DeepCool AK500 CPU Cooler Review

Rating: 8.5.

DeepCool’s reputation with air cooling is superb, and the variety of differing products for differing market segments that the company offers is impressive. In today’s review, we are examining the £50 DeepCool AK500. This is a fat single tower cooler that comes equipped with a 120mm PWM fan.

Video Timestamps

00:00 Start
00:36 First look at the AK500
01:58 Fan spec
03:02 Warranty details
03:43 Installation process
04:24 Test setup
05:32 Performance data
08:31 Closing thoughts

When it comes to accessories, we get the usual set of Intel and AMD installation hardware. This is in addition to a small tube of thermal paste, as well as four fan clips to allow for push-pull upgradability. DeepCool also includes a low noise adapter cable that reduces top speed by 300 RPM, if that’s an approach you prefer versus motherboard speed control.

DeepCool uses a thicker-than-usual 120mm-class heatsink for the AK500. As a note, the AK500 sample that we have uses a conventional aluminium heatsink colour with a black fan, but there are all-white and all-black versions if you prefer those.

The reason we call this a thicker 120mm-class heatsink is because that’s exactly what it is. The AK400 from DeepCool is 45mm thick for the fin array, which is about normal. The AK500 is double that at 90mm thick for the fin array.

Given this thickness, DeepCool offsets the angle of the five 6mm nickel-plated copper heatpipes to allow for RAM clearance. Though be aware of potential VRM heatsink headaches.

Those five heatpipes feed into a nickel-plated copper contact base. This is a different, more premium approach the Heatpipe Direct Touch design used on cheaper coolers such as the AK400. And it should pay dividends on CPUs with large area heatspreaders.

DeepCool deploys its 120mm FK120 fan for use with the AK500. This Fluid Dynamic Bearing fan operates at a speed range of 500-1850 RPM using a 4-pin PWM connector.

500 RPM on the low speed side is not particularly strong for a £50 CPU cooler. I would have expected better here, as we see from some competing coolers from the likes of Arctic. Even the included low speed adapter cable only reduces the high-speed limit to 1550 RPM, but not the 500 RPM low speed limit.

There’s no RGB lighting on the fan, which I know will be appealing to many. DeepCool does, however, use an all-black design approach, apart from the company’s turquoise or teal logo.

The fan also mounts to the heatsink via rubber dampers pre-applied to its frame. That’s a good quality touch for noise control.

Warranty for the AK500 is 3 years, which is fine but hardly inspiring or market leading. At this price point, we are getting close to Noctua territory. And of course, Noctua and Arctic, offer far superior warranty lengths to most competitors.

Of course, this is simply a block of metal and a fan, so the need for a long warranty is not as necessary as with an AIO that could have a pump failure.

Pricing for the DeepCool AK500 is currently £50 on Scan, or a few pounds extra on Amazon in the UK.

AM4 installation of the AK500 was simple and quick, as DeepCool uses the default AMD bracket.

I put the stud posts in place and then mounted the brackets on top of them. The plastic top cover has to be removed from the heatsink, and it can then be screwed onto the mounting brackets. Thankfully, DeepCool includes a long screwdriver for this task. The 120mm fan is then clipped into place and connected.

The mount is quick, easy, and solid. We had no issues with RAM interference, as DeepCool’s design intends. Though, it is easy to see how tall VRM heatsinks could cause problems. But that’s an unlikely situation for this cooler.

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