be quiet! Shadow Rock LP 130W TDP Low Profile CPU Cooler | Intel Compatible 1700 1200 1150 1151 1155 2011 Square ILM | AMD-AM4 | Silver | BK002

I have had this fan for a considerable amount of time now and it performs excellently. I was using an AMD Ryzen CPU, which notoriously runs quite hot. The stock fan was insufficient at keeping it cool and so I was pressed for options to find a fan that cooled adequately while fitting the cramped interior of my "space efficient" build. While the fan/heatsink does cover my memory cards meaning I have to remove my fan to install or move seated RAM, it has been a necessary sacrifice to keep my CPU cool, a task which this fan accomplishes effortlessly. If you are poor on space, the low profile of this fan keeps size a mostly non-issue. Assembly and installation was unpleasant, however. Once you are over that hurdle it will completely accomplish its job with little complain and quite quietly to boot.

First things first, the cooler is of amazing quality and provides exceptional performance. I'm a function over form type of guy so I have always sought out downdraft style coolers for my builds. The mounting system is very simple and sturdy, just as good as noctua in my opinion. This has been the best downdraft cooler I've ever used. So in the photos you see I swapped the fan to an Arctic because Arctic sells their fans in five packs and that's how many fans that case has room for. Right now it's cooling a max voltage 11400 and stays below 70 and whisper quiet during day long gaming sessions. In my opinion if you're spending money on a build, and downdraft coolers interest you, then there's no question that this is worth a look, if you don't necessarily have a heat problem and can't justify $50 for a cooler then get something else, you can get a $10-20 air cooler that will cool almost anything as long as you're not overclocking. But for small form factors and/or high wattage CPUs then this cooler with the added benefits of being a downdraft style cooler make this an easy number one pick for me. Keep in mind that style and a compact size do come at cost, and that for me that was clearance for the ram and VRM heat spreaders. If you set it up the way I did, because my VRM heat sinks are very tall and would not fit under the extended side of the cooler. That's not a problem it's just something to take into consideration when planning around this cooler, use low profile ram. For reference, the board is an MSI h510i pro Wi-Fi and the RAM is crucial ballistics. The cooler would not clear gskill rip jaws in The orientation pictured. Great cooler if it fits your style and/or application. Mounting system noise level easy to install. Give a thumbs up if you appreciate my honest review!

I can now see why there are complaints over why the installation is hard. If you are installing this on a motherboard that is already screwed into a case, then you're gonna have a bad time. I installed it on to a mITX motherboard before securing it in the case and the process was a breeze. This was because of the fact that I had no space limitations to work with. I opted to use Corsair's new fan because it pushes more air at full speed. I didn't purchase this cooler for the low sound benefit, but I agree, the be quiet! fan is VERY quiet. My i7-6700k tops out at 74 degrees C under full load at 4.6GHz and 1.29v core. Installed on a Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 motherboard in a Silverstone RVZ01-E case.

Pros: Low profile, quiet fan, cools relatively well for a small heatsink Cons: Not that easy to install, quirky design Specs of the computer I installed this in: Processor: Intel i5 6600k Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 RAM: Corsair LPX 16GB DDR4 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX I had a different heatsink installed before this, so all components have been installed prior. Because the case is relatively spacious for an ITX, I had plenty of room to work with. Installing the backplate is relatively straight forward, and shouldn't cause too many problems. However, for most ITX motherboards, getting the heatsink and fan installed might be a little bit tricky. Before screwing in the mounting arms, make sure to figure out how you want to orient the heatsink. Make sure you have enough clearance for your capacitors, RAM, and other components. I had to watch out for an internal USB3 port, so I only had one option for orientation. Once you figure out how you want to mount the heatsink, getting it secured is pretty straight forward. The Shadow Rock uses one solid bar to hold the heatsink to the arms. The heatsink comes with thermal paste pre-applied, so you don't need to worry about that. If you prefer to use your own, just wipe the base with a clean cloth and you'll be good to go. Getting the fan to attach to the heatsink can be a bit of a challenge since the included brackets don't flex very well. Combined with the limited space of an ITX case, it took me a few tries before I could get the fan to attach. I've installed many heatsinks in many differenet form factors, and I would say this was probably one of the more difficult ones. If you have installed Noctua heatsinks, then you'll know how easy installation can be. Unfortunately, be quiet! doesn't have that part down yet. Additionally, the included instructions are pretty vague. Heat dissipation is pretty good. On idle, the 6600k hovers around 25-30C. Under load, it can shoot up to 40-50C. These temperatures might be a little bit lower than a standard rig since I don't have a discrete graphics card installed yet. Also, the Evolv ITX is a bit larger than other ITX cases, so that should be noted as well. Under normal circumstances, this fan is extremely quiet. For all intents and purposes, it is silent; ambient noise drowns out any sound it might make. Overall, I'm happy with this heatsink, and it definitely should be considered for ITX rigs. Installation isn't the easiest, but it shouldn't be too difficult for seasoned builders either. It works very well with the latest Intel (and AMD) processors, and doesn't break the bank. be quiet! is a relatively new player in the CPU cooler market, but they are very promising. Give this one some serious consideration.

Bought the heatsink for an AM4 mATX motherboard and Corsair LPX Vengeance RAM. There are maybe about 5-7 milli-meters clearance from top of the RAM. The installation can be a bit tricky if the mainboard was mounted in the case. The AM4 thread right angle piece (2X) should have been tapped and countersink as a guide-in for the screw would ease the installation process. Can't access the RAMs once the heatsink installed. There are alternate mounting orientation for Intel and other AMD sockets, BUT not for AM4 socket. The end, where the bended heat-pipes, radiate from the CPU's contact pad had to be faced toward the I/O side, or its will definitely interfere with the RAM slots. Cooling performance is really good. Around 35-38°C with fan on the heatsink. and slightly above 50°C with just the rear exhausted fan. Per PcPartPicker folk's suggestion, its also cool the VRM as well.

Worst installation I've ever experienced. For AM4, you need to attach clips to a rigid retention bar by screwing them in halfway, and then attempt to bend the (again, very rigid) bar to clip it onto the socket's mounting clip attachment points. To get it to secure to the board at all, you need to find the tiny window between too tight to mount and too loose to stay attached for the retention bar's screwed on clips, and hope you don't strip a screw hole in the process. A never-before-seen level of pressure needs to be applied if you want it to secure, and you end up bending your motherboard to an uncomfortable extent. Once it was finally on it worked well with a Noctua NF-A12x15, but I had to remove it to replace some RAM. Attempting to reinstall it was a total failure, so I'm returning it in hopes of finding the now-discontinued Nocua NH-L12 or something similarly shaped but under 66mm. The L9x65 I have now is passable, but very noisy given the small fan and slim gap between it and the side panel vent. I've installed plenty of CPU coolers in my day, and this is by far the absolute worst. I shouldn't have to flex my motherboard to install cooling!

TL;DR: the Shadow Rock LP should work well on CPUs up to 100W TDP but will struggle after that. Very quiet even at full speed (1500RPM). The mounting system is a bit frustrating. I am using the Shadow Rock LP on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X in a small mini ITX box (Silverstone SG06). The 5800X is rated to 105W TDP, which is substantially less than the 130W TDP cooling capacity advertised for the Shadow Rock LP. Sadly, even though the Shadow rock is a good cooler, it is definitely not good enough to keep the 5800X cool. With the default CPU settings, as soon as I load all the cores to 100% the cores temperatures shoot up to 90C/194F and all cores throttle down to 3.7GHz - below the base frequency of 3.8GHz. Under moderate load it is better but the CPU tends to run hot and throttling still happens quite often. I understand that the whole TDP ratings are mostly meaningless, but since be quiet! has chosen to use that as a selling point (as opposed to, for instance, providing detailed compatibility information) I think that the 130W TDP cooling capacity really qualifies as false advertising. The claims about the noise are however absolutely true. I really can't hear the fan over the ambient noise (home office with open windows). Installing the cooler on an AMD CPU isn't totally straightforward and requires a bit of fiddling around. I understand that they need to accommodate different standards while keeping the cost low enough, but the choices in the design of the mounting system are surprising. It can quickly become frustrating on small form factors because the cooler is proportionally very large compared to a mini ITX board and there isn't much clearance around all the components on the board (low profile memory is an absolute requirement). With hindsight I would have chosen a different cooling solution for the Ryzen 7 5800X. However, for CPUs with a lower TDP I would still consider the Shadow Rock LP for small form factor builds because it is affordable, it is very quiet and it has a very competitive cooling capacity for a cooler that size. If the Shadow Rock LP was advertised for 100W TDP cooling capacity, I would give it at least 4 stars (perhaps not 5 stars because of the mounting system).

certainly lives up to the namesake, very quiet and has been keeping my desktop cool and quiet for a few years now