Review: Deepcool Gamma Blade

Before I even took the Deepcool Gamma Blade CPU cooler out of its box (well, actually it comes in a nifty little round tin) I knew it was going to struggle to cool my quad core Intel Core i7 processor. A $30, aluminium-only cooler simply doesn’t exude cooling confidence.

It claims to be up to the task however, citing support for 95W Core i7 CPUs on its packaging. Socket support is listed as Intel LGA1155/1156/775 and from AMD socket FM1 all the way back to 754.

So in it went – quite easily I might add. The LGA1155 mounting bracket just needed to be lined up with the holes around the CPU socket and push-pins inserted to hold it in place. The heatsink fan itself then gets clamped to the bracket via a tension bar with a hook on each side, similar to how stock AMD heatsinks work.

Firing up Prime95 I was shocked to see the temperature rise to 90 degrees – just 10 degrees short of thermal shutdown. Suspecting poor seating I removed the cooler, reapplied my thermal paste and locked it down again, but to no improvement.

The Gamma Blade didn’t even perform as well as the standard Intel cooler which comes free with most Core-range processors, nor was it any quieter. To add insult to injury the packaging claims “High Performance”.

A quick peek on Deepcool’s website revealed that the Gamma Blade has gone “End of Life”. A wise decision on their behalf – it really is rubbish.

Cooler	Temp (Idle, Low fan speed)	Temp (Load, High fan speed)	Temp (Load, Low fan speed)	RRP incl GST
DeepCool Gamma Blade	25	83	90	$29
Intel standard LGA1155 HSF	24	73	78	n/a
Intel XTS100H tower cooler	24	66	70	n/a
Prolimatech Megahalems	23	55	57	$99

Temperatures in Degrees Centigrade, Lower = Better
Test CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz
Ambient temperature: 17°C