DEEPCOOL Gamer Storm Maelstrom 120K CPU Cooler Review

[section_title title=”Conclusion”]Conclusion

Just right into the performance of the Maelstrom 120K let’s take a recap of our thermal results. While the Maelstrom 120K was not the worse cooler we have seen here at Play3r it was far from the best and was actually the worse AIO cooler we have tested. However, the results are still in the positive and it is hard to compare it directly to coolers that are of course a bit more expensive. The Maelstrom 120K has one of the thinner radiators out there for AIO coolers currently out there on the market which can be a bonus for some. Everything is getting smaller and smaller these days and DEEPCOOL have done a decent job a realizing this and trying to come forth with an offering that should be able to be used in most situations. 120mm fans are also more the norm now so there really should not be to many, if any cases that come out that the Gamer Storm Maelstrom 120K cannot fit into. The Maelstrom 120K was able to contain the beast that is the 4770K when overclocked to 4.5GHz with ease and did beat out a fair few air coolers in doing so.

In terms of acoustics it surely wasn’t the worse. Though if I am honest, the pump is the issue in this case. The pump has one of those noises that is hard to not notice, while it’s not a whine it can still be highly irritating at times. Also the the noise from the pump likes to fluctuate a bit depending on what you are doing, you can definitely hear when it kicks it up a notch or two. The fan on the other hand is outstanding and near silent when idling. When turning the settings to DC and letting it run at full blast it is definitely audible but not so much as to really bother you, even with the fan at full blast it was still the pump I could hear in the background.

Touching on the design and I for one like it. While there is not a whole lot you can do for design when manufacturing an AIO cooler, the inclusion of an all black fan went over very well with me. The only things I could have done without are the ribbed tubing (I would have much preferred it to be a straight shot type of thing) and the other is there is no way to control the LED illumination on the pump/block. While the breathing effect is quite nice, there are times where I wish I could have just turned it off, or even had it constantly on for that matter.

When it comes to the price it is right where I would imagine it to be. While we can’t take the price in dollars and covert it directly to pounds sterling if we did it would be around £40. I think that would be a decent price for the Maelstrom 120K and hope that it is not far off from that. For that price you would get an entry offering into the world of AIO liquid CPU coolers. The Maelstrom’s radiator/fan are also thin enough that they don’t take up much room at all which I think is another good selling point for the cooler.

At the end of the day the Maelstrom 120K is far from the best but at the same time far from the worse when it comes to coolers in general. It can handle the load of a 4770k when overclocked and its compact size is sure to come in handy for some. It will be interesting to see the official price here in the UK if/when it goes on sale here. If you are looking for a compact AIO liquid CPU cooler than the Maelstrom may be worth a look, especially if you can find one on sale.

I would like to thank DEEPCOOL for sending the Gamer Storm Maelstrom 120K in for review and look forward to seeing more from them in the near future.