DeepCool AK400 WH Performance CPU Cooler Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the DeepCool AK400 WH presents itself well with a nice sleek and relatively small package. Admittedly, the size does have us curious as to exactly how well this will perform in our testing given that, under most circumstances, an air CPU cooler is usually reliant on a pretty big radiator for good results. – Before we get onto the testing though, let’s take a closer look at some of the individual components that make up the overall design.

Contact Plate

The contact plate is nice and large and should provide excellent coverage for all the supported platforms. Admittedly though, it is not exactly huge which means that for Intel’s LGA1700 socket, this might be a little tight. With a highly-polished surface as well as the copper pipes being exposed, however, this should allow for some strong levels of heat dissipation.

There are four heat pipes leading away from each side of the contact plate towards the radiator. In credit to DeepCool, these have a white coating that adds to the overall aesthetic of the CPU cooler. It is a lot more common (and disappointing) for entry-level designs to often leave these as just the exposed copper.

Radiator

Although usually representing one of the more boring aspects of CPU cooler design, for the DeepCool AK400 WH this is very much a huge exception. The top of the radiator looks fantastic with a bright white plastic capping plate with silver highlights to the edge which really stand out and, through the contract, looks really nice. In addition, you also have a small but solid placement of the DeepCool logo on the top which fits in well without detracting.

The radiator fins themselves are also impressive with a unique pattern set into the frontage. It’s a really small touch, but one that on an aesthetic level really stands out and genuinely looks impressive.

The gaps to the fins are an excellent distance to allow for solid levels of airflow without the need for too much static pressure from the fans (meaning, all going well, some nice relatively low noise levels). Overall though, the radiator for the DeepCool AK400 WH is very impressive on, if nothing else, an aesthetic level for sure!

Fan

The fan itself is relatively straightforward with there, other than the nice matching white aesthetic, honestly not being much to comment on. – It fits onto the radiator through standard metal side clips which, at the risk of getting a little ahead of things, fit nicely with firm but not excessive resistance. With nice thick anti-vibration padding to the corners as well, on the whole, it’s a fan, and what appears to be a decent one too!

A closer look reveals this to be a DeepCool own FC120P. While this isn’t a fan we’ve encountered before (other than on its AK620 WH bigger brother) it is always reassuring to see a manufacturer’s own design utilised here. It suggests that the fan has either been specifically designed, or at least chosen, to offer the best performance possible that the CPU cooler requires (rather than simply using a cheap third-party option).

Overall

As a completed design, the DeepCool AK400 WH is pretty slim meaning that RAM compatibility shouldn’t represent any problem regardless of how you choose to configure this (and specifically the fan).

Overall, it looks like a nice clean and actually pretty attractive CPU cooler design. Admittedly, I do have some concerns if its relatively small radiator will be able to successfully handle high-load temperatures, but before we get onto that, let’s just see how easy (or difficult) this is to install.

In terms of how it looks and build quality though, the DeepCool AK400 WH gets two solid thumbs up from us!