Deepcool Gammaxx GT Review

Deepcool has sent us for Deepcool Gammaxx GT Review. The GT is a new RGB enabled single tower air cooler. It comes in two variants one is GT and the other TGF which is a member of the Asus TUF Gaming Alliance. The deepcool gammaxx gt review is a 120mm single tower feature direct contact technology where the heat pipes make contact with the heat source directly for better thermal heat dissipation.

Deepcool Gammaxx GT CPU Air Cooler Review

It is compatible with AMD AM4 out of the box and majority of the Intel sockets. It is rated for 140W TDP for AMD CPUs and 150W TDP for the Intel CPUs. Above all, it features a stunning and immersive RGB lighting effect not only on the supplied fan but the top plate of the heatsink has LED PCB underneath the diffuser. Deepcool also has some high quality cooler such as; Deepcool as500,  Castle 360ex, Captain 240ex and much more. Without further ado let’s take a look at it.

• Item:                              Deepcool Gammaxx GT Review
• Manufacturer:                  DEEPCOOL
• Price:                              Check Price on Amazon

 Gammaxx GT Specifications

 Gammaxx GT Packaging and Unboxing

The cooler comes inside a cardboard box of black and blue colors. The front side of the box has Deepcool brand name printed on the left side. There is a picture of the cooler with the top plate in main focus illuminated in multiple colors to signify the RGB lighting on the cooler. Gammaxx GT is printed at the bottom.

The left side of the box has a Deepcool brand logo printed on the left side followed by the Gammaxx GT. A serial no sticker is printed at the bottom. Part no is printed above the sticker. Deepcool information is printed at the bottom left side. The right side is basically a continuation of the front side. We can see the remaining portion of the top plate of the cooler here.

A deepcool brand logo is printed on the top followed by the Gammaxx GT. RGB is printed in a pleasing manner here where G letter is printed in the Deepcool’s logo format. The backside of the box has a Deepcool brand logo printed on the top left side. Gammaxx GT RGB CPU Cooler is printed on the top right side. Specifications are printed below the picture of the cooler. Socket compatibility information is printed on the right side.

There are three diagrams on the bottom showing the dimension of the cooler. The top side of the box has a Deepcool brand logo at the top left side. Gammaxx GT is printed in the center. Salient feature highlights are mentioned at the bottom like RGB cooler, RGB fan, Controller etc. Opening the top cover will show another cover under it with Deepcool brand logo in the center.

Opening that will show a blue color cover with the cooler’s features printed on it. Opening it will show the top side of the cooler exposed through another blue color cover. Opening that cover will show the contents of the box nicely stacked. There is a white color box which has accessories followed by the heatsink in the middle and then a fan at the bottom.

The fan and heatsink have white color Styrofoam pads on all three sides for safety. There is a plastic container at the bottom of the box where the fan and the heatsink are rested. Once again, I am impressed with the premium packaging and attention to the details. Are you going to buy cpu for video editing to make a powerful PC? It has many advantages. So it is worth investment. ​

Deepcool Gammaxx GT Accessories

Following are included in the box:

CPU Air Cooler Closer Look

The GT is a new CPU air cooler from Deepcool under the Gammaxx lineup of the coolers. Not only it is compatible with the leading sockets from both sides excluding the TR4 but also it comes with some vivid RGB lighting to make you’re a build a perfect showcase.

Here is what the Deepcool is saying about it, “To provide gamers with all-new air cooling experiences, Deepcool has released the GAMMAXX GT featuring sleek RGB lighting and optimized cooling performance. It’s not just cooling. It’s DEEP, high-quality CPU-cooling for optimal heat dissipation while fulfilling your desires for that spectacular RGB gaming rig.”

It is time to take a peek at the design elements of this cooler. The dimension of the cooler is 135×84.5x156mm (WxDxH). This cooler has a height of 156mm which gives it a better compatibility with the majority of the PC Chassis in the market. Still, it is better to check the CPU Cooler Height clearance of the given PC Chassis before buying to be certain of it.

The cooler has a weight of 870gm. Deepcool has rated it for Intel chips up to 150W TDP and AMD chips up to 140W TDP. Given that, I am sure it can handle load beyond these ratings. We will see to that in the testing section. It is compatible with Intel LGA20xx/LGA115x/LGA1366 sockets and AMD’s AM4/AM3+/AM3/AM2/FM2+/FM2/FM1 sockets.

Clearly, this cooler has no incompatibility issues with respect to any given socket at hand. This cooler features 48 aluminum fins each with 0.5mm thickness stacked in a manner that overall heatsink is less dense which would relax the fan consideration in the overall equation. The front side of the heatsink has a dimension of 125mmx122mm.

Please note that this is the dimension of the heatsink from the front side excluding the fans and the base part. There is an edged inset in the middle going all the way to the bottom. Bottom of the heatsink only has insets on both sides as well. The fins finishing is top notch and I did not observe anything peculiar here. Let’s take a look at the left and the right sides of the heatsink which is identical with the same dimensions.

The dimension of these sides is 50mmx122mm. Again, take a note that I am mentioning the heatsink only dimension without the fan, mounting clips and the base. We have two cutouts per fin on its length and this is followed for all the 48 fins. These cutouts or grooves are to be used for the fan mounting clips holder. This cooler can be used in push/pull configuration for which Deepcool has provided two sets of the fan clips.

These cutouts are designed such as it gives the impression of fins being superimposed on each other which is not the case. The backside of the heatsink is identical in layout to the front side. The only difference is the 4-pin LED cable coming out from the top and very well routed through the central inset to the bottom where there is a cutout to pass this cable all the way through the heatsink outside.

This cable has a length of 385mm. The last fin plate of the heatsink shows the pattern resembling the Gammaxx symbol in the middle. There are two small holes one on each side. These could be for air flow or symmetry with the top plate’s mounting holes.

It is time to take a look at the base of the cooler. The base has a single aluminum plate with the Deepcool brand logo embossed in the center on the upper side. It’s both ends have insets with a mounting hole in the middle. This is where the mounting brackets are placed and secured using the screws. This plate has a dimension of 69.2mmX34.5mm (LxW).

Taking a look at the base of the cooler, there is a sticker pasted warning the users to peel it off before the installation. Removing this sticker we see that Deepcool is using CDC technology which stands for CPU Direct Contact. In this technology, the heat pipes make direct contact with the heat source and there is no base plate.

But, Gammaxx GT is not following a Continuous Direct Contact method as we can see the gaps between the heat pipes. Invariably, we have an aluminum plate and copper heat pipes making contact with the CPU. Deepcool has implemented 4 integrated sintered metal powder heat pipes which seem to be of 6mm thickness.

The first and the third heat pipes are parallel to each other in implementation. The second and the fourth are parallel to each other but offset to the other group. This will help ensure maximum coverage of the heatsink for effective heat dissipation.

Having discussed the heatsink and the base, it is time to take a look at the top side of the heatsink with all the magic and majestic looks. I did not count the top plate in the overall number of the fins for a reason that this plate is not directly attached to the heatsink. It has a blasted finish to it or so it seems and there are 4 circular covers on each side.

The deepcool gammaxx gt review symbol pattern is visible in the center and it is made using cutouts in the plate. This is for the reason that lighting effect would light up the pattern to create one heck of a view. There are two screws on the plate. Removing them would take off the top plate and we get to see a dense diffuser designed in the same dimension as is of the top plate.

Take it off and we get to see the black color LED board with 8 RGB LEDs on it. Deepcool brand logo printed on the top in the center. There are angular cutouts on both sides exposing the terminating ends/tips of the heat pipes and the mounting screw holes. These LEDs are following the +12V/G/R/B pin format and these are not addressable ones. Taking this PCB off, we get to see the actual top side of the cooler.

The underside of the diffuser shows that it has 8 circular points covering the LEDs for better and even light spread across the length. I did not observe any discontinuity or uneven flow of lighting across the entire length of the diffuser and Deepcool has definitely delivered an impressive design with utmost attention to the details.

Remember that when installing inside the chassis, the top side of the cooler is what the user gets to see every time and deepcool gammaxx gt review has some spectacular visuals here.

Deepcool has bundled RF120 fan with this cooler. RF120 is a 4-pin RGB LED enabled fan with 6 LEDs in the hub having a dimension of 120x120x25mm. These fans are using Hydro bearings and are rated for 10.8～13.2VDC operating voltage. The rated voltage is 12VDC. Started Voltage is 7VDC. Rated current is 0.23A with a power input of 2.76W.

The fan’s speed is rated between 500±200 to 1500±10%RPM. Maximum airflow is 56.5CFM which seems low but given the low density of the heatsink, this would get the job done. The sound level is rated at 17.8~27dB(A).

There are 9 translucent blades on the fan each with having 5 channels for the airflow. There is a black color sticker on the hub with Deepcool brand logo printed on it. Each corner has an anti-vibration pad on it on both sides. Though this is a square design it gives an impression that there is a circular central frame encapsulating the blades and motor with 4 corners mounted to it.

We have a slope inward design on each mounting side above the inner circular frame. The backside clarifies that it is a single frame the looks on the front side are giving such an impression. The back side shows the air ducts on each of the mounting corners for better directional airflow. We have a 4-arms assembly. There is a black color sticker pasted on the back with Deepcool brand logo printed on the top.

The fan is made in China. The fourth arm has an extended area with a latch to catch the wires coming out of the fan. There are two cables coming out of the fan. One is the 4-pin PWM cable measuring 289mm and a 4-pin LED cable measuring 380mm approximately. The cables are nicely sleeved.

The frame side where the cables are coming out has two small arrows indicating the direction of the blades movement and the direction of the airflow. Deepcool has provided 4 metal clips to mount these fans to the heatsink. Deepcool has got you covered should you be going for a second fan to make the cooler in push/pull configuration.

Deepcool Gammaxx RGB Lighting

We have already taken a look at the main RGB elements of this cooler that is the RGB Lighting on the top side of the cooler and the RF120 fan. To control the RGB lighting, Deepcool has bundled two cables with this cooler. One is the RGB Controller and the other is the Motherboard sync cable. The RGB Controller is powered by SATA connector.

The other end has two headers so to connect up to two RGB enabled devices to it. Please, note that in case of push/pull configuration, you would have to use two controllers due to the limitation of the controller.

The motherboard sync cable has +12/G/R/B pin format cable which can be connected to any RGB enabled header (+12V only) on the motherboards. It is compatible with Asus AURA Sync, MSI Mystic Lighting, Gigabyte RGB Diffusion, ASRock RGB Sync etc. Up to two RGB enabled devices can be connected to the motherboard RGB sync cable.

Following modes are available:

• Static Color
• Static Color Fading
• Cycle Color
• Cycle Color with Fading
• Cycle Color with Breathing

There are 3 buttons on the controller. The first button has M printed on it and it is used to switch between the modes. The middle button has a dot printed on it and it is used the control the brightness of the lighting. Long press it to power off the lighting.

Pressing it again will light the connected devices again. The last button has S printed on it and it is used to control the speed of the lighting effects like cycling colors, breathing, fading.

Here are some pictures for your eye pleasure:

Cooler X99 Installation

We have tested the cooler on the X99 platform using 2011-3 socket. I was hoping to see an easy installation as Deepcool is mentioning on their website but I have a gripe here. While it definitely seems like a walk in a park but it will take some force/pressure only for LGA20XX socket. For other sockets it is easier.

Here are the steps for the cooler mounting on the LGA-2011(3). Take out the Intel mounting brackets. These are ones with angular ends and shorter length. Take out the two small size screws. Using those screws secure the mounting brackets on top of the base plate. Make sure to consult installation guide before proceeding. Apply thermal paste on the CPU surface.

Place the cooler in your desired orientation by carefully aligning the spring-loaded screws on the mounting bars to the socket’s holes. Screw in any one of the spring-loaded screw. Make it so that it only makes proper contact with the socket hole. Don’t fully screw it in. This is where the easy installation would say bye bye as you would need to use force on the opposite screw in the diagonal pattern to make contact with the socket hole.

Once you get successful with this screw, repeat the procedure with the other two screws. Then start threading them down till the threads run out. On paper, it is like a snap of a finger but in reality, it would take patience and force to do it. Next, using two metal clips, connect the fan to the heatsink. Next, connect the 4-pin PWM cable to the CPU Fan header or any 4-pin PWM header of your choice.

Connect the 4-pin LED cable coming out of the heatsink to the RGB Controller and similarly repeat the step for the LED cable from the fan. Connect the RGB Controller to the SATA cable or if using motherboard sync cable, connect the cable to the motherboard’s header. This would complete the installation.

Clearance Issues

The thing with the air cooler is that one would need to check for the clearance with respect to the Chassis, DIMM, and First PCIe slot. The height of the cooler is 156mm. Any chassis with CPU height clearance of 156mm or so will be an easy fit. There is enough clearance from the first PCIe slot with this deepcool gammaxx gt review cooler. We have tested the cooler with the Ballistics Elite DDR4 kit.

These modules have a height of 44mm. Heatsinks have no issue in terms of clearance for this RAM. This cooler with fan clipped on will not interfere with the DIMM slots so it is universally compatible.

Cooler Testing Methodology

Following test bench was used for testing this deepcool gammaxx gt cooler review: –

• Asus Rampage V Edition 10
• Intel i7 6850k
• Crucial Ballistics Elite 4x4GB @ 3000MHz
• Colorful iGame 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. The fan was set to run at their 100% RPM. CPU is overclocked to 4.3GHz with 1.350V manual Vcore.

Three test runs are made. Average of each test run is calculated. The max temps on each core are 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. Being a single tower with 120mm size, I am interested to find out how it stacks up against the likes of the Noctua H_U12S, Reeven Justice, Leto Pro RGB.

Results

Let’s take a look at the graphs. On stock clocks, the CPU was idling at 3°C. 31.01°C was the temperature under stress testing. This cooler has not disappointed me as it has taken a lead over the Noctua NH-U12S, Reeven Justice and falls short of Raijintek Leto Pro RGB with just a 0.3°C difference. Mind you, Leto Pro RGB is a dual fan cooler out of the box. This is one heck of an excellent performance from the Gammaxx GT.

With overclocked 6850k to 4.3GHz at 1.350V, the CPU was idling at 4°C. 45.97°C was the temperature under the stress test. This cooler has beaten the Noctua NH-U12S, Reeven Justice, Raijintek Leto Pro RGB with overclocked chip showing its impressive performance.

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 my experience with the fans and coolers testing over a period of time, this cooler even at full speed was near silent. Clearly, Deepcool has done some magic with this deepcool gammaxx gt cooler review and the fan.

Conclusion

The Deepcool Gammaxx GT Review is an RGB enabled 120mm single tower CPU air cooler. It has a dimension of 135×84.8x156mm when assembled. It has a height of 156mm so keep this in mind when buying this cooler or the chassis for this cooler. This cooler has 0.5mm thick 48 aluminum fins packed in a less dense heatsink.

This cooler is featuring a CDC technology where copper heat pipes make direct contact with the CPU surface for more effective heat dissipation. But this is not a continuous direct contact as there are gaps between the heat pipes. Heat pipes seem to be of 6mm thick each. There is an aluminum base plate with Deepcool’s brand logo on the topside.

It has two insets on both edges where the mounting brackets are installed. Overall build quality is good and I did not observe anything peculiar to report as a Con. This cooler is compatible with Intel LGA20XX/LGA115X/LGA1366 sockets with maximum 150W TDP. It is compatible with AMD’s AM4/AM3+/AM3/AM2/FM2+/FM2/FM1 sockets with maximum TDP of 140W TDP. It definitely has a potential of handling much more than this rated TDPs.

This deepcool gammaxx gt cooler review has a brilliant design on the top side. The top plate is actually like a cover. It has a thick diffuser underneath it. There is a Gammaxx symbol formation using cutouts on the top. This is the area on the top that we will see light up once in action in addition to the borders of the diffuser. There is a black color LED board with 8 LEDs on it.

It is following +12V/G/R/B  pin format. Deepcool has bundled RF120 RGB LED fan in the box. We have two LED zones this way, one on the top side of the heatsink and one on the fan. To make things more eloquent Deepcool has provided an RGB controller as well as motherboard sync cable.

If your motherboard does not have a dedicated RGB lighting header then Deepcool has got you covered and if your motherboard does have such header(s) then you can color coordinate your build accordingly. It is compatible with Asus AURA Sync, MSI Mystic Lighting, Gigabyte RGB Diffusion, ASRock RGB Sync etc. Up to two RGB enabled devices can be connected to the motherboard RGB sync cable.

Following modes are available:

• Static Color
• Static Color Fading
• Cycle Color
• Cycle Color with Fading
• Cycle Color with Breathing

There are 3 buttons on the controller. The first button has M printed on it and it is used to switch between the modes. The middle button has a dot printed on it and it is used the control the brightness of the lighting. Long press it to power off the lighting. Pressing it again will light the connected devices again. The last button has S printed on it and it is used to control the speed of the lighting effects like cycling colors, breathing, fading.

The RF 120 is an RGB fan having a dimension of 120x120x25mm. It is a 4-pin PWM fan. These fans are using Hydro bearings and are rated for 10.8～13.2VDC operating voltage. The rated voltage is 12VDC. Started Voltage is 7VDC. Rated current is 0.23A with a power input of 2.76W. The fan’s speed is rated between 500±200 to 1500±10%RPM.

Maximum airflow is 56.5CFM which seems low but given the low density of the heatsink, this would get the job done. The sound level is rated at 17.8~27dB(A).

This cooler has no clearance issue with respect to the first PCIe slot and DIMM slots. Having a height of 156mm, you would need to check for the compatible chassis for better clearance. This cooler demands patience and force when screwing the heatsink to the mounting holes on the Intel LGA20XX socket only.

It is easier to install on other sockets. Check the installation section for more detail. I wish it has a better mounting mechanism for the LGA20XX socket as well. In terms of thermal performance, this cooler has not disappointed me at all. I was interested to see how it would perform against the likes of the Noctua NH-U12S, Reeven Justice, and Raijintek Leto Pro RGB coolers.

On stock clocks, it has beaten all but Raijintek Leto Pro RGB cooler with a marginal difference of 0.3°C which is still a very good performance given that Leto Pro RGB is a dual fan cooler. With an overclocked i7 6850k, this deepcool gammaxx gt cooler review  has beaten all these coolers. This is one heck of a performance.

Given its powerful thermal performance, sublime RGB Lighting effects, and 2 years of warranty it has emerged as a clear winner. We are thankful to Deepcool for giving us the opportunity to review their Gammaxx GT CPU air Cooler.

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