Final Thoughts
When I first took the Shadow Rock 2 out of its packaging I was very surprised at the quality and design of the cooler. The brushed aluminum top piece really looks great and is going to look even better inside of a case with a side panel window. The color scheme of the cooler will go with pretty much any build as well.
Of course with a cooler the most important thing is cooling and the Shadow Rock 2 did a pretty good job at cooling our Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition processor. While not the best that we have tested it should do just fine on more mainstream processors. The fan on this cooler is extremely quiet, we could even call this is a silent cooler because it really is. That is pretty impressive because during load operation the fan was spinning around 1600 RPM and was inaudible.
Installation was a little harder than other coolers out there. This is one cooler that you will most likely require you to remove your motherboard from the case for installation. The little bolts are very hard to get at, even with the included wrench. Also you are going to want to make sure you will have clearance for your memory if they have larger heatspreaders.
At the end of the day this is not the best cooler we have reviewed, but a great contender that has almost silent operation and if that is what you are going for then this is the cooler for you. Currently I cannot find this cooler for sale in the US, but if they keep the price under $50 it will be a good deal. Overall ThinkComputers gives the be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 CPU Cooler an 8 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Very quiet
– Sleek design
– Universal cooler
Cons:
– More difficult installation that other coolers
– May block memory with larger heatspreaders
– Other coolers we have tested have performanced better
