Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
DeepCool has been on a mission to out a heat pipe tower cooler that can compete with Noctua NH-D15, and yes in both performance as well as in acoustic levels the two go head to head. So performance-wise the kit also does not disappoint, these kits are easy to install, offer good perf and the ability to tweak your processor. The fans 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 clocks, the product is incredibly silent. However overclocked the noise coming from the fans can be heard a bit, you could however quite easily lower fan RPM towards an acoustic level of preference.
Aesthetics & Design
My main worry is that huge tower heatpipe coolers are becoming a thing of the past. The trend clearly is LCS which often offers better cooling capacity in the tweaking range of things. Then again, there are many of you that absolutely and irrefutably refuse to have anything with water in their PC, and for these consumers, there is heat pipe cooling at this level. Aesthetics wise the Assassin III looks okay, but I would have rather see it powder coated in black or perhaps a darker nickel plating. It's a big cooler to look at alright.
Pricing
DeepCool's asking price is set at roughly 89 to 99 USD, which is quite a bit of money for a heatpipe cooler, to be honest. The cooler is big, heavy and thus the bill of materials has risen. next to that the two premium 140mm fans are included as well as a very nice thermal paste kit and screwdriver. So I'd rate it as fair, but not cheap.
Installation
The cooler is easy to install with its mounting system. Just install the backplate, the standoff-screws, position the cooler and secure it. No 'advanced' skills are required other than the need for ten minutes to install the kit.
Final words
It is becoming rarer that we test heatpipe based coolers, as it goes against that other trend, the LCS cooler. I'm glad we tested the Assassin III though as really, it deserves a recommendation. It seems that for heatpipe cooler there are premium brands like be quiet and Noctua that really jump out of the rest. This cooler can be positioned in that range as the acoustics are phenomenal as well as the cooling performance. Overall installation is a breeze and the kit is very complete. Other than arguable aesthetics there really isn't anything that we can nag about. If you are a 'no liquid - no Sir' kind of person on the lookout for a premium heatpipe cooler, hey recommended. Remember it fits all modern sockets from Intel Gen 9 up-to AMD Ryzen 3000 (but not Ryzen Threadripper SP3) and offers good clearance for the higher DIMM modules (both sides this that works for X299 as well). This a very appealing kit for any performance demanding end-users that need to chill their processor based on heatpipe cooling. Whole-heartedly recommended by Guru3D.com
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