The newly announced FX series from be quiet! also includes a new air cooler. With the Pure Rock 2 FX, be quiet! now brings an RGB variant of the very popular Pure Rock 2 CPU cooler on the market. I was already allowed to test it and now share my experience in this Pure Rock 2 FX review.
Design & Workmanship
Both the heatpipes and the cooling fins are made of aluminum and the cover plate of the Pure Rock 2 FX are coated in the plain be quiet!black. However, a 120 mm Light Wing PWM high-speed fan is found in the box here as the fan for the CPU cooler. This gives the otherwise monochromatic CPU cooler some colorful flair and can be coupled with the other components of the PC through ARGB in color.
Included with the Pure Rock 2 FX are the Light Wings high-speed fan and heatsink, for one, as well as brackets for mounting the fan and socket adapters for AMD and Intel sockets.
The Pure Rock 2 FX combines four heatpipes in a contact surface made of copper. This is also already factory coated with a white thermal paste, and covered with a plastic protector. The copper contact surface ensures good heat transfer from the processor to the cooler. The heatpipes then transport this heat to the thin metal fins, where it is absorbed by the air and dissipated. In this regard, heat pipes are among the most efficient methods of heat transfer due to the evaporation and condensation of a medium inside the tube.
Therefore, good airflow across the heat sink is important, as it is the only way to exchange warm air and direct fresh air to the cooling fins. The new Light Wings high-speed fan is well suited for this while remaining extremely quiet.
Installation
The Pure Rock 2 FX is compatible with AM4, AM5, as well as Intel 1700, 1200, 2066, 1150, 1151, 1155 and 2011 sockets. The installation of the Pure Rock 2 FX is done quickly. First, the included socket adapter from be quiet! needs to be installed. This is the most fiddly and time-consuming step of the build. After that, the cooler can already be placed on the processor and screwed tight to the adapter. The actual fan is then only clamped to the fins of the cooler via two metal clips. Due to the slightly slanted cooler design, be quiet! prevents complications with the RAM and also without dismantling the CPU cooler, the sticks can be changed.
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Performance
For the Pure Rock 2 FX test, I used the Cinebench R23 benchmark. The test system used consisted of a Ryzen 7 5800X, Nvidia RTX 3080 FE, 16 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 3200 MHz memory and MSI B550-A Pro motherboard. During the benchmark, the slightly overclocked processor reached 90.3 °C under full load. That is a bit too warm for my demands, but the 5800X did not get into thermal throttling anyway, but increased temperatures can lead to premature failure of the processor. Be quiet! specifies the maximum power of the cooler at 150 watts – the maximum speed at 2000 rpm. Nevertheless, I would recommend a slightly larger air cooler or an AIO for a hot head like the 5800X or CPUs with a comparable or higher TDP.
Other than that, the performance is extremely respectable, especially for the size of the cooler and the single fan. The temperature difference to the AIO is only 5.7 °C. Especially for mid-range processors, the cooling performance is well suited.
Loudness
What surprised me especially positively during the Pure Rock 2 FX test is the volume. When I ran the benchmark above, I first thought something wasn’t working right – I could perceive virtually no difference in volume. Then when I leaned down to check, I saw that the fan was running at full speed. So in terms of volume, there is absolutely nothing to worry about with the Pure Rock 2 FX. So even for a silent PC build, it is a very good choice.
be quiet! Pure Rock 2 FX review: conclusion
Regularly, the Pure Rock 2 FX is available from be quiet! for €52.90. In the offer already for 39.90 €, which makes it one of the cheapest CPU coolers on the market. Therefore, it is worth considering especially for cheaper PCs.
As the successor to the Pure Rock 2, the Pure Rock 2 FX establishes itself as an inexpensive choice that nevertheless makes no compromises in terms of volume and design. Especially when the budget does not leave much room, but you also do not want to do without RGB, the Pure Rock 2 FX is a great choice.
Design & workmanship
Installation
Performance
Noise level
Value for money
89/100
An affordable, barely audible air cooler – now also with ARGB.
Pure Rock 2 FX, CPU-Kühler price comparison
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