Page 3 - Test Results
Out test configuration is as follows;
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk
RAM: Thermaltake TOUGHRAM XG RGB DDR4-4000 2x8GB
Graphics: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 TI
Chassis: Corsair 5000D
Power: SilverStone Decathlon DA850 Gold 850W
Storage: Samsung EVO 970 1TB, Lexar NQ100 480GB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared hardware:
- Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux
- Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240 Illusion
- Noctua NH-P1 (Fanless)
- Noctua NH-P1 (w/ NF-A12x25 LS-PWM)
- SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB
All tests were run in our custom-built computer to best reflect real-life performance. The computer remained in the same place and room for all tests. The ambient temperature of the room was roughly 21 degrees Celsius. The thermal paste applied to each cooler was stock respective to their manufacturers to rate its performance. Sufficient time between testing was applied for the paste to settle. The fans on all heatsinks, if applicable, were connected to the same motherboard's 4-pin connector. 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 sixteen worker threads for a minimum of 15 minutes and recorded when the temperature was deemed stable.
For the first test, I let my computer sit idle for a while. After about an hour, I shook my mouse to wake my computer up. We can see the Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux sat at around 31 degrees Celsius, which outshined all the compared coolers. This is 10 degrees cooler than Cooler Master’s own ML240 Illusion, which has already been proven to be a capable cooler. The PL240 Flux was also 6 degrees cooler than the Noctua NH-P1 with the NF-A12x25 LS PWM fan attached, which had the lowest idle result on this test system prior to the PL240 Flux. While this is a good start, idle tests do not give a full representation of the cooling capabilities, thus leading us into our load tests.
Starting Prime95 and giving the processor ample time to load all the cores and threads, we can see how the cooler performs when the processor is under heavy stress. The Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux continued to perform very well, peaking at 58 degrees Celsius. Once again, this surpassed Cooler Master’s own ML240 Illusion and the SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB, which had the best result previously. We observed the boost frequency throughout the test, which was 3.7 GHz across all cores. The Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux excelled in our tests, outperforming all the compared coolers.
Sound is often perceived differently by people, but we try to make our subjective audio tests as objective as possible. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is silence and 10 is a grenade explosion, I would rate the Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux around 2.5/10 when idle and 4.0/10 when under full load. These SickleFlow fans emit a moderate level of noise when under full load. Under day-to-day use, these fans are much quieter. These new SickleFlow 120 fans may not be the quietest, but are also not obnoxiously loud by any means. One reality users will have to face when purchasing an AIO cooler is there will be more moving parts in the system, which makes for more sources of noise. The pump emitted a low humming sound at full speed, which was relatively quiet. At normal speed though, the pump is basically inaudible.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware, Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
