Mega Size Air Cooler: Deepcool Assassin IV CPU Cooler Review & Benchmarks
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Date: 2023-07-21
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Comments and reviews: 20
WallacEngineering
I got the Assassin-IV the day it was released to the USA market at standard MSRP.
You guys missed a VERY IMPORTANT benefit of this cooler - that it offers performance on par or slightly better than the best Air Coolers on the market while also offering 100% tall RAM clearance because of the pull-pull design not having a fan hanging over the RAM slots in default configuration. Its kind of the entire point of the cooler - Otherwise they could have just slightly improved the design of the Assassin-III.
The smaller thing you guys missed is that it is (subjectively) the best looking Air Cooler on the market. The fin stack shroud means this cooler has the cleanest Aesthetic of any Air Cooler to ever exist - as it is simply a giant black cube when looking at the system installed in a case - and they are coming out with a White version in a little while.
This cooler vastly out-performs my 5-year old Noctua D-15 on my Ryzen 7800X-3D but that could be down to the D-15's age having been moved from a Ryzen 1700 to 3700X to 7800X-3D. Regardless, the Assassin-IV showed a temperature reduction of 3.5C at 100% fan speed and 5.0C with both coolers limited to 60% PWM ( 1225-1250 RPM reported on the Assassin-IV). System Case fans were also limited to simulate a overall silence-optimized PC and both coolers used a FRESH application of Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut Paste since I just upgraded the PC from Ryzen 3700X to 7800X-3D a few weeks ago.
This improvement combined with the removal of the front D-15 fan from obstructing my RAM slots so I can now see both RGB RAM modules is precisely why I purchased this cooler. Plus it looks insanely cool in my Lian Li LanCool 216 case sitting just above my Red Devil Radeon RX 7900-XTX.
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I got the Assassin-IV the day it was released to the USA market at standard MSRP.
You guys missed a VERY IMPORTANT benefit of this cooler - that it offers performance on par or slightly better than the best Air Coolers on the market while also offering 100% tall RAM clearance because of the pull-pull design not having a fan hanging over the RAM slots in default configuration. Its kind of the entire point of the cooler - Otherwise they could have just slightly improved the design of the Assassin-III.
The smaller thing you guys missed is that it is (subjectively) the best looking Air Cooler on the market. The fin stack shroud means this cooler has the cleanest Aesthetic of any Air Cooler to ever exist - as it is simply a giant black cube when looking at the system installed in a case - and they are coming out with a White version in a little while.
This cooler vastly out-performs my 5-year old Noctua D-15 on my Ryzen 7800X-3D but that could be down to the D-15's age having been moved from a Ryzen 1700 to 3700X to 7800X-3D. Regardless, the Assassin-IV showed a temperature reduction of 3.5C at 100% fan speed and 5.0C with both coolers limited to 60% PWM ( 1225-1250 RPM reported on the Assassin-IV). System Case fans were also limited to simulate a overall silence-optimized PC and both coolers used a FRESH application of Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut Paste since I just upgraded the PC from Ryzen 3700X to 7800X-3D a few weeks ago.
This improvement combined with the removal of the front D-15 fan from obstructing my RAM slots so I can now see both RGB RAM modules is precisely why I purchased this cooler. Plus it looks insanely cool in my Lian Li LanCool 216 case sitting just above my Red Devil Radeon RX 7900-XTX.
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Expert
Did you happen to test on 12th or 13th Gen i9 chips? I have a 12900k with the TG contact frame. The only thing that has been able to tame it is the Arctic Liquid freezer 420mm AIO. I have more in my case and cooling than is worth the performance. It s been incredibly frustrating to own a cpu that out of the gate can t reach its full potential without spending a crap ton of . I prefer the simplicity of air coolers and the DC620 did pretty well and I d probably be OK with that as a solution as I m not running R23 all day. Anyway, I love new tech and wanted to know if you all did any testing on some i9s. That would really let everyone know what this cooler can do.
Thanks for your hard work
Cheers
Rick
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Did you happen to test on 12th or 13th Gen i9 chips? I have a 12900k with the TG contact frame. The only thing that has been able to tame it is the Arctic Liquid freezer 420mm AIO. I have more in my case and cooling than is worth the performance. It s been incredibly frustrating to own a cpu that out of the gate can t reach its full potential without spending a crap ton of . I prefer the simplicity of air coolers and the DC620 did pretty well and I d probably be OK with that as a solution as I m not running R23 all day. Anyway, I love new tech and wanted to know if you all did any testing on some i9s. That would really let everyone know what this cooler can do.
Thanks for your hard work
Cheers
Rick
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Thomas
The complaint about the non-standard middle 140mm fan came across as strange as this has never been mentioned in any previous 140mm air cooler reviews.
I am not aware of - and I have looked - of any air cooler that uses 140mm fans with standard mounting.
They all use 140mm with mounting holes closer to the blades than standard - often 120mm mounting.
I'd love it if there was an air cooler where you could replace the fans with any 140mm fan you wanted, but until one exists it doesn't seem fair to criticize one particular cooler - seemingly because it uses a sleeker mounting method rather than ugly metal clips?
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The complaint about the non-standard middle 140mm fan came across as strange as this has never been mentioned in any previous 140mm air cooler reviews.
I am not aware of - and I have looked - of any air cooler that uses 140mm fans with standard mounting.
They all use 140mm with mounting holes closer to the blades than standard - often 120mm mounting.
I'd love it if there was an air cooler where you could replace the fans with any 140mm fan you wanted, but until one exists it doesn't seem fair to criticize one particular cooler - seemingly because it uses a sleeker mounting method rather than ugly metal clips?
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Richard
Looks like a good product but as someone who has an Arctic liquid freezer II (based on your review quite heavily) and have been very happy with it I expect I will likely stick to that on my next build despite being a little concerned about the whole its water in my pc thing.
Very glad to know the details on this though as I know people who are considerably more against the idea of water coolers but would like the overal perfrormance and I may consider air cooling again and tbh would not of assumed the performance was so close to the less expensive liquid coolers
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Looks like a good product but as someone who has an Arctic liquid freezer II (based on your review quite heavily) and have been very happy with it I expect I will likely stick to that on my next build despite being a little concerned about the whole its water in my pc thing.
Very glad to know the details on this though as I know people who are considerably more against the idea of water coolers but would like the overal perfrormance and I may consider air cooling again and tbh would not of assumed the performance was so close to the less expensive liquid coolers
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Andy
Loud motor or whine is one of the most important factors to me, I don't mind overall DBA from the fans itself being spun but whine is the be all end all for me, I can lose 6 degrees (not saying this is the case) if it means the motor etc isn't whining, it's why I feel Noctua and very close behind Be Quiets Silent wings 4 are top for me even if the T30 is winning technically I don't care.
Thank you for including the part about the whine I would adore if you did tests across all fans and coolers that you have inside the noise chamber and recorded the audio.
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Loud motor or whine is one of the most important factors to me, I don't mind overall DBA from the fans itself being spun but whine is the be all end all for me, I can lose 6 degrees (not saying this is the case) if it means the motor etc isn't whining, it's why I feel Noctua and very close behind Be Quiets Silent wings 4 are top for me even if the T30 is winning technically I don't care.
Thank you for including the part about the whine I would adore if you did tests across all fans and coolers that you have inside the noise chamber and recorded the audio.
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Ryster's
That high-pitched wine sounds just like a ball bearing fan, but a poorly made ball bearing to be exact. I have four Arctic p12 CO fans which are the ball bearing variant of the regular p12 and all of them produce this noise at different noise levels from one fan to the next despite them all being purchased at the same time. This noise is loud enough that it can be heard from outside the case even when the fans are inside the case and the case is completely closed and my case is not particularly open it's actually quite restrictive.
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That high-pitched wine sounds just like a ball bearing fan, but a poorly made ball bearing to be exact. I have four Arctic p12 CO fans which are the ball bearing variant of the regular p12 and all of them produce this noise at different noise levels from one fan to the next despite them all being purchased at the same time. This noise is loud enough that it can be heard from outside the case even when the fans are inside the case and the case is completely closed and my case is not particularly open it's actually quite restrictive.
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Eric
DeepCool also makes among the very best AIO's such as the DeepCool LT720 360mm, surprised you've apparently not reviewed (1) DeepCool AIO.... Other reviewers have rated the DeepCool LT720 as The BEST even compared to 420mm AIO's or at least as good as the best 360mm AIO's available and the cost is just 140.00 making it something of a no brainer yet NO REVIEWS here...Can understand you can't review EVERY AIO but DeepCool has been producing top notch / highly competitive products so omitting them doesn't make good sense..
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DeepCool also makes among the very best AIO's such as the DeepCool LT720 360mm, surprised you've apparently not reviewed (1) DeepCool AIO.... Other reviewers have rated the DeepCool LT720 as The BEST even compared to 420mm AIO's or at least as good as the best 360mm AIO's available and the cost is just 140.00 making it something of a no brainer yet NO REVIEWS here...Can understand you can't review EVERY AIO but DeepCool has been producing top notch / highly competitive products so omitting them doesn't make good sense..
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itech
I'm pretty loyal in the noctua camp. Too many good experiences and longterm support I've the same CPU fan for 10 years though multiple cpus and boards. My next fan is noctua. Even if it's 2x the cost it has parts you can get and works all around. I think you can't just look at the sticker price. If you look at what i'd have spent with a cheaper fan it would have been many times as much and a landfill full of crap.
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I'm pretty loyal in the noctua camp. Too many good experiences and longterm support I've the same CPU fan for 10 years though multiple cpus and boards. My next fan is noctua. Even if it's 2x the cost it has parts you can get and works all around. I think you can't just look at the sticker price. If you look at what i'd have spent with a cheaper fan it would have been many times as much and a landfill full of crap.
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Brandon
Here I am with a dark rock pro 4 and my computer from 5 years ago...
I don't have temps higher than high 60s even at high to full load.
I think I'll wait until 2025 before building a new computer with 4k compatible or better components.
Likely doing research on parts but right now I'm still looking at a 5800x3D for my new processor and toning down my ram to 32gb since I don't need so much ram.
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Here I am with a dark rock pro 4 and my computer from 5 years ago...
I don't have temps higher than high 60s even at high to full load.
I think I'll wait until 2025 before building a new computer with 4k compatible or better components.
Likely doing research on parts but right now I'm still looking at a 5800x3D for my new processor and toning down my ram to 32gb since I don't need so much ram.
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Menkalinan
GamersNexus
The middle fan IS standard, its just an OLD standard. It's 140mm fan w/ 120mm mounting holes. you saw them all the time back when 140mm was a new standard so that they could mount into cases that only supported 120mm. I'm pretty sure Noctua even made them; NF p-14 is the same format? lots of others around, it would just be painful trial and error to find what works.
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GamersNexus
The middle fan IS standard, its just an OLD standard. It's 140mm fan w/ 120mm mounting holes. you saw them all the time back when 140mm was a new standard so that they could mount into cases that only supported 120mm. I'm pretty sure Noctua even made them; NF p-14 is the same format? lots of others around, it would just be painful trial and error to find what works.
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Bryan
My AK620 made a weird whine but only when the fan speed was changing sporadically. I managed to actually resolve this by altering the fan step to 0.3s instead of 0.1s which was the default on my motherboard.
I'm not sure why that helped get rid of it, but it's gone now. If I change it back to 0.1s I hear it again. I confirmed it with another person to make sure I wasn't crazy.
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My AK620 made a weird whine but only when the fan speed was changing sporadically. I managed to actually resolve this by altering the fan step to 0.3s instead of 0.1s which was the default on my motherboard.
I'm not sure why that helped get rid of it, but it's gone now. If I change it back to 0.1s I hear it again. I confirmed it with another person to make sure I wasn't crazy.
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Homer
Before you buy this cooler you should make sure that it fits your case and mainboard including VRM cooler assemblies, ssd daughter boards and memory modules and that you never have to change them afterwards. I could make my NH-D15S fit by moving fans slightly upwards or using a single fan configuration with fan in the middle, this plastic boxed cooler will either fit or never.
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Before you buy this cooler you should make sure that it fits your case and mainboard including VRM cooler assemblies, ssd daughter boards and memory modules and that you never have to change them afterwards. I could make my NH-D15S fit by moving fans slightly upwards or using a single fan configuration with fan in the middle, this plastic boxed cooler will either fit or never.
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Free
I was iffy on deepcool when i bought a couple of 45 coolers at Microcenter based on price/performance. The thing that will keep me coming back to them for air cooling is the ease of installation. I absolutely abhor difficult to install coolers and have knuckle scars to prove it. They really pay attention to detail when it comes to making an easy to install cooler.
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I was iffy on deepcool when i bought a couple of 45 coolers at Microcenter based on price/performance. The thing that will keep me coming back to them for air cooling is the ease of installation. I absolutely abhor difficult to install coolers and have knuckle scars to prove it. They really pay attention to detail when it comes to making an easy to install cooler.
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Derek
I was iffy on deepcool when i bought a couple of 45 coolers at Microcenter based on price/performance. The thing that will keep me coming back to them for air cooling is the ease of installation. I absolutely abhor difficult to install coolers and have knuckle scars to prove it. They really pay attention to detail when it comes to making an easy to install cooler.
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I was iffy on deepcool when i bought a couple of 45 coolers at Microcenter based on price/performance. The thing that will keep me coming back to them for air cooling is the ease of installation. I absolutely abhor difficult to install coolers and have knuckle scars to prove it. They really pay attention to detail when it comes to making an easy to install cooler.
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cracklingice
I want to like this cooler, but I do not like the proprietary central fan nor do I like how the adapter for the third fan looks so bad. I mean how hard would it have been to include a second identical cage to the first one - just without the fan. Speaking of - if the primary fan in the cage can't be swapped out, that is more poor design.
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I want to like this cooler, but I do not like the proprietary central fan nor do I like how the adapter for the third fan looks so bad. I mean how hard would it have been to include a second identical cage to the first one - just without the fan. Speaking of - if the primary fan in the cage can't be swapped out, that is more poor design.
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THE
Aesthetics are important, if you are building a 4K system, are you going to put a less aesthetically attractive part in the PC just to save 20. In a world were people drop 100 on RGB lighting, if you like the Aesthetics of this unit I would not find the price as a problem as long as it is within reason and the performance does not suffer.
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Aesthetics are important, if you are building a 4K system, are you going to put a less aesthetically attractive part in the PC just to save 20. In a world were people drop 100 on RGB lighting, if you like the Aesthetics of this unit I would not find the price as a problem as long as it is within reason and the performance does not suffer.
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Roger
6:45 and 16:30 :
It seems the center fan is similar to other 140mm fans with 120mm holes. I wonder if for example a Noctua P14 (including redux variants) will fit?
Or perhaps the Thermalright TY-147 if it still is available... I think also for example Scythe has some 140mm glidestream/slipstream fans with the same bolt holes.
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6:45 and 16:30 :
It seems the center fan is similar to other 140mm fans with 120mm holes. I wonder if for example a Noctua P14 (including redux variants) will fit?
Or perhaps the Thermalright TY-147 if it still is available... I think also for example Scythe has some 140mm glidestream/slipstream fans with the same bolt holes.
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John
I'm very sensitive to fan hum. The AK620 is pretty bad about it but I was able to use fan curves to just skip that RPM (900-1000ish for the AK620 for me) and it's fine. I imagine the Assassin IV an probably be solved in a similar fashion. (Assuming you've already bought the cooler and don't want to replace it.)
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I'm very sensitive to fan hum. The AK620 is pretty bad about it but I was able to use fan curves to just skip that RPM (900-1000ish for the AK620 for me) and it's fine. I imagine the Assassin IV an probably be solved in a similar fashion. (Assuming you've already bought the cooler and don't want to replace it.)
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Jonathan
It's getting impressive and creating real alternatives for all types of people with different tastes and priorities. I personally stick with Noctua for the noise profile even with a small difference in performance in some cases, so D15 for me, but let's see more of this!
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It's getting impressive and creating real alternatives for all types of people with different tastes and priorities. I personally stick with Noctua for the noise profile even with a small difference in performance in some cases, so D15 for me, but let's see more of this!
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Utsuro
Speaking of Deepcool, I think a lot of us would appreciate if you tested their more recent AIO's, specifically the LT520/LT720 and the LS520/LS720 variations that use their latest pumps. They're competitively priced AIO's with pretty unique aesthetics to boot. Thanks!
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Speaking of Deepcool, I think a lot of us would appreciate if you tested their more recent AIO's, specifically the LT520/LT720 and the LS520/LS720 variations that use their latest pumps. They're competitively priced AIO's with pretty unique aesthetics to boot. Thanks!
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