Finished Looks

I would classify the Deepcool Gamer Storm Assassin III as stealthy for its size, at least if you think of it along the same lines as a stealth bomber. Yeah, it takes up a whole lot of space, dwarfing everything around it, but the black spoiler/heat pipe cover helps it blend in with the motherboard and the graphics card despite the partly exposed top fin. Obviously, how stealthy it would appear in your system would highly depend on your component selection. However, here and now on our test system, it certainly doesn't stand out when looked at straight on.


Memory clearance is a bit of an issue, and while the fin cutouts do allow for memory of up to 54 mm in height, you will need to raise the fan to accommodate memory of that height when the cooler is installed in its default configuration. Sticking with standard-height DIMMs results in the fan sitting as it should and therefore avoids increasing the cooler's overall height, which could further limit case compatibility.

There is also the issue of expansion-slot clearance. On some Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, the cooler will likely conflict with the first expansion slot, which typically is your PCIe X16 slot. This also applies to some standard ATX motherboards. As such, potential buyers should take a moment to make sure they have plenty of space to fit this large cooler.