DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX L120 V2 Review

Introduction

With the GAMMAXX L120 v2, Deep Cool seems to be trying to fill that gap of 120mm Budget-Friendly All in One Liquid cooler.

Although there are many alternatives, there are not many that can deliver acceptable performance. Let's see if Deep Cool's shot can finally close that gap.

What's in the Box?

The Deep Cool GAMMAXX L120 v2 comes in the usual AIO box. A big Carton enclosure with a bit of imagery of the product, paired with some key features and a spec sheet.

As we usually do, we summarized the most important points from the L120 v2's spec sheet down below:

Once we open the box, we will find the usual Components. The AIO unit, the Fan, a Bag of Mounting hardware, and a bag of Peripherals.

Compatibility

On the compatibility side, Deep Cool was able to maintain support for quite a big range of products ranging from a bit older to newer, even higher-end CPUs.

Below we attached a complete list of every CPU that the GAMMAXX L120 v2 can be installed on:

Even if the GAMMAXX L120 v2 is aimed at the Budget-Friendly market, Deep Cool made sure to even include the top of the Line Intel lineups. Even though we would never recommend using these Over-like CPUs with a small 120mm AIO, it is nice to see that it is a possibility.

Individual Components

Wateblock / Pump

The Waterblock-Pump combo of the GAMMAXX L120 v2 comes with a big copper plate touching the CPU. Although there is no Thermal Paste pre-applied, Deep Cool made sure to include some in the back of goodies. ( For some reason they decided to bag it up... yes in a bag).

On top of everything, Deep Cool tried their approach of subtle use of RGB. Unfortunately, they didn't succeed. The usage of Black-reflective paint on top of the Waterblock makes everything look rather cheap.

Radiator

As for the Radiator, Deepcool decided to go with the Standard 27mm thickness. Something that is absolutely normal for AIO systems.

Fan

The unnamed inhouse fan that Deep Cool includes, does not provide you with a "High Quality" feeling. It is pretty wobbly, bends easily with a bit of force, and does not offer any additional noise-canceling features such as pads.

The RGB on the Fan creates the same experience, even if there is RGB Build into the central piece, it would have been nice if the lights were strong enough to reach the outer end of the fan blades.

That being said, even with the optical negatives, the spec sheet of the fan looks very promising. 1800RPM, almost 70CFM, and 2.42mm/H2O is nothing that is common on cheap AIO. We are very eager to see how it performs.

Tubes

The Tubes on the GAMMAXX L120 v2 are not quite what we've hoped for. With 310mm in length, it can be quite hard to install this AIO in the front of really big cases. But at least they are somewhat rigid and can be adjusted at the water block.

Installation

As usual, the installation process resembles any other AIO.

Install the Backplate, Screw it down with spacers and install the Waterblock on it.

Though we were already delighted at the very beginning that Deep Cool was able to keep the Metal Backplate to keep the Cooler in place.

In the case of Intel users, Deep Cool includes a Backplate that has to be installed at the very beginning.

That being said, the Waterblock, unfortunately, does not use the ever-so-loved slide the Bracket in-method. With the GAMMAXX L120 v2, you have to screw in 2 retention brackets from the bottom of the Waterblock facing up. Not something particularly hard, but there are easier methods.

From there we were able to daisy chain the RGB on the Fan and Waterblock and by using Deep Cool's proprietary adapter, get them back to the standard 5v Addressable RGB header.

Appearance

When it comes to Design, the best phrase we found to describe the GAMMAXX L120 v2 is "a bit cheap".

The reflective black finish on the Waterblock looks a bit cheap while the Fan RGB is barely making it all the way through the wings.

In general, the Deep Cool GAMMAXX L120 v2 does not necessarily look "bad", but we're used to better-looking products.

That being said we also have to take into account the price. And considering that the price is (very) affordable, it becomes clear where Deep Cool made its cuts in order to deliver this product.

And even though we are fans of "good looking" products, we are completely behind this decision. Way too often companies decide to favor looks before performance, which end up creating just bad products. Therefore we are eager to see if, on a performance level, the GAMMAXX can deliver.

Benchmarks

In order to really know if an AIO is good or bad, there is no way around the benchmarking process.

Therefore we blew the dust off our Test-Bench and used our Ryzen 3700x at 4.5Ghz with 1.4vCore and grilled the CPU with HeavyLoad.

With the Out-Of-The-Box Experience with the  Fan and Pump spinning at 100%, the Gammaxx L120 v2 was able to keep the CPU at 78°C.

Not the best performance we've seen so far, but still ahead of some of our really bad 240 AIOs.

Then we tried to determine which components were the first to keep the general performance back. Therefore we normalize our tests with a set of Arctic P12s.

While using the original setup paired with one single P12, the temps stayed exactly the same at 78°C.

Installing an additional P12 in a Push-Pull configuration let the CPU temps go a bit down to 77°C.

The results of our Normalized tests showed that the GAMMAXX L120 v2 is pretty much balanced all across its components. Something that is not usually the case with AIOs of that price category.

The out-of-the-box performance is also quite noticeable. It is by no means the best we've had. However, it is still able to outperform many of the more expensive competitors, creating a well-performing product.

* We also wanted to note that no matter what settings we used, the Pump was absolutely unnoticeable. Unfortunately, there is not much known about the exact specs or model, but it is very wisely chosen.

Conclusion

In general, there is not much to nag about the Deep Cool GAMMAXX L120 v2.

Sure the design is looking a bit cheap, the RGB is barely "up-to-date", they are using proprietary plugs, and the Tubes are quite short.

But coming at a price tag of around 50€, it would be unfair to compare it to top-of-the-line products.

Considering the Price, the Deep Cool GAMMAXX L120 v2 is a top-performing product for a budget-friendly setup.

It is by no means the best, but it will be hard to find a better-performing product for the same price.

And even if the look was not able to impress us, we are very happy to see that Deep Cool went the right route by favoring Performance over Esthetics!

If there was ever to be a v3 of this AIO, we think the most important aspect would be to include an RGB remote. Although we are aware that nowadays most Mainboard comes with a 5v ARGB header, we think that this is the biggest drawback. Budget-Friendly mainboards are usually the first ones to give up on "pro-like" features, such as build-in RGB. Therefore, to cover as many fronts as possible, we think that an RGB Remote would greatly improve the product.

Because of its outstanding price/performance ratio, we can absolutely recommend the GAMMAXX L120 v2 for anybody who's looking for an affordable 120mm AIO.