concerns with top slot GPU clearance) in a Dual Fan configuration stacks up against the NH-U12A. Is there any chance we could see these comparison points appear anytime in the future?

[@Korr4K]

For the U14S just take the results of the U12A and add a couple of degrees at minimum. It's the same sink but less optimized so there isn't much more to test about it

[@Zordonzig]

The Deepcool Assassin 4 is a dual tower cooler, but shifts all the mass towards the rear of the case leaving the RAM uncovered. Maybe that could be what you're looking for.

[@modulo3664]

Delid and AIO. Enjoy your temps.

[@valhallasashes4354]

@@modulo3664 Deliding a CPU is not a trivial affair. Even with tools offered by derbauer. I am also not wealthy. Which means, if I screw it up, I can't afford to replace it. As for an AIO, for the same reason, I have one simple rule when it comes to cooling. If you can't afford to replace expensive hardware at a moments notice should a critical failure occur, don't take stupid risks that offer little benefit. I taught my partner how to build her own rig and she bought a 240mm Corsair AIO. A refurbished one from Corsair. Within a few months that AIO sprung a leak, killed her GPU and dried in the PCIE slot bad enough that 2 pins were literally ripped out of the motherboard upon removing the card from the system. That meant that one AIO upon failure had damaged or destroyed two additional expensive pieces of hardware that my partner could not afford to just replace on a whim. And Corsair? Washed their hands of it immediately because it was outside their 30 or 60 day warranty period (can't remember which). That's not acceptable. And all for what difference? Completely ignoring the delidding suggestion, a good air cooler these days already performs as good or better than many 240mm AIOs. Meaning you really need to go to a 280mm to 360mm to outperform a good air cooler. But to then take the additional risk of if it springs a leak, possibly having to replace additional parts out of pocket if the manufacturer finds a way to weasel out it's responsibility. And for what? A couple extra Mhz that don't really give any real practical benefits when we're already sitting so high on the frequencies anyway. By contrast, if an air cooler fails, the only thing I have to worry about replacing is a fan or two, and blow the dust out of the heatsink while I'm there. No. Just No. I don't buy AIOs because I've seen what happens when the shit hits the fan. It would take me nearly the entire year to save up enough money to buy a top tier GPU (which I generally only upgrade every 5-7 years. Currently have 2080Ti). I don't have the money to waste on something as expensive as an AIO, that offers so little meaningful benefit, that puts multiple components at risk if it fails.

[@valhallasashes4354]

@@Korr4K I did see a review where someone compared the NH-U14S to the NH-U12A and you're right, there was a couple degree difference in favor of the U12A. But they only tested it in a single fan configuration. What I need to know is how it compares to the U12A when operated in a dual fan configuration. Noctua used to actually sell in both configurations and one of the key things of note (and a detail I confirmed with them on the phone) is Noctua uses an asynchronous fan configuration on the dual fan variant (one fan goes up to 2000rpm I think and the other tops out at around 1200rpm) in order to prevent resonant noise in the heatsink from being produced between the two fans.

[@dennissmith1435]

It's really helpful and very telling to make a comparison between performance on the previous gen and performance on the current gen processors. You might make a very different buying decision based on your processor generation. Just because something performs superlatively on the previous gen, does not mean it will do the same on current gen. AIOs are the same way. The problem with other reviews is that you might conclude these coolers DO totally dominate the competition, but they do that only on previous gen. Appearance and durability along with customer service are important to me outside of performance, but only to a degree. Performance is king.

[@malonius_]

I just dont know about these new coolers some say that they are better thant the noctua nh-d15 but your tests show the Dark Rock elite is far behind. Comparing it with the results from STS is just confusing as they have the be quiet unbeaten by an aircooler using a 13900k as a Test CPU. Is there that much variability with the same cooler?

[@HardwareCanucks]

It isn't necessarily the variability of the cooler but rather the variability of the platform, environmental conditions, testing methodology, etc. Something as simple as RPM normalized vs decibel normalized testing can have an absolutely titanic impact upon results. We forward-weight noise. Like I keep saying, there are no right & wrong results provided a sound methodology is used and that's why I recommend people watch multiple videos before buying a product.

[@Damir_Turk]

Check the legend again, sts runs fans at max speed on all cpu coolers both air and aio, canucks locks them at 35db noise ,thats where difference is i think

[@HardwareCanucks]

@@Damir_Turk We don't. We test at EVERY decibel level.

[@Damir_Turk]

@@HardwareCanucks yeah my bad it shows on the graphs

[@TH-lo8mq]

I can confirm, the PS 120 SE keeps my 7800X3D about 3 deg cooler than the Elite using the same fan curve.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Good to have some first-hand experience with the retail units. Thanks!

[@megadooooom6582]

yes i was hyped for it but after knowing i can't replace fans then nope not for me and also well done and thank you for the hard work

[@HardwareCanucks]

They can be replaced, though not easily and you end up losing one of the main features.

[@megadooooom6582]

i love how quiet they always are don't get me wrong but RN i bought the thermalright EVO because i can change to be quiet fans when they fail or if they were loud and similar heatsink performance@@HardwareCanucks

[@4Leka]

Never had to replace a fan on a CPU cooler in 20 years.

[@megadooooom6582]

i had 2 fans with weird motor noises after 3 years and another was not performing as i was expecting since i live in a warm and dusty environment @@4Leka

[@Novskyy621]

Holy cow what is that TR Frost Spirit 140?? It costs under 40€ atm and better than the NH-D15?

[@karlchiasson4946]

I would be interested in seeing the T30 running at max rpm on this. sure it will be screaming but those extra 2 degrees XD.

[@HardwareCanucks]

If you enjoy elastic bands, sure. Plus the distance between the two heatsink stacks is 28.7mm so forget about running 30mm fans.

[@ilaion11]

What if you mount them on AM5 in a vertical way? To push the air on top. It will have more contact on the chiplets with more heatpipes.

[@HardwareCanucks]

You can't rotate them on AMD.

[@onomatopeira]

My God! I'm going to go crazy...! I'm not a computer or IT expert. I've been watching and reading a lot over the last few days to get the basics and to be able to tell a computer store what technical specifications I want so that they can build me a desktop PC. I know that I need a Ryzen 7 processor, I know that it has to be able to handle video rendering and editing, at the same time as downloading/uploading, video conversion, subtitling, etc. BUT, above all, it can't be too noisy. I've seen excellent results in two competitor videos in which they put a Ryzen 5 PC in silence (maximum 30dB) with a Noctua cooler, Noctua fans and a Corsair processor. I thought: "This is what I want!", but I realized that those coolers and fans had to be able to lower the temperature of a Ryzen 7. After seeing some tests in other videos that showed excellent results for the "be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5" and "Elite", I thought I had found my coolers. Now, with this video and these tests, I'm back to square one. Please can you help me and recommend a good, quiet cooler for Ryzen 7 or 9? As silence is really important to me, I don't mind spending a bit more on it, as long as it performs well, or at least doesn't let the processor burn out. Thank you.

[@gadf1534]

Absolutely great review Absolutely great review Absolutely great review

[@MacVerick]

My Assassin III still absolutely killing it.

[@40Sec]

Really curious what's wrong with your Dark Rock Pro 4 sample. There's absolutely no reason that cooler should be that far apart from the others at high watt loads. This seems like a testing error.

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

The Elite’s design theme looks like it would pair well with reference AMD GPUs. That AM5 contact also makes me wonder if these would need X299 to take advantage of their capabilities, assuming people are still using X299

[@AnaKk1N]

Found your channel today. Amazing content. For a 7950x what would you recommend? I guess the showdown is between Thermalright PS and FS?

[@cleenred8520]

They don't seem to understand that high end air coolers should never be about the look but about the performance. Why would I buy a dark rock elite when they sell a 240mm AIO for roughly the same price ?

[@MHWGamer]

performance and reliability... which neither this cooler can provide lol. Sad to see a kinda bad product from a good company.

[@lycanthoss]

I mean I would never buy an AIO simply because air cooling is good enough (unless you are running a 13900K and for some reason the only thing you do is run cinebench) and AIOs fail way too often for me not to worry about it.

[@cleenred8520]

@@lycanthoss Yeah I never bought an AIO either but I was mainly referring to the fact that those new coolers are overpriced.

[@Paul-de-Tarse]

Phantom Spirit EVO?

[@HardwareCanucks]

What ANOTHER new cooler?

[@hinchlikescake7592]

​@@HardwareCanuckslooks like they strapped two k12 fans on the PS120. Which are Rebadged B12 fans with RGB. I have the PS120 with a couple B12 fans and replaced the thermal paste with slightly higher end TR one (TF9) and it works great on my 5800X3D. Maybe shaved 1-2 degrees off from stock paste and fans. Could be margin error but does seem a couple degrees cooler.

[@Manu-yv1jt]

soooo I have to buy a new 110 $ cooler if my fan dies because a normal size fan does not fit? - wow

[@HardwareCanucks]

Well, be quiet does have a warranty.

[@Manu-yv1jt]

shure 3 years for the Elite, after that - good luck@@HardwareCanucks

[@IlGrandeRio]

Thermalright remains the king of air cooling!

[@IlGrandeRio]

@Te_legrammeReal_Hardware-mt8gy did I win something?

[@Dedded00000]

Damn, i just got my Dark rock elite in for my AM5 pc. Now i look back at the positive review that made me buy this and yeah he tested it on Intel. Will still be trying it out though.

[@HardwareCanucks]

Let me know how it goes! - Mike