DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 CPU Air Cooler 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes, 120mm PWM Fan with Blue LED, Multi-platform Intel/AMD CPUs (AM4 Compatible)

Pros: Easy installation with push-pins just like the stock intel heatsink. 4 pin fan letting OS or mobo set fan speed Very quiet Tower design blows hot air straight out the back of the case instead of spreading it around inside. Light weight Better performance than stock Intel heatsink

Cons: Probably not ideal for high-end or overclocked cpus. Push-pin mounting isn't ideal for tower HSFs, even ones as light as this one is. Any bumping of the case will put a huge amount of pressure on the pins, possibly enough to break them or pull them out. This could lead to cooking the cpu with no warning, or even let the HSF fall and damage other components. There are no rubber strips between the fan and HSF, so any fan vibration will be transmitted to the HSF which usually makes it louder. The fins are press-fit onto the heatpipes instead of being soldered. Baseplate is not flat so you'll need to use a thicker layer of thermal transfer paste between the cpu and HSF base. Fan may interfere with RAM slots, and base touches some capacitors near the cpu socket. The only instructions are printed on the back of the box with only pictures. A larger fold-out sheet of paper with the same pictures would have been a lot easier to follow. Also, I don't think the instructions show applying the thermal paste (its hard to tell, there is a step showing a square that might be the cpu, but no words at all?) so people who haven't done this before might skip that crucial step. Some words and better instructions would be a BIG improvement.

Overall Review: On unboxing, I was surprised at how light this HSF is. The HSF is mostly aluminum except for the heatpipes, so it weighs a lot less than other tower HSFs I've used. While this makes the pushpin mounting system workable, it's a minimalist approach to heatsink design that could affect performance. Some fins were slightly bent during shipping. The heatsink isn't secured very carefully in the box and the accessories are loose inside a smaller box inside the large retail box. The baseplate comes covered with a protective sticker, but the baseplate isn't even close to flat due to the direct heatpipe contact design of the HSF. The package includes sufficient hardware for installation and also a small packet of thermal transfer past. I used my own paste, artic ceramique 2, which I've had good luck with in the past. During installation, I had to remove the fan and my RAM to get enough clearance to push in all the push-pins. Once I did that, I saw that the fan's mounting position can be adjusted up and down a little bit based on where the clips fit in between the heatsink fins. This helped a lot because the fan overlaps my ram slots and the ram would have prevented installation if I hadn't been able to raise the fan up about a centimeter. Also, on my mobo the baseplate of the HSF touches a row of capacitors near the cpu, so the design and production tolerances of this are perfect, from the perspective of if it was even 1mm larger, it wouldn't have fit. Performance: I compared this heatsink to the stock intel heatsink on my core i5-2500 cpu. The cpu is running stock inside a mini-tower case. Ambient temps in the room were about 76F. I measured cpu temps with speedfan, and used prime95 to load the cpu. Stock intel HSF: Idle: 33C, Load 82C Gammaxx 400: Idle 32C, Load 64C So this HSF gave significantly better performance than the stock HSF. During testing, this HSF was essentially silent at idle and very very quiet at full load, a good sign. I also noticed that mobo/ram/hd temps were much lower with the Gammaxx HSF, with mobo temps dropping from 61C with the stock HSF to 51C using the Gammaxx HSF. This is most likely due to the tower design which exhausts the hot air directly out the back of the case. Conclusion: The Gammaxx 400 is a good HSF for mid-range cpus, but I would be very hesitant to recommend it for high-end or overclocked cpus. Design choices like the push-pin mounts, the press-fit fins, and the non-flat base, all reduce the product's performance. Considering the price, I would say that this is at best an "ok" choice. There are other similar HSFs for the same price that have different construction features that would make them more effective. The push-pin mounting also gives me pause. So, I recommend it and plan on continuing to use it in my computer, but I have some reservations regarding design quality and will need to keep checking to ensure it doesn't fall off each time I move the computer.

Pros: Direct heat pipes, allow a much more efficient transfer of heat. Supports multiple socket types right out of the box. Light weight. Performs surprisingly well, I will touch on this more in other thoughts.

Cons: While it is light weight, and because of this does not need a back plate, I would actually prefer a back plate mount. I just don't trust the mounting system. Fan feels cheap and I fully expect either the bearings, LED, or both to go out relatively quickly.

Overall Review: My testing setup was a I7 920 IC Diamond 7 HAF 932 case I tested first with my existing TRUE Black running both Intel Burn Test and Prime95 while monitoring temperatures using RealTemp. They I7 920 was set to stock voltage and Ghz with Hyper Threading enable just so there is a consistent baseline. With my TRUE Black, my temps per core were 73, 74, 72, 73. With the Deepcool Gammaxx my temps per core were 75, 77, 76, 77. Before testing the temps on teh Deepcool I left it on for about 2 weeks just to allow the IC Diamond to "cure", even though it doesn't need it like AC5, and to better emulate a real world environment. Back when I bought my TRUE Black it was the best air cooler on the market and it cost me $100. I would have never imagined at that time an air cooler would come out that would work nearly as well but at a 1/4 of the price. Just to touch on thermal paste for a moment. When using a direct heat pipe cooler, you want to use the spread method for your thermal paste. The pea size dot method will not work as this cooler isn't able to get enough force since it lacks a back plate. Also, since it has direct heat pipes, there are very small gaps between the pipes and heat spreader and if you use the pea size method it will not spread out evenly. Final conclusion. If you are in the market for a well performing "budget" cooler it's going to be hard to beat this one. When compared to they Cooler Master 212, this one beats it.

Pros: At first I did not expect too much since this is not what I would consider a "Premium brand". However, I was surprised with the performance and quality. The mounts for the heatsink held it on the processor better and more solidly than other "better" brands I have tried. I doubt it will ever be coming off on its own. The temperature difference was also huge. Stock Intel heatsink idle: 32C load: 60-65C This one idle: 29C load: 48-52C As you can see, this heatsink does exactly what is is designed for and does it very well.

Cons: There were a couple reasons why I knocked off one egg. The first is price. For this price (currently $35), you could possibly get a better brand heatsink. The second reason is the fan mounts. The fan is just held on by flimsy pieces of wire. They are easy to mount onto any fan and don't slide much when you get it on, but I was not impressed with the low quality feel of just strapping the fan on by clicking a couple wires into place.

Overall Review: Overall, this is a good heatsink and definitely works for lowering the temperature by A LOT, but for the price and flimsy fan mounts, there may be better ones out there. Just shop around but make sure to keep this one in mind.

Pros: Quiet operation Consistent Airflow Comes with thermal compound/grease Minimal power draw Easy on the eyes (Blue LED Lighting) An upgrade compared to OEM Heatsinks Fan header cable is of decent length, 4 pins.

Cons: I am not a fan of plastic pins for mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. The plastic push-pins tend to wear out or bend/snap at some point. The fan is attached with thin (Aluminum?) brackets on both ends compared to being bolted/snapped in. This doesn't feel as sturdy.

Overall Review: I reversed the orientation of the fan to a pull-push fashion. Although this increases the noise levels and restricts airflow, I found a significant temperature drop during consistent CPU usage. The ambient temperature around the chassis is lower than operating temperatures and I figured I would rather push cold air into the heatsink than pull away heat from the heatsink. I also replaced the thermal compound/grease with a generous application of Arctic Silver 5.

Pros: For the most part, the heatsink is well made (see cons for the not so good things). The fan it comes with is quiet and does the job. The built-in LEDs are not overbearing or way too bright, so that’s nice. There are grooves in the heatsink where one could attach a second fan on the other side if they had a second set of brackets (the brackets seem like pretty standard wire clips from what I can tell and from comparing them to other units I have here) to hang it from. The direct heatpipe design is pretty well executed with a few exceptions (see cons) but it did provide good contact to the top of the processor. This is one of the few aftermarket coolers I’ve seen to use the standard AMD retention bracket. It is on the lighter side, so I don’t see it causing anyone too many issues. Cooling performance is acceptable at stock speeds for the system I tested with. I didn’t dare overclock however, because I just didn’t have enough room. This heatsink would be great for the lower wattage CPUs for sure. With an AMD Phenom 955 BE clocked to a stock speed of 3.4 Ghz I saw idle temps of 32C (89.6F) and max load temps as high as 48C (118.4F) with about a 10 second return to idle temp after removing the load. I keep my house right around 21C (70F) so that isn’t too far above ambient. I’d say, if you aren’t looking to overclock, and want a quiet, affordable cooler, this will fill that spot just fine. The fan it comes with is a company branded 120mm model. Mine appears to be a hydro bearing as advertised and looks to be of decent quality. It also comes with a four-pin PWM plug. attaching the appropriate mounting brackets is as simple as tightening four small screws. The bracket for holding the fan on is your standard spring steel wire clips (seen on a lot of heatsinks) and they do the job just fine. That may not work if you are intending on installing a slimmer fan on this unit. Otherwise, they hold the fan on and are easy to remove for cleaning or fan replacement. See other thoughts for system specs.

Cons: So the bottom of my heatsink was a little rough and required a bit of polishing and light sanding to get it smooth. Also, the entire surface was basically flat but milled slightly crooked. It didn’t cause an issue with mounting and, looking at the footprint from the thermal grease, it seemed to touch the die of the processor just fine. The whole thing was just ever so slightly crooked when you set it on a table and examine the bottom. The grease that comes with the heatsink is rubbish. spend the extra money and just grab some better thermal paste. I know this is a rule of thumb for a lot of people, but my packet was kind of dry and lumpy (no idea what that was about). I just used some metallic grease from a certain, well known, company. The screws that hold the mounting brackets on are very tiny and easy to lose. I also almost stripped one of mine trying to thread it into the mounting hole. I’m guessing it had something to do with the threads in the hole being not quite right.

Overall Review: System: AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition ASRock 870 Extreme3 motherboard 8GB Corsair DDR3 RAM 2 X AMD Radeon HD 6800 Graphics cards All tests for this carried out at stock speeds as I was not willing to push the system with this heatsink as I didn’t have a lot of thermal overhead left. My overall opinion is that this is a decent product and it performs as expected. I did take one egg off for the less that stellar mounting surface and the crooked millwork.

Pros: Cooling and noise levels were very good, as expected. The fan was pretty tightly pre-mounted to the heat sink, so you won't have to fiddle around with that aspect of installation. The fan uses a four-pin PWM connector, so your motherboard and/or fan control software can speed the fan up or slow it down as necessary. FYI, 3-pin PWM fan connectors give you a nice, loud, always 100%-power fan. Good for cooling, not so much for noise. Blue LEDs on the fan are nice and bright. They'll definitely light your case up at night if that's what you're looking for.

Cons: Fairly poor packaging here. I've had this problem with other DEEPCOOL products. The interior of the retail box is divided into two parts. This first interior part - the component box for all of the brackets, screws, etc. - is way too big for the parts, so they just move, rattle, and bounce around a lot. This wouldn't be too concerning except for the fact that the Intel push pins are plastic and could possibly break during transit. Mine were OK, but it still isn't ideal. The second interior part is just an empty space occupied by the heat sink and fan. It's kinda sorta held in place by some cardboard cutouts, but not really. Mine came loose from the cutouts during transit and probably rocked back and forth a fair amount. No damage was noticeable, but, again, I'd like something packed nice & firmly in there. I couldn't find any kind of sound dampeners between the cooling fan and heat sink. This means that any fan vibration will be passed directly to the heat sink, and you may hear that vibration during use. Believe me, nothing is more annoying than hearing your fan vibrate gently against the heat sink. I didn't notice anything during my few days with this unit so far, but only time will tell. Also, and this is a big -1 for me, no instructions are provided other than some generic pictures on the back of the box. If you've never installed an aftermarket cooler before, do NOT start here. Seriously - stop reading about this product and look elsewhere right now. They don't even tell you how to install the weird squeeze pouch of cooling compound, and that's a pretty big deal. Speaking of which - the non-name CPU paste is enclosed in some kind of weird, generic white squeeze pouch. This is the same pouch I've seen in every other DEEPCOOL cooler, and, for what it's worth, I wouldn't use it. Spend a few bucks and buy some Arctic Silver. Also make sure to read Arctic Silver's instructions on how to apply CPU paste since there aren't any instructions here.

Overall Review: For testing, I ran one of my desktop boxes (Intel Core i7-3770 CPU) at 100% CPU load for 6 hours with the cooler fan speed at 100%. Average temperature through the run was 62 Celsius (~144 Fahrenheit) according to CPUID's HWMonitor software. My Pyle PSPL03 decibel meter reported 46 dB for my entire desktop - this is about on par with that desktop's previously installed Noctua NH-U12 S. Make sure this fits in your case. According to Newegg, this is 6.26" or about 159mm tall. Look at the specs for your case to see if it will accommodate a cooler of this height. Also know that depending on your particular hardware, your CPU temperature and overall noise levels will be different than everybody else's. Take my numbers with a grain of salt. This really is a no-frills el cheapo product that just barely has what you need and nothing else. If you already know what you're doing and just need the parts for an average after-market cooling solution at a low price, then this will fit the bill. If you're newer to aftermarket coolers and aren't real familiar with the pieces or how they work together, I'd avoid this product and instead choose something with better instructions.

Pros: I like this cooler very much it has a simplistic design and is very easy to install on either intel or amd ... I will admit the amd bracket is different than Ive ever seen but does the job nicely...the fan is a lovely blue with 4 leds one in each corner it lit up pretty bright...I prefer bright ...also its pwm fan with a 4 pin plug ..it has 8 6mm copper heat pipes 4 on each side and the aluminum fin array is about the same size as the 212 it looks to me as if the fins are spaced further apart than the 212 allowing for more air to pass through it I think....the fan provides plenty of air flow....the base sits firmly on the cpu and the provided thermal paste is not to shabby either its at least the silver and not the cheap white...so all in all I would recommend this cooler for the price its a good deal especially if you need something better than stock.....the temps were 35 degrees celcius but would spike under load to 55 and sometimes 60...which is still better than a stock cooler

Cons: now I have a few cons to start out with I'm not a fan of the wire clips that hold the fan on the do the job but the fan can still move and shift and I think they look cheap but you gotta cut costs somewhere....next would be the intel bracket I do not like the plastic push clips that holds the entire cooler to the cpu I've had to many of those brake or not hold like they are suppose to....and the the last thing is pretty substantial to me...the aluminum fin array is cut out for taller ram modules which is awesome but the fan still comes down and covers it right back up ...meaning you still have to have a short ram module in the first ram port and most people don't have different sized ram modules that are the same specs

Overall Review: to be honest this would be a great cooler to replace a stock cooler in a lower end system or in a prebuilt system but I don't think it would be good for a high end build

Pros: This is a very decent cooler for a very competitive price. The entire cooler is very well made and thought out. -Doesn't seem to have any clearance issue with motherboards/ram -Blue LED fan -uses HDT to maximize the value of each heat pipe -easy mounting on all platforms -it's not a huge cooler but big enough to deliver decent cooling -it has a good enough fan that includes PWM control but does have some low pitched whine -one fan comes preinstalled to make it a bit easier to install. -Has some very simple and straight forward packaging. -and the heatsink can potentially hold two fans and can use any normal framed fan.

Cons: The heatsink itself is very good but some sacrifices needed to be made in order to hit this price point -The fan is very cheap and it shows if you just test its full range due to some whining issues and a slight imbalance that can cause excessive air/vibration noise. -A second set of fan clips is not include for push-pull -Their are better performers out there (for a higher price) -no instruction booklet or manual, just some instructions on the box which should be fine for most people but can be troublesome for first timers. (That said, installation is simple) -The mounting hardware is not the most robust I have ever seen, more specifically the AMD and 1156 mounting. -I don't mind it but it may effect some people that it only mounts in the usual orientation (airflow from side to side)