DeepCool Assassin IV and AK620 Digital CPU Cooler Review

Conclusion – An impressive showing from DeepCool, but we expect more polish with future products

A lot our commenters have been asking us to review some of DeepCool’s latest products, and to start things off we are looking at the company’s new AK620 Digital and Assassin IV heatsink designs, both of which target the higher end of the CPU air cooler market. 

The DeepCool AK620 Digital is the same as their existing AK620 CPU coolers, but with some added flash that comes in the form of RGB lighting and a user controllable screen. This screen can showcase CPU usage, CPU thermals, and other useful information, but it cannot showcase images of videos like some premium CPU liquid coolers can. That said, for £75 this heatsink costs a faction of what most LCD-clad liquid coolers cost. 

With the addition of RGB lighting and a display, the AK620 Digital does cost more than DeepCool’s standard Ak620 models, and that extra cost does not deliver any improvements to cooling performance. That said, if don’t want the extra flash of RGB and a screen, you can just buy one of the more baseline AK620 models. 

The Assassin IV is the more premium of the CPU coolers that we have tested today, being available on Amazon UK for £89.99. For this cost, the Assassin IV is a lot cheaper than pretty much all 360mm CPU liquid coolers on the market, and this heatsink gives then a run for their money. This is the best performing CPU air cooler that we have tested, and that alone has secured DeepCool the accolade of being one of the today’s best heatsink manufacturers. 

The only things the don’t like about DeepCool’s AK620 Digital and Assassin IV is how these product handle their cables. For the AK620 Digital, we found that the cooler’s USB cable (for the device’s screen) was too short to be routed effectively in a large PC case, and for the Assassin VI, we found it difficult to route this unit’s cables in a tidy way without a lot of effort. We feel that a little bit of added polish in the cable routing department would serve DeepCool’s future products well, and would help turn DeepCool into a properly premium brand.

Thermally, both the AK620 Digital and Assassin IV deliver solid results on our heatsink test rig, with the Assassin IV being the best performing heatsink that we have ever tested. The AK620 does not deliver the same incredible levels of performance, but that should be expected given this heatsinks lower pricing, and its focus on aesthetics rather than raw performance. One has to wonder if DeepCool has plans for a Assassin IV Digital, a heatsink that could bring together the best aspects of both of these CPU coolers.  

DeepCool AK620 Digital

The AK620 Digital is a product that sits in a strange part of DeepCool’s CPU cooler lineup. Other models of the AK620 exist, and that this new “Digital” model does to differentiate itself it add RGB lighting into the mix alongside a display that can showcase CPU thermals and other useful information. If you don’t want these add-ons, you should either spend more and upgrade to an Assassin IV, or simply purchase one of DeepCool’s other, ore affordable, AK620 models.

Performance-wise, the AK620 Digital delivers strong results, surpassing Noctua’s ageing NH-D15, a heatsink that remains popular despite its near decade long lifespan. That’s not a bad result for a £75 heatsink, and this product’s “Digital” Editions do a lot to make this cooler look more premium than it is, if you are able to manage this cooler’s cables effectively.

There are a few issues that annoy us about the AK620 Digital, as we feel that the USB cable for this heatsink’s screen is too small for larger cases, and we feel that the usability of this product’s screen is very limited. That said, if you can work with these limitations, the AK620 remains a solid heatsink design, and this heatsink can look great within most modern PCs. With both of these coolers, a little extra polish would go a long way.

DeepCool Assassin IV

DeepCool’s Assassin IV is a fantastic heatsink, even the quickest of glances at our heatsink performance charts will prove that. Even at this heatsink’s highest fan RPMs, the cooler remains fairly quiet, and the only cooling solutions that were able to surpass it on our test rig were 360mm liquid coolers, none of which were able to best the Assassin IV by more than three degrees. That’s an incredible result for an air-based CPU cooler. 

For that reason alone, DeepCool’s Assassin IV CPU cooler is more than deserving of the OC3D’s Performance Award, as we have not tested a better CPU air cooler at the time of writing. This is the new benchmark of what an air cooler can achieve, and we look forward to seeing what’s coming next from DeepCool’s heatsink division. 

You can join the discussion on our DeepCool Assassin IV and AK620 Digital CPU cooler Review on the OC3D Forums. 

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