DeepCool Assassin IV CPU Cooler Review

The DeepCool Assassin has long been one of the best CPU cooler series on the market, offering some fierce competition against the likes of big names like Cooler Master, Corsair, be quiet!, Antec and even Noctua. Their build quality, performance and aesthetics have always been great, and they're usually competitive on price too. So, with all that in mind, the long-awaited Assassin IV is here at last, and I honestly cannot wait to see what this one is capable of! DeepCool Assassin IV It's a complete redesign of the cooler this time too, with a much cleaner and more modern aesthetic, with a dual tower design that is fully enclosed so that it looks like one large box enclosed by two fans, one 140mm and one 120mm that are both mounted in a pull configuration rather than push, which means that RAM compatibility should be excellent. The end result is a cooler they say can cool up to 280 watts, which is very impressive if true; Our 12900K is a hot-running CPU, so it'll make for a good test today! Features Note, at the time of writing I didn't have access to the English version of this chart, but we can still make do as the obvious stuff like size, RPM, CFM, and dbA are all perfectly clear here. Intel Compatibility: LGA2066/2011-v3/2011/1700/1200/1151/1150/1155AMD Compatibility: AM5/AM4 DeepCool ASSASSIN IV Cooler The ASSASSIN returns with a new aesthetic and efficient cooling capacity. The ASSASSIN IV provides exceptional performance and is armed with seven heat pipes and newly designed 120 and 140mm FDB fans Beauty In Simplicity The elegant design of the ASSASSIN IV is not just visually pleasing; it also leads to optimal airflow and maximum compatibility. In Quiet Or Performance Mode The ASSASSIN IV is the obvious choice With a simple slide of a switch, the ASSASSIN IV can morph from a whisper-quiet cooler when low noise is of the utmost importance to the efficient cooling force DeepCool air coolers are known for. Let It Shine! The ASSASSIN IV's case is clean, sleek, and helps channel air through the fin towers, while the relocatable 120mm fan provides unobstructed clearance for high-profile RGB RAM. Be Cool, Be Calm A key factor in the ASSASSIN IV's extremely silent operation is the use of three-phase, six-pole fan motors with low voltage and power consumption. DeepCool is so confident in our new design that the ASSASSIN IV comes with 6 years of limited warranty coverage! Exceptional By Design Featuring seven heat pipes that deliver improved heat transfer through two fin-array heat sink towers for high-performance efficiency. The included DM9 thermal paste meets the rigorous standards used in industrial applications. Streamlined Installation Installing larger air coolers can be difficult and is a prime reason the hardware and installation was designed to be extremely user friendly. Even the magnetic top fan cover was crafted with ease of installation in mind. Packaging The box is pretty minimal, with durable cardboard forming the actual box and then a slipcover with the Assassin IV branding on; likely so they can use the same box for multiple products, which makes sense. All the boring technical stuff is on the back, sockets, sizes, and RPM, so a big thumbs up for showing a product photo and all the specifications, as that's important. The box is very tough, and on the interior, there are thick protective foam layers around the cooler and a component box on the side. The box includes all the brackets for supported AMD and Intel sockets, grease cleaning solution, an additional fan bracket, and one of the largest tubes of thermal paste I've seen included with a cooler. Oh, and there's an L-shaped screwdriver, which is Philips on one end, and a small Allankey on the other, which is really cool. A Closer Look The cooler looks absolutely fantastic, with a black heatsink and gunmetal grey enclosure looking very slick indeed. The heatsinks are a twin tower design, with a unique stepped layer design that looks like offset squares. On the top, there's a black mesh section breaking up the grey. However, this is actually a magnetic removable panel, more on that in a moment though. No need for a fan controller when you have a hardware-level switch right on the cooler; this is really a cool idea, I love it. A small DeepCool logo on the side; very minimalist. The cooler is very heavy on one side, so it topples over easily on my desk (it's propped up with a screwdriver in the other pictures). The offset weight is by design, as it means less of the cooler is on the RAM side, and shouldn't hurt compatibility. the rear fan is a 120mm design in this impressive-looking cube mesh shroud with an extremely close axial trim. The fan blades are impressive too, with wide overlapping fins that have surprisingly large surface area given the size of the fan. On the bottom of the cooler, there's a 52x42mm contact plate with a nicely polished surface. As you can see, the heatpipe configuration is no joke, with seven thick heat pipes running in a U-shape through both of the cooling towers and into the contact plate. Furthermore, they're stepped, with one going in front then behind the one next to it so they more evenly distribute heat through the cooling towers. The cooler looks pretty monolithic though, and I love that it's minimalist to look at, but there's enough detail and things going on to keep it looking interesting too. It's all pre-wired too, so just one cable to hook up to the motherboard. There's no RGB either, so that's one less thing to deal with. Test System & Methodology As you may appreciate, we review a lot of coolers here at eTeknix. As such, our prior results sheet was getting more than a little crowded. We have, therefore, applied a new system in which we have picked those coolers we consider most popular, recent, or most relevant to this design. Test system: NZXT Z690 ATXIntel Core i9-12900K @ stock and & 4.9 GHz all P-Core 4 GHz E-Core 1.3vAorus RTX 208016GB Crucial DDR4 4400 MHz512GB NVMe SSDThermaltake Tough Power 750WNZXT H7 Flow RGB CaseAll testing is conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste We’d like to say a big thank you to Gigabyte, Noctua, Crucial, Intel, Thermaltake, NZXT and more for providing us with the above testing equipment and their ongoing support. Testing Methodology We always use Noctua Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers not the efficiency of the bundled thermal pasteCinebench R23 is run for 10 minutes to calculate “load” resultsUnigine Superposition is run for 10 minutes to calculate “gaming” resultsMultiple readings are taken with the average of the package temperatures calculated for our recorded resultFans are left to operate at default PWM profile speeds unless otherwise statedFor water cooling tests, all pumps have been operated at 12 volts unless otherwise statedAmbient temperatures should be between 21-23 degrees in all our tests unless otherwise statedAcoustic measurements are taken 10cm horizontally and 10cm vertically away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabledStock tests are performed using “out of the box” settings for the CPUAll coolers were tested under identical settings unless otherwise stated.There is approximately a 1-degree Celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software CPUID HW MonitorThere is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meterIn all these graphs we may have a few “reference” results of particular products that do not fit within that category for comparative purposes. Software Used CPUID HWMonitorCinebench R23Unigine Superposition Performance Installation is certainly unique, with the Assassin IV using a traditional backplate and thumbscrews here, but then... You take the top off the CPU cooler, it's magnetic, so it pops off easily enough. Then you can lift out the interior fan by squeezing the two clips together. It slides out easily enough, easier than I expected actually. You also need to put the Intel/AMD brackets on the pegs, and there are some thumbscrews to hold them; you can tighten them with the screwdriver too. The teeth on the screwdriver seemed to be designed so that if you try to over-tighten, the screwdriver slips out the screw, which is either a happy accident or a genius design. I don't have three hands, so here's me pretending to be using the included screwdriver to reach through the gap in the cooler and tighten it to the bracket on the motherboard, even though I actually did it a minute prior. Then the fan can be slid back down, like putting a hard drive tray back into a NAS. Pop the cap back on and you're done, that really was an interesting process, and the end result looks awesome! Stock Temperatures Now, there was a rumour that this was a Noctua beater, and honestly, that's not as hard as it sounds anymore given Noctua is running a product that's at least a decade old now... for now at least, but as you can see, it's 2c cooler, and that's quite an achievement for an air cooler. Now, the Hyper 622 is cooler still, but as you can see in the acoustics results below, it's running a lot harder to get there. Stock Acoustics However, the Assassin IV matches the 39 dBa of our D15S perfectly, so yes, that's pretty damn impressive. Keep in mind the IV has two fans, vs the D15S which has one, so that explains the cooler, but two fans are rarely as quiet as one. Overclocked Temperatures Pushing the heat up didn't seem to phase it either, quite the opposite. Now, I had heard that the IV wasn't going to beat Noctua here, and in some scenarios or methodology that may be true, and I'm eager to see other reviews, but from my testing, it's doing very well indeed. Again that pesky Cooler Master cooler is cooler, but again, look at the acoustics, lower the fan RPM and it doesn't stand a chance. Overclocked Acoustics OK so Noctua do hold the lead here, but let's be honest, that's still extremely impressive. I don't doubt Noctua will be sitting at 41c with a dual fan and match that performance too, but I'm going to re-re-test the D15 range soon with new fans, as mine are a few years old and I want to be certain. How Much Does it Cost? The DeepCool ASSASSIN IV Intel/AMD Dual Tower Performance CPU Cooler is available now from Scan for a very reasonable £84.98. That's not exactly loose change, I know, but this is a very high-quality product and handling it, looking at it, and testing it, it seems to be worth every single penny. You get plenty of thermal paste included in the box, a third fan bracket, a built-in fan controller of sorts, and even a handy installation screwdriver/Alankey, so I'm very happy with the bundle. Noctua NH-D15S is £89.99, or £99.99 for the black version, and even then if you wanted another fan, throw another £20-£30 on top. That's worth it too, I am a bit Noctua fan and their quality is still second to none, but with this price-to-performance ratio, DeepCool is really making it a hard choice; there's only one meme that's needed right now. Overview Right, let's get to the one thing I don't like about this cooler... Nothing, it's really just fantastic. When it comes to the acoustic levels, when pushed really hard and the CPU is overclocked, Noctua is quieter, but that didn't strike me as surprising. However, DeepCool is closer than anyone else has come in that regard, and that's mighty impressive. When it comes to cooling performance, and let's be honest, that's really the key feature to focus on, it absolutely takes things to the next level. To deliver such impressive cooling performance at these acoustic levels is no easy task, and there's a reason Noctua haven't had to really change much of anything on their most popular products for over a decade. The gap has now closed though, and the choice between the D15S and the Assassin IV is close enough to just say, get the one you like the look of. This brings me to my next point. I love my Noctua fans, I spent a few years on the Chromax black, but have since gone back to the old-school brown. However, there's rarely much new in the world of cooler design that really makes me sit forward. However, the Assassin IV looks so damn good, they've really raised the bar here, and I think it's the best-looking air cooler on the market right now. There's a fan bracket to add a third fan, but don't bother, it looks like you're hanging a hump on the damn thing and seems utterly pointless given the current level of performance. The built-in fan controller is great, even if I see little to no need for it, as it's plenty quiet already. However, I won't deny there's a use for an even quieter mode and it's awesome that it's built-in to hardware and now software controlled. Plus, the inclusion of tools and paste makes installing and maintaining the cooler an easy task too. Furthermore, the unique installation method is really clever, and the way all the hardware is enclosed is aesthetically pleasing too. Should I Buy One? It's one of the best-looking, performance, and quietest air coolers I've ever tested. It's really as simple as that. It's not cheap, but for what is on offer here, it's very competitively priced. Very highly recommended, as it's sure to look and perform great in any system.