Judgment Day!
Starting off with the package, I do appreciate the fact that DeepCool takes care of the package protection inside two plastic boxes. Also, the outside look remains cool and attractive as well. DeepCool provides you every bracket available; not only for the latest but for the legacy sockets as well – eg AMD K8. Killer Whale is undoubtedly a ‘killer’ and unusual name for a heatsink these days. You receive a cooler that has an impressive appearance and with a design that differs from others. But difference does not necessarily mean better.
Performance wise we see "okay" numbers. The DeepCool Killer Whale cooler reaches mid-range league performance and it succeeds. So overall, I am fine with what I am seeing cooling performance wise.
On the other hand, once we overclocked the processor towards 4200 MHz and fired off 1.5 VCore, this is where things got more worrisome (in terms of CPU temperature under full stress). It’s fair to say that very few coolers take this test well. So there’s definitely a decent amount of cooling capacity inside the Killer Whale. Mind that you buy the all copper plated version of this cooler. One true bad thing is that you cannot attach another fan, so this remains a single fan cooling solution.
When the CPU is idle you do not have to worry about the noise levels. However, if you try to stress and toast the chip, the volume starts turning itself up alright. So if you are a bit of a noise freak like Hilbert, you probably wouldn’t have any problem until the fan operates above ~1800 RPM – which evaluates to load 100% CPU usage. Noise is not a big deal with this cooler, it can handle it fine, unless you overclock real high that is.
Let's wrap it up. The performance of the DeepCool Killer Whale is decent enough, we can position it with your average mid-range heatpipe coolers, performance wise it is really just that. If memory serves me right, this Whale costs around $40 which means it is reasonably affordable at best, for anyone seeking mainstream cooling solutions.
It is good to notice that all processor platforms are supported, even the good old K8. Decent cooling performance and a nice design impression is what marks this cooler apart from the rest. With the Intel's LGA 1366 Nehalem family things change rapidly though, those who already own a LGA 1366 i7 920 or better processor should ask themselves what they like the most. An innovative cool-looking heatsink design or a better performing cooler? If you do not overclock say the Core i7, then this cooler will be sufficient. But it ends there, for Socket LGA 1366 based processors we'd recommend you be on the lookout for something else with a little more bite.
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