Introduction
I am testing a third product from PCCOOLER under CPS branding. This time it is a CPU air cooler named RZ620. This is a flagship air cooler from PCCOOLER and is released in November 2023. According to PCCOOLER this cooler adopts the “TRIFORCE” family-oriented design language and I am still trying to figure out what are those three components to make it TRIFORCE. PCCOOLER has mentioned that the heat pipes are anti-gravity designed meaning this cooler can be installed vertically or horizontally without affecting the temperatures. This cooler has a built-in controller with three modes to regulate the fan’s speed.
The RZ620 is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/1700/20xx and AMD AM3/AM4 sockets. There is no mention of AM5 which is surprising. Either they have mistakenly omitted it or something else. It is compatible with an AM5 socket because it uses stock backplate. Another important aspect is the same mounting hardware for both platforms which makes it convenient for the user to install this cooler without any guesswork. This product carries an MSRP of USD 74.99.
PCCOOLER CPS RZ620 Specifications
Packaging and Unboxing
The RZ620 is shipped inside a cardboard-made outer packing box. It is finished in a silver/gray color theme. The CPS DE360’s packing box has the same styling and colors so I am taking it that this is a new packaging that we will see on the upcoming CPS series products. There is a picture of the cooler on the front of the box.
There is a white color Styrofoam pad container inside the outer box. The fans, cooler, and accessory box are nicely tucked inside this container.
Accessories
It is time to take a look at what is provided in the accessories container.
There are:
- 1x Installation Manual
- 1x Intel Backplate with pre-installed pillars/standoff screws
- 2x Intel Mounting Brackets
- 2x AMD Mounting Brackets
- 4x Standoff Screws for both platforms
- 4x Thumb Nuts
- 4x Fan Clips [Black color]
- 1x PWM Extension Cable with controller.
Closer Look
Let’s start taking a look at this cooler starting with the heatsink.
The dimensions of the RZ620 is 130x140x158mm (WxDxH). Here 158mm is the overall height of the cooler. This is still a slim design compared to other dual-tower flagship coolers in the market. PCCOOLER has emphasized on TRIFORCE design concept. I think they are speaking of the overall layout with triangular geometric shapes on the top metallic covers. They have mentioned that this design if looking from the top resembles or has roots in Roman Numeral “III”. My eyes did not see this aesthetics in the overall outlook. I mean, 2 fans and 2 towers don’t make III!
I am showing the top view of CPS RZ620. It has a nice and delicate finish which is impressive. The top covers are made from aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and spray-painted on the surface. The gray color texture with black color contrast speaks for itself. We can see CPS branding over the top left corner. We have a nice triangular layout towards the bottom of these covers. One triangular shape has further little triangular shapes that are quite appealing. These covers are fixed on the heatsink.
The front of Tower 1 and the rear of Tower 2 are identical in layout. We have a geometrical shape fin layout that gives more surface area to the overall fin stack. This also helps in effective heat dissipation. We can see alternate triangular layout fins placement in each row and column-wise as well. We can also see 6x copper heat pipes making maximum contact with the heatsink. I think the overall assembly is a soldered interface. Each tower has 55 fins making a total count of 110 fins. The top cover has a nice combination of black and gray on the sides.
I am showing a side view of the heatsink. Both sides are identical in layout on these sides. The fins are jointed on the sides which is a common design feature. The fins on the bottom are in offset making the more clearance for high-profile RAM. overall combination to 49+6 fins. These 6 fins have inset or cutouts so that the heatsink itself can provide more clearance for high-profile RAMs. The heatsink overhangs the first DIMM slot. The maximum clearance from the heatsink for the RAM is 44mm approximately. Keep that in mind when planning a build using this cooler. We can also see that the inner sides of the towers have a flat-lined fin placement. The sides have insets so that the fan clips can be rested on to install fans on the heatsink.
The mounting plate or bracket is pre-installed over the base. It has two spring-loaded screws. There are fins design cutouts on this aluminum plate to act as some sort of heat dissipation. This bracket is fixed to the unit.
The CPS RZ620 has a total of 6x copper heat pipes with each having a thickness of 6mm. Unlike the DeepCool Assassin IV, be quiet! Dark Rock Elite, and Dark Rock Pro 5 coolers, this cooler has one less heat pipe. The performance level of this cooler really surprises me given that it has one less heat pipe and a bit slim profile yet it is kicking ass. One good design aspect is that heat pipes are designed so that remain close to the base. This will help in providing improved RAM clearance. We can also spot that the mounting bracket is quite thick and multi-layered. PCCOOLER has mentioned that these heat pipes feature reverse gravity design which makes the cooler’s installation in vertical or horizontal without impacting the thermal performance.
Coming to the base of this cooler, PCCOOLER’s statement is: “The CPU base texture undergoes a millimeter-level micro engraving process, resulting in intricate and meticulous detailing.” What I am trying to figure out is what they mean by engraving. This unit has a copper base which is nickel-plated. It has a dimension of 35x39mm. It seems to be slightly convex to make better contact with the IHS of the CPU.
PCCOOLER has provided two high-performance black color 120mm fans with this cooler. Each fan has 9x blades designed and placed in a configuration that takes full advantage of the pressure-boosting frame of these fans to generate ample airflow while maintaining static pressure. We can see the slop-down design on the frame near the mounting corners. There are black color anti-vibration pads on the mounting corners. The center has a large diameter despite not having RGB LEDs. Each center has CPS branding in quite a style.
There are arrow indicators showing the direction of the airflow through the fans and the direction in which blades will spin. These provide a visual aid to the novice users. The frame of these fans is quite sturdy and each fan has considerable weight as well.
Looking at the fan from the backside, we can see a 4-arm assembly with one arm being extended to carry the wires from the center towards the outer frame. Each fan takes 0.2A at 12VDC. These fans are made in China. The frame near the mounting corners has a slope design. The overall square frame helps to prevent air leakage somewhat.
Each fan has a short-length cable that has two connectors. One is a 4-pin PWM connector and the other is a 3-pin socket. The idea is to daisy-chain both fans and then use the provided PWM extension cable to connect the fans to the motherboard.
There is a controller integrated into the PEM extension cable. It has three modes:
I have seen fans operating at 17xx under the silent mode. They were 20xx in the Performance mode and were operating in the 22xx range of speed in the Turbo mode. Both fans are loud at full speed. Even you will notice a drop in sound level going from Turbo to Performance. The Silent mode is not that silent either but overall noise output in that mode is considerably better.
Installation
We are no longer covering the installation steps. Please refer to the user manual for that. We only cover the observations recorded during the installation and removal of the cooler. The overall installation is simple and convenient. I have found installing fans with these clips is a bit challenging task. I would suggest installing this cooler before installing the graphics card in the PC Case.
Clearance
We need to check the clearance from 5 angles:
RAM Clearance:
The RZ620 has a RAM clearance of up to 44mm. Using RAM above this height would mean, you have to increase the height of the front fan. This is for a dual kit on a 4-DIMM motherboard.
PCIe Clearance:
There is no clearance issue with respect to the first PCIe x16 slot.
Rear of Motherboard:
The heatsink does not obstruct or is obstructed by the rear IO/VRM cooler cover.
Top of Motherboard:
There is enough clearance on the top area of the motherboard.
Height Aspect:
This cooler has a height of 158mm so you better have a PC Case with CPU height clearance of 160mm minimum.
Testing
We have used following configurations for testing:
- Intel core i7 12700k
- GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G D5
- Sabrent Rocket 32GB DDR5 Kit @ 4800MHz CAS 40
- GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 VISION OC
- Sabrent Rocket Q 500GB NVMe SSD [For OS]
- Be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
- Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout
Test table is:
| Clocks | P-Cores 4.8GHz
E-Core 3.8GHz |
| Voltage | 1.20V |
| C-States | Disabled |
| Speed Step | Disabled |
| Rest of settings | Stock, Auto |
| XMP | XMP Loaded where available |
| Thermal Paste | Noctua NT-H1 |
| Thermal Paste Application | X lines method |
| Headers | CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT, and PUMP Headers |
| Stress Software | CINEBENCH R23.2 |
| Stress Run Time | 30 minutes |
| PC Idle Time | 5 minutes |
| Monitoring Software | HWInfo64 |
| OC Tool | Intel XTU |
A bit of note about the new platforms. We have seen AMD AM5 and Intel Alder Lake S CPUs taking more power and this time both sides have aimed at reaching the maximum clocks regardless of thermal limit. In fact, the AM5 SKUs will run into thermal limits right away depending on the cooling solution and the clocks being used. This has made testing of CPU coolers challenging because viewers/readers are not used to a new nomenclature which is what clocks are sustained under a given load using a particular cooler. That is if the cooler is capable of providing enough cooling head to sustain the high frequencies. Traditionally we are used to going the other way around that is which cooler is better in terms of thermal capacity. Despite this, we are using temperatures as a base for measuring this unit. Among other reasons is the high thermal density of these new CPUs.
The ambient temperature was in the range of 25°C to 25.5°C. Since the variation in the ambient temperature is within 1°C, we are reporting absolute temperatures in the graph. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.
Disclaimer: Every silicon is different hence no two same SKUs are likely to take same voltage to yield same performance at same thermals per se but margin would be close. Not every stress test run may yield the same result which could be due to various reasons like thermal paste application, ambient temperature variation, mounting pressure of the cooler etc. This is why we have listed our variables and their settings. Let’s take a look at the results.
Result
The PCCOOLER CPS RZ620 has excellent performance in this price range. With just 1ᵒC difference it is sitting closer to the DeepCool ASSASSIN IV and has managed to beat the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5.
Noise
I am not measuring the noise output due to repair and maintenance work going on in the neighborhood. Subjectively speaking, this cooler runs loud. Either use a silent mode as it does not sacrifice the speed of fans that much or use Auto PWM/Custom Fan Curve on these fans.
Conclusion
I have tested a new flagship CPU air cooler from PCCOOLER under CPS branding. It is CPS RZ620. This is a dual tower design that comes with two powerful 120mm black color fans. This cooler is available in black color only at its launch. It is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/1700 and AMD AM3/AM4 sockets. I think they have missed the AM5 by mistake. This cooler is compatible with AM5 socket as well.
This cooler has aerospace-grade aluminum alloy-made top covers that have a fine spray coating for a premium look and feel. There are triangular shapes on these covers and one of these shapes has small size triangles. This overall is referred to as TRIFORCE by PCCOOLER. They have also mentioned that this design resembles Roman Numeral III which, unfortunately, I could identify in the overall outlook since we have two fans and two towers.
The dimension of this cooler is 130x140m158mm (WxDxH). This is relatively a slim profile design compared to be quiet’s new coolers and DeepCool Assassin IV coolers. The complete assembly is black color coated. Each tower has 55 fins in a 49+6 configuration. The lower 6 fins have cutouts to provide 44mm clearance for the RAM from the heatsink itself. The outer side of each tower has a geometrical layout conforming to aerodynamics principles whereby they have more surface area for effective heat dissipation. The inner side of each tower has a straight-line fin layout. There are grooves on the sides of these towers where the clip heads are rested to secure the fans on the heatsink.
This cooler has 6x copper heat pipes that according to PCCOOLER have a reverse-gravity design feature allowing the cooler to be mounted in a vertical or horizontal layout without affecting the performance. I am not sure if they actually have done something to the heat pipes or if this is just a marketing gimmick as I have tested many coolers in both orientations with almost no difference in thermal performance and their manufacturers don’t have any such claim. Anyhow, coming back to the main topic, these heat pipes are 6mm thick and they are making maximum contact with the heatsink. They are designed so as to keep them closer to the base. This is done to provide the utmost clearance for the DIMM slots. PCCOOLER uses using copper base measuring 35x39mm. It is nickel-plated and has a mirror finish with a slight convex design for better mounting.
PCCOOLER has provided 2x 120mm non-RGB fans with this cooler. These are rated for a maximum of 2200±10% RPM speed at 12VDC generating 86.73 CFM airflow at 3.2mmH₂O generating 32 dB(A) noise. There is a built-in controller having 3 modes: Silent, Performance, and Turbo. You can use a slide button to regulate the speed of these fans. Each fan has 9x blades with a pressure-boosting frame. The fans have got some weight to them which is nice. The frame is quite sturdy and has a slope-down design near the mounting corners. It is square in design. Each fan has a4-pin PWM connector as well as a 3-pin socket. The fans are interconnected and then using a bundled PWM extension cable, they are connected to the motherboard.
PCCOOLER has streamlined the mounting hardware which is similar for both platforms. Overall installation of this cooler is simple and convenient. However, I have noticed that fan installation can be tricky with these fan clips. I would suggest installing this cooler out of the PC Case or before the installation of the graphics card. A total of 11 items are required to install this cooler on an Intel LGA1700 socket.
PCCOOLER CPS RZ620 cooler has an MSRP of USD 74.99. This cooler packs a solid performance punch as can be seen in our graph. This cooler is able to put good competition to the likes of DeepCool Assassin IV, be quiet! Dark Rock Elite, and Noctua NH-D15. This performance becomes more effective since this cooler costs less than these coolers and offers a comparative performance. The only caveat is a 3-year warranty which in my opinion should be 5 years. The fans are loud. Either use silent mode or use a custom fan curve/auto PWM function.
Pros:
- Excellent Thermal Performance
- AMD AM5 and Intel LGA1700 Socket Support
- Aerospace Grade Aluminum Top Covers
- Standard 4-pin PWM connectors
- Convenient Installation
- Integrated Fan Controller
- Powerful fans
- Fluid Dynamic Bearings on Fans
- Price
Cons:
- Low Warranty Period
- Fans Installation is somewhat convenient
