DeepCool Captain 240 EX review - Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

The Captain series AIO coolers from DeepCool look all too familiar, hey we tested one in the Genome review recently. The updated Captain EX as tested today certainly does not disappoint. These kits are easy to install, offer good perf for money and the ability to tweak your processor. Next to that the looks matter as well, and this is an aesthetically pleasing product. Weirdly enough, the icing on top of the cake are the new blade fans. They offer quite a bit of airflow and remain really silent (under normal conditions). We'd classify the cooler as a performance product and thus it matches mainstream to high-end cooling. With default clock the product is silent. However overclocked the noise coming from the fans can be heard a tiny bit, really a tiny bit is all it is. The dual 240mm radiator with the two high performing fans work out well, cooling capacity is definitely good enough for even a nice overclock. 

Aesthetics & Design

The overall looks are very good as far as I am concerned, all black design with the red segments in the fans make the rad look rad. Overall it is an easy to install with the mounting system, prefilled... it's one of the most easy and comfortable kits on the market to use and install. The black design will make this kit look great in any PC. It simply is a good alternative toward heatpipe coolers with the added benefits of being fairly quiet whilst offering very nice looks. We like the simplicity, only one wire goes from the water-block to the motherboard, and then the fan just needs a FAN header on your mobo as well. Installation is simply a breeze, easy and fast. No skills are required other than the need for ten minutes to install the kit.

Pricing

The Captain 240 EX as tested today will cost 110 USD, obviously you will not reach the 'enthusiast' segment of cooling. But make no mistake, the performance is definitely good for a 240mm rad based product, but remains to be just that if you compare it to proper LCS gear like some EK custom loop. Let me also remind you that you can easily spend 200/300 EUR on tubing, radiators, cooling blocks, reservoirs and so on whereas this all in one kit can be found for a just over a 100 bucks. 

Final words

The Captian EX is a product that ticks the right boxes, it looks great (if you like the style, but that is personal), offers very decent cooling performance and is easy to install. I would have liked  to see the 240mm SKU under a 100 bucks though as there it would make the most sense. The kit is is far more silent opposed to the previous models we tested like the Maelstrom. Next to that, you'll have plenty of extra capacity to overclock as well. If you are wondering about the temperatures you have seen at 1.3 Volts, well... this is the nature of the  processor tested. You will likely not need 1.3V for 4400~4600 MHz. Overall the DeepCool Captain EXe240 manages really well with the tested Core i7 4790K processor we fired off at it, if you need 1.30 Volts even then it will offer enough cooling performance, heck even 1.35 is very doable. Nice job DeepCool, definitely worthy of our recommendation.

Handy related downloads:

• Prime95
• SiSoft Sandra
• AIDA
• CPU-Z
• HWMonitor