Deepcool GAMMAXX S40

There are some stinkers in the sub-£20 CPU cooler market that have probably seen many a PC enthusiast waste their hard earned cash on something that performs barely any better than the Intel or AMD reference cooler, or sounds like a jet engine when your CPU dishes out some heat. Thankfully, there are some bargains too, such as Arctic's legendary Freezer 7 Pro, which incredibly, is still doing the rounds nearly a decade after it first launched.

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Deepcool is a brand that has recently launched in the UK, but is fairly well-established overseas with a range of CPU coolers. The GAMMAXX S40 sits at the budget end and like the Freezer 7 Pro, it retails for just £19.99 - we refrained from rounding up there just to emphasis the fact that you'll actually get change from £20. It's certainly not a shabby cooler either. It uses a custom 120mm PWM fan, which is rated at an airflow of 54CFM and up to 26dB(A) - one of the few coolers this cheap to do so.

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The heatsink is nickel-plated and overall the GAMMAXX S40is not bad-looking or poorly-made either. At 143mm tall, it's noticeably smaller than the likes of Gelid's Tranquillo and other small 120mm coolers, and a total depth of 81mm means on most systems it won't even reach the first DIMM slot, except maybe on mini-ITX boards. The fan is held in place by standard clips, which as you can probably guess are a pain to fit.

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Thankfully, there's plenty of scope for fitting these outside of the case and then mounting the cooler with the fan attached, although its worth noting that the fan can only be mounted so that it pushes air through the heatsink. The latter has four 6mm heatpipes in a pretty standard U-shape, and these have been polished at the base and make direct contact with the CPU heatspreader.

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There are a couple of ways to mount the cooler, which isn't just aimed at mid-range Intel and AMD systems, but LGA2011 too. For LGA115X, LGA775 and LGA1366 owners, you have the joy of pushpins to look forward to (honestly, compared to some mounting mechanisms we've seen they're a breeze to use), and these slide in or out on two mounting plates depending which socket you have. For AMD users, there are similar plates but sporting the standard AMD socket mount, while LGA2011 users have the luxury of thumbscrews.

Specifications

• Compatibility Intel: Intel: LGA775, LGA115x, LGA1366, LGA2011; AMD: AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2, FM1, FM2, FM2+
  
• Weight 610g
  
• Heatsink size (mm) 120 x 81 x143 (W x D x H)
  
• Fan(s) 1 x 120mm (PWM), 900-1,600RPM
  
• Stated Noise 26dBA max

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