DeepCool GamerStorm Castle 240EX AIO Cooler Review

GamerStorm Castle 240EX In terms of AIO liquid cooling releases, you wouldn't necessarily have expected there to be a lot of hype surrounding a Deepcool GamerStorm release. Oh, don't get us wrong. It's a perfectly good brand and based on their various products we've reviewed in the past, we have never failed to be impressed. In regards to the GamerStorm Castle 240EX, however, there has been more than a little excitement surrounding its release. With it finally on shelves, however, (and more specifically on our review bench) does it warrant it? Well, there's only one way to find out! Features Anti-leak Tech Inside, exclusively safe.25% more skived fins on the back side of the copper base, the heat absorption area extensively increased.Flow route optimized to reduce operation noise and energy loss.2 specially tuned TF120 S fans are included (in matching the radiator's properties).Customizable Logo, exciting DIY experience.Ultra large copper base, extensive compatibility (including TR4).5V Addressable RGB, adjustable through the motherboard, or included the controller. Technical Information For more in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page via the link here! Dimensions Exterior Packaging With a green and grey box design, it isn't a particularly eye-catching design. They have, however, seemingly become the unofficial colours of Deepcool's GamerStorm brand. The plus side is that the front of the packaging ticks all of the right boxes. You get a nice clear image of the cooler (as well as the pump head) as well as information on all the RGB sync compatibility. Sadly, the rear of the packaging is just a bit of a cramped mess and even then, the room hasn't been used nearly as well as it might have been. With a little shuffling the details could've been presented far more attractively. There is, after all, a lot of dead space here that didn't warrant such tiny writing. One of the main key focuses the GamerStorm Castle 240EX pushes is it's anti-leak technology. This really only applies to those looking to incorporate this into an existing loop, but is a clever piece of protection none-the-less. Socket Compatibility Accessories! Supporting a solid range of processor sockets from both Intel and AMD you are given all the accessories you need out of the box to ensure you can get this fitted to your system. A nice addition is the inclusion of a manual controller for the RGB lighting. This is exceptionally useful (in fact, required) if your motherboard doesn't support RGB sync lighting. The parts are well organised and as such should provide you with no difficulty in getting this ready for installation. A Closer Look As we noted earlier, there's been a lot of fuss made surrounding this AIO liquid cooler and at this point you might be wondering why. Well, rest assured that this has more than a few tricks up it's sleeve that, in our opinion, make it one of the most attractive coolers currently on the market. Radiator The radiator design is a fairly standard one for 240mm AIO liquid cooler. In fact, the only remarkably thing at a glance is that it doesn't have any branding. Nope, no GamerStorm, no Deepcool, nothing. This is 100% devoid of anything other than black sleekness. The radiator vents have a coil design which is the popular option in more modern designs. This should, hopefully, translate to some nice head dissipation performance. Pump Block The first thing you will notice about the pump block is that it's a lot taller than the vast majority of designs seen from other cooler brands. Standing at roughly 4" tall, it is in fact close to double what you would consider usual. There is, however, a very clever reason for this. A view of the side highlights just how tall this is, but you will note an open and close sticker? Whatever could that mean? Well, and this is where it gets clever, the GamerStorm Castle 240EX gives you the option to fit your own custom logo to the centre of the pump head display. In combination with the RGB lighting effects offered, this gives you the change to put some very bespoke choices in your cooler. I'm not going to say this is unique, but I've certainly never seen a system that made it this easy before! Contact Plate The contact plate has a nice squared design that should give fantastic coverage for all of the major processor socket types. It does come with some pre-applied thermal paste to make things easy for you too. Fans As this is a 240mm AIO liquid cooler, it does (of course) come with 2 120mm system fans. Surprisingly, these are not RGB fans, but do carry some rather impressive aesthetics none the less. You will, for example, note the slightly pattered edge to the fins. I believe that these fans have been custom designed for the GamerStorm Castle 240EX and, as such, are the only cooler in which these feature. Well, at least at the time of writing. We do, therefore, hope to see some impressive cooling performance from them while also (hopefully) keeping things quiet! Overall When fully assembled, the cooler carried a very smart and sleek presentation. Admittedly, things start looking hugely better when the lights are turned on and, in truth, the pump head has some of the best RGB effects we have seen on an AIO liquid cooler. As above, it is somewhat surprising that the fans don't have any RGB lights. Such seems to be the nature of design with everything these days. I do, however, rather like this and think it's a smart move. Not everyone, after all, likes RGB and at least with the GamerStorm Castle 240EX, where it has been used is amazingly impressive! Installation Starting with the manual, the good news is that it's really good. While there isn't a lot of written information (likely to make it convenient for various countries) the diagrams and instructions provided are nice, clear, and very easy to understand. That doesn't mean to say, however, that everything is a walk in the park. For example, fitting the mounting bracket to the pump head is fiddly work. Not only doesn't the bracket want to stay in place, but the tension on the pump cables always makes it want to move. It's one of those jobs that'll be 10 times earlier if you had a 2nd pair of hands. While mounting fans to the radiator is always something of a chore, fortunately the screws supplied with the Castle 240EX only have a rather small thread so not many turns are required. It should, however, be noted that they were unusually still. Something that might concern something fitting an AIO for the first time. From out of the box to fully assembled, the GamerStorm Castle 240EX took me around 20 minutes which is about the usual time for a 240mm cooler. It is a little bit fiddly at point and the relatively short length (and tenseness) of the hose pipes doesn't make it any earlier. Fortunately, however, the mounting system to fit this to your motherboard is simplicity itself and with only one RGB connector, the cabling is very easy to contain and manage. Overall, this isn't bad and should be perfectly fine for beginners or experienced hands. RGB in Action As this cooler only has RGB lighting to the pump head, you may wonder if they've gone overboard. The short answer is, no. The colour range and brightness is absolutely fantastic and can, of course, be controlled either with the manual adaptor or via your motherboards sync connector. As you can see in the above and below image, however, a simple removal of the cap means that the logo can be placed at any 90 degree angle you wish. Just think of what designs you could put there yourself! 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 or most relevant to this design. Please note that we re-tested the Noctua NH-D15S as our base benchmark for cooling results. Test system: Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Z270Intel Core i7-7700K Delidded w/ NT-H1 under IHSRadeon R7 Passive GPU with 2GB VRAM8GB Crucial DDR4 2400 MHz - A 2nd 8GB stick is used, but only to test RAM compatibility. It is removed for photographic purposes.512GB OCZ SSDbe quiet! Dark Power Pro 800WLian Li T80 Test BenchAll testing conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste We’d like to say a big thank you to Gigabyte, Noctua, Crucial, Intel, OCZ, be quiet!, and Lian Li for providing us with the above testing equipment and their on-going 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 pastePrime 95 is run for 10 minutes to calculate "load" resultsUnigine Superposition is run for 10 minutes to calculate "gaming" resultsThe average temperature across all cores is takenFans 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 CPUOverclocking tests are performed with the CPU set to 5 GHz and 1.345vAll 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 HWMonitorPrime 95Unigine Superposition (1080 Extreme) Performance So, we have established that it looks good and has a very strong design aesthetic, but how does it perform? Well, being a 240mm cooler, it clearly should do quite well and at stock levels that's clearly reflected. In both temperature and noise levels the GamerStorm Castle 240EX is amazingly good. Even if we were to take that amazing pump head design out of the equation, all the of hype and interest makes sense. As a slight caveat, while it is more than capable of running on an overclocked system, it does get significantly noisier with notably high 'peak' fan points. If you don't plan to overclock, however, and are just looking for a solid (and visually impressive) cooler, the performance of the GamerStorm Castle 240EX is simply fantastic! Stock Temperatures Stock Acoustics Overclocked Temperatures Overclocked Acoustics How Much Does it Cost? At the time of writing, there were no confirmed UK retail listing for the GamerStorm Castle 240EX. It is, however, on sale in America for $119 and we believe a similar Sterling price can be expected. We should, as an important side note, make it clear that this model is not to be confused with the Deepcool Castle 240EX which is similar at a glance, but very different in presentation and performance. We have, however, been told that this cooler will retail for a price in the region of $120 (so expect around £100). While this is a little pricey for a 240mm AIO liquid cooler, don't be confused into thinking this is an entry-level design. This is, as far as we're concerned, one of the best out there! Overview We really love this cooler and not for any one particular reason. Starting with the aesthetics it looks brilliant, practically faultless. In addition, having RGB lighting just to the pump head is a fantastic compromise for those who aren't particularly fans of it in their systems. This, of course, shouldn't overshadow the fact that you can apply your own custom logo to it as well! This is all topped off by performance figures that clearly shows this to be one of the best 240mm AIO liquid coolers out there. Yes, it doesn't do quite as well when overclocked with those fans can get rather noisy at times. If you don't ever plan to overclock, however, this is a great cooler for many, many, reason! Should I Buy One? I like the fact that in a market flooded by all-singing and dancing RGB coolers that the GamerStorm Castle 240EX has offered the world a path to sanity. In almost every area this is a great cooler and, in truth, if it wasn't for the slightly vocal overclocking performance, we'd call it practically perfect. For those of you, however, looking for a great AIO liquid cooler with more than a few options to make it your own, then the GamerStorm Castle 240EX is, without a doubt, one of the best currently on the market. Yes, it might have been hyped prior to launch, but it was 100% entirely justified! Pros Excellent designFantastic compromise for RGB lovers or hatersAmazingly strong performance at stock levelsAn AIO liquid cooler that offers you a way to customise it!One of the best 240mm AIO liquid coolers on the market Cons None Neutral Does get considerably louder when overclocking comes into play. Deepcool GamerStorm Castle 240EX AIO Liquid Cooler