DeepCool has been a long-time player now in the case and cooling business as well as power supplies and one of their claim to fame is their relatively affordable offerings. DeepCool remained in the mainstream consumer segment offering a wide range of cooling accessories but in recent years they’ve made some great strides going from budget brand to high-end with their recent releases and the introduction of the GamerStorm brand. Under the GamerStorm stack, DeepCool has designed and created some of the most innovative and striking chassis right now and today we have one of their unique ideas-turned-reality with the GENOME II chassis. Fusing AIO liquid cooling with a functional chassis, the GENOME II is the upgrade to the original GENOME, refining a few details here and there and generally improving the building experience. Read on to find out more about the DeepCool GamerStorm GENOME II!
Features
- The upgraded world first unique gaming case with integrated liquid cooling system
- 360mm radiator liquid cooling system (include front helix tube) pre-installed
- Transparent helix water tube visible at front panel, equipped with LED Strip (white color)
- Optimized internal structure, separating functional areas, providing more compatible extended support for different parts
- Two fixing positions for 3.5” HDD cage to offer a flexible space for PSU
- LED lights (white) on liquid cooling fans, water pump
- Extra space reserved for DIY water cooling system
- Support 200mm fan, 120/240mm liquid cooler installation at front
- Optimized extra slot for vertical installation of graphic card, keep it more stable!(PCI-E extension cable included)
- Much bigger cutout on MB tray for easier CPU cooler installation
- USB3.0*2 * Bigger side-window *Metal logo on front panel
- Better cable management
- With rubber buffer and dust filter for PSU
Packaging
DeepCool packages the Genome II in a full-colored box with some artwork at both broad sides showing a detailed image of the helix reservoir at the front of the chassis and the other side showing the glamor shot of the Captain cooling pump/block along with the color options for the Genome.
The Genome II comes in green on black, red on black and blue on white. You can get them online from ProductExpert.
Inside the package are a wide assortment of screws for fitting the components you’ll be mounting on the case.
Another box contains the accessory kit for the DeepCool Captain AIO liquid cooling that is preinstalled in the case.
Closer Look – Exterior
The main panel of the Genome is a windowed panel to show off your build. Its a large cutout with an clear acrylic window and goes all the way down half the shroud since there’s a cutout on the PSU slot’s shroud to show-off that label also. The back panel is flat and has nothing worth noting.
The front of the Genome II is the most stand-out part of the chassis, with the intricately detailed vents adorning the centerpiece of the chassis, the helix reservoir. Its technically not a reservoir as the coolant just flows through it instead of collecting it in the main tank. Would’ve been nice if they did add some sort of accent in the main tank to make the helix pop. The helix makes the naming appropriate as its meant to exude that DNA-like aura. The back of the chassis shows us a couple of details of what we have to work with, first off we have a 120mm fan slot for rear exhaust included. Two grommetted holes at the top and a cable passthrough. We also see the total of 9 expansion slots, 2 of which are vertical and they do more than the traditional fan controller function from the past as we will see later.
A closer shot of the helix tube. Its a solid piece and can really take a bump but we don’t suggest knocking on the thing frequently as it just looks gorgeous in its pristine state.
The top of the chassis shows us some angled vents for the 360mm rad exhaust. Adds a great touch of detail to the Genome.
At the base we see four feet with rubber base. A slide-in fan filter for the PSU is also included to filter out dust and debris for the PSU intake fan.
Moving back to the top we can see the case buttons (power, reset) as well as two USB3.0 ports and the audio ports. Not pictured here is the button on the side that toggles the interior lighting of the Genome.
Closer Look – Interior
The side panels are secured by thumbscrews and are easily removable without any tools. Removing the side panels we get access to the internals. From the main side we can see the shroud and motherboard tray as well as a slanted front area that serves no functionaly purpose other than aesthetics.
The back of the motherboard tray we can see the areas we can work with for cable management. The back of the tray also allows access to the PSU mounting area. As you noticed, the SSD trays and HDD cage are located here and you can mount up to two SSDs on the back of the motherboard tray. The HDD cage sits on the base and allows space for two drives. The drive cage and trays are removable. There’s some preinstalled cable to work with for the front panel connections and other things.
Cutouts to showoff your PSU label.
Venting holes just above the HDD cage.
The angled divided has a portion of it detachable and its permanent change intended for longer GPUs. If you’re using a very long card, you can cutout that part to fit your GPU but do note that it cannot be attached again once removed.
The rear exhaust is a generic 120mm fan.
The expansion slots are pre-fitted with reusable covers with venting holes and are secured by thumbscrews. You will need to slide the retention lock on the back to get access to the vertical slots though.
Behind the front divided we have a slot for some fans, but DeepCool does not official state support for them. If you’re curious, the space does fit up to 200mm fan but you’ll need a thin profile model to make most use of it if you’ll be using the drive cage underneath or they’ll be some tolerance issues with fitting a standard thickness fan.
The SSD trays slide out if you don’t intend to use it.
The PSU shroud is quite lengthy and can house a relatively long high-capacity PSU and stash all the cables underneath if it isn’t modular. There are rubber standoffs to raise the PSU just a bit for better intake.
DeepCool includes three 120mm fans for its Captain 360 cooler installed on the case.
And here’s the Captain AIO pump/block.
The Captain pump/block is packed in a foam box during shipping and the block has a sticker seal that you’ll need to remove before installation.
Installation
Before you begin installing components inside your chassis, you’ll need to attach the mounting bracket on your motherboard for the DeepCool Captain pump/block. Follow the instructions for your socket type. In this figure, we’re using an Intel LGA 1151 motherboard.
DeepCool includes a tube of TIM for use on your processor. Apply as best you want, we use the rice grain method on our processor.
Once done, you can proceed to mount the motherboard on your case and install the Captain pump/block.
The DeepCool Captain fans can connect to the included fan hub. The fan hub has an adhesive base that you can mount on any position in your case you feel works best for you. I attached it at the back of the tray close to where the fan cables drop so I can tuck the cabling further. The hub cabling itself just crawls through the gap between the case and mobo tray.
There’s ample space in the back to snake some cabling around.
And here we have our complete system’s rear motherboard tray. As you can see, we’ve also installed a HDD and SATA drive. The HDD just slide in the cage with the included brackets and the SSD needs to be screwed into place. A thumbscrew will hold the SSD tray in place.
Moving over to the front we can see how immensely clean the build looks. This motherboard in particular has its CPU fan header on the normal place where a rear exhaust fan header would be so the fan hub cable had to crawl all the way there near the GPU. The rear exhaust fan had its cable connected at the bottom as you can see. This is unique to this case because of its nature and most mainstream motherboards now will have the headers on the top-right for the fan headers.
One of the cool things improved on the Genome II from the original is the inclusion of a PCI-E riser for use on the vertical GPU mount. Now you have the option of mounting your GPU vertically to show it off.
You will need to screw in your riser to the stand-offs included and attach them to the case which aligns to the vertical slots. The case can accommodate a 2-slot GPU just fine. Any larger and you might not be able to use your side panel.
And here’s a look at the vertical riser with the GPU installed. The riser is long enough to be angled just above any other daughter cards you may have so it won’t interfere with those given your other PCIe devices don’t bump on the GPU when its vertically mounted.
Lights On!
And here’s our final build. The chassis’ built in LEDs are in white and has good coverage on top of the case but if you’re using a board like ours with extensive lighting, its bound to drown those lights.
Checking out the front, we can see the helix reservoir on the Genome also has lights which is a cool touch and its indeed cool to look at with just the right brightness to really exude a certain aura.
Cooling Performance
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i7 7700K OC 5ghz 1.32v
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus IX APEX
Memory: GSkill Trident Z DDR4-3200
Storage: Intel SSD 750 NVME U.2 SSD
PSU: Seasonic Platinum 1000
Cooling: DeepCool GamerStorm Genome II Chassis with built-in 360 AIO
Monitor: ASUS PG27AQ UHD Monitor
VGA: NVIDIA GTX 1080 Founders Edition
We take a look at CPU and GPU cooling performance by running some tests. First off we use an overclocked i7-7700K to see if the Genome II can handle an overclocked system.
For the CPU, temps peak at 83*C in a 28*C ambient room. We won’t put much stock on idle temps here and focus on peak temps here. Overall the temps are acceptable and similar to our other 360 rad AIO we use in our testing system primarily.
Just to test ambient performance for the GPU while vertically mounted, we take our GPU in a 3D Mark Fire Strike ULTRA Stress test run and see the temps. As we can see the GPU peaks at 85*C which is common for a Founders Edition card. Average temps tell the story better at 68*C throughout the load which is acceptable.
Conclusion
The DeepCool GamerStorm Genome II is a strike chassis. And while they say looks may be subjective, its hard to find fault in the aesthetics of the Genome II. From its intricate vent styling to the helix reservoir itself, everything about the Genome II just looks good. Fusing the AIO cooling makes the case much more functional for those looking to jump into watercooling without having to fiddle around the case. The only requirements is to mount the block then put in the components and you’re good to go. This reduces the margin for error and pretty much requires no advanced knowledge to get yourself started with this enthusiast chassis.The vertical riser is a great bonus and opens the case up to a wider audience who just wants everything all-in and don’t have to buy a separate riser. Having a vertically mounted GPU peeking through the clear panel is just a great way of showing off your system.
Ultimately it all boils down to price and the DeepCool GamerStorm Genome II has quite the premium but do remember that you’re getting a chassis, an AIO liquid cooler and a PCI-e riser not to mention that other niceties built-in to the case itself.that makes it such a premium piece of hardware. The case has a street price of Php14,500 and that price tag gets you a good-looking case that is well-built with incredible cooling potential and is easy to use and maintain. Expandability may be an issue for those looking to get more storage but that’s a small deal if you’re just after a gaming chassis.
The DeepCool Genome II is an incredibly well-built chassis and the fusion of cooling and casing has never been done to this extent of quality ever before making the Genome II an ultimate chassis for those looking for a simple solution for their enthusiast needs.
We give it our B2G Gold Award!
