Installation
One thing I’ve come to expect from DeepCool is a fairly simple and intuitive installation process. The Maelstrom 120 is no different. Like most single fan AIO’s, start out by attaching the fan to the radiator. I found that for whatever reason the thread for the radiator screws are pretty tight. It feels like you may be cross threading, but just keep going. I’m not sure if it was taped too small, or filled in slightly with paint but the result is a pretty tight fit on both sides.
With the fan attached you will want to install the radiator into the case. Because the tubing is on the short side, and the plastic protective dish doesn’t stay in place well I found it easiest to lay the pump on my GPU.
Holding the radiator with attached fan in place with one hand, attach it to the top back exhaust port with the four shorter screws.
Now we want to install the backplate for the pump. Select the correct bag of parts, ours is socket 1150 so we need all the parts from this bag.
Slide the longer screws through the correct holes in the backplate (identified in the manual) and secure easily with the black clips.
Now simply line up the four posts and slide them through to the front side of the motherboard. The posts should be tight fitting enough that they stay in place with the case upright.
In order to install the pump you need to attach the correct clips for your socket. These are in the same bag of parts you used earlier. Line the clips up and install with two screws each. Be careful not to smudge the thermal paste as the kit doesn’t come with any extra.
Attaching the pump is probably easiest with the case upright. Slide the clips over the posts and secure with the thumb screws until they stop turning. Do this for all four corners.
The pump is powered by attaching the 3 pin to the CPU_FAN header on the motherboard. The fan can be power from either your motherboard or any other fan power source. We used one of the open headers on our motherboard so we could have the fan speed up as the CPU temperature increases.
And so with the fan and pump power connected the only thing left is to power the system up.
