Running a Dark Rock Pro 3 passively

MG42Maniac

MG42Maniac

MG42Maniac

Associate
Joined
28 Jan 2005
Posts
1,878
Location
Lymington
Hi Guys,

I purchased the cooler from OCUK for £30 from the B Grade and thought I had snagged a good buy. Turns out the fans do not work, they just refuse to spin.

The heatsink was a massive pain to install so I am not that keen on the hassle of removing it and fitting a new cooler. The cooler itself is a very nice bit of kit and looks in mint condition, I guess the original owner returned it because the fans don't work and OCUK stuck it in B Grade.

As the cooler is the size of Devon the temps seem very good so far. I am putting 1.24 through the i7 4770K @ 4.4GHz and the idle temps are 30c and the highest I have seen on Asus Realbench is 76c. The case is a Corsair 540 with two fans at the front and 1 at the back.

Do you think I could get away with running the heatsink without fans or do I need to stop being lazy, send it back and get a heatsink where the fans actually work?
 
How many fans does it come with?

Have you plugged other fans into the fan headers to see if they work? Could just be your BIOS is set for them not to come on until a certain temp.
 
It comes with two fans. I think it uses a Y splitter to merge them into a single connection. I have tried the rear case fan in the CPU fan connector, and the fan spins as expected. I have connected the CPU fan to where the rear fan was connected and no joy.

I thought it may be a BIOS setting as well but I set it to full speed and even at the peak temp during stress testing it did not spin up. I am pretty sure the fans are broken.
 
Maybe tell OcUK Customer Services about it, and perhaps they'll send you a couple of fans that work rather than take that cooler and fans back again and refund you or replace. Temps in summer will be higher and could be a risk if they exceed the cooling capacity of that heatsink in passive.
 
Danny75 said:
Maybe tell OcUK Customer Services about it, and perhaps they'll send you a couple of fans that work rather than take that cooler and fans back again and refund you or replace. Temps in summer will be higher and could be a risk if they exceed the cooling capacity of that heatsink in passive.
Click to expand...

I've spoken to OCUK customer services, they knew there was a problem with the fans as that is why the original owner returned it. Kinda annoying as they sold it on knowing there was a fault with it. The OCUK customer services rep suggested plugging in one of the CPU fans directly and not using the Y splitter. I will give this a go tonight.

P4Clock said:
VERY strange that both fans dont work. try plugging them into a few different header to test.
Click to expand...

I will try bypassing the included Y splitter and plug in directly. If I can get one of the fans working I will order a replacement Y splitter. Only problem is going to be accessing the Y splitter.
 
If both fans work on their own then the issue is the splitter and you won the internet

As for running it without fans its possible but wont be anywhere near as effective as it would be with fans installed. Depends on case fan setup too but if they are setup well I bet you'll be surprised in your 540 how effective they are
 
So they basically sold something as knowingly faulty? That's not what B grade is for and is a penis move if true.
 
tom_e said:
So they basically sold something as knowingly faulty? That's not what B grade is for and is a penis move if true.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was sold on with a known fault. It is a shady move if you ask me but I guess if it's marked down for £65 to £30 I could replace the fans and still better off. If it's just a Y splitter issue it's a damn good buy. Just need to finish work so I can go home and have a look into it.
 
"B Grade items may have been used, have damaged packaging, missing accessories or a combination of these.

Some items may have scuff marks or slight scratches but should otherwise be an operable product."

As it wasn't an operable (working) product OCUK should provide the cable you need to make it so.
 
Depends on who you speak to half the time, I just had to send a cooler back because I don't think it works as advertised and had to pay £13 to post where as the time before an item was returned and was collected
 
So, some good news. I have dismantled the fans and it looked like one part of the splitter was not plugged in. I plugged it in, powered the PC on and as if by magic the fans spun up :D:D:D. I've mounted the fans properly now and everything works as it should.

I thought due to the size of the cooler, moving the fans would be a right pain but it was super easy and one of the simplest jobs I've done.

Now to see if the fans make much difference to the temps!

Thanks for the advice guys. :)
 
I would like to believe they haven't intentionally put broken product on B-Grade.

Perhaps, they meant that they knew owner returned it stating issue with fans but when OC tested it it worked fine?

Some motherboards also have CPU #1 and CPU #2 fan headers like mine. If your has it you may not even need the supplied splitter at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom