Deepcool MaelStrom 120 Review
Published by Hiwa Pouri on 20.08.14Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| Overall, the Deepcool MaelStrom 120 is a solid product with a good looking color scheme, which is perfectly suitable for ASUS ROG as well as all other black and black&red motherboards. It offers a really good cooling performance with a 120mm PWM fan. The cooler is small with a tiny pump/base, so it will fit even in small cases or SFF systems. The only thing we really didn't like is the pump noise. It's not loud but, since it's high frequent, you hear it well. |
- Cooling capacity
- Noise levels - Quality - PWM |
- High frequent pump noise | |
| Installation | + | - | |
| The installation is simple an pretty straightforward. With two included mounting kits, where one is for Intel and another for AMD sockets, it should be quite easy even for less technical users to mount the cooler properly in a heartbeat. The only - very minor - drawback that we could find is that it is unfortunately not compatible with LGA 775 socket. The thermal paste is pre-applied and although we would like to see it included in the box, this makes the installation even easier for an average user. |
- Easy and practical
- Compatible Intel and AMD |
- No compatible Intel LGA 775 | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| The Maelstrom Deepcool 120 offers good cooling performanace in almost any situation. With the fan driven at 7V and 12V we find the cooler in the top fourth of our charts. In PWM mode, the performance drops slightly but nevertheless remaining in the middle of the standings. | - Cooling performances | ||
| Noise Levels | + | - | |
| Our tests show that the fan included in the bundle is noisy at 7V and 12V, ranking at the bottom of our charts and reaching 38.2 dBA when running at 7V. Rotation speeds at 7 and 12V are 1'500 and 2'280 rpm. In PWM mode, the fan speeds are lower, causing the noise level to drop to a more reasonable 35 dBA under load conditions. Unfortunately the pump is not inaudible. There is a high frequent noise, that's well audible. | - Noise levels 7V - Noise levels 12V - High frequent pump noise | ||
| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| The suggested retail price of the Deepcool Maelstrom 120 is 74.99 USD. In our opinion, the price reflects the quality of the product and our results obtained. The build quality is on a good level as well as the bundle. We are always very specific in terms of noise and, in our opinion, is too high in some scenarios and especially the pump should be inaudible. Deepcools will start selling the Maelstrom 120 in August. | - Gaming PC | - Silent System | |
| Rating | |||
| We gave the MaelStrom 120 from Deepcool 4 out of 5 stars. | |||
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
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