DeepCool GENOME II Case Review
Since the Genome II comes with a built in water cooling system, I gave it a test. Now, I did not test the cooler with the FPU only load. Stock settings were tested with the vCore locked in at 1.20 and overclocked to 4.8GHz at a Vcore of 1.28. The test was conducted with the included fans set at 100% in the BIOS. Noctua NT-H1 was used for thermal paste. Ambient air temperature was measured inside the case using a Type K air temperature thermocouple attached about 1/2 up the angled front panel inside the case. AIDA64 stability test was used to put the CPU under load for an hour and the average temperature of the cores was recorded at the end of the last minute and the core temperatures were averaged. Ambient air temperature was recorded at the end of each test. In both tests, the ambient air temperature was recorded as 24°c. Ambient air temperature outside of the case was 21°C.
With four fans spinning at max RPM, the case is fairly loud. With the case set 6 feet away, it was very clear how loud the fans are. However, I doubt many users would opt to run all fans at 100% all the time. For some real world testing, I chose to allow the MSI Z170A Carbon to manage the fans with the stock profile and used the PC as I normally would for a couple of weeks. Between normal back and for via email, gaming, photo editing, etc., I didn’t see temperatures on the CPU cores creep up much above 50°C and I did notice the fans spin up a little. During gaming sessions, the GPU climbed steadily and settled in at 79°C maximum temperature with the stock cooler. At the stock fan settings during a VR benchmarking session (40% CPU utilization & 100% GPU utilization), the internal case temperature reached 33°C while the CPU hovered around 50°C and the GPU peaked at 80°C. I did add a single 140mm low speed fan to the front of the case which knocked another +/- degree off the inside case temperature from the what I could measure. The long and short of it is the Genome II should not have an issue cooling your gear.
I feel the Genome II has great modding possibilities and there are some good examples on the internet. The Genome II comes with a few features that modders include with their cases such as the power supply shroud and extra space for other water cooling components. I applaud DeepCool for not punishing consumers that choose not to use the built in water cooling system but instead choose to install a custom loop. There is quite a bit of space to install components as well as run tubing, etc. One of the things that surprised me as I was moving the bare frame around during the photo shoot is how sturdy the frame felt without the side panels or additional attachments.
The installation of the components went quickly and I am happy with the end result. It didn’t take too much to complete a clean install. This case would work well for those that want to install their hardware tidy things up and move on but, it will also work well for those that tend to change hardware. The interior of the case did not feel cramped as DeepCool moved the radiator to the outside of the case and it was one less component to contend with during the installation however, I did find the water block did get in the way here and there hence the reason I suggested to remove the entire water cooling system during the installation. DeepCool added some extra space for cable management by making the case a bit wider while still staying in the acceptable size of a mid tower case. Considering the price at $219 includes a 360 mm AIO, PCIe ribbon cable I don’t feel the price is out of line. It is definitely on the higher end. However, I have seen the case as low as $199 from online retailers. If you’re looking for a case with a custom vibe to it, the DeepCool Genome II may just fit the bill.
