Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB

[Jtalk4456]

I was looking at aio's on part picker and this is only 60 bucks which is a good noctua air cooler. Is this thing junk for that cheap or is it just not as good as some of the bigger ones but will still do a good job for the price? I haven't dealt with aio's enough to know which are good and bad

[Jtalk4456]

1 hour ago, valdyrgramr said:

It's not a good as the h105, krakens, and h115i.  But, it's good for the price point compared to single fan ones at that price point.  

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooler-master-master-liquid-ml240l-rgb,5345-2.html  Here's TomsHW review of it.  

I'd just get a D14 for a little more.

correct me if i'm wrong but d14 is an air cooler

[Jtalk4456]

3 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Ya, but it performs better than this AIO.  Dark rock Pro 3 and 4 are alternatives, but they're huge.

fair enough, and i'm not space constrained so if the dark rock is better value wise i don't mind it being large

[Jtalk4456]

Ok what about this one vs the h105

Deepcool - Maelstrom 240T 167.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

[Jtalk4456]

Just now, valdyrgramr said:

H105

sounds like i need to either go deep rock or get the h105. The dark rock goes for about 90 and the h105 goes for about 100. Is the extra 10 worth it?

[Jtalk4456]

6 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

You can get a D14 for like 75, but the back and forth is 3 degrees at most.  Just get whatever is cheaper between the h105, D15, D14, Dark Rock Pro 3, and the Pro 4.

10-4 thanks for the advice

[DarkStang]

The ml240l looks good and has no problem cooling my overclocked 1700. Yes, there are better coolers on the market. But once you dissipating more heat than you're generating it doesn't matter.

[AngryBeaver]

I would pick up that masterliquid. For the price point it is a steal. Then if you find later on you want to lower rpms to reduce noise or want to bump up the cooling capabilities... then you could just add 2 more fans for a push/pull setup.

 

I also want to point out a problem with some of the comparisons done with the d15 vs zoo's. First off the high end aios do pull better thermals, but some of the more middle range ones are neck and neck. Some of this is due to how the testing is done.

 

Almost all of these comparisons are done open air. Which means the air cooler are pulling ambient temp the whole time, this is not the case in an enclosed case as even with good air flow case temps will be higher than outside ambient (generally 5c or more) drastically so sometimes with custom gpu coolers dumping heat in the area.

 

A aio that is set as an intake avoids that issue. As it is constantly pulling fresh ambient air into it, then the case. So it can gain around 5c here when it comes to average use that won't show in these comparisons.

 

A 240mm or large rad will have higher TDP (it can displace more heat) yet most of these tests aren't pushing the TDP envelope. As the heat load increases the air coolers will struggle more and more.

 

So for example if a water cooler gets more heat that it can easily move a few things happen. The water temp will climb, so instead of being say 10 degrees over ambient it might rise to 15. This is your DeltaT. Now that has the negative effect of raising your gpu temp 5 more degrees. However the higher the water temp over ambient goes... the more heat the radiator can release in to the air at once (due to thermal difference)

 

This also happens on an air cooler to a certain degree, but being enclosed in the case and not getting fresh air access like an aio... means this effect will spiral out of control until it reaches a point case air flow can exchange it.

 

The above effect increase gpu temps two which also adds to case temps. Even with proper case air flow it will make an impact.

 

So a 240mm aio is always the clear winner in my book.

[JR1988]

The d14 can still do ok...but the delid and loop doing pretty awesomely. There is probably some better blocks than the generic z97 block and the ek block though...some larger copper block like the Raystorm or something.