be quiet! Shadow Rock 3 review: This compact CPU cooler is mighty impressive

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central

The marketplace for affordable, mid-range CPU coolers is rather decorated and be repose! idea it would exist a adept idea to roll out the new Shadow Rock 3. This air-cooler is rated at 190W TDP, meaning it should be able to handle overclocked mid-range processors like the Intel Core i5 and AMD Ryzen 5, as well as more enthusiast setups.

If the Dark Rock Pro 4 is a little overkill at a whopping 250W TDP, the Shadow Rock 3 should be a much amend solution for your system requirements.

Silent Cooling

be quiet! Shadow Rock iii

Costs $fifty (about $ane,200)

Bottom line: The Shadow Rock 3 is an impressive CPU air libation at a reasonable price.

Pros:

• Adequate RAM clearance
• Solid design
• Excellent cooling performance
• Piece of cake to install
• Value

Cons:

• Express socket back up
• Fiddly metal fan attachment

You'll dear the Shadow Rock three cooling functioning

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Fundamental

Modern processors are vastly more efficient with each major refresh and this allows 1 to throw more cores into the mix with a lower thermal design ability (TDP) rating for even more than budget-friendly coolers to cope with. The Shadow Rock 3 from be quiet! is priced in the mid-range bracket, but it offers some serious numbers on newspaper.

Impressive, quiet CPU cooling performance at a reasonable price.

Specifications-wise, we're looking at an all-aluminum build for the heatsink, five 6mm nickel-plated copper estrus pipes, back up for numerous AMD and Intel sockets, and a maximum power capacity of 190W. This should be able to cover a Ryzen nine 3950X or Intel Core i9 9900K without much outcome, though yous'll really want to use liquid or more premium air coolers if yous get into overclocking fashion.

Unpacking the cooler, you're greeted past the usual be quiet! packaging I've come up to know and appreciate — these guys know how to compact loftier-quality goods in a clever fashion. Out-the-box, the Shadow Rock iii is separated into three components. The aluminum heatsink is joined by a single 120mm Shadow Wings 2 fan, the aforementioned you'd find in the considerably more expensive Dark Rock Pro four.

The fan hooks onto either side of the cooler (and this allows for the installation of a second blower if needed), though the Shadow Rock 3 has an interesting design characteristic in that it's asymmetrical. While it may expect damaged from shipping, this actually allows for exist quiet! to get as much heat dissipating cloth in place without affecting RAM clearance.

To examination the exist quiet! Shadow Rock 3, a testbench was deployed with an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-cadre CPU, ASUS X470 GAMING PRO motherboard, 32GB of DDR4 RAM at 3200MHz, and a 600W EVGA PSU. The system ran for effectually an hr before testing commenced. Ambient temperature was measured at 21C (70F).

Category	Highest	Boilerplate
Idle	55C (131F)	42C (108F)
Gaming	74C (165F)	59C (138F)
Stress test	82C (180F)	64C (147F)

Idle temperatures were stable at around 42C (108F), firing up Cities Skylines in a meaty, busy metropolis of more than than 100,000 residents saw the Ryzen nine 3900X to spring up to around 59C (138F) and reached 74C (165F) before the cooler ramped up to bring the temperature down. Stressing the CPU saw an initial leap up to 82C (180F) before settling at 64C (147F) throughout the 30-infinitesimal test.

The Silent Wings fan used with the Shadow Rock 3 doesn't spin as fast every bit competitor CPU blowers, making it easier for be repose! to keep the racket down. Sound levels of 22dBA were measured at l% fan speed from a distance of 1 meter using an open bench test rig. Inside a PC chassis, information technology's difficult to hear the fan spin upward.

Things you will not like virtually the be quiet! Shadow Rock 3

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central

The fan attachment mechanism comes as modest metallic clips that are pulled to lock into the heatsink. It's non the easiest method of installing a fan to a belfry libation similar the Shadow Rock 3 and you may end up with a few cuts. However, information technology's also not the worst. It would have been good for be repose! to come up upwardly with a better solution.

You won't be able to use the Shadow Rock 3 with enthusiast builds since the bracket supports included don't work with TR4, TRX40 or Intel equivalent sockets. Sure, information technology's limited to 190W TDP just you could hands get away with some processors that simply aren't supported past the cooler and that's a shame.

Should you buy the be quiet! Shadow Stone 3?

Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Primal

The Shadow Rock 3 is worth considering. Like other be quiet! CPU coolers, it performs well and for the price, information technology's a stiff competitor against Noctua and Corsair. Even with a powerful processor like the Ryzen 9 3900X or Intel Core i9 9900K, you're going to have no bug keeping the CPU cool, and the acoustics are great.

At $50, it'south well-positioned as a mid-tier CPU cooler, providing a worthy alternative to water-cooling, be it in an AIO or custom loop. Information technology'due south a shame almost the fan attachment clips, too every bit the limited selection of socket brackets, but overall this is a rock-solid cooler that will perform well in about PC builds.

Great Value Cooler

be quiet! Shadow Rock 3

Cooled from the shadows

be quiet!'s Shadow Rock three is an impressive mid-range cooler that tin handle even more powerful processors like an AMD Ryzen ix 3900X. It's ideal if yous want a quiet, but well-ventilated rig.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/be-quiet-shadow-rock-3-review

Posted by: mabreyyoulded.blogspot.com

Share this post