Review for the MasterLiquid 240L Core ARGB. This is the first time I have used an AIO or indeed any kind of liquid cooler. Everything said here is therefore from a newbie's perspective. My recent PC build included an i7-14700F CPU. Note this CPU cannot be overclocked so I am only trying to dissipate the "as designed" thermal output for the processor, nothing more. After researching the Intel Laminar RH1 stock cooler which comes with the CPU it was apparent that it is inadequate to prevent thermal throttling under constant load. Indeed, experiments on a stock setup which I have access to showed that the stock cooler throttles very quickly under 100% load. So I purchased and installed the 240L Core ARGB for my new machine. For reference, my build is primarily for work. The work is technical and requires regular short periods of 100% CPU usage. I generally don't need to max out the CPU for long periods of time, but it's nice to know I can drive it when needed. # Installation As I say, I am new to this type of cooler so fitting took longer than it perhaps needed to. It wasn't particularly difficult, but there were a few "gotchas". In particular if you are mounting the cooler's radiator at the top of the case as I have, make sure you attach the CPU power connectors to the motherboard first or you may find the fans prevent access. The cooler pump has a backplate which is fixed behind the motherboard for support. My case has a hole behind the motherboard to provide access, but check before fitting the motherboard in place. Routing the pipes which carry coolant from the pump to the radiator was also a bit awkward but not a huge issue - my solution is inelegant but gets the job done. The pump does not have thermal paste pre-applied, but does come with a small tube of paste adequate for 1-2 attempts (depending how economic you are with it). It's not particularly difficult to apply, although as a novice I'm fairly certain I used more than necessary. Watch a few YouTube videos first! # Cooling I'm happy to say that the cooler does its job. On my i7-14700F it will sustain nearly 100% CPU usage indefinitely, although a small amount of thermal throttling starts to creep in after a few minutes of running Cinebench (resulting in perhaps 1-2% reduction in performance overall). This is a massive improvement over stock cooling and more than adequate for my purposes. It might be possible to improve things further with a better (less splurgy) application of thermal paste, but I have no incentive to do this currently. # RGB LED lighting is included on the top of the pump and in the fans. I have no use for this and only connected it up to prevent the cables from dangling. It's pretty, I guess, but that's not what I'm looking for in a PC. The only reason I bought a RGB variant is because the non-RGB ones weren't in stock at the time. Note also in my final solution I am no longer using the Cooler Master RGB fans - see below. # Noise And here we get to this cooler's real problem. There is no getting away from the fact that this is a noisy piece of kit. For a work PC, out-of-the-box, the cooler is simply too loud. At 100% the pump has a very noticeable high-pitch hum/whine. The two radiator fans are clearly audible even when idling, and when they get up to 100% for full cooling they sound like a jet engine. In the end I've set the pump running at 50% until CPU temperatures start to rise (yes I know, half the system builders reading this just choked on their coffee, but it's working fine). I've also replaced the Cooler Master fans with Arctic P12 PWM variants which are much quieter at all speeds while retaining (as far as I can tell) the same airflow. This latter solution came from a TechLabUK YouTube video describing the fan noise (search t21Haa5Ez1k on YouTube). These changes have resulted in a decent cooler that isn't obnoxious under idle to mid-load conditions. It's still noticeable at 100% but this is to be expected. # Conclusion In short, this is a decent cooler (for an i7 processor) which is too loud for an office PC. If you're prepared to mod the fans and play with pump speed as described then it becomes bearable. I am keeping it in my setup, but it's not a model I would buy again for work. Its vanilla setup might be fine for a gaming PC or for someone who uses headphones most of the time.
