Shadow Rock Slim Review 2. In this review we will discover the update of the previous Shadow Rock Slim, here is what has changed
The first Shadow Rock Slim was launched in 2016, but since then the German brand Be Quiet! has focused on updating its product line by expanding its portfolio with new solutions. Shadow Rock Slim 2 is its direct evolution and brings with it several improvements, which we will try to analyze in this review.
Be Quiet! with this Shadow Rock Slim 2 wants to achieve a compact, silent product, but above all accessible to the vast majority.
Shadow Rock Slim 2 Review | unboxing and design
Comes with one very neat box, full of illustrations on the product and on the technical data sheet. Inside, too, we find an important care, such as various sponges and cardboard boxes to limit possible damage during transport. We find inside the heatsink, the fan, and the two Intel and AMD build kits, including Be Quiet!
Let’s look at the heatsink, which is quite simple in design, and has no particular prominent elements, apart from the logo engraved on the top. It is the classic construction layout of a single tower air cooler. To accompany the structure a Silent Wings 3 fan, a fan from 135 mm equipped with 6-pole motor, and a value Air flow at 50.5 CFM. It has an operational life of 300,000 hours. 1400 RPM of maximum rotation for this model, with a maximum noise level of only 23.7 dBA.
The single tower it is made up of sun 4 Heat pipe da 6mm, and has a total weight of 690 g. In terms of size we do not differ much from this typical design, 74 x 137 x 161 mm. The aluminum lamellar body is solid, and the fan is installed using the classic locking clip.
As a tradition for home products Be Quiet!, we find a system of Heat-pipe Direct Touch base per il baseplate. 160-watts at TDP instead its maximum capacity. In the package we also find a tube of pasta ends for a single installation. In terms of compatibility, however, we have support for socket Intel, LGA1200, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA2011 (Square ILM), LGA2066. E AMD con AM4 e AM3+.
There are 53 fins that make up the tower, but unlike other models here they are not flat, but curved from the direction of the heat pipes to optimize the heat exchange between the two.
Shadow Rock Slim 2 Review | assembly and performance
The mounting system for AMD AM4 provides two plates that act as a base, and then go to insert a support trolley to block the heat sink. The latter goes to insert itself in the baseplate CPU. The bracket is stable and fixes it in position, even if it is not very comfortable as an installation, compared to a more classic system like the one seen with the Dark Rock TF 2, it cannot be done differently with a similar structure, and there are no alternatives.
We test this heatsink with our Test bench. The processor in question is certainly among the “hottest”, so the performance will be related. There ambient temperature instead is 34/35 degrees.
Test Bench used;
- Case: Be Quiet! Silent Base 802
- Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
- GPU: Gigabyte 1050 TI
- RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB 3000MHz
- SSD: Kingston A400
Idle
To carry out the test in idle, Windows was started, left to charge completely for 5 minutes, then the temperature measurement was started for a total of 10 minutes in which the PC was completely unused. The test produced 46 Degrees.
Gaming
The game session lasted about 90 minutes. In this period of time we have modified the various graphic settings while maintaining the same resolution of 2K (2560 × 1440). In this way it was possible to simulate different uses and loads of the CPU depending on the potential of your video card. With a result equal to 76 Degrees.
Cinebench R20
One of the most intuitive and popular synthetic benchmarks in the PC landscape. Several measurements have been made over time to avoid margins of error. We detected 83 Degrees.
Prime95
Full CPU load simulation through Prime95 stability test (CPU stress, FPU stress and stress cache enabled and Maximum Heat). We detected in this test 89/90 Degree. Be Quiet! finally declares 23.7 dBA, and we measured a maximum of just 32 dBA, very quiet.
In conclusion
It will certainly not be the best heatsink on the market as an absolute value, but it is certainly a good product. Obviously must be related to the type of CPU you are going to choose, if it is intended for highly consuming processors, or a work ad high energy demand protracted for some time then that’s not for you.
In general we have good performances, accompanied by a very low noise level. In any case, Be Quiet is a guarantee, as it has always shown, of excellent build quality, and of great silence. If you want to continue to know the latest news from the hardware world, keep following us. Greetings from TechGameWorld.com.
Points in favor
- Good performance
- Quality of materials
- Price
- Performance fan
Points against
- Mounting system
- Too anonymous design