It’s been a long time since we’ve had any new air coolers from be quiet! (henceforth referred to as Be Quiet) on our test bench. We looked at the Dark Rock Pro 4 way back in 2018. The German company is well known among PC enthusiasts for its AIO and air cooling products, as well high-end computer cases like the Shadow Base 800 FX and Silent Base 802. Cooling enthusiasts have been waiting patiently for the successor to Be Quiet’s Dark Rock Pro 4, but they don’t have to wait any longer – today’s review will examine Be Quiet’s latest high-end air coolers, the Dark Rock Pro 5 and Dark Rock Elite. Since heatsinks on both are the same and the only differences are the fans and cover, we’re testing them both together.
Competition this year in air cooling has been fierce. Products like DeepCool’s Assassin IV and Thermalright’s Frost Commander 140 have raised our expectations for quality air cooling. Do the improvements made by Be Quiet’s engineers elevate the Dark Rocks’ performance enough to best its tough competition and earn a spot on our best coolers list? We’ll have to put it through our cooling and noise testing to find out. But first, here are the coolers’ specifications, direct from Be Quiet!
Cooler Specifications
| Cooler | Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro V/Be Quiet! Dark Rock Elite |
| MSRP | $89.90/$99.90 |
| Heatsink Material | Aluminum |
| Rated Lifespan | >300,000 hours (for fans) |
| Socket Compatibility | Intel Socket LGA 115x/1200/1700 AMD AM5 / AM4 |
| Base | Nickel Plated Copper |
| Max TDP (Our Testing) on Intel’s i7-13700K | ~225W for Dark Rock Pro V, ~235W on Dark Rock Elite |
| Installed Size (with fans) | 145mm (L) x 136 mm (W) x 168mm (D) |
| Warranty | 3 years |
Features of the Dark Rock Pro V and Dark Rock Elite CPU Coolers
Solid black design, seven copper heatpipes
The Dark Rock Pro V and Elite CPU coolers both feature solid all-black designs, with seven copper heat pipes connected to dual towers for heat dissipation. The heatsinks on both units are exactly the same; the only differences are the fans and cover.
SFF Compatibility
Many of the largest air coolers won’t fit into space-constrained compact cases. While I can’t promise that the Dark Rock Pro V and Elite will fit into every case on the market, I was able to install it on my Ryzen 7700X SFF system using Silverstone’s SUGO 14 Min-ITX case – though the fit was very tight!
Magnetically Sealed Covers
Both coolers include magnetic covers for the tops of the unit. These hide the top of the heatpipes and the performance mode toggle, giving the coolers a slightly more pleasing look. The top of the Dark Rock Elite features an ARGB ring that can optionally be connected to a motherboard for controlling illumination.
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Adjustable RAM compatibility
Out of the box, these coolers have RAM limitations of 42mm (1.65 inches). However, you can slide the fan up a few notches to accommodate latter RAM like the 45mm DDR4 GSkill sticks I use in my testing setup. The Dark Rock Elite also includes a fan brace, which can be slid up and down to easily adjust its position. The Dark Rock Pro V includes traditional fan clips, which are more fiddly.
Middle Heatsink
In addition to the dual tower heatsinks, both coolers include a small heatsink in the middle of the unit to help move heat away from the CPU.
Silent Wings Fans
There’s more to a cooler than just the heatsink or radiator. The bundled fans significantly impact cooling and noise levels, as well as how the cooler looks in your case. The only real difference between the Dark Rock Pro 5 and the Dark Rock Elite is the fans – and as you’ll see in the benchmarks, this can make a serious impact on thermal performance!
Unfortunately, the specifications below provided by Be Quiet are lacking and don’t provide statistics traditionally included, like static pressure and airflow ratings – but ultimately, our noise and temperature measurements will tell how well the fans perform.
| Model | Silent Wings/Silent Wings 4 |
| Dimensions | 135 x 135 x 25 / 120 x 120 x 25 |
| Fan Speed | Up to 1500/2000RPM |
| Air Flow | Unlisted |
| Air Pressure | Unlisted |
| Bearing Type | Fluid Dynamic Bearing |
| Lighting | None |
| MFFT | >300,000 hours |
Mixed Height Exit Fins
The fins where air exits the cooler have mixed heights, with three tall fin layers followed by three recessed fin layers. In theory, a design like this helps to improve the total static pressure of airflow.
Dark Rock Pro V vs Dark Rock Elite Differences
Because heatsink on both the Dark Rock Elite and the Dark Rock Pro V is the same, the primary difference between these units are the included fans. The only other difference are the tops of the units, with the Elite offering a ring of ARGB illumination.
Packing and Included Contents
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Both the Dark Rock Pro 5 and the Dark Rock Elite arrive in identically sized packages. The inner contents are protected by molded foam and cardboard. In addition to the contents around the cooler for protection, there are also foam pieces on the insides of the cooler for protection.
Included with the coolers are the following:
- Two Silent Wings 135mm fans with the Dark Rock Elite
- One Silent Wings 135mm fan, One Silent Wings 4 120mm fan with the Dark Rock Pro V
- Heatsink with seven copper heatpipes
- Mounting for modern AMD and Intel Platforms
- Thermal Paste
- User Manual
LGA 1700 Cooler Installation
The installation of the cooler follows the same process as previous Be Quiet Coolers.
1. You’ll start by assembling the motherboard backplate. Slide the standoffs into the correct position, and secure them using the included rubber rings.
2. Apply the backplate against the motherboard and secure it with the included standoffs.
3. Secure the included mounting bars against the standoffs using the included screws.
4. Next you’ll need to apply thermal paste to the CPU. If you’re unsure how to do that, see our How to Apply Thermal Paste primer.
5. You’ll need to remove the middle fan from the unit before proceeding. Once that’s done, take the heatsink and press it against the mounting bars and secure it with a screwdriver. Reinsert the middle fan, and then set the toggle on the top to your desired operation mode – quiet mode or performance mode.
6. Most users won’t have to remove the outer fan of the Dark Rock Pro V for installation, but if you’re using tall RAM you’ll want to adjust the fan upwards a few notches to avoid compatibility issues. If you have the Dark Rock Elite model, you can simply slide the fan upwards.
7. Place the cover on the top of the unit and connect the headers to your motherboard – installation is complete!
LGA1700 Socket Bending
There are many factors other than the CPU cooler that can influence your cooling performance, including the case you use and the fans installed in it. A system’s motherboard can also influence this, especially if it suffers from bending, which results in poor cooler contact with the CPU.
In order to prevent bending from impacting our cooling results, we’ve installed Thermalright’s LGA 1700 contact frame into our testing rig. If your motherboard is affected by bending, your thermal results will be worse than those shown below. Not all motherboards are affected equally by this issue. I tested Raptor Lake CPUs in two motherboards. And while one of them showed significant thermal improvements after installing Thermalright’s LGA1700 contact frame, the other motherboard showed no difference in temperatures whatsoever! Check out our review of the contact frame for more information.
Testing Methodology
Today’s highest-end CPUs, whether Intel or AMD, are difficult to cool in intensive workloads. In the past. reaching 95 degrees Celsius or more on a desktop CPU might have been a cause for concern. But with today’s top-end CPUs, this is considered normal operation. Similar behavior has been present in laptops for years due to cooling limitations in tight spaces.
All testing is performed with a 23 degrees Celsius ambient room temperature. Multiple thermal tests are run on each CPU to test the cooler in a variety of conditions, and acoustic measurements are taken with each result. These tests include:
1. Noise-normalized testing at low noise levels
2. Default configuration thermal & acoustics testing
a.) No power limits enforced
b.) Because CPUs hit TJ Max in this scenario (the maximum temperature before throttling), the best way to compare cooling strength is by recording the total CPU package power consumption.
3. Thermal and acoustic testing in power-limited scenarios
a.) Power limited to 175W to emulate a medium-intensity workload
b.) Power limited to 125W to emulate a low-intensity workload
The thermal results included are for 10-minute testing runs. To be sure that was sufficiently long to tax the cooler, we tested both Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE and DeepCool’s LT720 with a 30-minute Cinebench test with Intel’s i9-13900K for both 10 minutes and 30 minutes. The results didn’t change much at all with the longer test: The average clock speeds maintained dropped by 29 MHz on DeepCool’s LT720 and 31 MHz on Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE. That’s an incredibly small 0.6% difference in clock speeds maintained, a margin of error difference that tells us that the 10-minute tests are indeed long enough to properly test the coolers.
Testing Configuration – Intel LGA1700 Platform
| CPU | Intel Core i7-13700K |
| Motherboard | MSI Z690 A Pro DDR4 |
| Case | Be Quiet! Silent Base 802, system fans set to speed 1 setting. |
| Monitor | LG 45GR95QE |
| PSU | Cooler Master XG Plus 850 Platinum PSU |
No Power Limits Thermal Results
Without power limits enforced on Intel’s i7-13700K, the CPU will hit its peak temperature and thermally throttle with even the strongest air coolers. When the CPU reaches its peak temperature, I measured the CPU package power to determine the maximum wattage cooled to best compare their performance.
The Dark Rock Pro 5 shows a minor improvement over its predecessor, cooling 220-225W vs the 217 of the Dark Rock Pro 4.
In its low noise mode, the Dark Rock Pro 5 runs quieter than the Dark Rock Pro 4 with a measurement of only 38.2 dBA, which is the quietest result of any air cooler tested with this system. In its full-speed mode it runs a bit louder at 41.4 dBA, but that’s still quieter than most other high-end air coolers on the market.
The Dark Rock Pro Elite shows more impressive thermal improvements, cooling 231-235W compared to the 217 of its predecessor. It does run a bit louder than the Dark Rock Pro 5 to achieve this performance, with noise levels recorded of 38.9 (low noise) and 43.4 dBA (full speed mode).
Thermal Results With Noise Normalized to 38.2 dBA
Finding the right balance between fan noise levels and cooling performance is important. While running fans at full speed can improve cooling capacity to some extent, the benefits are limited and many users prefer a quiet system. With this noise-normalized test, I’ve set noise levels to 38.2 dba. This level of noise is a low volume level, but slightly audible to most people.
The noise-normalized results for the Dark Rock Elite were simply phenomenal, tied with Thermalright’s Frost Commander 140 for the best result we’ve seen from any air cooler. For those looking for the strongest silent performance, the Dark Rock Elite is a winner.
These results don’t really show any improvement of the Dark Rock Pro 5 vs the Dark Rock Pro 4, which may disappoint those looking to run their coolers at a manually tuned low volume level. However, as you’ll see in our results below, it generally runs quieter and cooler in typical operation.
175W Cinebench Results
Most coolers on the market can keep Intel’s i7-13700K under its peak (TK Max) temperature if the power consumption is limited. So for this test, we’ll look at the CPU’s actual temperature.
With results of 58 in full-speed mode and 57 degrees Celsius over ambient in low noise mode, there’s little benefit to running the Dark Rock Pro V in its full-speed mode. The same can be said for the Dark Rock Pro Elite. It runs at a typical (for coolers of its class) 42.4 dBA in its full-speed mode with a thermal result of 55 degrees C over ambient, but runs at a quiet 37.3 dBA and only 2C warmer in its low-noise mode.
The acoustic measurements in the low-noise mode for both coolers here is absolutely impressive. The sound levels of 37.3 dBA are quieter than any of the coolers we’ve tested – running 1.6 dBA quieter than the Dark Rock Pro 4 did!
125W Cinebench Results
For the last test, we’re looking at lower power results. The lowest power limit I test with Raptor Lake CPUs is 125W, high enough of a limit to allow the CPU to maintain its base clock speeds even in the most intensive tests. Most coolers should be capable of keeping the CPU below TJ Max (the max temperature before throttling) – even low-end coolers like the Intel stock cooler.
Noise levels, rather than CPU temperature, are the most important factor here. That said, the new Be Quiet coolers offer improvements of 1-2 degrees C over their predecessor.
Both coolers ran very quietly in this limited 125W scenario. I measured 37.3 dBA, which is equal to my system’s minimum noise levels – which means the cooler’s noise level is less than the system’s.
To investigate this further, I put the Dark Rock Pro V and Elite and ran them at a similar thermal level in my Ryzen 7700X SFF build. Both showed results equal to the lowest measurement my noise meter can reliably measure, 36.4 dBA. What this means is that both coolers will run perfectly silent in low-power workloads, and in most common situations.
Limited AM5 Testing Results
After I completed testing on my Intel testbed, a few users asked me to test the Dark Rock Pro V and Elite on my AMD Ryzen 7 7700X SFF system after reports of poor performance on AMD AM5 systems. I wanted to investigate this but my results are limited, because I’ve only tested a few coolers on this system thus far. I haven’t included charts with my previous Ryzen 7700X testing information because they’re not 100% comparable due to using a smaller computer case and a different motherboard.
That said, you shouldn’t have any problems with performance on AMD systems using Be Quiet’s Dark Rock Pro V and Elite. I would advise that anyone experiencing less-than-expected performance on an AMD-based system should remount the cooler.
What I can say is this – compared to the data I have for my last Ryzen 7700X system in a mid-tower case, Be Quiet’s new coolers did very well. The results I have in the SFF system show a few watts of improvement in total cooling power for the Dark Rock Pro V compared to the Dark Rock Pro IV. The Dark Rock Pro Elite performed on par with the results I have for Noctua’s NH-D15S and DeepCool’s Assassin IV.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the best-performing quiet air coolers, Be Quiet’s Dark Rock Pro V and Elite will serve you well. Their low noise modes offer the quietest acoustics we’ve seen thus far, while maintaining strong thermal performance. My only complaint about these coolers are their prices. At $89 and $99 USD, they are not cheap in any sense of the word – but the best performing products rarely offer the best value. Trying to decide between the two? I’d advise spending the extra $10 on the Elite model for stronger cooling. Even in the quiet mode it performs better than the Elite. If you just want the quietest running cooler, then you might consider the Dark Rock Pro V instead.