The German hardware manufacturer be quiet! has become known worldwide primarily for its high-quality and particularly quiet power supply units. However, be quiet! has also been a major player in the CPU cooler and case segment for many years and has already won one or two awards with products from the “Dark Base”, “Silent Base” and “Pure Base” series. In February 2025, be quiet! expanded the CPU cooler segment and introduced a new revision of the Pure Rock CPU cooler. In addition to the Pure Rock 3, there is now also a twin-tower cooler in this series with the Pure Rock Pro 3. We have tested the be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black for you today.
Air cooling test: Technical details
General specifications |
|
| Dimensions (with fan, H x W x D) | 155 x 124 x 139 mm |
| Weight (with fan) | 1070 g |
| Materials | Copper (heatpipes), aluminum (cooling fins) |
| Heatpipes | 6 x ⌀ 6 mm |
| Cooling capacity | 250 W |
| Compatibility AMD | AM5, AM4 |
| Intel compatibility | 1851, 1700, 1200, 1150, 1151, 1155 |
| Manufacturer’s warranty | 3 years |
| price | € 52.40 * |
Fan specifications |
|
| Number of fans | 2 |
| Fan designation | be quiet! Pure Wings 3 120mm PWM |
| Bearing type | Rifle bearing |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 120 x 120 x 25 mm |
| Fan speed | 250 ~ 2000 rpm |
| Max. Noise level | N/A |
| Max. Volume flow | 101.2 m³/h |
| Max. Air pressure | 2.41 mmH2O |
| Rated voltage (fan) | 12 V |
| Rated current (fan) | 0,1 A |
| Rated power (fan) | 3,6 W |
| Connection (fan) | 4-pin PWM |
| Cable length (fan) | 120 mm |
Packaging & scope of delivery
Typical for a be quiet! product, the manufacturer packs the Pure Rock Pro 3 in a box made of black-printed cardboard. The packaging also features the typical white and orange accents. In addition to a few product images, the box also contains a list of the most important features and a summary of all technical data in the form of a table. All texts were written in English.
Inside the box, the manufacturer wraps the heatsink with pre-assembled fans with several elements of soft foam. In addition, another foam mat has been placed between the middle fan and the cooling block. The accessories are packed by be quiet! in a plastic bag. This contains spacers, screws, a backplate, mounting brackets, four fan clips and assembly instructions. The thermal paste is already applied to the cooler on all Pure Rock 3 variants. Additional thermal paste is not included with the cooler.
Design & workmanship
The be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 consists of two cooling towers, each with 50 black-painted aluminum fins. Above the last fin, the manufacturer places a black plastic cover plate with the manufacturer’s logo. The heat is transferred from the nickel-plated base plate to the fins via six 6 mm copper heat pipes, which are also painted black to improve the appearance. It is also noticeable that the heat sink has been designed asymmetrically. This is primarily intended to improve compatibility with higher RAM modules.
The two supplied fans are of the Pure Wings 3 type and have a frame width of 120 millimeters. The rotor consists of nine fan blades and has a rifle bearing. All other elements of the Pure Wings 3 are black. Power is supplied via a 4-pin PWM connector, which also has a Y-switch on one of the fans. However, the Pure Wings 3 does not have rubberized corners for the purpose of decoupling.
The heatsink and fan together weigh in at 1077 grams. That’s quite a lot and the dimensions of 155 x 124 x 139 can no longer be described as compact. However, thanks to its overall height of 155 millimeters, the Pure Rock 3 Pro should still fit into many cases. In terms of workmanship, there is no room for criticism. All components have been finished and painted to a high standard.
be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black Test: Assembly
For the performance test, a test system is used which is mounted on a benchtable. This allows us to rule out factors such as heat build-up in the case. The test system consists of the following components.
- AMD Ryzen 5 1400 @ 3.8 GHz at 1.175V*
- ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus*
- Crucial Ballistix Sport LT gray 32 GB DDR4-3000*
- TeamGroup T-Create Classic PCIe 4.0 DL*
- Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1060 6G*
- LC-Power LC550 V2.31 Platinum Series 550W*
As with many other coolers, the installation of the be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black is very simple and quick. In our AM4 test system, the two plastic brackets of the AMD retention module had to be removed first. The backplate remained at the rear and was fitted with four plastic spacers from the front.
Now the two metal brackets are placed on the spacers and screwed in place. It is interesting to note that be quiet! allows two different mounting positions. Position 1 places the heatsink directly above the CPU heatspreader and thus offers maximum compatibility when mounting expansion cards. Position 2 moves the heat sink slightly downwards. Due to the chiplet positioning of modern AMD CPUs (AMD Ryzen 3000 and upwards), this position should lead to slightly better cooling results. However, whether this installation works depends heavily on the layout of the mainboard. It could also cover the first PCIe slot.
Another advantage of the Pure Rock Pro 3 is that the manufacturer has pre-applied the thermal paste. The final step is to simply place the heat sink on the CPU and screw it in place with two spring-loaded screws. To do this, however, the middle fan had to be removed and reattached once the heat sink had been successfully installed.
Overall, be quiet! has done an excellent job in developing the mounting system. It is simple but efficient and also very suitable for beginners due to the pre-applied thermal paste. If you have any questions, the assembly instructions in the form of pictures and text provide structured help.
Cooling capacity and volume
As already shown in the previous chapter, we use an AM4 system based on the Ryzen 5 1400 and the ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus as test hardware. The Ryzen runs overclocked with 3.8 GHz at 1.175 V CPU voltage. To heat up the processor, we fully loaded it with Prime95 (Small FFTs) for 30 minutes in each scenario. We then read out the temperature of the CPU with the CPUID hardware monitor and the room temperature was always around 20 °C during the measurements.
| wdt_ID | CPU-Kühler | Temperatur Minimaldrehzahl (in °C) | Temperatur 50% PWM (in °C) | Temperatur 100% PWM (in °C) | Minimale Lüftergeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) | Minimale Pumpengeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 | Thermaltake TH280 V2 ARGB | 0,00 | 46,60 | 45,90 | 550 | 1.200 | 1.800 | 680 | 2.100 | 3.200 |
| 124 | Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 Atmos ARGB | 0,00 | 50,40 | 46,50 | 560 | 1.340 | 2.270 | 1.965 | 6.620 | 10.230 |
| 125 | be quiet! Pure Loop 2 240mm | 0,00 | 50,70 | 46,70 | 800 | 1.070 | 2.080 | 4.150 | 4.700 | 5.530 |
| 126 | Alpenföhn Panorama 2 | 0,00 | 76,00 | 66,80 | 450 | 1.450 | 2.720 | |||
| 127 | Alpenföhn Brocken 4 | 0,00 | 53,60 | 49,60 | 410 | 870 | 1.610 | |||
| 128 | AMD Wraith Stealth | 95,00 | 95,00 | 76,00 | 800 | 1.430 | 2.630 | |||
| 129 | Corsair A115 | 0,00 | 49,40 | 46,90 | 190 | 920 | 1.560 | |||
| 130 | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE | 0,00 | 49,50 | 47,50 | 350 | 1.050 | 1.680 | |||
| 131 | Thermalright Assassin X 120 SE | 0,00 | 53,60 | 50,60 | 340 | 1.070 | 1.690 | |||
| 132 | DeepCool Assassin IV (Silent) | 0,00 | 51,40 | 48,70 | 500 | 860 | 1.330 | |||
| CPU-Kühler | Temperatur Minimaldrehzahl (in °C) | Temperatur 50% PWM (in °C) | Temperatur 100% PWM (in °C) | Minimale Lüftergeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) | Minimale Pumpengeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) |
As can be seen from the table and the diagram, the CPU of our test system reaches a maximum of 87.80 °C (minimum speed: 250 rpm), 54.50 °C (50% PWM: 1015 rpm) and 50 °C (100% PWM: 2000 rpm) under full load. On their own, these values initially appear good to very good. Compared to the competition, these values are unfortunately quite disappointing, as the Pure Rock 3 Pro with our AMD test system even ranks behind the significantly cheaper Thermalright Assassin X 120 SE. Even reinstalling the heat sink and mounting it offset could not improve these values with our overclocked AMD Ryzen 5 1400.
The wide fan speed range, on the other hand, is particularly impressive. At 250 revolutions per minute, the fans are almost inaudible even with an open test setup and perfectly suited for quiet idle operation. If the fans are set to 50% PWM, the Pure Wings 3 rotate at around 1000 revolutions per minute and remain very inconspicuous or, from our point of view, are still absolutely suitable for silent operation. At full speed of 2000 rpm, the fans are of course clearly audible, but less intrusive than some others.
Conclusion of the be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black test
Now we come to the conclusion of the be quiet! Pure Rock 3 Black. This CPU cooler impressed us with its discreet but stylish appearance, the simple but effective mounting system, which even allows offset mounting for AMD mainboards, and the two very quiet Pure Wings 3 fans. This overall package is rounded off by the excellent workmanship of the CPU cooler.
But now we come to the points that we noticed negatively. The be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black delivers good to very good cooling results when viewed without competition. However, if you include the competition, the values achieved are extremely sobering, considering the price and size of the cooler. On our AMD test system, the Pure Rock Pro 3 Black came in behind the Thermalright Assassin X 120 SE, which costs less than half as much as the be quiet! cooler.
Unfortunately, we do not currently have an Intel system for comparison. We are therefore unable to recommend the be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black, at least for older AM4 systems, and would once again recommend buying the very good Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE V3instead. Although it doesn’t look quite as stylish, it cools better in comparison and is cheaper.
- High-quality workmanship
- Simple assembly
- Offset mounting for AMD
- Discreet but chic look
- Quiet fan
- Cooling performance in comparison
- Price in comparison
- Fan not decoupled
be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black
Design
Processing
Assembly
Performance
Price-performance ratio
85/100
The be quiet! Pure Rock Pro 3 Black is a stylish CPU cooler and offers easy installation, quiet fans and a high-quality finish. Unfortunately, its cooling performance is weaker than its price.
