German PSU and CPU-cooling company be quiet! is 9-time “Manufacturer of the Year” and Germany’s top manufacturer for PSUs (as rated by GFK – Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung). This puts a lot of pressure on the expanding company to continually release top-notch products.
CPU Cooling
It is a company branding itself as a heavyweight in cooling, which is why they added the Shadow Rock LP CPU cooler in April to a line known for high performance with minimal noise. This new addition boasts the following specs:
• 130W TDP cooling capacity
• Pure Wings 2 120mm PWM fan with 9 airflow-optimized blades
• Four high-performance copper 6mm heat pipes w/ aluminum caps
• 25.5dB(A) noise level at 100% rpm
• 51.4 CFM
• 75.4mm height
It is compatible with Intel and AMD sockets, and relatively inexpensive. It mounts from the top of the motherboard, similar to others on the market. So why is it worth mentioning the Shadow Rock LP?
What sets this model apart is its low noise and efficient cooling capability packed into a small unit. I think it is safe to say, if you don’t care how loud your build is, you can find something more powerful out there. Performance is always a balance of compromises.
While be quiet! is newer to the cooling market, they made a name for themselves with their PSUs: Dark Power Pro 10 being the most recent high-end model, until now.
Power Supplies
This May, be quiet! released Dark Power Pro 11, which added an 11th year to their best-selling PSU line in Europe. North America is seeing the 850, 1000 and 1200W models which all sport the SilentWings 3 135mm fan. The new fan was redesigned to reduce noise level while increasing the air pressure and cooling capacity. This revamped fan has an angled case to aid in the creation of internal air pressure. All models come equipped with 10°C-rated Japanese capacitors, 80PLUS® Platinum efficiency, Quad-GPU support, as well as an overclocking key which allows you to choose between multi-rail operation with 4 12V rails, and extreme high performance single-rail operation.
The focus of engineers must be to create an efficient and effective design of the printed circuit board (PCB) to increase the airflow to all components. Since be quiet! uses their own fan for the high-end PSUs, their overall control of the quality is much greater. By maintaining more control they are able to increase reliability.
What is your favorite CPU cooler?
You can check out our previous post about be quiet!’s German engineering and whether it is up to par with the way Germans make their cars.
