Page 3 - Installation and Test Results
Installation of the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 is straightforward. Users with Intel systems can use the backplate provided while AMD users can use the one included with the motherboard. This starts by removing the plastic hooks that are installed by default and screwing the two mounting bars with spacers on the CPU side. From this photo, you can see there are two mounting positions, marked by 0 and 8 for standard and offset positions. From the user manual, the '0' is standard position meant for universal motherboard compatibility. Meanwhile, the offset '8' position is meant for maximum cooling performance on AMD Ryzen 3000, 5000, 7000, and 9000 processors. Our photo above shows the alignment of the mounting bars for standard installation on my AMD Ryzen 9700X. In our testing, I actually found my processor ran at a lower temperature in the standard position, so the results reflect this.
The mounting bars have etched arrows to show users which one goes where and how it orients in respect to the processor. I really appreciate this as it meant I did not have to refer to the manual every time. Once the bars are mounted, you can squeeze out some thermal paste on the integrated heatspreader of the processor. We have a small tube of unmarked thermal grease provided, which is great for multiple applications.
Finally, you can place the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 over the mounting hardware and secure it to the two protruding screws. Be sure to remove the protective label on the contact plate. You will have to remove the front fan and the top cover as each screw is covered by one of these elements. Using the included screwdriver, I was able to mount the Dark Rock 6 easily. The tool also has a magnetized tip so it can easily pick up other screws if necessary. Be sure to tighten the screws in an alternating fashion to evenly attach the heatsink to the posts underneath. As I pointed out previously, the front fan does not get close to any memory slot, and my VRM cooling was quite a bit shorter than the fan to avoid any interference.
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
Motherboard: ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi
RAM: Crucial Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 2x16GB
Graphics: EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING
Chassis: TRYX FLOVA F50
Storage: Lexar Professional NM800 PRO 2TB, Kingston NV3 2TB
Power: be quiet! Straight Power 12 1200W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (25H2)
Compared hardware:
- be quiet! Dark Rock 6
- be quiet! Dark Rock Elite
- be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 6
- FSP MP7 Black
All tests were run on our custom-built computer to best reflect real life performance. The computer remained in the same location in the same room throughout all tests. The room temperature in our testing lab was around 23c. Each cooler was used with its stock thermal paste to rate its performance. All thermal pastes were given a proper amount of time for them to fully settle. The fans on all heatsinks were connected to the motherboard's CPU 4-pin fan header. The test computer was turned on and left idling for at least one hour for the idling tests. High CPU load results were obtained using Prime95 Small FFT tests for a minimum of 10 minutes or until the temperature was deemed stable. Temperature results were measured with HWiNFO, which reports the CPU's integrated digital thermal sensor for maximum accuracy. Each temperature result was calculated by taking the maximum value of the cores inside the CPU.
After not touching my computer to idle it for a while, I checked the temperature of my processor. From the first graph, you can see the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 idled at a temperature of 44c. This might have been the coolest against the other be quiet! coolers, but it was also within a very slim delta of 0.2c between the three units, which is well within a margin of error. Regardless, these numbers are not representative of the true capabilities of any of these coolers, so we started up the Prime95 tests to get more pertinent results.
With enough time to load the processor, you can see how the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 performed with their peak sustained temperature recorded. The be quiet! Dark Rock 6 settled at a maximum temperature of 77.1c, which was now third out of the four tested. Considering this is the only single tower cooler of the bunch, it is understandable this is nearly the warmest one. This is warmer than the Dark Rock Pro 6 by 3.5c, and 2.7c warmer than the Dark Rock Elite. There was no thermal throttling while running the tests with this air cooler, and all cores reached and sustained their maximum frequencies with no problem. As I mentioned above, the standard position provided better results than the offset one and the numbers above are the lower temperature result.
In addition to the cooling performance tests, we also quantitatively measured the performance of the cooler by measuring the air speed at the outlet. The purpose of these tests is to see the airflow and static pressure of the complete cooling solution. Higher airflow is better, as it indicates the cooler's capability in transferring heat from the metal heatsink to the air. At the output of the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 produced a maximum airflow of 11.1km/h or 6.9mph. This is the lowest result we have, but it is also the only single fan unit tested here.
The noise produced by the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 is on the quieter side compared to other coolers. Measuring from 50cm away at maximum fan speed, the cooler produced 44.7dBA of noise. From a subjective standpoint, on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is silent and 10 is loud, I would rate the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 at 3.5/10 on full load. It also operated at a slightly lower audible frequency than some other coolers like the FSP MP7 Black, so it was not as perceivable. In typical daily loads, I found the be quiet! Dark Rock 6 to be perfectly acceptable and even less audible. This is further aided by the quiet mode that can reduce the fan speeds to zero under lighter loads.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Installation and Test Results
4. Conclusion
