Be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler shock

digitaldreams · 9 Jun 2022 at 21:08

Fitting this to my new Asus lga1700 board today turned into a nightmare, I was shocked how unsuitable it was.

There was a bit of fiddling to get the right parts together for lga1700 fitting but my real troubles began when trying to fit it to my new board even with some 45 years experience. The first thing I noticed was that the heat pipes collided with the top VRM heatsink causing it not to sit flat against the processor. Then when fitting the fan I was again shocked to find it not only stopped any use of the first ram slot (fan was lower than the memory cards !!) but pressed hard against the card in slot 2 !?!?. I had to remove two rubber strips that the fan was clamped against hence now its a little loose fitting.

How was this advertised as suitable for lga1700 !?!?

noodles002 · 9 Jun 2022 at 22:26

Something doesn't sound right there, are you sure you've used the lga1700 mounting kit?

I have the Dark Rock Pro 4 with MSI Z690 A Pro motherboard - i've not had any issues with it not fitting and that's a bigger heatsink than yours.
That said I have used low profile corsair RAM.

digitaldreams · 9 Jun 2022 at 22:36

noodles002 said:
Something doesn't sound right there, are you sure you've used the lga1700 mounting kit?

I have the Dark Rock Pro 4 with MSI Z690 A Pro motherboard - i've not had any issues with it not fitting and that's a bigger heatsink than yours.
That said I have used low profile corsair RAM.

Definitely the lga1700 fixing kit used, triple checked. The Rog Strix motherboard stupidly has extra trim over the VRM heatsink which doesn't help !. Re the ram, looking at the stock photo of this cooler you can see how unusually low the fan hangs !

noodles002 · 9 Jun 2022 at 22:42

Then i'm at a loss, maybe try contacting BeQuiet, they may offer you an alternative as a gesture of goodwill.

digitaldreams · 9 Jun 2022 at 23:47

noodles002 said:
Then i'm at a loss, maybe try contacting BeQuiet, they may offer you an alternative as a gesture of goodwill.

Done, hopefully they ask for photos to prove the huge issues..

digitaldreams · 10 Jun 2022 at 08:57

Answer from BeQuiet.... "Unfortunately this motherboard doesn’t fit a lot of coolers. Looks like you need to choose another cooler. Maybe a watercooler?".... Classic, at least they have a compatibility check on their website.

Removed User 345456 · 18 Jun 2022 at 23:56

I was going to get this hsf... I thought you could lift the second fan higher and clip it in where you want it and just run under 36 or 38mm high ram in slot 1? or is it literally a duff fitting kit at fault as i thought the heatsink itself was also notched that side to clear the ram in slot 1 also?

digitaldreams · 1 Jul 2022 at 16:02

keef247 said:
I was going to get this hsf... I thought you could lift the second fan higher and clip it in where you want it and just run under 36 or 38mm high ram in slot 1? or is it literally a duff fitting kit at fault as i thought the heatsink itself was also notched that side to clear the ram in slot 1 also?

No the heatpipes themselves hit the top VRM cover (and heatsink if cover removed). Raising the fan slightly wont help ram clearance either. Solved most of my problems by swapping for a Shadow Rock 3 (angled hetapipes to completely clear VRM heatsink and ram slots) yet this has less cooling (CPU currently hitting 65-70c while gaming). Check out the Bequiet motherboard compatabilty tool on their website.

Removed User 345456 · 2 Jul 2022 at 19:04

digitaldreams said:
No the heatpipes themselves hit the top VRM cover (and heatsink if cover removed). Raising the fan slightly wont help ram clearance either. Solved most of my problems by swapping for a Shadow Rock 3 (angled hetapipes to completely clear VRM heatsink and ram slots) yet this has less cooling (CPU currently hitting 65-70c while gaming). Check out the Bequiet motherboard compatabilty tool on their website.

nice one for that mate! just verified it's fine for mine. that's awesome they have that on their website! thanks again!

DaZzZa · 16 Jul 2022 at 13:46

I'm using this, had to Dremel the fan housing to stop it fouling the ram on a x570 tomahawk lol

VortexA1 · 17 Jul 2022 at 14:34

digitaldreams said:
Fitting this to my new Asus lga1700 board today turned into a nightmare, I was shocked how unsuitable it was.

There was a bit of fiddling to get the right parts together for lga1700 fitting but my real troubles began when trying to fit it to my new board even with some 45 years experience. The first thing I noticed was that the heat pipes collided with the top VRM heatsink causing it not to sit flat against the processor. Then when fitting the fan I was again shocked to find it not only stopped any use of the first ram slot (fan was lower than the memory cards !!) but pressed hard against the card in slot 2 !?!?. I had to remove two rubber strips that the fan was clamped against hence now its a little loose fitting.

How was this advertised as suitable for lga1700 !?!?

Tbh you would logically go on the bequiet website and done some research of your own,its known for clearance issues but yeah its clear in hindsight.

I understand some impulse buying.

arknor · 20 Jul 2022 at 20:37

yea I always research if a cooler will fit a board and if it needs low profile memory or not.

to not do it is like buying an AMD board then complaining an Intel CPU doesn't fit the socket

Drumroll · 31 Jul 2022 at 20:41

Asus motherboards. That's the issue.
Arctic Freezer AIO would require a different casing, some Noctua coolers wouldn't fit, etc.

clone · 1 Aug 2022 at 21:16

Got the artic freezer 2 on my asus motherboard, strix gaming a z690 no problem, I had to do a hell of a lot of research to find out what would fit as its tight round the cpu socket