Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 CPU Cooler Review
By Rafael Otto Coelho on February 2, 2011

Introduction

Hardware Secrets Bronze Award

The Ice Matrix 600 is a CPU cooler from Deepcool, with a tower design, six heatpipes "side by side" and a 140 mm fan. Let's check its performance!

Half of the product box is transparent, allowing you to see the heatsink, as you can see in Figure 1.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 1: Package

In Figure 2, you can check everything that comes in the box: heatsink, fan, installation parts, thermal compound and manual.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 2: Accessories

In Figure 3, you can see the Ice Matrix 600 heatsink.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 3: The Ice Matrix 600

In the next pages, you will see this cooler in detail.

The Deepcool Ice Matrix 600

In Figure 4, you see the front of the heatsink. The six heatpipes are placed "side by side", i.e., all of them receive direct airflow from the fan. There is also a small auxiliary heatsink on the base.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 4: Front View

In Figure 5, you can see the side of the heatsink. Thanks to the heatpipe distribution, the heatsink is very narrow.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 5: Side view

In Figure 6, you check the top of the heatsink. Here you can have a good idea of the fin design. The fins are made of nickel-plated aluminum.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 6: Top view

The Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 (Cont’d)

The cooler base, shown in Figure 7, is made of nickel-plated copper, same material used on the heatpipes. The base surface is not polished enough for a mirror-like aspect.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 7: Base

The 140 mm fan that comes with the Ice Matrix 600 has a rubber-coated frame, which helps to absorb vibrations. The power connector has four pins, meaning this fan is PWM-compatible. The cooler comes with only one fan, but you can install a second 120- or 140-mm fan.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 8: Fan

Installation

The installation of the Ice Matrix 600 is simple. First you need to install the clips that are compatible with your CPU socket to the base of the cooler. In Figure 9, you can see the clip for Intel CPUs installed. The clips are held in place using one thumbscrew each.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 9: Clip installed

Next, put the backplate that fits your CPU socket (only socket LGA1366 doesn't require a backplate) on the solder side of the motherboard, and then attach the four nuts (shown in Figure 10) on the component side.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 10: Nuts installed

After that, put the cooler in place and screw the four available thumbscrews.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 11: The Ice Matrix 600 instaled in our case

Finally, attach the fan to the heatsink.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600
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Figure 12: The Ice Matrix 600 instaled in our case

How We Tested

We tested the cooler with a Core i7-860 CPU (quad-core, 2.8 GHz), which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), keeping the standard core voltage (Vcore), which was the maximum stable overclock we could make with the stock cooler. Keep in mind that we could have raised the CPU clock more, but to include the stock cooler in our comparison, we needed to use this moderate overclock.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 (in this version, the software uses all available threads) with the "In-place Large FFTs" option.

We compared the tested cooler to the Intel stock cooler with a copper base (included with the CPU), as well as with other coolers. Note that in the past, we tested coolers with a socket LGA775 CPU, and we retested some "old" coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read in the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that accompanies it.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the case and video board cooler fans so they wouldn't interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

Operating System Configuration

Software Used

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 oC error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 oC are considered irrelevant.

Our Tests

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at idle and at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the minimum speed on the idle test and at full speed on the full load test.

 

Idle Processor

Processor at Full Load

CoolerRoom Temp.NoiseSpeedCore Temp.NoiseSpeedCore Temp.
Intel stock (socket LGA1156)14 °C44 dBA1700 rpm46 °C54 dBA2500 rpm90 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G114 °C47 dBA2050 rpm33 °C56 dBA2900 rpm62 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme14 °C45 dBA1400 rpm27 °C53 dBA1950 rpm51 °C
Thermaltake Silent 115614 °C44 dBA1200 rpm38 °C49 dBA1750 rpm69 °C
Noctua NH-D1414 °C49 dBA1250 rpm27 °C49 dBA 1250 rpm53 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Performa14 °C46 dBA1500 rpm28 °C52 dBA1950 rpm54 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems14 °C40 dBA750 rpm27 °C60 dBA2550 rpm50 °C
Thermaltake Frio14 °C46 dBA1450 rpm27 °C60 dBA2500 rpm50 °C
Prolimatech Samuel 1714 °C40 dBA750 rpm40 °C60 dBA2550 rpm63 °C
Zalman CNPS8000A18 °C43 dBA1400 rpm39 °C54 dBA2500 rpm70 °C
Spire TherMax Eclipse II14 °C55 dBA2200 rpm28 °C55 dBA2200 rpm53 °C
Scythe Ninja317 °C39 dBA700 rpm32 °C55 dBA1800 rpm57 °C
Corsair A5018 °C52 dBA1900 rpm33 °C52 dBA1900 rpm60 °C
Thermaltake Jing18 °C44 dBA850/1150 rpm34 °C49 dBA1300 rpm60 °C
GlacialTech Alaska18 °C43 dBA1150 rpm36 °C51 dBA1600 rpm60 °C
Deepcool Gamer Storm18 °C43 dBA1100 rpm35 °C48 dBA1600 rpm62 °C
Corsair A7026 °C56 dBA1900 rpm40 °C56 dBA1900 rpm65 °C
Deepcool Ice Blade Pro23 °C45 dBA1200 rpm38 °C52 dBA1500 rpm64 °C
AC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 223 °C47 dBA1750 rpm44 °C51 dBA2100 rpm77 °C
Corsair H7027 °C60 dBA1900 rpm37 °C60 dBA1900 rpm61 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max27 °C55 dBA1600 rpm38 °C58 dBA1750 rpm63 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP25 °C45 dBA1700 rpm51 °C49 dBA1950 rpm91 °C
CoolIT Vantage26 °C60 dBA2500 rpm37 °C60 dBA2500 rpm62 °C
Deepcool Ice Matrix 60025 °C46 dBA1100 rpm41 °C53 dBA1300 rpm69 °C

In the graph below, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

Deepcool Ice Matrix 600

Main Specifications

The main features of the Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 CPU cooler include:

Conclusions

The Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 has a high-end looks, but a mainstream performance.

It looks very nice with its narrow design and the beautiful 140-mm blue rubber-cushioned fan. Installation was easy, and it is also a quiet cooler, just like other Deepcool coolers we tested recently.

The Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 receives the Hardware Secrets Bronze Award, thanks to its good performance, low noise level, and great looks.

Originally at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Deepcool-Ice-Matrix-600-CPU-Cooler-Review/1187

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