By: Aaron Lai
July 26, 2019
This year will mark the first time I am a best man for a wedding. As such, I had the duty of planning the bachelor's party. On several occasions, the groom preferred to keep the event small, even suggesting to not have one. Thus, in spirits of keeping it manageable, I planned a day out that would include several things I thought he would enjoy. It would start with axe throwing, followed by a quick stop for ice cream, a lengthy board gaming session, and finally finish at a bar eating cheap meats and having drinks. Obviously, I have heard of other people who went out of town for a long weekend getaway for their bachelor party. However, this would have been against the groom's wishes, so I thought I could at least do several different things he would enjoy. Similarly, Cooler Master today has a product that is here to solve the simple problem of applying thermal paste. Some manufacturers suggest users to spread out the grease around the processor so that it will cover the whole area of the processor immediately. On the other hand, they do not provide any equipment to actually do as such. This leaves users trying various objects like credit cards or thicker cardboard to spread it out. Keeping this in mind, Cooler Master has patented and implemented a new way that is built directly into the thermal grease syringe itself. Is this the simple solution that will work for everyone, or will it complicate the matter? I guess we will find out today, so let us hurry on!
The Cooler Master MasterGel lineup arrived via FedEx and their International Ground service. Traveling from Cooler Master's offices in Brea, California, the brown corrugated cardboard box arrived in excellent condition. Thankfully FedEx did an excellent job in keeping the shipping box undamaged. Inside, we have tons of packing material to keep the products safe.
Today's review units of the Cooler Master MasterGel Regular, Pro, and Maker arrived with Cooler Master's recent AIO cooler, the MasterLiquid ML240P Mirage that I looked at last week. Unlike the large cooler, two of the tubes came in plastic blister shells with the logo name at the top and the product name at the bottom. This includes the Regular and Pro, which represents the low- and mid-tier options for their thermal compound. The final one is their high-end MasterGel Maker, which is packaged in a cardboard box and displayed through a plastic shell. Each of these retail packages highlight features of good thermal conductivity and the fact these are not electrically conductive. Otherwise, the MasterGel Maker box has a cleaner exterior to emphasize its top tier ranks. All of this information can be found on the flip side of each package too.
Before we continue on, I have grabbed the product specifications from the manufacturer for your perusal:
Regular
Color: Gray
Thermal Conductivity: 5 (W/m-K)
Specific Gravity: 2.5 (g/cm3) (25°C)
Volume: 1.5ml
Grease Cleaner: Yes
Pro
Color: Gray
Thermal Conductivity: 8 (W/m-K)
Specific Gravity: 2.6 (g/cm3) (25°C)
Volume: 1.5ml
Grease Cleaner: Yes
Maker
Color: Gray
Thermal Conductivity: 11 (W/m-K)
Specific Gravity: 2.6 (g/cm3) (25°C)
Volume: 1.5ml
Grease Cleaner: Yes
Out of the packaging, you can see each of the syringes actually look quite similar to each other, though also very different from other products. Each are marked with different colored labels so you can clearly tell the three tubes of thermal paste from each other. As you have already read from the specifications, the main difference between the Cooler Master MasterGel Regular, Pro, and Maker is the specified thermal conductivity. For some background, thermal conductivity measures the ability of a material to conduct heat in watts per meter Kelvin. A higher thermal conductivity means the material is better at transferring heat. The MasterGel Regular as a thermal conductivity of 5 W/m*K, while the MasterGel Maker sits at the top at 11 W/m*K. The MasterGel Pro slots in between at 8 W/m*K. Otherwise, they all have nearly the same specific gravity and the same provided volume. Doing some quick math, we can determine that Cooler Master provides approximately 3.9g with each tube of the MasterGel Maker and Pro and 3.75g in the tube of the MasterGel Regular. Otherwise, Cooler Master does include an alcohol wipe to clean off your processor and heatsink, though I found them quite small. I also would have liked to see them include a few more.
Otherwise, the other interesting thing about the new Cooler Master MasterGel lineup are the syringes themselves. While thermal paste applicators from other companies like Noctua are often syringes with a small circular opening, Cooler Master uses a flat opening. This allows users to push some out and then spread it across the top of the processor with the syringe. It is a pretty neat idea as it applies and thinly spreads out the goop in one swipe. In addition, this cap covers up the whole area to keep the tip sealed and clean. Cooler Master does mention this is their own patented idea and I think this innovation is pretty neat without being over-engineered.
From here, you can see what the thermal paste looks like after application. It took me a few times to get the application right, especially as I found I accidentally applied too much. This is what a typical application would look like after spreading it thin, though I think I could have pushed it even thinner. While it did take some time to get this right, I do not think it is too difficult as long as you take your time and swipe off the excess. One problem I did find with this application method was that I could push too much out, which resulted in unused thermal paste on the side of the syringe. Otherwise, we will see how this application method affects the performance thermally.
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The Tests
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K (OC to 3.8GHz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-D3H
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3 2x8GB
Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Titanium 8G
Chassis: Fractal Design Define S2
Power: Seasonic FOCUS Plus 850 Gold 850W
Storage: Patriot Ignite 480GB, OCZ ARC 100 240GB, Western Digital Blue EZEX 1TB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64
Compared thermal grease:
- Cooler Master MasterGel Regular
- Cooler Master MasterGel Pro
- Cooler Master MasterGel Maker
- CRYORIG CP7
- Noctua NT-H1
- Noctua NT-H2
As for the thermal paste, we ran all tests in our custom built computer to best reflect real life performance. The computer remained in the same place and room for all tests with an ambient temperature of approximately 26c. The tested thermal paste were applied according to the respective manufacturer's instructions and were given sufficient time between application and testing for the paste to spread. The test computer was turned on and idling for at least one hour for the idling tests. High CPU load results were obtained using the Prime95 in place large FFTs test with four worker threads for a minimum of fifteen minutes and recorded when the temperature was deemed stable. The temperature results for each cooler was measured with AIDA64, which reports the CPU's integrated digital thermal sensor for maximum accuracy. Each temperature result was calculated by taking the maximum value of the cores inside the CPU.
The thermal results above may not be the most exciting of results, especially as we are looking at deltas of about two degrees at most between the tested results. This was tested on a warmer day compared to my original Noctua results, but you can see the improvements between the three Cooler Master thermal pastes. In addition, we can see the Cooler Master MasterGel Maker matches up similarly with the highly regarded Noctua NT-H2 thermal compound, which is high praise on its own. At higher load performance, the Noctua NH-U12A kept the processor cool and all of the peak temperatures were within an uninteresting one degree of difference. All of these thermal paste solutions are competitive and you are likely not going to see a huge difference.
One thing I did notice off the charts however, is the fact the Cooler Master took zero time to wait for the thermal paste to spread out. While I gave all of the thermal compounds time to cover as much surface of the processor as possible before testing, I ran the tests both immediately after the application and a few hours later. The NT-H1 and NT-H2 required some settling time, though not a long duration, while the MasterGel lineup did not. Overall, I do not necessarily think this is a big deal, especially since majority of users will probably not reapply their thermal paste until they replace their cooling solution. Even so, it was pretty interesting to see Cooler Master account for it, and at least the process of doing so was effortless.
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After the whole day, the groom smiled and was super pleased with the bachelor's party. I will not take credit for all of the ideas, especially since I had help from others in the wedding party and my sister. However, I too was quite happy with how the events transpired that day. It definitely was a simple plan, but he was grateful. After taking a look at the Cooler Master MasterGel Regular, Pro, and Maker thermal pastes, we can see Cooler Master has done a pretty good job at making an interface that performs well. Considering the hotter conditions we tested with than usual, the MasterGel lineup, specifically the Pro and Maker, were similar in results to the Noctua NT-H1 and NT-H2, which we hold in high regard. Furthermore, I like the innovation Cooler Master has made with their syringe shape and application method. While the spread technique may cause some users to leave excess grease behind, it is an effective way of getting a thin layer across your processor without needing any additional tools. If there is anything I would like to see Cooler Master improve upon, it would be to include more alcohol wipes that are larger in size to clean up your mess. At press time, the Cooler Master MasterGel lineup can be found at online retailers for $8 for Regular, $13 for Pro, and $18 for Maker. This makes the Cooler Master MasterGel Maker quite a bit more expensive than the NT-H2, while the Pro is the same price. Meanwhile, the MasterGel Regular is closer in price to the Noctua NT-H1. Even so, considering this combines good performing thermal compound with an easy way of application, I think this is just another smart option to keep your processor cool.
Cooler Master provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
Cooler Master MasterGel Regular
APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.5/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
Cooler Master MasterGel Pro
APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.7/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
Cooler Master MasterGel Maker
APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.8/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
Cooler Master provides an innovative but simple solution in delivering their MasterGel Regular, Pro, and Maker to the masses.
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