Introduction
You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not too familiar with CoolerMaster products anymore despite starting out building my first PC on mostly CM products. God, I miss my HAF 922 Red Revo edition. Anyway, for people my age that came in during the HAF X era, CoolerMaster is a big part of that history of PC building. They are pretty much the defacto case brand back in the late 2000s and early 2010s but they seem to have declined over the past years. Thankfully, CoolerMaster has managed to pick themselves up, CM Storm does not exist anymore, and have managed to reshape their port folio to meet the needs of a more modern market. They modernized a lot of their cases, peripherals and of course, coolers.
And today we’ll be taking a look at CoolerMaster’s flagship AIO cooler, the 360mm MasterLiquid ML360R RGB. We’ll be referring to it as the ML360R for the rest of this article but anyway, the ML360R is CM’s latest stab at the AIO market with this large cooler designed for heftier, powerful builds with a touch of RGB for some style points. But the RGB implementation is something CoolerMaster wants to be a bit different. Find out more in this year.
Features & Specification
- Exclusive Tech Cooler Master controls quality and builds on decades of innovation with 100 percent in house design and manufacturing
- Dual dissipation our low profile dual chamber pump enhances performance and durability over our last gen single chamber pump designs; Sizable performance leaps over last gen technology
- 360 millimeters radiator our aluminum 360 millimeters large surface radiator will remove excess heat from the CPU and cool with maximum efficiency
- Addressable RGB LED addressable RGB LEDs on the pump and fans for full color customization that can be controlled through Cooler Master software master plus+ (TO be released soon)
- Sleeved FEP underneath sleek black sleeves, FEP material beats rubber tubing in keeping Liquid where it belongs inside the cooler; Fan air flow: 66.7 CFM (Max); Fan Air Pressure: 2.34 millimeter H2O (Max)
- Cpu socket support: Intel LGA2066, LGA2011 v3, LGA2011, LGA1151, LGA1150, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1366, AMD AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
Closer Look
CoolerMaster packages the ML360R in their modern packaging style: full colored box featuring a shot of the product at the front with details and highlights of the specs at the back. The packaged is factory sealed with plastic wrap from the factory.
Unloading everything we have in the package we have a lot to go through: the ML360R AIO, three 120mm fans, documentations, the mounting parts for AMD and Intel systems. Mind you, the ML360R does not support TR4 and sTR4 socket. CoolerMaster has a dedicated TR4 model with a larger cooling plate. Also included is some TIM. CoolerMaster includes a separate bag for the RGB components which includes header cables for RGB, an ARGB controller and some a USB connector.
The included fans are the MasterFan 120AB featuring addressable RGB lighting. These are rated for 2000RPM max and is rated 66.7CFM airflox with a fan pressure rating of 2.34 of pressure or wind pushing power through those rads.
650-2000 RPM (PWM) ± 10%FAN AIRFLOW66.7 CFM (Max)FAN AIR PRESSURE2.34 mmH2O (Max)
The ML360R has a 27mm radiator with decent fin density for its purposes. The radiator is a dual-pass type and as the name implies, is 360mm wide.
One of my favorite thing about this cooler is the mesh-covered tubing. While it does nothing for performance, the touch on details is highly appreciated.
Here we have the pump block. This is a non-Asetek design if you’re curious why its not similar to some of the more popular models in the market with the ridged block.
Here is the MasterLiquid ML360R fully assembled and ready to be mounted.
Assembly and Installation
You’ll need to first assemble the mounting kits for your system. CoolerMaster has included mounting options for recent Intel systems as well as AMD AM4 and Intel 2066 and 2011 sockets.
For Intel MSDT processors like 9900K or earlier, you’ll need to assemble the backplate and secure your block. This is easier if you have cooler mounted already or you’re installing it outcase and have the system laying on the flat sideways.
Here’s the controller for the ML360R. Notice that it works directly off the motherboard controller if it has built in RGB control. You can set it up as standalone controller. Check the manual for details, you controller without exposing the hub or opening your case by attaching the reset button on the hub and routing the controls on the reset, which leaves your reset button needing to pressed for 5 seconds until it actually reboots your system. This does not work for cases without a reset button unfortunately.
Motherboard connectors are labelled accordingly.
One installed, you’ll have to deal with the wiring which is kind of hard but I do realize this is a temporary setup so I’m avoid having to tie down cable. In a more permanent situation, you are free to use zip ties or twist ties to secure your cables.
I’ll have to address that under bright lighting in our studio, the lights are fairly overpowered but let me make it clear that the lights are decently bright.
Performance Testing
Test Setup
Intel Setup
Processor: Intel Core i9 9900K
Motherboard: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XI EXTREME
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3600 16GB
Storage: WD Blue SSD 1TB SATA
PSU: Seasonic Platinum 1050w
AMD Setup
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Steel Legend
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ RGB DDR4-3600 16GB
Storage: WD Blue SSD 1TB SATA
PSU: Seasonic Platinum 1050w
For load testing, we used RealBench 2.56 stress test to put load on our systems. RealBench is a good mixed, workload benchmark with some AVX loads to put in a decent amount of heat in our system.
Ambient temperature is maintained at 30*C give or take a few 0.5*C in variance. All systems are tested in an open test bench with no fans directly blowing over the system.
Temperatures are gathered 15 minutes into idle just staring at the desktop and final temperatures are gathered from HWINfo’s CPU package reading for Intel and CPU temprature for AMD. The average LOAD and average IDLE temps are used for these results.
Test systems are have fixed voltages for more uniform testing. Fan profiles are set to default or normal profiles if they do not have motherboard PWM controls.
Please be guided accordingly that the charts show results as DeltaT meaning temperatures over ambient.
As always, we leave the numbers to speak for themselves.
Conclusion
Going into this review, I wasn’t too confident on the ML360R given its smaller block especially on a 9900K test bench but thankfully it managed to do well on stock settings on the Intel test and proved to be a nice middleground competitor for the AMD test. Performance aside, CoolerMaster definitely has something going on with the ML360R, if not the the price-to-performance ratio alone, that is sure to attract potential buyers.
The RGB concept may be overdone for some but its a subjective feature and anyone can just turn it off if they wanted to. Still, the RGB lighting on the ML360R is excellent and the choice of using CM’s readily available RGB fans makes this a great choice especially for those looking to expand to a push-pull setup or match the rest of their system.
I always have an issue with mounting systems with no retention screws but then again my use-case is quite specific. For those that will be using this long-term, I still feel the retention mechanism could’ve been improved and the manual doesn’t help being a foldout brochure with no words. Its the same for any brand, and its about time someone actually change this. Could’ve been you, CoolerMaster?
For mainstream systems, the ML360R has you covered and Intel HEDT systems are supported but Threadripper sockets TR4 and STR4, are snubbed in favor of a dedicated edition as the coldplate is by far larger than the normal ML360 that we have. This plays into why CoolerMaster couldn’t have just went with the larger block for improved coverage, support and possible performance?
Nitpicking aside, the CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R is fully-functional, well-performing and excellently priced RGB AIO cooler. Bar the RGB part, its still a great cooler and the mesh tubing and overall great polish of the product make it an easy upgrade choice for high-performance cooling.
CoolerMaster backs the MasterLiquid 360R RGB with a 1-year warranty. We give it our B2G Best Value and B2G Silver Award!