Deepcool Maelstrom 120 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Testing
The test rig consists of the following parts:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper3
Video Card: EVGA GTX 690
Memory: Samsung Green MV-3V4G3D/US – 16GB
Power Supply: Enermax Maxrevo 1350W
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB raid 0 Running Windows 7 64bit
Cooling: Deepcool Maelstrom 120
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe

As always testing was done using Intel Burn Test (IBT) with the AVX instruction set. The reason to use this instead of Prime95 with this setup is that it pushes our i7 3770K a whole lot harder. This gives us a better sense of extreme load temps. Most of the testing was done at the max memory setting for a single pass. While admittedly this in no way would qualify the chip as stable while overclocked, it gives us a realistic idea of what temps it will be hitting. Additionally we are going to run 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme to give you a realistic idea of performance while gaming.

Our baseline was established using a bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 with the 3770K on stock settings:

Ambient temps: 22.22C/72F
Idle temps: 38.75C/101.75F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 63.5C/146.3F core average

And here are the results for stock settings for the Maelstrom 120:

Ambient temps: 22.78C/73F
Idle temps: 40C/104F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 65C/149F core average

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These idle results are disappointing when compared to our baseline are cooler, but are still fairly good results.

As opposed to simply going for a max overclock, we are simply going to shoot to hit 4.5ghz pass or fail. If the cooler will allow our 3770K to hit 4.5 ghz we note the temperatures and move on to test it on 3DMARK Firestrike Extreme. If not then back down to a more acceptable and stable overclock. Not as extreme, but slightly more consistent and far more analogous to normal use.

Here are our results for i7 3770K @ 4.5ghz with 1.248V vCore:

Ambient temps: 22.78C/73F
IBT temps: 82.25C/180.05F with one core hitting 86C

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This is a passing result for the Maelstrom 120, but just barely so. It seems possible that you could overclock a little higher, but only slightly more and then you would hit your thermal ceiling.

With a passing result from IBT, we went ahead with a single run through 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme @4.5ghz:

Ambient temps: 22.78C/73F
3DMARK: 68C/154.4F with one core hitting 70C

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These are good temps for gaming but I would likely keep an open window with Hardware Monitor running just to be safe.

On a positive note this is one cooler we can give a thumbs up to for noise. While idling it is completely silent and while ramped up during testing was still easily acceptable and covered up with light in game music/sfx.