be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 Review

Overview

Installation

Design

Specifications and Features

Performance

Conclusion

Overview

The Shadow Rock TF 2 cooler is perfect for those systems with a reduced space thanks to its design. It is compatible with the latest sockets on the market, including AMD socket AM4, with a maximum cooling capacity of 160 W TDP.

When it comes to gaming, how well your rig runs is important. You want to make sure that all the parts you put into it work together, there’s no point in spending huge amounts of money for a great PC to have it bottlenecked by one component.

One of the most important aspects of any rig is airflow, if you don’t have good airflow then your whole system is going to suffer.

The CPU cooler you choose for your desired build is important for many reasons. It’s the choice between an air-cooled or liquid-cooled unit, whether you cool the RAM as well or if you leave that to airflow. It also dictates what size case you need.

Installation

The Cooler comes with all the components to fit all the modern CPU sockets for both Intel and AMD. It even comes with a mini wrench that is supposed to aid installation, however, I found this awkward and chose to use my fingers for the most part instead.

While the instructions suggest mounting the cooler to the Motherboard before installing them into the case, I would advise otherwise. When we did this, the overlap of the cooler meant that I couldn’t fit a screwdriver the tighten the centre motherboard fitting. This didn’t bother me too much as we use a test-bench setup and rotate the components regularly.

The cooler also came with thermal paste pre-applied, however, I cleaned this off and applied a spot of Arctic MX-4, it’s a carbon-based thermal paste that I find much more effective than most products on the market.

Design

The cooler measures 137 x 165 x 87 mm. The quality of materials is, as usual with Be Quiet, outstanding. The low-profile design despite the built-in 135mm fan is compact and will fit into many of the smaller cases without much trouble.

The overall height is roughly 12cm with the mounting brackets, the smallest case we could find was 18cm wide, so that leaves you with 6cm for the added airflow which is pretty good.

The 135mm fan rotates up to 1400 rpm, with a sound level of 20.8 dBa and capable of generating 67.8 CFM.

It has 5 copper heat pipes of 6mm in diameter. The heat pipes cross the socket in contact with the CPU as we see in the image. It also comes with pre-applied thermal paste. We can also see that the central heat pipe is in contact with the radiator in the external zone.

Specifications

The be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 meets the minimum requirements expected with an air cooler. It is compatible with the latest sockets of the market, including AMD socket AM4, with a maximum cooling capacity of 160 W TDP.

Dimensions (L x W x H) (mm) | 137 x 165 x 112
TDP (W) | 60
Socket compatibility | Intel: LGA 775 / 115x / 1366 / 2011(-3) Square ILM / 2066
| AMD: AM2(+) / AM3(+) / AM4 / FM1 / FM2(+)
Base material | Copper

Performance

Conclusion

The be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 is a powerful top-flow cooler that offers outstanding performance for any type of processor, as its TDP is up to 160W so it can cool any processor in the market without problems, as we have been able to check with our Intel i7 tests.

The size advantage of the Shadow Rock TF 2 looks sleek against other tower coolers in the same price range. However, it is very wide and thus limits the height of memory significantly meaning many high-performance versions won’t be compatible.

The be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 also cools the area around the processor base intensively due to its design. The comparatively cumbersome assembly, which is also made more difficult by the sheer size of the cooler, can also be pretty annoying and could be improved.

Overall, the be quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 is a great alternative to tower coolers. The price of the cooler is about 65 euros so it’s a perfect solution for a budget build. It does come with a few annoyances but they are small and only apply to the installation process. If you’re looking for a good cooler that doesn’t sound like a vacuum cleaner any time you play The Witcher 3 then this is a great candidate.