Deepcool Captain 240

Deepcool Captain 240 Review – For a while, if you had seen one closedloop liquid-cooler you had seen them all. Beneath their branding stickers, the vast majority of closed-loop CPU coolers had Asetek DNA. Sure, companies would tweak certain aspects, adding their own fans here or custom LED lighting there, but the underlying design was the same. Deepcool wants to give you something new to look at. Feast your eyes on the CAPTAIN 240.

We’re not totally surprised to see a Deepcool component that distinguishes itself visually. After all, these are the same creative people who developed the innovative and unique Tristellar case (which we covered in last month’s issue). The CAPTAIN’s calling card is its pump-cold plate unit. It features a short section of clear hard tubing that shoots out of its top, makes a sharp bend to run parallel with the unit, and then disappears into a 90-degree elbow that’s fused to the side of the unit. The clear tubing is nominally practical, giving you a glimpse of the coolant as it flows through the loop, but it’s mostly just there for looks— and we like the look. From the top down, the pump unit looks like the front of a jet turbine, and Deepcool’s Gamer Storm logo appears on the sides where there isn’t any connected tubing. All in all, it’s a distinctive aesthetic that sets the CAPTAIN apart from other closed-loop liquid-coolers.

However, the CAPTAIN is more than a pretty face; Deepcool put a lot of thought into the cooler’s guts, as well. The pump uses a closed impeller that generates more power without a corresponding increase in noise, and it has a three-phase induction motor for more forceful coolant flow. And thanks to a zirconia ceramic bearing, the CAPTAIN’s pump has an expected life span of 120,000 hours.

The rest of the CAPTAIN’s cooling components are similarly impressive. The cold plate is pure copper (which should be a given at this point), and its internally facing side is lined with a dense cluster of 0.2mm fins, which greatly increase the cold plate’s surface area. The two included 120mm fans are PWM and rely on a long-life Japanese fluid dynamic bearing. The outer edges of the fan blades have a series of grooves designed to optimize airflow, and you can detach the impeller from the motor for easier cleaning.

So, does the CAPTAIN deliver? We gave it a chance to prove its worth by letting it cool Intel’s mighty Core i7- 5930K. As always, we kicked off our testing procedure by taking temperature readings over a 10-minute idle period. Here, the average temp across all cores was 24.9 degrees Celsius, with a peak temperature of 37 C on one of the cores. Next, we pitted the CAPTAIN against POV-Ray, running the benchmark five times consecutively, and the cooler responded by holding the average CPU temperature to 44.4 C. The peak core temp during our POV-Ray test was 50 C. Finally, we ran Prime95’s strenuous Small FFTs test for 10 minutes to fully tax the CAPTAIN. In this test, the average CPU temp was 54.4 C, and one core peaked at 61 C.

The CAPTAIN 240 is a solid, attractive offering from Deepcool. Don’t have enough room for its 240mm radiator? The CAPTAIN 120 is designed for tighter spaces. Want a bigger rad? Go with the CAPTAIN 360. No matter what you’re looking for in a closed-loop CPU cooler, Deepcool has it covered.

Deepcool Captain 240 Specifications

• Specs: Materials: Copper (waterblock), aluminum (radiator)
• Socket compatibility: Intel LGA 1150/1155/1156/1366/2011(3), AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+
• Pump: 3,400rpm
• Fans: 2 120mm PWM (600 to 2,200rpm)
• Radiator dimensions: 27 x 274 x 120mm (HxWxD)