Deepcool Assassin II CPU Cooler Review

Deepcool was founded in 1996 with its headquarters in Beijing with the focus on providing best and personalized thermal solutions for the customers around the world. When it comes to the enthusiast grade PC components, Deepcool is a well-established and recognized brand which is gaining more popularity. The company is focused on providing better thermal solutions in the form of the air and liquid coolers. Their Captain Ex is a high-end AIO CPU Cooler that has form and function in a single package. The company is offering PC Chassis, Power supplies, Case Fans, Laptop Coolers, desks for PC, Lighting solution. Gamer Storm is the brand of Deepcool under which enthusiast grade PC Components are offered to the market. Tri-Stellar, Quad-Stellar, Genome/II, New Ark 90 are some of their popular and highly customizable PC Chassis in the market. If you are reading this article, while Intel 12th generation is latest, make sure to go through our CPU Cooler for i7-12700k, where Assassin II was ranked as best silent choice.

Today, we will be looking at the Deepcool Assassin II CPU Cooler. This is a dual tower cooler with an asymmetrical design. It hosts 8 6mm copper heat pipes and a massive copper base in mirror nickel coating. Deepcool has provided two fans in the package. One is 120mm and the other is 140mm fan. Both fans can be mounted using the supplied fan clips. Due to a pointy design on one end of the tower, the third fan is not a possibility. With this cooler, Deepcool has focused on better value and optimal noise to performance ratio. This is interesting as we have yet to see any such cooler daring to come close to the Noctua’s prime and might i.e NH-D15 in this category. We could not test the Noctua’s NH-D15 again to have relevant performance comparison but will be using its early test results with similar testing environment and parameters. The fans are in red and black colors combination and this really stands the cooler out on our test bench as it is also in black/red combination.

• Item:                              Assassin II
• Manufacturer:                  DEEPCOOL
• Brand:                            Gamer Storm
• Price:                             $79.90 [at the time of the review]

Specifications

Packaging and Unboxing

The cooler is shipped in a large size cardboard box packaging of black color. The front side has DeepCool brand name/logo printed in the silver color on the top right side. There is a GamerStorm logo cut in half, pasted over the left side in the black color giving the killer impression suiting to the name of this cooler. This cooler has 8 high-performance heat pipes. The GamerStorm brand name and logo is printed on the bottom in the green color. Cooler’s name is also in the green color. Silent Version sticker is pasted on the bottom right side. Does this mean there is another version as well? The left side of the box has a GamerStorm brand name and logo printed in the green color on the top left side. Cooler’s model is printed in large size font in green color on the right side. Salient features of the cooler are printed on the main section. The right side has a GamerStorm brand name and logo printed in the green color on the top left side. Assassin II is printed in the green color in the middle. GamerStorm website is printed at the bottom. The backside of the box has a GamerStorm brand name and logo printed in the green color on the top left side. Made By DeepCool is printed in the silver color on the top right side. Sockets compatibility and specifications are printed in the main section. Part No and EAN info label is printed at the bottom. The cooler is made in China. The top cover has a GamerStorm brand name and logo along with the cooler’s name printed on it. Opening the box would reveal that the accessory box is placed on the top. Removing it will show the thick foam padding in black color covering the top of the cooler. Carefully, lift it off and cooler will be visible. The fans are pre-installed on the heatsink. There is a foam padding at the bottom of the box.

 

Accessories

Following are included in the box:

• 1x 120mm fan
• 1x 140mm fan
• 4x Nut A
• 4x Insulation Pillar A
• 4x Screw Bolt
• 2x Intel Mounting Brackets
• 4x De-Vibration Buckles
• 1x Retention Plate
• 1x Back Plate
• 2x AMD Mounting Brackets
• 4x Nut B for Intel LGA 775
• 1x Insulation Washer for Intel LGA 775
• 4x Double Screw Bolt
• 1x Fan Hub
• 1x 3M Sticker
• 1x Cable Tie
• 1x Thermal Paste
• 1x Metal Logo Sticker
• 2x Wire Clip for 120mm fans
• 2x Wire Clip for 140mm fans
• 1x Heatsink
• 4x Double Screw Bolt for AM4 only

 

Closer Look

The Deepcool’s Assassin II is their flagship CPU Cooler aimed at competing against the other brand’s flagship coolers like Noctua NH-D15, Cryorig R1 Ultimate to name a few. This is a massive sized heatsink with asymmetrical twin towers in design which the Deepcool is claiming at to be better at heat dissipation and optimal thermal performance. There are 8 copper based nickel coated 6mm heat pipes forming a U shape design inside the towers. Towers itself are made of aluminum fins. To make the things further interesting, Deepcool decided to provide the fans in the package with focus on low noise operations. This is the category where we have yet to see any cooler dare to challenge the Noctua’s prime and might. This cooler can handle the Intel sockets with heat dissipation of 150W TDP and AMD sockets with heat dissipation of 220W TDP. Will this cooler be able to do that? Let’s find out.

 

Let us take a closer look first before going to the testing and result section. This cooler has twin towers. Both are asymmetrical in design and a closer look would reveal that Deepcool is forming a shark look on the heatsink. One heat sink has a flat surface on outer and inner side. However, the left and right sides are sloping inward. The other tower has curved outer side. The outer side has cutouts with pointy center forming a shark fish’s aggressive looks. The overall dimension of the cooler is 143x158x167mm (DxHxL). The single tower has a dimension of 138x103x45mm (DxHxL). Keep in mind that this is the dimension of the single tower only and does not include the protruding heat pipes on the top nor the heat pipes going down the base. The top of each tower has a solid aluminum fin top with the GamerStorm brand logo carved on it. We can see the tips of the 8 heat pipes coming out of the heatsink and terminating here. Looking from the top, we can see the cutout design patterns on the inner sides of the both the towers. Let’s take a look at the front side of the heatsink. We have 48 aluminum fins forming a dense heatsink. The heat pipes are visible going inside the heatsink at equidistance. The left and right sides of the front have a flat line design which starts to form a wave pattern while going towards the center. The left and right sides of the heatsinks are identical. There is a cutout in the middle of these sides, this is to rest the fan clips inside to secure the fans on to the heatsink. The depth of each side is 45mm. It is clear that both sides have an inward slop. Looking at the base, there is a large size sticker warning to peel it off before installation mentioning the size of 62x47mm. This is the size of the sticker not the base. The base has a size of 60x44mm which is still a large size. Our i7 6850k has a size of 38x38mm of the top surface. The base is made of copper and is mirror polish finished in nickel coating. The heat pipes are going inside the base with a small gap between any two heat pipes. They are making contact with the base from inside. The heat is dissipated through the base to these heat pipes to the heatsink. There is a top plate on the base plate with the mounting position for the retention plate. There is one caveat. The retention plate is placed on the top side of the base area. It somehow, is not securely fixed with the bottom. User would have to be careful while placing the cooler on the CPU for installation as the retention plate can come off. Please note that the fan clips are different for 120mm and 140mm fans. Make sure to use the correct size clips for the fans else you would face difficulty in the installation. This cooler is not compatible with the AM4 sockets out of the box. You would need to check for the Part No if it is ending with the AM4 word or not. Also, the AM4 compatible version will have AM4 sticker on it as well. Ours is compatible with the AM4 socket.

 

The Deepcool has provided two fans with this cooler. One is 120mm and the other is 140mm fan. This design approach will have maximum compatibility with regard to the RAM height and DIMM clearance. Both fans are in red and black color. The blades of the fans are in red color. There is a red color circle on the border which is also visible from the outside. This creates a dope look on these fans. The frame itself is in black color and is made of hard rubber which can be felt upon pressing it. Both fans have 9 blades. The blades on the 120mm fan have channels at the edge of the tips that would help with the pressure and air flow. The blades on the 140mm fan have 3 raised tabs near the tip of the blade forming an air channel. There is no sticker on the motor hub of both fans. We can see the red color inner ring inside the fans’ frames. The 120mm fan has a square shape whereas the 140mm fan has a round frame with the four mounting corners. Looking closely we can see that the mounting corners have down slops. Looking at the backside there is a 4-arm assembly on both fans holding the impeller with the frame. There is a black color sticker pasted on the motor hub of both fans. It has GamerStorm brand name and logo in the red color. The cooler’s name is also printed under the brand name. The 4-arm assembly is also in red color. One arm has a wide area with inset and this is where the 4 wires of the power cable are routed from the center to the outer frame. The 4-pin PWM cables are braided. The length of the 120mm fan is 305mm approximately whereas it is approximately 295mm for the 140mm fan. The blades body of the fans is removable for ease of cleaning and lubrication.

The 140mm fan has a dimension of 140x140x26mm. It is using fluid dynamic bearing. Its rated voltage is 12VDC. Operating voltage is 10.8 ~ 13.2 VDC. Starting Voltage is 7VDC. Rated current is 0.11±10%A. Power input is 1.32W. Fan speed is 300±150 ~ 1200±10% RPM. 300 lower speed is impressive but it would lower the thermal efficiency as well. Maximum airflow is 70.08 CFM. Noise level rating is 17.8 ~ 26.5 dBA. Fan’s weight is 173gm. The 120mm fan has a dimension of 120x120x26mm. It is using fluid dynamic bearing. Its rated voltage is 12VDC. Operating voltage is 10.8 ~ 13.2 VDC. Starting Voltage is 7VDC. Rated current is 0.09±10%A. Power input is 1.08W. Fan speed is 300±150 ~ 1400±10% RPM. Maximum airflow is 68.06 CFM. Noise level rating is 17.8 ~ 27.3 dBA. Fan’s weight is 152gm.

Installation

We have tested the cooler on the X99 platform using 2011-3 socket. Installation mechanism is straightforward on this socket as you don’t need mounting bracket/backplate on this socket. Take out the 4x double screw bolts. Secure them on the four mounting holes around the socket area by using the small size screw side. Now, take out the 2x Intel Mounting brackets. Place the brackets on the longer end of the double screw bolts after deciding the orientation of the block. Now, take out the 4x Nuts (small size) and secure the mounting brackets on the double screw bolts. Next, apply the thermal paste. Now, place the retention plate on the cooler’s base block. Align the spring-loaded screws with the holes on the mounting brackets and start screwing them in. Don’t do one side completely rather do both sides at a time with few torques repeating for each side. Now, insert the clips on the 120mm fan and secure it on the front side of the heatsink. Repeat the same for the 140mm. Connect the 4-pin PWM cables to the motherboard fan header(s). This would complete the installation.

 

Clearance Issues

This is a massive heatsink so one would need to check for the compatibility and the clearance with respect to the DIMMs, first PCIe slot and chassis. The height of the cooler is 158mm. Any chassis with CPU height clearance of 160mm or so will be an easy fit. Why 160 and why not 158? You should have some spare space in case the front fan has to be raised for the taller RAM kits. There is enough clearance from the first PCIe slot with this cooler. We have tested the cooler with the Ballistix Elite DDR4 kit. These modules have a height of 44mm. Heatsinks have no issue in terms of clearance for this RAM but our Vengeance Red LED RAM with 52mm height were no go with this cooler. Approximately 48mm is the clearance for the RAM height. The fans height can be adjusted which is a plus. Other than that we saw no issue with this cooler.

 

Testing Methodology

Following test bench was used for testing this cooler: –

• Asus Rampage V Edition 10
• Intel i7 6850k
• Crucial Ballixtics Elite 4x4GB @ 3000MHz
• Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB
• Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
• WD Black 6TB
• Corsair AX1200i

Following software were used for the testing and monitoring.

• Asus Real Bench v 2.44
• Real Temp GT v 3.70

The thermal paste being used on my test bench is the Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste. The use of a same thermal paste for all coolers will ensure the standardization and mitigate any performance benefit that may come using the supplied thermal paste. Delta temperatures are reported on the graphs. The cooler is tested on stock clocks i.e 3.6GHz using 1.136V manual VCore. The Asus RealBench 2.44 is used to stress test the cooler’s performance. Each run of the test was of 60 minutes followed by 15 minutes break to let the system cool down. Fans were set to run at their 100% RPM and water pump was set at 100% as well. CPU is overclocked to 4.3GHz with 1.350V manual Vcore. Three test runs are made. Average of each test run is calculated. Reported temps are in degree Celcius unit. The max temps on each core is summed up and divided by the core count to give the average figure. The max average of three tests is used for reporting. Delta temp is calculated by subtracting the ambient temp from the max average temp. No rounding is done on the ambient temps.

Results

Let’s take a look at the graphs. On stock clocks, the CPU was idling at 2.07°C. 28.10°C was the temperature under stress testing. There is a delta of 0.87°C between the Deepcool Assassin II and the Noctua NH-D15 with later takeing the lead.

With overclocked 6850k to 4.3GHz at 1.350V, the CPU was idling at 3.73°C. 43°C was the temperature under the stress test. The Noctua NH-D15 was 41°C. The Deepcool Assassin II was trailing with the delta of 2°C.

We could not measure the sound level of the unit as the summer season here is at peak and ceiling fan plus the noise coming out of the room would invalidate the actual sound level. Based on our experience with the fans and coolers testing, the cooler is definitely operating at silent levels. In terms of noise comparison with the Noctua NH-D15, it was a bit noisy but still giving a good noise to performance ratio.

Conclusion

The Deepcool Assassin II is a twin tower massive CPU Cooler. It has a dimension of 143x158x167mm (DxHxL) with the fans. It has two towers with each having a 48 aluminum fins forming a dense heatsink. Both the heatsinks have asymmetrical design. The left and right sides have inward slope design. The cooler has 8 copper heat pipes forming a U shape design inside the heatsinks. They are nickel coated. The base plate is made of copper and is finished in mirror polish with nickel coating. It is rather massive as well with 60x44mm size. This cooler is compatible with the major Intel and AMD sockets. You would need to check for the AM4 compatibility though. Part No of the cooler and AM4 ready sticker would be helpful in identifying the compatibility. Separate AM4 kit is available that can be bought from Deepcool.

Deep cool has provided two fans with the cooler. One is 120mm fan and the other is 140mm fan. Due to the asymmetrical design and sharp pointy middle of one heatsink, you can’t mount 3 fans on this cooler. Both fans are installed using metal clips. Please, note that both fans have dedicated clips so make sure to use the right one for the fan type. Both fans have red color blades. There is a red color ring on both the fans which is also visible on the outside of the frame. The frame is in black color. This really gives dope look on the fans and the cooler. Each blade has air channels near to the tips of the trailing edges. The front side of the hub has no sticker. There is a black color sticker on the backside. Both fans have 4-pin PWM power cables.

The 140mm fan has a dimension of 140x140x26mm. It is using fluid dynamic bearing. Its rated voltage is 12VDC. Operating voltage is 10.8 ~ 13.2 VDC. Starting Voltage is 7VDC. Rated current is 0.11±10%A. Power input is 1.32W. Fan speed is 300±150 ~ 1200±10% RPM. 300 lower speed is impressive but it would lower the thermal efficiency as well. Maximum airflow is 70.08 CFM. Noise level rating is 17.8 ~ 26.5 dBA. Fan’s weight is 173gm. The 120mm fan has a dimension of 120x120x26mm. It is using fluid dynamic bearing. Its rated voltage is 12VDC. Operating voltage is 10.8 ~ 13.2 VDC. Starting Voltage is 7VDC. Rated current is 0.09±10%A. Power input is 1.08W. Fan speed is 300±150 ~ 1400±10% RPM. Maximum airflow is 68.06 CFM. Noise level rating is 17.8 ~ 27.3 dBA. Fan’s weight is 152gm. The cooler has a height of 158mm keep that in mind when selecting chassis/cooler for better height clearance. Also, this cooler seems to have clearance up to the 48mm height of the RAM. Our 52mm tall Vengeance Red LED RAM was no go with this cooler. There is enough clearance from the first PCIe slot. The cooler has a weight near around 1.5kg which is a big Con.

The cooler is rated at $79.90 at the time of the review. The Noctua NH-D15 is rated at $89.99 at the same time. The Deepcool has included a 4-port fan hub in the packing. Standalone cost of the hub is approximately $9. That would mean this cooler can actually cost near around $70 or so which would make this cooler a killer deal. As this cooler has two fans, the inclusion of the 4-port hub might be an overkill addition. We have tested the cooler in an open-air test bench setup and it has performed really that good on the stock and overclocked clocks on our 140W TDP i7 6850k chip. In terms of noise-to-performance ratio, it was trailing behind the Noctua NH-D15 but is worth your consideration because of its value.

We are thankful to Deepcool for giving us the opportunity to review their Deepcool Assassin II CPU Cooler.