DeepCool LS720 AIO Liquid Cooler Review

Installation

While the product manual for the DeepCool LS720 is light in terms of written information, it is absolutely crammed full of (generally) well-detailed diagrams. Overall, the installation methodology is quite straightforward indicating that installation shouldn’t represent a problem regardless of your experience level.

If the manual isn’t quite answering all of your questions, however, DeepCool has published an instructional video which should help you fill in any blanks you have. So, in terms of helping to get your new DeepCool LS720 fitted, this is honestly about as good as it gets!

Mounting

The mounting system is a solid and simple design. Yes, good news! DeepCool has not attempted to reinvent the wheel here with a consulted installation methodology. With the motherboard plate installed, the CPU block simply sits on top with four chunky screws being attached to each corner.

To fit the CPU block, you do have to install the mounting brackets which is always a bit of a fiddle task. The screws are quite small and with fat fingers, or a not entirely suitable screwdriver, you may find yourself worrying about losing one (and no, there are no replacements/spares in the accessories). Additionally, you have to remove the contact plate cover while fitting the bracket so additional time and care are required to ensure you don’t accidentally smudge or smear the pre-installed thermal compound.

And yes, I’m just going to say it, I did smudge it slightly. Fortunately for me though, our testing methodology requires its removal anyway. In regards to this particular task though, take your time, and take care!

In preparation for our installation, we do, as per our methodology, remove any existing thermal paste. And in this regard, it did raise an interesting point. Having used thermal compound remover (two different kinds actually) staining remained on the copper contact plate. I can’t stress enough that I spend a solid 3-5 minutes cleaning this with appropriate cleaning products and the image below was, just about, the cleanest I could get it.

Now I do, of course, have to test this CPU cooler so I didn’t want to go to extreme levels of cleaning due to the risk of potentially damaging the copper surface. I should note though that the thermal compound DeepCool has used here may have reacted with the surface to provide this light staining. – I don’t think that this will have any notable impact on its performance, but at the same time, it’s clearly a bit of a concern that this was as clean as I could get it.

One legitimate grumble I do have is in regards to the spacers. For LGA1700 and LGA115X, different spacers are required and at a casual glance, they’re not overly dissimilar from each other. While the specific type is stamped onto the top of them, the picture below (courtesy of a macro lens) makes this significantly clearer than what you would see with the naked eye.

So just make sure you pay attention to ensure you use the correct spacer as this will clearly have an impact on how well the contact plate sits on top of your processor.

In terms of cable management, the DeepCool LS720 is absolutely fantastic with the fans utilising a ‘daisy chain’ system. Through this, a single cable connects one fan to the next, and through a supplies splitter cable (handling both the fan speed and ARGB lighting) stray cabling is kept to an absolute minimum.

I make very little secret of the fact that for 360mm AIO liquid coolers, seeing such a design always gets a huge thumbs up from me as many designs can often look (when uninstalled) like an incredibly intimidating rats nest of cables that all clearly need to be hooked up correctly for it to work as intended.

For the DeepCool LS720 though, this is excellent!

Finally, we should note that in something that is a moderate rarity in AIO liquid coolers, the DeepCool LS720 comes with support cables for the hoses. These can be easily removed during the installation process, but once you have your cooler in place, these can be reapplied to ensure your hoses sit well within your case, and, in addition, help prevent and/or minimise any contact they may make with over components.

Overall Thoughts

From out of the box and onto our test bench, the DeepCool LS720 took us around 12 minutes to install which, by 360mm AIO liquid cooler standards, is pretty quick. And the reason it was fairly quick is simply due to the fact that DeepCool applied a (mostly) really smart and simple installation process.

While there are certain aspects that could be further improved, for either beginners or experienced hands, the DeepCool LS720 is, in terms of AIO coolers, about as straightforward as it gets which, by proxy, shouldn’t provide you with any problems as long as you pay attention to the instructions!

The ARGB lighting effects of the DeepCool LS720 are fantastic. Those somewhat generic fans really burst into life when the lighting comes on with bright, punchy, and varied colours at your discretion. – Additionally, the CPU block also looks fantastic and with that removable capping plate, you also have the option to not just easily rotate it to 90-degree angles, but also to replace it entirely with a custom design of your own choice.

So, on the whole, the installation part of the DeepCool LS720 was excellent. How does it perform though? Well, let’s find out!