Deepcool Captain 240 EX All-In-One CPU Cooler @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Deepcool Captain 240 EX All-In-One CPU Cooler

Deepcool states its mission is to provide "the best and personalized thermal solutions." Its Captain EX series of AIO CPU coolers has what it calls a "Steam Punk" look with visible liquid flow, but what we are most concerned with is just how well it cools our overclocked and over-volted Ryzen 7 processor. And it has "anti-explosion" rubber material.

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Thanks for the review.

I was looking at that one just earlier today, but ended up purchasing the Cryorig A80.

It's nice the Deepcool went for a different look on this AIO, could be a nice centerpiece in a white case.
 
I've bought 2 Deepcool Captain 240 EX's in the past (one for my home and one for my work machine, both black in color). They are good coolers, but you get what you pay for. I'm getting similar cooling results that you are getting from the non-RGB version. If I had to do it all over again I'd save up a little more $$ and get something with a little more punch. When I upgrade to Zen2, the cooler will be replaced for sure. I'll pass these coolers down to my kids.
 
Well, Beijing is definitely getting all the shiny stuff right to attract the wallets--too bad the quality control is the same gimmick technique to extract the most cash before the product is scrapped and a 'new' one introduced. Then pump and dump, and rinse and repeat. You have to remember that these 'review samples' are hand picked and quality checked much more rigorously than what you or I buy off the shelf--and still there was a 50% defect rate. And why not send another rgb model? Did they know something they didn't want the reviewers to know? It's a bit fishy for sure.

It would be interesting to see if more reputable cooler companies will copy the aesthetics and combine it with more function to make a truly leading quality aio that also has a unique look. It would be ironic too--someone stealing ideas from China for once.
 
I have the deep cool 240 non RGB, and its cooling my 2700x @ 1.45v 4.3ghz and does a great job, i get about 78c max with a 16 thread cinebench r15 run @ 4.3ghz all cores. I think it runs a little warmer than i was expecting for a water cooler, but its quiet as quiet can be, and i think i paid about 70 bucks for mine about 4 months ago. the fans are beautiful in person and you can definately tell they are not the norm. I think its very pretty to see it in the dark throught the side of my tempered glass case along with the RGB lighting of my crosshair x470 mobo. To speak on the quality control thing, i dunno if this is the AIO or something else, but no matter what fan header i plug the pump into it will not read RPM in the bios, i didnt try HWINFO but i would think you would see it in the bios so atleast you knew it was flowing.

the reason i actually went with deepcool is i read some reviews on newegg and amazon where people had some failures where the liquid got all over their parts and deepcool actually covered the damages, from what ive read some of the other companies even big ones like corsair wont usually do the same. I think thats kind of a big deal if its true.
 
I have one of the RGB ones and the RGB stuff stopped working after like 3 days. It started just choosing a random color or sometimes doesn't turn on at all. Its a moot point anyways because it started leaking out of the center tube after about 2 months so I threw it out.
 
The guy from Science Studio on youtube uses these quite often in his builds. He doesn't seem to have any issues, but he does note that the performance is middle of the road I believe.
 
I have an older 360 version, and it works great.

The defective one sounds like the pump wasn't running; there's no way to tell, tho.

Looking at my notes, I got 2 degrees C from this cooler, over the Thermalright TRUE Black nickle plated heatpipe cooler.
I did lap the bottom; mine had a machined finish, and I took it to a mirror finish.
I lapped the nickle plating off the Heatpipe cooler; Nickel has Really crappy thermal performance, even just plating; that was good for 2 degrees on it.

I'm running a 3930k at 4.5GHz, and it runs below 80C at peak.

Amazingly, the worst heat loading I've seen is handbrake, lol.
 
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Thank you! I've been waiting for a Deepcool review from you.
Glad to know the RGB lights are non-addressable. That's a deal killer.
 
The defective one sounds like the pump wasn't running; there's no way to tell, tho.
Interesting as is noted in the review, we were getting a RPM reading on it. Between sound, vibration, and monitoring, you can very much tell if a pump is running or not.
 
You have to remember that these 'review samples' are hand picked and quality checked much more rigorously than what you or I buy off the shelf--and still there was a 50% defect rate. And why not send another rgb model? Did they know something they didn't want the reviewers to know? It's a bit fishy for sure.

Even the best companies have occasional out of box failures. Sometimes a problem just does not show up in testing, until the shake, rattle and roll involved with shipping. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending DeepCool. I know nothing about them, I've never used their products, and they are not a trusted brand to me. I'm just saying that two pieces is not a large enough sample size to show if they have a bigger problem or not.

It sounds pretty unlikely to me that the problem is RGB related. As mentioned in the article, the only difference between the two is which LED's (and presumably, the associated control board) are used. Same design, same pump, same radiator other than that.

Editor's Note: Obviously the only differences in these two AIO coolers in terms of build is the RGB lighting. These coolers should have performed identically. If anything, our testing points out that Deepcool has some serious quality control issues that it needs to get a hold of. Seeing that our first cooler performed so horribly, it makes suggesting purchasing an AIO from Deepcool impossible.

I'd argue it is probably a random failure. That said, I agree with the editors note. While a sample size of two is not enough to paint a full picture of failure rates, it does raise questions, and in a marketplace that is saturated with a ton of brands of AIO coolers, why pick the one that had an out of box failure from your trusted reviewer?
 
As much as we hate vendors cherry picking review samples, I'd at least cut them some slack for not having done that. :)

If it shows up with a lapped HS, and works 20% better than everything else in that line, we'd be bitching about it.

They're a fairly simple design, a centrifugal pump, like a water pump on a car; If it's turning and not pumping, something's blocking the circulation.

I'd just be happy it didn't puke it's guts all over my rig in that failed situation, personally.

Intact, but not working is better than shorted, corroded components. :)

If it were a mechanical displacement pump, like an oil or tranny pump, it would have blown the lines off, and been a catastrophic fail.

The one I have works every bit as well as the Corsair I have on another system, and was cheaper, so I'm happy, and if I upgrade this Xeon x5670 across the room, I'll get one of these.

One note: I've never seen the 360mm radiator go more than a few degrees above ambient, even with the CPU at 90C, and ~250W.
 
You have to remember that these 'review samples' are hand picked and quality checked much more rigorously than what you or I buy off the shelf--and still there was a 50% defect rate. And why not send another rgb model? Did they know something they didn't want the reviewers to know? It's a bit fishy for sure.

First one we got was the RGB version straight from deepcool, the replacement was sent via Amazon from deepcool, so take that for whatever it's worth.
 
For what it’s worth I got a great deal on Deepcool’s Dukase that has this integrated AIO system and I’ve been nothing but pleased with it after a year of ownership.

No leaks, blocks or problems and it’s quiet.
 
To be fair to Deepcool, pretty much every component I've bought over the years has had some bad reviews.

Just go on Newegg for anything, SSDs or PSUs for example, you will see a bunch of people claiming they got DOA products, or it failed after a month or whatever.

That is fairly typical. Doesn't mean everyone will get a bad one, there is always some percentage of failure and it's always a gamble (though, of course, some products are more reliable than others).
 
Holy shit.

Sad, as I'm a big fan of my Deepcool rgb fans.

Sure are weird looking too
 
To be fair to Deepcool, pretty much every component I've bought over the years has had some bad reviews.

Just go on Newegg for anything, SSDs or PSUs for example, you will see a bunch of people claiming they got DOA products, or it failed after a month or whatever.

That is fairly typical. Doesn't mean everyone will get a bad one, there is always some percentage of failure and it's always a gamble (though, of course, some products are more reliable than others).
That is the most glowing endorsement I have ever read of a computer accessory manufacturer.
 
I've got a DeepCool in my rig and like it, had it around 6 months with zero issues. We'll see how it does longevity wise, but one of the reasons I got it over other AIO's is that it has longer coolant tubes and I could mount the radiator where I wanted where Corsair, for example, wouldn't reach.
 
I've purchased 2 of the black RGB units, both seem to be operating normally. It's a shame they didn't replace your defective unit with an identical model for review.
 
Where's the [H] Fail icon? (for the frag harder disco lights)

A spinning effect on the pump would have been cool, but the solid/breathing options are pretty standard. Given the price the lack of addressable LEDs isn't too surprising.

I have one of mine set to green and paired with some green LED Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 modules on an old 990FX setup. It matches up nicely and easily adds an extra 500MHz bonus epeen.
 
Tore down the RGB cooler for you all out of curiosity, to see if anything was specifically wrong:

Removed the retaining clips that hold the tubing into the pump head, and detached, what I guess would be the output tube.

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Hooked up the pump head using many 4-pin PWM extensions to keep everything safe. After about 45 seconds of running, this is all that we got from the output.


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Lacking a compressor to test the "Explosion proof" tubing in the cooler test lab, I had to use my lungs instead. After thoroughly blowing backwards through the system, this is what we got, some coolant, loaded with some kind of an algae or slime.


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Removing the 8 security hex screws I was able to remove the cold plate, as you can see there is some schmoo in the microchannels, but nothing terribly alarming.


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This is all you can see without a lot more fighting to disassemble the pump head. I was hoping to get to the compressor, but had no luck. First picture you can see the spray bar still installed, second is with the spray bar removed. The plate you see with the spray bar removed if extremely thin and brittle plastic, which is not designed to be removed.


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Without thoroughly flushing the system, there is no telling how much of that mystery slime is still clinging to the inside of the cooler. With the fact that we got a normal RPM reading during testing, the only thing that makes sense from our disassembly is the system is/was clogged with the slime seen when it was blown out.
 
Myself and two (2) friends are using the captain EX 240 and one (1) other using their 3 cooler version (EX 360?). We really like them, and they have served us quite well on our older overclocked systems and newer generation rigs. That being said, quality control is always a tricky thing and sucks to see that there has been such a complete failure in this test. My experience is anecdotal I know, but no complaints on performance and capability here.
 
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