Gamerstorm Lucifer CPU Cooler Review

Today we are taking a look at the Gamer Storm Lucifer CPU cooler. With six 6 mm heat pipes, a mirror finish copper base and a fanless design the Lucifer promises to "devour the heat". The big question is, can this cooler hold its own against cooling giants such as the Noctua DH-14 and Phanteks PH-TC14PE? You would be forgiven for not having heard of Gamer Storm before as Deepcool only launched the brand recently. Although the current line-up is limited, Gamer Storm aims to be a household name amongst the enthusiast crowd. Currently there are three products available under the Gamer Storm banner: the Dracula GPU cooler which also comes in a 7970 edition, the Assassin dual-tower CPU cooler and the Lucifer CPU cooler which we are testing today. Specifications: Dimensions with fan: 140X136X168mm. Dimensions without fan: 140X110X163mm. Net weight with fan: 1079g. Heat pipes: 6 x 6 mm. Fan size: 140X26mm. Fan speed: 700±200~1400±10%RPM. Intel sockets supported: LGA2011/LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA1150/LGA775. AMD Sockets supported: FM2/FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2. The Gamer Storm Lucifer ships in a box with a black shell with only the Gamer Storm logo visible. Removing the shell gives us a better idea of what we are about to unbox. A list of specifications is visible on top. A better look at the list of specifications before we move on. Folding the box open brings us one step closer to its contents. Inside we can see the cooler is wedged in between two smaller boxes that contain the included PWM fan and other accessories. Included in the box are a large backplate, mounting accessories for all supported platforms, the Lucifer cooler, a PWM fan, some thermal paste and a manual. The tube of thermal paste has been branded with the Gamer Storm logo. The included PWM fan is lined with rubber to reduce fan vibrations and its cable is entirely braided. A shot of the cooler with the fan clipped on to the curved side of the cooler shows the cooler's unusual design on every side. Turning down the lights slightly gives us a better view of the cooler's markings and Gamer Storm logo on top. This view also gives us a better look at the cooler's design. A clear cut-out in the centre, as well as one on each side of the cooler gives it a streamlined appearance. Meanwhile, the back of the cooler has two smaller cut-outs, giving it a look that is reminiscent of horns. We can see there are 36 fins and our review sample arrived with all fins intact. A closer look at the side of the cooler reveals the cut-outs for the fan clips. Gamer Storm have chosen to use an asymmetrical design for the cooler's heat pipes, claiming better RAM clearance. Deepcool promises a mirror finish base and certainly delivers on that promise. Finally, a shot of the fan clips and how they clip in. We are documenting the installation of the Gamer Storm Lucifer cooler on an Asus P8Z77-V LX2 socket LGA 1155 motherboard. We start off by installing the supplied backplate. As can be seen in the first photo, Gamer Storm provide four rubber caps that slide over the mounting pins, keeping the pins firmly in place. Flipping the motherboard over we then proceed to install the plastic spacers, inwards facing mounting brackets and thumb screws. Using the "pea drop" method we apply the included thermal paste and proceed to mount the cooler. Whilst securing the cooler we noticed that our screwdriver could not reach the screw in an upright position. Instead, we had to carefully angle the screwdriver to avoid bending the cooler's fins. It is worth noting that this is not an issue on sockets with more space between the brackets. Shots of the completed installation show how large the cooler is in relation to an ATX motherboard. Rounding things out, we can see there is enough clearance to use every memory bank. Users who have memory with very large heat spreaders, such as G.Skill TridentX and Corsair Vengeance, will want to consider turning the cooler 90 degrees. We are using an Intel Core i7 3770k running at stock speeds and overclocked to 4.6GHz with voltage set at 1.3v. Test System: Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Memory: 16GB G.Skill Ares Blue Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 7790 2GB GDDR5 OC Power Supply: OCZ ZT Series 550W Chassis: Aerocool Strike-X Xtreme Black Edition Monitor: Acer X243HQ Boot Drive: Intel SSD 510 Storage Drive: 2TB Seagate Barracuda Software: CPUID HW Monitor 1.23 CPUID CPU-Z 1.65 Prime95 v27.1 We are testing the Gamer Storm Lucifer's performance as follows: Ambient temperatures are kept at 22° throughout our tests. The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control. Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes. Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95′s Small FTTs test for 15 minutes. To measure noise levels we disable the case fans and manually disconnect the GPU fan. We remove the CPU fan to test passive cooling performance with our Core i7 3770k running at stock speeds. CPU-Z Validation is available here. The Lucifer's increased surface area, relative to the Phanteks cooler gives it an advantage when we leave the system at reference settings. However, once we load the system with Prime95 it becomes clear that the second fan on the Phanteks cooler gives it a slight edge. Because we are testing the cooler's 'out-of-the-box' performance, we did not attach a second fan. However, we are confident the Lucifer can reach the same levels of performance under load as the Phanteks cooler in a push-pull configuration. Regardless of whether passive or active cooling is used, the Lucifer delivers consistently impressive results. To measure noise levels we place our sound level meter approximately 1 meter away from the chassis and 4 feet off the ground. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet take off/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Under PWM control the fan is virtually inaudible, staying under the lower limits of our decibel meter. Running the fan at full speed produced 35 dBa, an excellent result. We are thoroughly impressed with the Gamer Storm Lucifer and the attention to detail shown by Deepcool. Entering into such a competitive market is no easy task but the Lucifer is certainly a product to garner attention. The large surface area of the fins and mirror shine finish on the base of the cooler contribute to the Lucifer's excellent cooling performance. Additionally, the rubber coated fan rotates without emitting a lot of noise. In our opinion, the Lucifer's passive cooling performance is what sets it apart. As media centers continue to rise in popularity the Lucifer opens up possibilities for gamers to create small form factor systems that can handle tasks beyond watching movies and browsing the internet. The backplate and overall mounting kit deserve a special mention as well, as it is no easy feat to securely mount a cooler weighing in at over 1 kg. Although the manual provides clear instructions, we do have our doubts about the fan clips. As it is, there is no method of securing the clips to the fan mounting holes, making the process rather finicky. We would have preferred a method that prevents the clips from slipping out of the mounting holes during installation. The unique design of the cooler makes it instantly recognizable amongst a sea of near identical tower coolers. As always, the design aspects are mostly subjective and some users may prefer a more traditional look. The Gamer Storm Lucifer is rumored to go on sale for around $60. Taking into account the addition of possible fees we expect the Lucifer to hit UK shelves around £55 inc vat., though there is no mention of pricing yet on its official website. If the rumored pricing is correct it makes the Lucifer an extremely competitive option. Pros: Excellent build quality. Excellent cooling performance. Excellent acoustics performance. Capable of passively cooling high-end CPUs. Option to install a second fan for a push-pull config. Cons: Fan clips can be rather finicky. Risk of damaging fins when installing on an LGA1155 motherboard. KitGuru says: Excellent performance results and a unique design mean the Gamer Storm Lucifer is a breath of fresh air.