DeepCool Assassin-IV Now Released and Reviewed!!!

[freeagent]

3 hours ago, RevGAM said:

o the reviewers that have claimed that it's the champ are being disingenuous

Yup. They don't know what they are talking about.

[RevGAM]

4 minutes ago, freeagent said:

Yup. They don't know what they are talking about.

Or they are shilling. 

[WallacEngineering]

12 hours ago, freeagent said:

It is the same reason why people who went from some air cooler in a case with crap airflow then moving to an AIO that is getting all of the fresh air, and then saying that air cooling sucks lol.

 

Airflow is everything when hunting c's.

 

Lol so true, it just seems to be especially important with this particular cooler.

 

For example - One tester found that while loading CPU and GPU simultaneously in a case with no intake fans installed, the Assassin-IV actually loses in performance to the Noctua D-15 in the same scenario.

 

However, equip a case fan aimed at the CPU cooler, and suddenly the Assassin-IV beats the Noctua D-15, even though the D-15 is in the same situation. This is because of the pull-pull design of the Assassin-IV.

 

With no intake fans installed, the coolers themselves were forced to suck in their own air. Because a traditional Twin-Tower Cooler like the D-15 has a front fan that is able to reach out further and collect air from further forward, it was able to stay cooler than the Assassin-IV in this particular situation.

 

This is because the Assassin-IV was just sucking in hot, used air from the GPU and couldn't reach any cool air. The difference between the two scenarios is quite a lot. The Assassin-IV was a full 1°C hotter than the D-15 with no intake fan, but 2°C cooler with intake fans.

 

Its just something you have to take into account. Its not like the CPU overheated either way but if you want this cooler to perform as advertised or as reviews have shown, then you need a build suited to the cooler.

[WallacEngineering]

13 hours ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

 

 

Ooooo, ominous glow...

 

12 hours ago, DubbySmurf said:

Thoughts about the Assassin IV in a Fractal North mesh? I love its blockiness and want to avoid AIO. 
 

2 140mm top intake, 3 120mm front intake, 120 rear exhaust. Might do the top as exhaust too and if I can fit it all, two side intake as well. 
 

cooling a 7950x

 

You should probably take a look at the UFD Tech review as he specifically cooled a 7950X to test the Assassin-IV

 

The good news is you have an insane amount of intake air. You are going to get the absolute best possible performance out of it.

 

 

[GuiltySpark_]

1 minute ago, WallacEngineering said:

 

Yo, you installed it backwards. Fan goes towards the rear of the MotherBoard. The back of the cooler is supposed to be overhanging the I/O shield. There should no fan visible from the RAM side.

That's an AK620, its certainly installed correctly. 

[WallacEngineering]

Just now, GuiltySpark_ said:

That's an AK620, its certainly installed correctly. 

 

Oh it looks so much like the Assassin-IV because of the fin stack lol I thought you had gotten it installed.

[GuiltySpark_]

5 minutes ago, WallacEngineering said:

 

Oh it looks so much like the Assassin-IV because of the fin stack lol I thought you had gotten it installed.

Yeah its still just sitting on my desk for now. Big, heavy system and after getting home after work I never quite feel like tearing into it. Saturday!

[DubbySmurf]

5 hours ago, filpo said:

Is this for productivity or gaming? The Assassin IV should do pretty well and look good in a Fractal North Blackout build. Btw I'd keep the top two as intake

Little of both but mostly gaming. 5120x1440p 240Hz 49” monitor. Productivity is mainly light video editing for my church

[filpo]

1 minute ago, DubbySmurf said:

Little of both but mostly gaming. 5120x1440p 240Hz 49” monitor. Productivity is mainly light video editing for my church

ye it should be good

[DubbySmurf]

1 hour ago, WallacEngineering said:

 

Ooooo, ominous glow...

 

 

You should probably take a look at the UFD Tech review as he specifically cooled a 7950X to test the Assassin-IV

 

The good news is you have an insane amount of intake air. You are going to get the absolute best possible performance out of it.

 

 

Thanks. I missed this review or just had it on in the background and probably wasn’t paying attention

 

[DubbySmurf]

Just now, filpo said:

ye it should be good

Sweet. Ordered. 

[filpo]

1 minute ago, DubbySmurf said:

Sweet. Ordered. 

What case are you working in again? An aio might be better. But you'll still get decent temps with the Assassin IV. its the cooler that UFD tech used on the 7950x 

 

[DubbySmurf]

28 minutes ago, filpo said:

What case are you working in again? An aio might be better. But you'll still get decent temps with the Assassin IV. its the cooler that UFD tech used on the 7950x 

 

Fractal North mesh version

[filpo]

Just now, DubbySmurf said:

Fractal North mesh version

Since it can house a 280 rad up top I would also consider the arctic liquid freezer ii 280 which will probs perform on par with the assassin IV. Do you like the big, blocky look of the Assassin IV?

[DubbySmurf]

1 minute ago, filpo said:

Since it can house a 280 rad up top I would also consider the arctic liquid freezer ii 280 which will probs perform on par with the assassin IV. Do you like the big, blocky look of the Assassin IV?

Yeah I like the look of the Assassin IV and the simplicity of air cooling over AIO. My other choices though were the Arctic 280mm up top or even the 360mm on the front. Just wasn’t sure which would be quietest and most performant. 

[filpo]

1 minute ago, DubbySmurf said:

Yeah I like the look of the Assassin IV and the simplicity of air cooling over AIO. My other choices though were the Arctic 280mm up top or even the 360mm on the front. Just wasn’t sure which would be quietest and most performant. 

They should all perform around the same. I'd keep the assassin IV if you like the look of it

[WallacEngineering]

*The first few seconds of the Halo Theme Song Plays*

 

It has arrived...

 

 

Im going to do some testing to see how it stacks up to my current cooler. Luckily since I just upgraded from AM4 to AM5, my current cooler has gotten a cleaning and re-pasting less than 60 days ago, so everything is fresh.

 

I will be doing testing with all fans set to full speed, and then set to silent mode, to see how the Assassin-IV stacks up in both scenarios. The case is the Lian Li LanCool 216 so there is more than enough airflow for proper performance out of both coolers.

 

My current cooler is this Chromax Black Edition Noctua D-15-S, with the front fan being removed for RAM clearance reasons.

 

The PC is a Ryzen 7 7800X-3D paired with a Radeon RX 7900-XTX and 32GB of DDR5 6000MHz CL30 RAM.

 

[WallacEngineering]

D-15-S Testing Complete. How Im doing silent mode is fairly simple. To keep things fair, instead of using a silent adapter cable from Noctua or the Silent switch on the Assassin-IV, I will simply use BIOS.

 

I have set up a very conservative silent fan curve for all system fans that ramps up from 0% PWM at 40C to 50% PWM at 80C. The CPU fan curve is nearly identical, but each step is 10% PWM higher, maxing out at 60% PWM. This is how I typically run a quiet system - you want the CPU fan a bit higher than case fans to ensure that the available air gets through the cooler, and since the cooler is buried in the center of the system, its much harder to hear than case fans anyways.

 

Im using CineBench with the 10 Minute looping test. Note that the Ryzen 7800X-3D has a mild, daily-safe OC running. This involves EXPO-1 as well as an All-Core Voltage Curve optimizer that allows for much higher all-core boost frequencies. Both coolers are using Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut Paste.

 

Noctua D-15-S Results

 

With the silent curve enabled in BIOS, the CPU Maxed out at 84.1C. What I observed during the tests is that the temp typically bounces between 82.4C and 83.3C most of the time.

 

 

With all fans pinned to 100%, the CPU maxed out at 81.0C. What I observed during the tests is that the temp typically bounces between 79.3C and 79.9C most of the time.

 

 

Now its time to power down the system and install the Assassin-IV. I will update this post with results when testing is done.

 

Assassin-IV now installed, finishing cleanup before testing. As you can see, there is plenty of clearance for my RAM slots, and enough space to keep your case exhaust fan.

 

 

 

DeepCool Assassin-IV Results:

 

@RevGAM

@GuiltySpark_ Testing is done and wow, I actually dont quite believe how much better the Assassin-IV is than a Noctua D-15-S. Now, you will notice something odd, the Silent Results show exactly the same absolute maximum temperature as the Full Speed results. I thought it was weird too so I went and checked while CineBench was running - sure enough the CPU fans were reporting ~1250 RPM during the silent test and ~1720 RPM during the full speed test. What I did notice is that the Average temperature during observation was different. The silent test was typically showing me 77.2C to 78.0C while the Full Speed Test was showing me 76.0C to 77.0C most of the time. Also during the max speed run, the max was 77.6C for quite some time and only hit the 78.6C absolute max for an instant, and then I never saw the temp touch 78C again.

 

But what this means is that my Assassin-IV is performing a full 4.0-4.5 degrees Celsius cooler on average than the Noctua D-15-S. Its actually enough of a difference that my average CineBench Score run-to-run variance has actually improved by a tangible amount, although very small. Perhaps the reason for the mediocre showings in some reviews has more than just fan layout differences. DeepCool isn't known for their thermal paste, and I ran Kryonaunt on both coolers to remain consistent. If reviewers are using the included DeepCool paste, it could have something to do with their results.

 

The most impressive thing by far is the efficiency of silent mode. As long as your case fans are moving a decent amount of air, the difference between 1250 RPM and 1720 RPM is barely a single degree Celsius. And remember, all fans in my system were changed between silent and full speed, not just the CPU fans. Anyways, here are the results for yourselves:

 

Assassin-IV with Silent System Fans and silent CPU fans

 

Assassin-IV with all fans at maximum speed including CPU fans

 

[RevGAM]

@WallacEngineeringTry putting the front fan back on the Noctua, offset to avoid the RAM, and see what happens. I realize that the D15S isn't identical to the D15, but adding a fan will make it similar enough so that we can see fairly well how the A4 does versus the D15.

 

You could also try prime95...

[WallacEngineering]

4 hours ago, RevGAM said:

@WallacEngineeringTry putting the front fan back on the Noctua, offset to avoid the RAM, and see what happens. I realize that the D15S isn't identical to the D15, but adding a fan will make it similar enough so that we can see fairly well how the A4 does versus the D15.

 

You could also try prime95...

 

I would but I actually got rid of the front fan a long time ago. With the offset caused by the RAM, the TG side panel would not go on on the original case I used the cooler in, so I figured I would never use the second fan - and I didnt.

 

Im sure the second fan even offset really helps, but I doubt it would make up that much of a gap anyways. The Assassin-IV just seems to be a better design in general, but of course the D-15 Version 2.0 is coming next year.

[TeraSeraph]

How are the noise levels? The Hardware Canucks Video had a bunch of resonance hum at higher RPM. 

[WallacEngineering]

32 minutes ago, TeraSeraph said:

How are the noise levels? The Hardware Canucks Video had a bunch of resonance hum at higher RPM. 

To me, its a bit quieter than the D-15-S but not by much, probably because the D-15-S is a single fan at a lower RPM, and my particular D-15-S has been installed in 3 different systems over the course of 6 or 7 years.

 

Hardware Canucks got a bad sample as far as noise goes. I find mine to be very acceptable - especially for 1700 RPM.

 

According to other reviews, the noise levels are just slightly higher than a D-15 at full speed - which makes sense with the extra 200 RPM on the fans. But with the coolers in silent mode, the Assassin-IV is slightly quieter, probably because the intake fan is surrounded by heatsinks so it is muffled until high RPM noise breaks through the muffling.

[GuiltySpark_]

She's in. As I kind of expected, like my AK620, I can't hear a whole lot at all. My fan "curve" is flat 40% PWM unless we're at the temp limit I have set of 85c, at which point it bumps to 60% PWM. I have all the fans in the case linked to one fan hub so exactly what RPM for the CPU fans specifically, I don't know (as we know, hubs only report one RPM to the header). KISS method, and it works great.

 

7900x w/ PBO and curve optimizer undervolted and even with the 85c limit, its faster than stock. 

 

So, mission accomplished, it looks cool. (Except that blue LED.. may still do something about that.)

 

[WallacEngineering]

I have updated my PC Build thread with additional testing and pictures now that the Assassin-IV is installed.

 

You can find the thread at this link or in my signature:

Im personally very happy with the Assassin-IV. I hope it lasts many years.

 

 

[TeraSeraph]

20 hours ago, WallacEngineering said:

Hardware Canucks got a bad sample as far as noise goes. I find mine to be very acceptable - especially for 1700 RPM.

They got two samples, one was bad but they sent another that was better. I didn't really like the quality of the sound from either but I am also very sensitive to the sound of blade harmonics.

20 hours ago, WallacEngineering said:

According to other reviews, the noise levels are just slightly higher than a D-15 at full speed - which makes sense with the extra 200 RPM on the fans. But with the coolers in silent mode, the Assassin-IV is slightly quieter, probably because the intake fan is surrounded by heatsinks so it is muffled until high RPM noise breaks through the muffling.

Having the intake fan inside the fins increases the impedance seen by the fan, which should lower the air velocity and thus lower the Reynolds number. This promotes less blade noise as the flow is more laminar over the blades, when it starts to turn turbulent is when harmonics and noise start to creep up. 

and I agree, it probably also helps to have extra mass and more shrouding than the D15, there's a lot of damping and diffusion from that alone.