Deepcool Gamer Storm Gabriel Review

Deepcool Gamer Storm Gabriel Review

Manufacturer: Deepcool
UK price (as reviewed): £26 (inc VAT) (approx)
US price (as reviewed): $40 (ex TAX) (approx)

Tower coolers are the logical choice for most tower cases but in many situations, especially if your CPU isn't overclocked sky-high, you can get away with something far less monstrous than some of the £40+ heatsinks that are currently doing the rounds. More importantly, we're seeing an increasing number of cases that struggle to house even modest tower coolers, such as the Lian Li PC-V358 and the In Win 904.

All-in-one liquid coolers can offer some respite, but you're looking at spending double the price of your average £25 budget-conscious tower cooler for the privilege. Thankfully there are plenty of other alternatives by way of low-profile coolers and with mini-ITX systems becoming more popular thanks to awesome motherboards and cases such as the Asus Maximus VI Impact and Corsair Obsidian 250D, we're seeing more of these coolers hit etailers' shelves too.


Raijintek's Pallas for example, was fairly wallet-friendly at £32 and managed to better many smaller tower heatsinks.

Deepcool is a new name on the UK scene but the company has already won a bit-tech Premium Grade award with its super-cheap GAMMAXX S40 cooler, and now the company is back with a low profile model. The Gabriel comes under its Gamer Storm brand and retails for just £26 - £6 less than the already reasonably-priced Raijintek Pallas.


It somehow looks taller than the Pallas but in fact at 60mm tall with its 20mm-thick 120mm fan, it's 8mm shorter. It sports four 6mm heatpipes which sit in a polished contact plate rather than making direct contact with the CPU. The nickel-plated heatsink is fairly dense but ultimately well-made and compact and clears standard-height DIMMS if you're aiming for a mini-ITX system where the two will likely overlap.


At £26, you can't really expect anything more than standard fan clips although we continue to dream of the day these things are resigned to the history books in favour of something like SilverStone's blissfully easy rubber clips we saw on the Argon AR01 cooler. As it stands, the clips are pretty tight-fitting too so you'll certainly need some patience here.


The installation is otherwise fairly simple, if a tad fiddly, with mounting pins securing to arms you attach to the cooler, which are secured to AMD and Intel boards using the standard mounting holes via screws passed through from the rear. While all AMD sockets are catered for, only Intel LGA115X motherboards are supported - there's no LGA1366, LGA775 or LGA2011 support.

Specifications

• Compatibility Intel: Intel: LGA115x, AMD: AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2, FM1, FM2, FM2+
  
• Weight 426g
  
• Heatsink size (mm) 120 x 120 x 60 (W x D x H)
  
• Fan(s) 1 x 120mm (PWM), 900-1,800RPM
  
• Stated Noise 18-32dBA