be quiet! PURE ROCK 2 Review

👤by Matthew Hodgson Comments 📅12-05-20
Conclusion
be quiet!’s name holds a lot of worth within the PC industry, well-known for their typical German engineering and attention to detail, and with the PURE ROCK 2, that reputation is well deserved, but it’s not perfect.

The build quality of the heatsink and fan is something we can find no flaw with, particularly considering the £35/$40/€40 price tag. be quiet! have evidently put thought and effort into the installation process as well, with o-rings that help with setting up the backplate and easy-to-follow instructions all being very welcome. It’s just a shame that the fan was so fiddly to attach to the front when inserted into the case. We’d also have liked to see some rubber mounts on the fan/heatsink to absorb some vibrations which would almost undoubtedly have dropped the audibles a little.

Onto the performance, the important bit. At idle, on our 9700K, the cooler is quiet and keeps the CPU within around 7°C of ambient, absolutely fine for anyone’s needs but when you put a load through the CPU, the fan is quickly required to ramp up to 80% of its maximum RPM to keep the CPU within 40°C of ambient. Something we feel would help a lot here is an optional in-line resister that could limit the fan’s speed. If you’re buying a £35/$40/€40 heatsink, chances are you’re not going to be expecting to break any overclocking records, but are doing so to keep your thermals in check while minimising system noise as much as possible. Ramping the fan right up to keep the CPU around 60°C – 65°C isn’t massively necessary and having the choice to control the speed slightly would be nice.

Aesthetics are great, we really like the brushed aluminium cap and the black fan, contrasting against each other, but for a small price premium be quiet! will sell you an all-black version if that suits your style better.


All things considered, the be quiet! PURE ROCK 2 is a very decent CPU cooler but a cheap resister and some rubber padding could make it better.

Pros
+ Looks great
+ Easy to install, on the most part
+ Decent performance
+ 3-year warranty
+ Typical German build quality
+ Good DRAM clearance
+ Available in black

Neutral
+- Fiddly fan installation

Cons
- Rubber mounts can’t increase the cost too much, right?
- Not the best performance or audibles


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