Discussion Deepcool castle 120r AIO

[Gigabot]

I just wanted to share with anyone who may be looking for a 120mm aio, I got a deepcool castle 120r on amazon for about $45 on sale, I have done some non scientific testing on a stock 3700x in a Nzxt h510 flow case with 2x 120 intake and 1x 120 exhaust at 75f/24c ambient. I have also used a scythe fuma 2 with both kryonaut and gelid extreme thermal paste as well as the deep cool castle set to exhaust in my case, it performs within 2°c of the scythe fuma 2 on 60% fan speed at 60°c fan curve for the deepcool and 90% fan speed on the fuma 2 at 60°c. I tested cinebench r23 which got to 62°c max after 30 min on the deepcool and same temp for the fuma 2, in gaming on cod 62°c max for the deepcool, apex legends 68°c max for the deepcool and fuma 2, cyberpunk all the temps were within 1-2°c from the deepcool to the scythe fuma 2. This thing is also really quiet the pump fan is 3 pin so it is always max speed and even at idle with quiet fan profile I can barely hear it.
I am new to aio and I know the 240 is a better performer but I went with a 120 for my first time and have had great results.
tl: dr the deepcool castle 120r aio is a beast for anyone on in the market for one.

 

[Phaaze88]

I take it the boost clocks of the cores weren't being monitored at all while this was going on? Ryzen 3000 scales up/down with temperature.

it performs within 2°c of the scythe fuma 2 on 60% fan speed at 60°c fan curve for the deepcool and 90% fan speed on the fuma 2 at 60°c

Is this even fair, when there's 1 vs 2 fans, and the specs - as well as fan curves - between the 3 fans are all different?


Enjoy it, I guess?

 

[Gigabot]

I take it the boost clocks of the cores weren't being monitored at all while this was going on? Ryzen 3000 scales up/down with temperature.


Is this even fair, when there's 1 vs 2 fans, and the specs - as well as fan curves - between the 3 fans are all different?


Enjoy it, I guess?

It was boosting to 4.4ghz on all cores with no pbo or auto oc. settings, I'd say it's a fair comparison the scythe fuma 2 has 2 1200rpm fans and a lot more heat sink, the deepcool is a single 120 1700rpm and it cools just as well as the scythe, the intake fans are the same for both with 2 noctua redux 1700 rpm fans as well as the same fan for exhaust with the scythe.

 

[Phaaze88]

4.4 is pretty much the max the 3700X will do all cores on auto if kept cool enough.


I get that you weren't trying to be scientific with this, but "I'd say it's a fair comparison the scythe fuma 2 has 2 1200rpm fans... the deepcool is a single 120 1700rpm..." still isn't fair. All three fans are completely different and optimized for a different level of air resistance(their heatsinks).
Kaze Flex Slim 120
CFM: 33.86
SP: 0.9 mmH2O
^specs at 100% rpm, of course. A fan's performance is not linear below that.

Kaze Flex 120
CFM: 51.17
SP: 1.05 mmH2O

Deepcool's using a high speed version of their RF120 fan.
CFM: 69.34
SP: 2.42 mmH2O

The FUMA 2's performance is optimized for low noise operation. Some can say too much, as this is that cooler's greatest weakness: it can struggle with more power hungry cpus, as the already low rpm fans can't spin up any faster. [That's where Revision B comes in.]
Scythe designed the heatsink to allow the low rpm fans to easily push air through though.
The Deepcool 120R's performance is optimized around higher fan rpm. The radiator is a greater source of resistance than what the FUMA 2's heatsink is, so a faster fan is needed to counteract that.
What do you think would happen if you swapped fans between the coolers? Well, you don't have a second RF120, so that probably wouldn't be fair since the FUMA 2 normally runs 2 fans.
Same goes for the 2 Kaze Flexes on the 120R's radiator - even knowing the performance would probably be lackluster anyway.

Concave Vs Convex Integrated Heat Spreaders and cooler cold plates: this is a whole 'nother can of worms that adds more variables, but what it comes down to is that coolers are going to do a little better/worse than others on specific cpus.



TL;DR: I'm nitpicking, don't pay too much attention to me, but really, even just the fans doesn't make this 'fair'.

 

[Gigabot]

4.4 is pretty much the max the 3700X will do all cores on auto if kept cool enough.


I get that you weren't trying to be scientific with this, but "I'd say it's a fair comparison the scythe fuma 2 has 2 1200rpm fans... the deepcool is a single 120 1700rpm..." still isn't fair. All three fans are completely different and optimized for a different level of air resistance(their heatsinks).
Kaze Flex Slim 120
CFM: 33.86
SP: 0.9 mmH2O
^specs at 100% rpm, of course. A fan's performance is not linear below that.

Kaze Flex 120
CFM: 51.17
SP: 1.05 mmH2O

Deepcool's using a high speed version of their RF120 fan.
CFM: 69.34
SP: 2.42 mmH2O

The FUMA 2's performance is optimized for low noise operation. Some can say too much, as this is that cooler's greatest weakness: it can struggle with more power hungry cpus, as the already low rpm fans can't spin up any faster. [That's where Revision B comes in.]
Scythe designed the heatsink to allow the low rpm fans to easily push air through though.
The Deepcool 120R's performance is optimized around higher fan rpm. The radiator is a greater source of resistance than what the FUMA 2's heatsink is, so a faster fan is needed to counteract that.
What do you think would happen if you swapped fans between the coolers? Well, you don't have a second RF120, so that probably wouldn't be fair since the FUMA 2 normally runs 2 fans.
Same goes for the 2 Kaze Flexes on the 120R's radiator - even knowing the performance would probably be lackluster anyway.

Concave Vs Convex Integrated Heat Spreaders and cooler cold plates: this is a whole 'nother can of worms that adds more variables, but what it comes down to is that coolers are going to do a little better/worse than others on specific cpus.



TL;DR: I'm nitpicking, don't pay too much attention to me, but really, even just the fans doesn't make this 'fair'.

Valid points, there's much to consider with technical specs, I just wanted to share my experience with this budget aio for anyone that was looking to use one.

 

[Gigabot]

Just wanted to update this thread with some hw monitor screen shots
these are from video editing and gaming after about 30 min each.

https://imgur.com/a/Pk5L2e0

View: https://imgur.com/a/Pk5L2e0

https://imgur.com/a/qOz75hw

View: https://imgur.com/a/qOz75hw

 

[Karadjgne]

Halfway meaningless comparison. Temps are a measure of efficiency, not capacity. The fuma2 is a 200w cpu cooler, the 120mm AIO is a 140w cpu cooler. Stuck on a 65w cpu, capacity isn't in question, only efficiency.

If you stuck both coolers on an i7 Intel, you'd get vastly different results, the fuma2 would stay inside operating temps, the 120mm AIO would thermal throttle like a bandit as soon as the 140w capacity was reached, which doesn't take much effort on a cpu that reaches 200w ± in stress tests or close to 100% loads.