[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
The CPU cooler we are testing today is the Gammaxx 400, which has a tower heatsink with four U-shaped heatpipes and one 120 mm fan. Although this cooler is manufactured by Deepcool, it may be found in the U.S. under the Logisys brand.
The box of the Gammaxx 400 uses the typical white-and-blue pattern from other Deepcool products. You can see the box in Figure 1.
Figure 2 shows the contents of the box: heatsink, fan, a small bag of thermal compound, a manual, and installation hardware. The cooler comes with only one fan, but you can install a second optional 120 mm fan; the wire clips to install the second fan are included.
Figure 3 displays the Gammaxx 400 heatsink.
This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.
[nextpage title=”The Deepcool Gammaxx 400″]
Figure 4 illustrates the front of the cooler. You can see that the lower fins are shorter than the other ones in order to improve the compatibility with most motherboards.
Figure 5 reveals the side of the cooler.
Viewed from the top, the cooler shows the tips of the heatpipes and the rectangular shape of the fins.
[nextpage title=”The Deepcool Gammaxx 400 (Cont’d)”]
The semi-transparent 120 mm fan is shown in Figure 7. It uses a four-pin connector, which means it is PWM compatible. This fan has four blue LEDs.
On the Gammaxx 400, the heatpipes directly touch the CPU. Figure 8 shows the base of the cooler; you can see that the base has no reflexive finishing.
[nextpage title=”Installation”]
For use on AMD systems, the Gammaxx 400 is held in place by a pressure clip that grabs the motherboard frame. On Intel CPUs you must attach two clips (shown in Figure 9) to the base of the cooler.
With those clips, the installation is similar to the Intel stock cooler.
After installing the heatsink over the CPU, just install the fan, as shown in Figure 11.
[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]
We tested the cooler with a Core i5-2500K CPU (quad-core, 3.3 GHz), which is a socket LGA1155 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 4.0 GHz (100 MHz base clock and x40 multiplier), with 1.3 V core voltage (Vcore). This CPU was able to reach 4.8 GHz with its default core voltage, but at this setting, the processor enters thermal throttling when using mainstream coolers, reducing the clock and thus the thermal dissipation. This could interfere with the temperature readings, so we chose to maintain a moderate overclocking.
We measured noise and temperature with the CPU under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all cores, we ran Prime 95 25.11 with the “In-place Large FFTs” option. (In this version, the software uses all available threads.)
We compared the tested cooler to other coolers we already tested. Note that the results cannot be compared to measures taken on a different hardware configuration, so we retested some “old” coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read on the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that comes with it.
Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings.
During the tests, the panels of the computer case were closed. The front and rear case fans were spinning at minimum speed in order to simulate the “normal” cooler use on a well-ventilated case. We assume that is the common setup used by a cooling enthusiast or overclocker.
The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed near the top opening of the case. This measurement is only for comparison purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.
Hardware Configuration
- Processor: Core i5-2500K
- Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
- Memory: 6 GB OCZ (DDR3-1600/PC3-12800), configured at 1,600 MHz and 8-8-8-18 timings
- Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
- Video card: Point of View
GeForce GTX 460 1 GB - Video resolution: 1920×1080
- Video monitor: Samsung SyncMaster P2470HN
- Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
- Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
Operating System Configuration
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
Software Used
Error Margin
We adopted a 2°C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2°C are considered irrelevant.
[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]
The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the full speed.
Cooler | Room Temp. | Noise | Speed | Core Temp. | Temp. Diff. |
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 | 18 °C | 50 dBA | 2850 rpm | 69 °C | 51 °C |
Corsair A70 | 23 °C | 51 dBA | 2000 rpm | 66 °C | 43 °C |
Corsair H100 | 26 °C | 62 dBA | 2000 rpm | 64 °C | 38 °C |
EVGA Superclock | 26 °C | 57 dBA | 2550 rpm | 67 °C | 41 °C |
NZXT HAVIK 140 | 20 °C | 46 dBA | 1250 rpm | 65 °C | 45 °C |
Thermalright True Spirit 120 | 26 °C | 42 dBA | 1500 rpm | 82 °C | 56 °C |
Zalman CNPS12X | 26 °C | 43 dBA | 1200 rpm | 71 °C | 45 °C |
Zalman CNPS9900 Max | 20 °C | 51 dBA | 1700 rpm | 62 °C | 42 °C |
Titan Fenrir Siberia Edition | 22 °C | 50 dBA | 2400 rpm | 65 °C | 43 °C |
SilenX EFZ-120HA5 | 18 °C | 44 dBA | 1500 rpm | 70 °C | 52 °C |
Noctua NH-L12 | 20 °C | 44 dBA | 1450 rpm | 70 °C | 50 °C |
Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme | 21 °C | 53 dBA | 2550 rpm | 71 °C | 50 °C |
Gamer Storm Assassin | 15 °C | 48 dBA | 1450 rpm | 58 °C | 43 °C |
Deepcool Gammaxx 400 | 15 °C | 44 dBA | 1500 rpm | 60 °C | 45 °C |
In the graph below, you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.
In the graph below, you can see how many decibels of noise each cooler makes.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
The main specifications for the Deepcool Gammaxx 400 CPU cooler include:
- Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, and FM1 processors
- Dimensions: 5.3 x 3.0 x 6.3 inches (135 x 76 x 159 mm) (W x L x H)
- Fins: Aluminum
- Base: Aluminum, with heatpipes touching the CPU directly
- Heat-pipes: Four 6-mm copper heatpipes
- Fan: 120 mm
- Nominal fan speed: 1,500 rpm
- Fan air flow: 60.29 cfm
- Maximum power consumption: 3.0 W
- Nominal noise level: 32.1 dBA
- Weight: 1.41 lb (638 g)
- More information: https://www.deepcool-us.com
- MSRP in the U.S.: USD 30.00
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
The Deepcool Gammaxx 400 is an excellent CPU cooler, with high cooling performance and a very low noise level. It is also easy to install and remove, and relatively inexpensive.
However, the easy installation system is also the weak point of the Gammaxx 400. Some users simply hate stock-like pressure clips, because they can bend the motherboard and, in some cases, expelled from the hole.
For its good cooling performance with quiet operation, the Deepcool Gammaxx 400 receives our Silver Award. If the manufacturer had included a backplate and a more robust installation system, maybe it would deserve the
Golden one.
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