Performance

Looking at the Peak test first, we can compare the Shadow Rock directly to its sibling, the Dark Rock Pro 2. We find that while its performance is impressive it does come up just short, if ever so slightly. Where the Shadow Rock does show measured gains is in the RAM temperature which is to be expected with the TopFlow design. With air not only being blown across the fins but also down over the DIMM heatspreaders the added cooling effect here is surely something to consider.  Noise was higher on the Shadow Rock and that can probably be chalked up to design with the fan aimed down at the board and fins only supported on a single side by the heat pipes.

Taking a look at the Real World test we find much the same results with CPU temperatures slightly higher than the bulkier Dark Rock but measurably lower RAM temperatures.