DeepCool Castle RGB 280mm TR4 CPU Cooler Review

A Closer Look

At 280mm the radiator is certainly not small. Please be sure to check the product website for detailed measurements, and double check your clearances with your motherboard and other components. I’ve seen many people switch to 280mm because their chassis supports it, just to see a VRM cooler or motherboard cable cause a conflict. The Castle is an AIO unit, so the tubing and pump are already pre-assembled and filled with liquid. This is great, as it means you can quickly and easily deploy it in your system.

Huge Surface Area

When dealing with a powerful ThreadRipper CPU, TDP is important. These are extreme CPUs with high power usage and they pump out plenty of heat. Having the increased surface area of the 280mm radiator means better heat dissipation. The bonus of this is larger fans, which can move larger amounts of air at lower RPM; more airflow, more cooling, less noise!

Chrome

The coolers is plastered with RGB on the fans and pump, but that doesn’t mean it can’t look slick with the lighting off too. The side of the radiator has a big chromed strip with the GamerStorm logo cut into it.

The top of the pump is mirrored too, albeit with RGB lighting behind it. It’ll light up fully when powered, but reverts to a mirror when off; pretty neat.

While the cooler does come with 140mm fans, it can support 120mm fans. Not sure why you would need to, but it’s nice to have options.

Finally, the tubing is mounted very nicely with a hard wrap on the actual fittings. Furthermore, the tubing has a very tight weaved braiding that looks fantastic and adds durability.

Installed

Installing the cooler was easy enough, as it comes with a special TR4 mounting kit. Four pegs screw in around the socket, then four thumb screws hold the pump in place. Obviously, the fans/radiator come with the usual screw on options too.

Remember what I said about size though? It didn’t fit in the top of this chassis, as it conflicted with the motherboard. To be honest, it barely fit in the front too, as such the pump is upside down on the motherboard. Not that this hurts performance, it just looks funny.

Glorious RGB

The lighting on the pump is absolutely stunning, it has the same multi-colour flow patterns as the fans. It wouldn’t look out of place at a 60’s disco.

The fans use a frosted blade design, which means they illuminate and diffuse the light from the built-in LEDs really well. You get a flood of colour and light from them that will really light up your chassis.