- Apr 3, 2018
- 12,872
- 3,580
- 62,890
I picked this up for an air-cooled build where the main focus is silence alongside good cooling performance. This build is almost exactly the opposite of my previous water cooled (AIO) build in relation to sound but paying that price comes with a reward in temperatures.
This comes in a big chonky box which almost will have you questioning yourself how something that large is going into a PC case. Without a doubt it is something you will want to pay attention to. Coming in at 168mm or just over 6 1/2 inches, this isn't something that will fit any case. Where it has a cutout in the "front" facing cooler fins it would also be advisable to take a close look at your RAM height. A quick note here to say, don't bother with fancy RGB for your RAM using this...you can see one stick, maybe two on a four slot board.
The other aspect that instantly occurred to me was the weight of the cooler. This thing comes in at roughly 2.84 pounds. That doesn't seem a lot until you hold it by the cooler end for a moment. All that weight centered so far away from the mounting is going to be pulling at your motherboard. It would be a poor consideration not to use a quality motherboard with a thick PCB alongside this. I could honestly see an issue we used to have years ago where that weight basically tears the socket off the motherboard. In this case it is a B series Tomahawk and alongside the AM4 backplate am of the hope that it will be sturdy enough.
The kit comes with all the mounting hardware needed for Intel and AMD sockets of a variety of common types. It is similar to many other mounting options but noted that for AM4 it actually put the initial bridge across the short side screw mounts. The cooler itself has a couple of screws with a bit of a centering point on them to make hitting the mark easy, and the kit also comes with a really decent long shaft screwdriver included, which is a nice touch. There is enough paste included for several applications, but I must be honest in saying I did not use it.
This cooler comes with two fans. The one on the front is a standard "case fan" format, but the one in the center of the cooler is a bit of a fitted construction made specifically to go in the middle and apparently offer some manner of flow direction, even ducting if you will. I could not see that it is otherwise standard such that if it failed you could snap a replacement into that housing. One of the fans has a daisy chain (y wire) that allows both fans to run from the same header. That fan housing sort of snaps into the cooler. The front fan is held with traditional springs, and there is a beauty cover that goes over it all with magnets to hold it in place.
Of note, there is a switch under the top cover that can be used to allow the fans to run in "Performance" mode at 2000 RPM, or a "Silent" mode which I think is capped at 1500 RPM. I have not tried the silent mode, yet.
Once this unit is installed, and yes, it is a UNIT...it becomes the eye catching centerpiece of your build. It is HUGE. It is out front and prominent. It hides your RAM and a good portion of sight line to such as the heat sinks for VRM and such. It lords over the size of many graphics cards making their large size seem almost small. It is nearly comical, TBH.
As to performance, the claim on the box states that it can take up to a 270W TDP. I have to stop here to say that I don't know what temperature range under 100C (which many common high-end chips can operate to) is supposed to be acceptable but in my own very limited time and experience with this cooler I would assume that presumption marketing hype.
edit- ambient temps are roughly 21C
I have this cooling a 5900XT which is a listed TDP of 105W. The cooler keeps it ~40C, a little cooler than that just idling, and often significantly higher even just surfing or being productive. I have tested with and without the side panel and temps are actually more stable with the side cover installed. Large NZXT case with (6) other cooling fans. In games I am seeing pretty good results, mostly in the high 60's unless the graphics card goes higher than ~70 where the CPU will often come in line with that due to the way I have fans arranged. I have not been able to get the cooler to allow this CPU to go over the mid/high 70's so far and even at that was a synthetic benchmark.
Now, as to noise...THIS is the real selling point to me. Even at full tilt boogie I hear the case and graphics card fans much more than this cooler. I don't have a decibel meter available to me (mine is at work) and I am about half deaf anyway, but it is significantly quieter than my AIO build w/ i9. I think there is much to compare between this and the big boy dual fan Noctua NH 15 model. This one is supposedly quieter while the other performs better. I like the look of this one far more and also appreciate the look of similar DeepCool models that we can't get in the US.
All in all I think it is a decent cooler to consider in that $100 price point and can look really nice in a build. I think my only personal concern moving forward is in relation to the strange center fan setup and whether a standard format fan can be put into that housing type piece or if this is something that will have to be sourced from the manufacturer many years from now (hopefully)?
If one was in the market for a premium "upscale" tower air cooler I wouldn't have issue recommending this one, so far.
This comes in a big chonky box which almost will have you questioning yourself how something that large is going into a PC case. Without a doubt it is something you will want to pay attention to. Coming in at 168mm or just over 6 1/2 inches, this isn't something that will fit any case. Where it has a cutout in the "front" facing cooler fins it would also be advisable to take a close look at your RAM height. A quick note here to say, don't bother with fancy RGB for your RAM using this...you can see one stick, maybe two on a four slot board.
The other aspect that instantly occurred to me was the weight of the cooler. This thing comes in at roughly 2.84 pounds. That doesn't seem a lot until you hold it by the cooler end for a moment. All that weight centered so far away from the mounting is going to be pulling at your motherboard. It would be a poor consideration not to use a quality motherboard with a thick PCB alongside this. I could honestly see an issue we used to have years ago where that weight basically tears the socket off the motherboard. In this case it is a B series Tomahawk and alongside the AM4 backplate am of the hope that it will be sturdy enough.
The kit comes with all the mounting hardware needed for Intel and AMD sockets of a variety of common types. It is similar to many other mounting options but noted that for AM4 it actually put the initial bridge across the short side screw mounts. The cooler itself has a couple of screws with a bit of a centering point on them to make hitting the mark easy, and the kit also comes with a really decent long shaft screwdriver included, which is a nice touch. There is enough paste included for several applications, but I must be honest in saying I did not use it.
This cooler comes with two fans. The one on the front is a standard "case fan" format, but the one in the center of the cooler is a bit of a fitted construction made specifically to go in the middle and apparently offer some manner of flow direction, even ducting if you will. I could not see that it is otherwise standard such that if it failed you could snap a replacement into that housing. One of the fans has a daisy chain (y wire) that allows both fans to run from the same header. That fan housing sort of snaps into the cooler. The front fan is held with traditional springs, and there is a beauty cover that goes over it all with magnets to hold it in place.
Of note, there is a switch under the top cover that can be used to allow the fans to run in "Performance" mode at 2000 RPM, or a "Silent" mode which I think is capped at 1500 RPM. I have not tried the silent mode, yet.
Once this unit is installed, and yes, it is a UNIT...it becomes the eye catching centerpiece of your build. It is HUGE. It is out front and prominent. It hides your RAM and a good portion of sight line to such as the heat sinks for VRM and such. It lords over the size of many graphics cards making their large size seem almost small. It is nearly comical, TBH.
As to performance, the claim on the box states that it can take up to a 270W TDP. I have to stop here to say that I don't know what temperature range under 100C (which many common high-end chips can operate to) is supposed to be acceptable but in my own very limited time and experience with this cooler I would assume that presumption marketing hype.
edit- ambient temps are roughly 21C
I have this cooling a 5900XT which is a listed TDP of 105W. The cooler keeps it ~40C, a little cooler than that just idling, and often significantly higher even just surfing or being productive. I have tested with and without the side panel and temps are actually more stable with the side cover installed. Large NZXT case with (6) other cooling fans. In games I am seeing pretty good results, mostly in the high 60's unless the graphics card goes higher than ~70 where the CPU will often come in line with that due to the way I have fans arranged. I have not been able to get the cooler to allow this CPU to go over the mid/high 70's so far and even at that was a synthetic benchmark.
Now, as to noise...THIS is the real selling point to me. Even at full tilt boogie I hear the case and graphics card fans much more than this cooler. I don't have a decibel meter available to me (mine is at work) and I am about half deaf anyway, but it is significantly quieter than my AIO build w/ i9. I think there is much to compare between this and the big boy dual fan Noctua NH 15 model. This one is supposedly quieter while the other performs better. I like the look of this one far more and also appreciate the look of similar DeepCool models that we can't get in the US.
All in all I think it is a decent cooler to consider in that $100 price point and can look really nice in a build. I think my only personal concern moving forward is in relation to the strange center fan setup and whether a standard format fan can be put into that housing type piece or if this is something that will have to be sourced from the manufacturer many years from now (hopefully)?
If one was in the market for a premium "upscale" tower air cooler I wouldn't have issue recommending this one, so far.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram