Deepcool AK500
Deepcool’s new CPU cooler is one of the biggest options that doesn’t collide with memory. Compared to most single tower coolers, the AK500 is significantly wider, but at the same time it doesn’t exceed dual tower heatsinks with often comparable finned area. It is true that it has one less fan compared to them, but again, one that promises high static pressure and therefore less airflow loss due to the heatsink.
Until now, Deepcool had two coolers in the “AK” series, with a rather large gap between them. While the AK620 is a very wide twin-tower model, the AK400, on the other hand, is quite slim. Deepcool, however, now has something between them – the AK500, in designation, in weight (1040g) and in thermal performance.
The specs list the cooling capacity at 240 W, which is quite fitting right before the release of the new AMD Ryzen 7000 processors with 230 W PPT. The design of the heatsink is made up of a single bundle of fins just like the AK400. However, the difference is in the width of these fins and their total surface area.
The fins are 90 mm deep (instead of 45 mm on the AK400) and the AK500 cooler is also 3 mm taller (158 mm), although it consists of fewer fins. These are at least thinner compared to the AK400, but perhaps with more thickness. These details are not disclosed in the specifications.
However, we do know that the AK500’s width stretches almost to the width of Deepcool’s most powerful tower cooler – the AK620. Despite the fact that the AK500 is 20 mm slimmer, the AK620 won’t catch it in terms of fin length, even if you put the two towers of this cooler together. This is due to the fact that much of the AK620’s depth is made up of a second fan, which the AK500 does not have. This made it possible to angle the base so that the cooler doesn’t interfere with the DIMM slots and in turn doesn’t even hit the system fan on the case’s exhaust.
To keep the lone fan from having a hard time, Deepcool has reduced the aerodynamic resistance of the heatsink with larger fin spacing for the best cooling (and to allow some air to get to the rear of the heatsink).
The fan speed range is 500–1850 rpm and considering the high airflow (up to 117.2 m3/h) at high static pressure (up to 2.19 mm H2O) the air circulation through the heatsink could be quite efficient. As always, tests will show how AK500 stands up to other coolers. Anyway, this cooler seems to be a pretty solid piece of hardware.
The fact that these designs with wide towers, with only one fan per tower, can operate at high efficiency has been demonstrated many times in the past by the Scythe Mugen or Ninja coolers. Like them, the Deepcool AK500 has a proper full-block base, from which the heat is transferred to the aluminium fins by five heatpipes with a traditional 6 mm diameter.
AMD AM5/AM4, Intel LGA 1700, 1200/115x, 2011(-v3) and 2066 sockets are supported. The Deepcool AK500 cooler is expected to be available in stores in November 2022 at a price of around 55 EUR.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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- Deepcool AK500
What a gorgeous piece!
It’s like something out of the Bauhaus school.
from my experience Ninja (5) was a total disaster, though partially due to terrible fans, but even when swapped to A12x25 it was only on par with NH-P1 when acoustically constrained to my liking and due to the fanswap cost it wasn’t really cheaper anymore either