Introduction
Over the past few years, Deepcool has become one of the most recognized brands across the globe due to their vast product portfolio that not only competes with the premium brands, but their competitive price makes them a decent choice in any product category. Deepcool is constantly adding to their product lineup with the current portfolio consisting of Liquid Coolers, Air Coolers, Cases, Power Supplies, Laptop Coolers, Case Fans, and other gaming accessories.
However, we are looking at their Assassin III dual tower air cooler, which appearance wise looks like it can compete against the top dogs like NH-D15 by Noctua.
Technical Specifications
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Packaging and Contents
Unboxing
The Deepcool Assassin III comes packaged in a grey cardboard box, which is sturdy enough to protect the cooler from any damages during shipping.
On the front side, you can find an illustration of the cooler with minimal branding which comprises a GamerStorm logo and the Assassin III name alongside a TDP specification which states the CPU cooler is suitable for processors up to 280w.
At the back, you can find the nitty-gritty technical specifications alongside with key few features printed in 8 different languages.
On the right side, you can find some of the basic features and selling points of the cooler printed in a bullet point format. Nothing much to go on here apart from that.
On the left side, you can check the dimensions of the cooler prior to installing it, because we all know how it feels when you get everything ready but the side panel won’t go on because of the protruding heatpipes.
At the very top of the box, you’ll only a find the Gamer Storm logo and nothing else.
Contents
To our surprise, the Deepcool Assassin III comes with some additional goodies which you normally do not find with Aircoolers of this price bracket. The total contents of the package include:
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The Heatsink
At its core, the Deepcool Assassin III has a dual tower radiator which is nickel-plated, and through these seemingly endless fins run copper heat pipes which are soldered to the copper base. There are a total of 7 heat pipes that assist in dissipating the heat generated by the CPU.
The metal radiator stands 135x138x165mm tall, whereas the number goes up with the fans installed to 161x140x165mm, so be wary in that regard. As you would expect, this cooler is no slouch when it comes to weight, since it comes at 1.4KGs.
At the bottom, we have the 43.5x40mm nickel plated copper base which is connected to the 7 copper heat pipes which have a width of 6mm. The copper base has 2 spring-loaded screws on each side which will be used in the mounting process.
To actually cooldown the heatsink, Deepcool has bundled two 140mm fans which boast an RPM of 400 – 1400 with a CFM of 90.37 all while maintaining nominal noise levels of ≤ 34.2 dB(A). However, with the bundled LSP, the noise can be reduced further at the expense of cooling.
Installation Process
The installation process for the DeepCool Assassin III is as simple as you would expect. Simply press the backplate into the 4 slots from the back of the motherboard and secure it by using the given spacers. Thereafter, you need to install the mounting arms to the aforementioned spacers using the included nuts. Apply your preferred thermal paste in a manner that you’re comfortable with and then slowly lower the heatsink and tighten it up using the included Philips head screw driver.
Test Bench and Methodology
- Testing was conducted within the Antec NX800 Mid-Tower enclosure with 2x 200mm placed at the front for intake and 1x 140 used at the back for exhaust.
- All of the fans were controlled using the integrated fan controller and they were running at 100% speed to maintain a proper airflow.
- The choice of thermal compound was Noctua NT-H1.
- The CPU was overlocked to 4.50GHz @ 1.35V.
- In order to ascertain the lowest and constant temps, we left the system at idle for 30 minutes.
- Similarly, to gauge the highest temps, we utilized Prime95 and we let it run for 30 minutes to get the maximum temperatures.
Detailed System Specifications
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Software Utilized
- Prime95
- HWInfo
Results
At idle, the Deepcool Assassin III fell behind as it scored a temperature of 7c. The results were identical to the Noctua NH-D15S.
At maximum synthetic load exerted by Prime95, we noticed that the Deepcool Assassin III outperformed the competition as it was 1c cooler than the Noctua NH-D15S Chromax Black.
In regards to the RPM, the Deepcool Assassin III took the lead once again, as it kept the i7-8700k @4.5GHz the coolest while running at only 1341RPM.
To check out our review on the Noctua NH-D15: Click here
To learn more about the DeepCool Assassin III: Click here
