At first we would like to thank Cooler Master for sending a sample of their MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Cooler Master:

"Cooler Master was founded with the mission of providing the industry's best thermal solutions. Since its establishment two decades ago, the company has remained faithful to this mission, emerging as a world leader in products and services for companies dealing with devices where heat issues must be resolved.

 

In pursuing this mission, Cooler Master is absolutely committed to delivering solutions that precisely meet customer requirements for features, performance, and quality. Moreover, we strive to be a reliable long-term partner for our customers that they can truly depend on. It aims to be the first and foremost name that comes to mind for companies around the world seeking thermal solutions, and seeks to build such a reputation through outstanding technology, sophisticated design, and superior service.

 

Cooler Master's current business encompasses a comprehensive lineup of thermal solutions for a full range of applications. Its products range from heat sinks and fans to component housing, chassis, and ducting for computers, industrial machinery, telecommunications equipment, and many other devices.

 

A critical component of Cooler Master's ability to successfully pursue its mission is an unstinting commitment to quality, as demonstrated by the ISO 9001 certification granted to its main manufacturing plant in Taiwan. It has also enforced ISO guidelines and is in the process of applying for ISO 9002 certification at its second and third plants, located in China. Cooler Master has also implemented a number of analytical and testing protocols to ensure top quality, including at subcontractors, to further ensure thorough quality control. Moreover, Cooler Master's dedication to quality extends beyond manufacturing to every aspect of its operation, including service."

 

Product Features:

 

FlowOp Technology

Starting with the hot CPU, FlowOp looks to optimize the flow of liquid, enabling it to carry heat quickly and efficiently away from the CPU while preserving the lifespan of the components. To achieve this, we made improvements to practically every phase of the MasterLiquid Pro's cooling loop.

 

A Dual Approach to Life Expectancy

We stacked an extra chamber on top and engineered it so that cold stuff can go in, but hot stuff can't go back up.

The cooler upper chamber is where we store all of the vital components.

 

“Spraying”the CPU

We stacked an extra chamber on top and engineered it so that cold stuff can go in, but hot stuff can't go back up.

We grabbed technology from top-end DIY liquid cooling kits to create a powerful pump that sprays liquid directly at the center of the water block. It solves the issue of slow flow and allows us to mount more ultra-fine fins on the copper base, creating more surface area from which the coolant can take away heat.

 

Gently Driven

Adding to that effort towards silence, we encased the pump needed to drive that concentrated spray at our CPU with a silent driver. The custom driver rotates way more smoothly than any other technology out there, reducing noisy clicks and vibration. It's like you're using a V8 engine and can't even notice.

 

Easy Installation

Many of Cooler Master's products are known for their easy installation. To fit our Pro lineup to the motherboard and install fans, all you need to bring are your two hands and a screwdriver.

 

Spacious Squares for Air

The MasterLiquid's unique square fin design creates greater surface area for absorption of the heat and allows for spacious airflow. The increased space means we can use a quieter fan that pushes air farther out of the case. It's really quiet.

 

Getting the Heat Outside

The spacious square fins gave us leverage to use all-new MasterFan Pro Series Fans. The blades push air farther out of the case and are quieter than high static pressure fans. And they'll last just as long as your liquid cooler.

 

Who is the MasterLiquid Pro series for?

Water-based cooling solutions are for those who want to push their system. The harder you drive your CPU, the better AIO liquid cooling performs. Fields which demand performance PCs include: modding, software development, graphics, industrial design, film and entertainment, media , overclocking.

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

 

In this article we will look upon another liquid cooling system which does fit the AM4 platform, and to be more exact the MasterLiquid Pro 280 by Cooler Master. This model does feature FlowOp technology (liquid flow optimization) which is composed of a square fin design radiator, a precision water block with 657% more surface area for heat dissipation, fan blade design inspired by the helicopters, FEB tubing, but also a custom pump. The product is shipped inside a black cardboard enclosure, fully sealed on the outside with a transparent plastic layer:

 

 

 

After removing the seal, we will be able to spot the fully assembled system on the top cover of the packaging:

 

 

 

On one of the box sides, the user can also check out the full list of technical specifications:

 

 

 

On the bottom area, we can see drawings and dimensions of the radiator, pump, but also an exploded view of the pump assembly; Cooler Master has also included here the main product features, written in different languages:

 

 

 

The inside contents are carefully packed, so it won’t get damaged during transit:

 

 

 

Let’s take a look first at the accessory box:

 

 

 

 

Here we will find a standalone rubber gasket for the interface between the radiator and the fans, the documentation leaflet, the multi-purpose backplate, mounting brackets for both AMD and Intel sockets, but also a separate blister enclosure with the necessary installation tools:

 

 

 

The supplied rubber gasket is very flexible and it must be aligned properly with the mounting holes of the radiator before actually placing the fans on it:

 

 

 

Besides the installation guide, we do also receive one Warranty Information leaflet:

 

 

 

Inside the guide, we will be able to see the list of included hardware, but also the steps we need to take in order to perform the installation on multiple sockets:

 

 

 

In order to identify the mounting holes with ease, Cooler Master has written the name of the platform on each side of the backplate:

 

Intel side

AMD side

 

Here is a close-up of the Intel/AMD supplied brackets:

 

 

 

The hardware tools does include screws for mounting the fans onto the radiator, for mounting the radiator onto the case, for fixing the brackets, for the backplate, plastic adapters for the backplate screws, screws for using with the LGA 2011 – v3/2011 installation, nuts but also a tube of thermal compound:

 

 

 

Let’s get back to the main product components:

 

 

 

MasterLiquid Pro 280 comes with an all-black theme and the FEB tubing allows a much less absorption than rubber:

 

 

 

The unique square fin design of the radiator creates greater surface area for absorption of the heat and allows for spacious airflow:

 

 

 

In the corner, we will be able to spot a refill port, but it is covered by a warranty sticker:

 

 

 

The radiator is fully made of aluminum and comes with the following dimensions (L W H) – 311 x 138 x 27 mm:

 

 

 

On the side, we will be able to spot the product logo in white:

 

 

 

The pump sports an interesting outside design, with a transparent plastic cover on top; Cooler Master has stacked an extra chamber on top and engineered it in such a way so cold liquid can go in, but hot liquid cannot go back up. This new design does also come with over 2.5X life expectancy (175K MTTF):

 

 

 

 

The tubes do feature flexible fittings, so we can install the pump in the desired position:

 

 

 

The pump is fueled by a 4-pin connector, which plugs in to a suitable non-regulated motherboard header:

 

 

 

On the bottom area of the pump we can see the large copper plate, but also the lateral adapters for mounting the brackets. The inside pump does spray liquid directly at the center of the water block so this way it solves the slow flow issue and by using this design, Cooler Master was able to mount more ultra-fine fins on the copper base:

 

 

 

The MasterLiquid Pro 280 kit is also bundled with two MasterFan Pro Series fans:

 

 

 

The 5-blade design pushes air farther out the case and are quieter than the regular high-static pressure fans:

 

 

 

The fan blades come with a glossy coating, do have rubber mounts with threads in order to absorb vibrations and rattle noise, while the used POM bearing does allow a MTTF of about 490K hours:

 

 

 

 

These fans operate with speeds between 650 and 2800RPM, their power rating is 12V at 0.4A and if a motherboard PWM header does not regulate them, we can adjust their speed with the small fan controller on the back (Silent Mode, Quiet Mode or Performance Mode):

 

 

 

Inside the kit we will also find an adapter, so both fans can be powered from the same motherboard PWM header:

 

 

 

 

As we have mentioned before, we must carefully place the supplied gasket onto the radiator before mounting the fans, so the holes will align perfectly:

 

 

 

The supplied long screws will assist in this process:

 

 

 

 

The radiator will be then mounted to the case thanks to the smaller screws:

 

 

 

What we did not mention before on purpose is the fact that MasterLiquid Pro 280 did not arrive with integrated AM4 socket support; in order to solve this issue, Cooler Master is now supplying standalone adapter kits with the RL-AM48-MLPS-R1 code name:

 

 

 

Inside the small box, we will get the new brackets, mounting accessories but also an installation manual:

 

 

 

 

To be more exact, the accessories do include double-threaded thumbscrews, plastic rings but also nuts:

 

 

 

First, we do need to fix the brackets onto the pump, by using the small screws from the original packaging:

 

 

 

Then we will pick up the rings along with the double-threaded screws and mount them onto the original AM4 metallic backplate:

 

 

 

 

 

After we have used a bit of the supplied compound as thermal interface, we can easily place the pump onto the CPU, by securing it thanks to the included nuts:

 

 

 

 

A static blue light shines through the transparent plastic cover of the pump; unfortunately, the LED is not adjustable at all (a small switch could have been implemented on the side of the pump), and we cannot turn it off either:

 

 

 

For testing out the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler, we have installed it on our ASUS X370 Crosshair VI Hero motherboard, which did have the AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU mounted along with a GEIL PC4 25600 3200MHz CL16 8GBx2 Samsung B-die based kit. For storage we have mounted an OCZ Vector 150 240GB SSD, the video interface was assured by a KFA2 GTX 1060 OC 6GB video card and all was installed inside a Cooler Master ATCS 840 Tower Case.

 

We did configure an all-core overclock to 3.9GHz via the UEFI interface, at a voltage of 1.337V. Why choose the Ryzen 7 1700 you may ask? Well…the answer is pretty simple: this CPU is the only one from the Ryzen 7 series which does not feature a +20 degrees Celsius offset for the tCTL reading so we are getting more accurate temperatures from the monitoring programs.

 

In order to heat up the cooling system and stabilize at the maximum temperature, we have ran Prime95 (Blend) and afterwards we have logged the highest temperature via the HWiNFO64 utility. During the testing procedure, the ambient temperature was held steady at 24.1 degrees Celsius.

 

 

(click to enlarge)

 

MasterLiquid Pro 280 is able to keep the Ryzen 7 1700 overclocked CPU at low temperatures in IDLE, while the Full Load Prime95 Blend environment did not exceed 69.9 degrees Celsius, which is great! During this mode, the fans did spin at 2198RPM, which resulted in a noise measurement 30cm away from the system of about 51.4 dBA.

The new MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler from Cooler Master does impress with the good quality of materials, durability of both pump, fans but also features impressive cooling capabilities when talking about an octal-core overclocked platform. Given we do have at our disposal the stock AM4 backplate, the installation for the Ryzen platform is pretty straight forward thanks to the Upgrade Kit and the supplied MasterFan Pro 140mm do offer an extra level of customization, by offering an integrated fan controller, with three different profiles.

 

Before purchasing the MasterLiquid Pro 280, make sure that your case does accommodate radiators of such size (311 x 138 x 27 mm); going back to the LED light customization, there isn’t one because the LED light will stay on continuously and shine blue while the pump is operating properly. Always make sure to plug in the pump to a non-regulated header, because if it does not receive the full 12VDC, its lifespan will be minimized due to improper usage.

 

The MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler is available online for about 99 Euros, which is acceptable for a high-end AIO cooling system.

 

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Cooler Master for making this review possible!