Final words and conclusion
Final words and conclusion
I have to admit that I was excited to see the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 CPU cooler arrive for a test. The product looks to be incredibly innovative. Things however turned for the worse once we started testing it. The product does not seem to deliver what I had hoped for. It gets even worse, mainstream heatpipe coolers overall will offer better cooling performance compared to the MasterLiquid Maker 92. Now, I do really wish I had another conclusion for Cooler Master, but I am in the business of writing objective articles, and when a product doesn't deliver, then it's simply that.
Aesthetics & Design
From a design point of view the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 CPU cooler is very innovative though. The fact that you can produce an AIO liquid cooling solution that you can mount and swivel on your processor has an incredible X-factor. The fact that Cooler Master was able to make it look this nice is a huge bonus as well. On our Z97 Sabertooth motherboard we did run into installation issues. We use this motherboard on purpose as in general it's a little harder to use with the TUF shielding. That shielding is an issue as one of the things we ran into was the fact that we could only mount the cooler in one position, turning it 90 degrees (mounting wise) would result into the bracket blocking the shielding. For your DRAM modules there is space enough, you might need to reposition the tubing a bit, but with the flex-connectors that should not be an issue. Other than that the product is easy to enough install with the back-plate bracket and mounting system, albeit securing the four thumbscrews remains to be a bit of an icky thing. But yes, it does look cool and the fact that you can rotate the fan/rad position is funky as well as you could use that air to cool down, say, the VRM area. There is one design thingy that makes me wonder though. Typically when you go for liquid cooling, you mount the radiator at an exhaust point to directly vent warm air out of the chassis. This cooler dumps its heat inside the chassis, so in that manner it isn't any different compared to a heatpipe cooler. But yeah, it kind of takes away one of the huge pluses of liquid cooling.
Performance
You've been able to see the numbers. Keep in mind that we reseated the cooler many times to rule out error in installation. Unless our sample had an issue that we don't know of, the results stand as they are. With a Core i7 4790K at default settings and clock frequency you are looking at ~70 Degrees under full stress. With normal RPM settings in your BIOS the product will remain silent. It however is at the crossover point of cooling capacity. Once we injected 1.3 Volts into this processor, the noise levels went up towards moderate levels and the cooling performance simply wasn't good enough for me to tag it as long time sustainable. We did take it to 1.35V but the cooler is just incapable of managing such a voltage.
Final Words
At the time of writing this conclusion I have not received a final price on the MasterLiquid Maker 92. It did go on pre-order, but Cooler Master did not mention a price. So who can I recommend this product to? Well, for the end users that do not overclock this might be a viable solution as you do get something unique and special inside that chassis of yours. As long as you do not overclock you should be fine. I could also see some compact mITX chassis being complemented by this cooler as it does offer certain flexibility in positioning and (at default) is silent enough. Next to that, it is an aesthetically pleasing unit due to its unique design. Please do remember that the heat oozing out of the radiator is dumped inside your chassis, so you will still need a proper airflow intake/exhaust fan in your chassis to get rid of that heat. Performance wise I can only describe the product as reasonable at default processor clock frequencies. If you plan to tweak and overclock, my advice is for you to look at another solution. The Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 CPU cooler simply is not a master cooler. It is what it is, something unique and aesthetically interesting, but it stops there.
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