Edited 3/18 : Added two photos and made minor edits to clarify wording of a few sentences

Pros:

• Budget price of $39.99
• Full RAM clearance and compatibility
• Handles 253W (avg) loads with Intel’s i9-13900K
• Quiet Operation

Cons:

• None!

About DeepCool

DeepCool was founded in 1996 in Beijing, China and is a favorite of many enthusiasts. They are well known for their air and water coolers and computer cases. They also offer fans, power supplies, and peripherals such as keyboards and mice. One thing I like about DeepCool is not only are they constantly striving to innovate to create products with higher cooling capacity – but they also push the performance/$ bar, providing products that don’t break the bank.

Foreword

In the past I’ve mentioned how my past testing of coolers had focused on Intel CPUs because they were the most challenging to cool and also consumed the most power. When Alder Lake was released, I noticed that the thermal difficulty of cooling the 12900K was more difficult compared to prior generation products – only a few coolers were able to keep it under TJMax.

Intel’s i9-13900K and AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X CPUs can be even more difficult to cool in heat intensive workloads – and this trend is likely to continue with future generations of CPUs. As CPUs continue to shrink in size, thermal density rises, increasing the difficulty of cooling. Indeed, it is no longer worrying to run a desktop CPU at it’s peak temperature – it is to be expected in intense workloads (for example: rendering) without power restrictions or undervolting.

Introducing DeepCool’s GAMMAXX AG500 Air Cooler

Packaging and Included Contents

The AG500 arrives in a box that looks like any other from the outside. The inner contents are packaged with molded foam for the protection of the individual parts.

Included in the package are

• AG500 Heatsink
• Single use packet of thermal paste
• 1x 120mm fan
• Mounting for AMD AM4 & AM5 platforms
• Mounting for Intel LGA 115x, 1200, and 1700
• User Manual

Cooler Installation

The included mounting brackets support modern Intel and AMD platforms, and advertises a “simple five-step installation process” to setup DeepCool’s GAMMAXX AG500. The steps below detail instruction on an AMD Ryzen system, but the only real difference with an Intel system is the use of DeepCool’s LGA1700 backplate.

Step One: Remove the default AM5 retention socket

Step Two : Attach mounting standoffs

Step Three: secure the mounting bracket

Step Four: Secure the cooler to the mounting bracket

Step Five: Attach the fan and plug it in

Features of DeepCool’s GAMMAXX AG500

RAM Clearance	All heights supported
Coldplate	Direct Touch Copper Heatpipes & Nickel
Thermal Compound	Single use packet included
Radiator Dimensions	120×93×150 mm
Radiator Material	Aluminum
Compatible Socket	Intel LGA 115x, 1200, and 20xx (LGA 1700 adapter available) AMD AM4 and AM5
Manufacturer Warranty	2 Years

Full RAM Clearance

The AG500 was designed in a way to prevent the fan from overhanging RAM – ensuring compatibility no matter how tall your RAM is!

CPU plate with direct contact copper heat pipes

To ensure maximum efficiency in heat transfer, the copper heat pipes of the AG500 make direct contact with the CPU.

Matrix Fins Array

The fins of the AG500 are made of high-quality aluminum, densely stacked for increased total heat dissipation. The “checkerboard” design helps improve total static pressure.

1x DeepCool 120mm fan

There’s more to a cooler than just it’s heat sink, the fans paired with a cooler have a direct impact on cooling capacity and acoustic performance – included with the AG500 is a 120mm ARGB PWM fan tuned for lower noise levels.

DeepCool advertises the following with this fan:

“Get the best of both worlds with a fine-tuned 120mm ARGB PWM fan designed for optimal balance in top performance under load to silent efficiency when idle. Highly effective with strong static pressure for rapid heat transfer throughout the heat sink.“

Model	Unlisted
Size	120 x 120 x 25 mm
Speed	300~1850 RPM±10%
Blades	9
Airflow	67.88 CFM
Static Pressure	2.04 mmAq
Noise Level	Up to 29.4 dB(A)
Bearing	Hydro Bearing
Connector	4-pin PWM

Test Platform Configuration

System Configurations Tested

AMD Ryzen 7000 Raphael Platform:

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Motherboard	ASRock B650E Taichi (sampled by ASRock)
Computer Case	DeepCool CK560WH (sampled by DeepCool)
Storage	1TB Kingston Fury Renegade
GPU	Intel ARC A770 LE (sampled by Intel)
RAM	32GB (16gb x2) Crucial DDR5-4800 (Sampled by Micron)
Coolers Tested	(Click the links for previous reviews) DeepCool AG500 DeepCool LT720 WH BeQuiet! Pure Rock LP EKWB EK AIO Elite 280 D-RGB Iceberg Thermal IceSLEET G4 Silent Fractal Celsius+ S28

Intel 13th Generation Raptor Lake Platform

CPU	Intel i9-13900K (sampled by Intel)
Motherboard	ASUS TUF GAMING Z690 PLUS WIFI D5
Computer Case	Cooler Master HAF 700 Berserker, system fans set to 35% (sampled by Cooler Master)
Storage	1TB Micron P3 Plus, 1TB Micron P3
GPU	Intel ARC A770 LE
RAM	32GB (16gb x2) Kingston Fury DDR5-6000
Coolers Tested (See Tom’s Hardware for more comparison data)	(Click the links for previous reviews) BeQuiet! Pure Loop 2 FX CoolerMaster PL360 Flux DeepCool AG500 DeepCool LT520 Enermax AquaFusion ADV Icebert Thermal IceSLEET G4 Silent Thermalright Frozen Notte 360

Intel i9-13900K acoustic and thermal results

If you’re looking for noise normalized results to see how coolers compare when set for silent operation, you’ll want to fast forward to the Ryzen 7700X results at the last half of this review. For testing with Intel’s i9-13900K, these results will show performance and acoustic results when tied to the default fan curve of my motherboard.

No Power Limits

We’ll start by first looking at performance with no power limits enforced whatsoever. There are “only” nine comparison coolers shown here.

Below, I’ve included some of the testing results I have submitted to Tom’s Hardware to give a better idea on how the AG500 compares to other coolers. These results are directly comparable because they were performed using the same system, by the same person (me!).

I’m only including the maximum watts cooled results from Tom’s Hardware in this article. If you’d like to see the rest of the comparison results with the coolers listed below, please check out my reviews there!

The overall cooling capacity results here aren’t bad for DeepCool’s AG500. At 253W sustained in long term loads, these results place it’s performance right in the middle of entry level and high end air coolers.

Looking at the acoustic performance in this scenario, DeepCool’s AG500 runs a lot quieter than most other coolers I’ve tested. Those who prefer quiet operation will enjoy this cooler’s low acoustic output.

Some of you may wonder why my acoustic graphs start at 36dBA. That is because my noise meter cannot reliably measure lower than 36dBA. Some of you might have concerns that starting at 36 may distort how each cooler’s noise levels compare with each other – but honestly if anything it’s the opposite, these charts will minimize the differences between perceived noise levels.

Because dBA measurements are logarithmic, the perceived total volume doubles every couple of dBA depending on the sensitivity of your ears. BeQuiet! made a video explaining this relationship better than anything I could ever put into words, it’s embedded below.

200W Thermal & Acoustic Results

Most loads that common users run won’t use more than 200W, so this is a better analogue for a worst case scenario of what folks might actually see in day to day usage. At 56C, the results here aren’t bad – running 4C cooler than IceBerg Thermal’s G4 Silent cooler and 3-6C warmer than high end liquid coolers. The noise levels here are good too, at 42.4 dBA it runs nice and quietly.

All results shown on Boring Text Reviews are tested in an environment at 23C ambient temperature.

Check out my articles at Tom’s Hardware for more comparison results.

125W Thermal & Acoustic Results

When restricted to 125W, thermal performance really isn’t a concern – though I’ve included that information in the graph below. Really, any cooler should be able to handle this load – even Intel’s stock cooler! Acoustic performance is much more important here, and DeepCool’s AG500 ties here for the quietest result I’ve recorded in this scenario – however, even with system fans restricted to 35% the system fans of my HAF 700 Berserker case makes 40.9 dBA the noise floor for testing.

Let’s move on to the Ryzen 7700X tests, which are performed in a quieter DeepCool CK560WH case, to see how quiet this cooler can get!

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X results

As I’ve only had time to complete testing of six coolers on AMD’s AM5 platform, the data I have is currently limited. This will grow as I continue to test coolers.

For thermal results, I’ve tested the CPU in three configurations:

• At the default power limits
• With a 95W PPT enforced
• With a 75W PPT enforced.

Noise Normalized Results

Performance only scales by a limited amount with improved cooling capacity with Ryzen 7000. This also means that there is less of a benefit to running fans at higher performance levels. As such, it can be useful to see how coolers compared when noise normalized for quiet, silent operation.

I was extremely surprised to see the AG500 doing as well as it did here, in fact I ran this test multiple times to make sure there was no human or system errors. I also retested EKWB’s cooler to verify the results of my earlier tests. The results were repeated virtually identically with both DeepCool AG500 and EKWB’s AIO Elite – so I know I didn’t fuck this up 🙂

DeepCool’s AG500 cooled ~11-18W less than the comparison high end liquid coolers tested here. Not bad for a budget air cooler!

Default Power Limits

At the default PPT of 105W, the most intensive loads can be difficult to cool and result in the CPU running at TJMax with anything less than the strongest coolers. DeepCool’s LT720 and EKWB’s EK Elite coolers are the only two I’ve tested (yet) which can handle that much heat. As such, we’ll be looking at two metrics in this situation where coolers run with the CPU reaching TJMax (95c): Noise levels and watts cooled.

Handling an average of 124W during the course of testing, DeepCool’s AG500 pulls ahead of IceBerg Thermal’s cooler by seven watts. It achieves this performance advantage at the cost of a slightly higher noise level, running less than a decibel louder compared to the IceSLEET G4 Silent.

95W PPT

Imposing even a minor power consumption limit on AMD’s Ryzen 7700X reduces cooling difficulty dramatically resulting in the ability to easily to cool the CPU under TJMax (95c), as such in these situations the total noise levels are more important. It’s also important to test in these TDP restricted situations, because most “real life” workloads will not push the CPU to it’s limits.

The results in this scenario are much like those in the full power test. DeepCool’s AG500 provides better cooling capacity than IceBerg Thermal’s G4 Silent, running 4C cooler – but it runs slightly louder to achieve those results.

75W PPT

Lowering the PPT to 75W further reduces the cooling difficulty, bringing CPU temperatures down to 43C over a 23C ambient temperature. DeepCool achieves the same silent noise levels as the competing IceBerg Thermal cooler in this test, but runs an impressive six degrees cooler.

Conclusion

DeepCool’s AG500 performed well in my testing, especially when noise normalized for silent operation using Ryzen 7700X. Even when paired with Intel’s i9-13900K it was capable of handling over 250W in long term sustained loads. At only $39.99, it won’t break the bank and provides great performance/$.

If you’re looking for a good performing air cooler that isn’t noisy, you won’t go wrong with DeepCool’s GAMMAXX AG500 BK ARGB.