Cooler Master ML240L RGB AIO CPU Cooler Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Cooler Master ML240L RGB AIO CPU Cooler Review

The Cooler Master "MasterLiquid" series of coolers is very robust. Today we again look at an "L" model All-In-One cooler that is part of its "Lite" series of AIO that is supposed to be easier on your wallet while delivering an "easy, reliable and low noise plunge into liquid cooling." Does the 240mm radiator Lite model deliver value...and cooling?


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Currently £60 in the UK, which is an utter steal - I paid £70 for my Arctic Freezer 240 18 months ago which was a bargain at the time and this looks to be even better value.
 
Sweet, great review. Who doesn't love seeing a great review for something they just bought? :p

In all seriousness, the ML240L is the first AIO cooler I've bought. It was a breeze to install and my 8700k seems to be doing quite well at 5.0GHz and 1.35v. Temps spiked to the high 80s during benchmarking but during my regular gaming the temps are under good control, in the low 70s.
 
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Some are more noise sensitive than others. I have crap hearing so with nothing else running I can hardly hear my H100i. But hell at that price the Cooler Master is a steal.
 
Tempted. But the last AIO I had was a Swiftech H220 that I had to RMA twice cause the pump design was complete shit. Sold the 3rd one on Ebay that Swiftech sent me without even trying it out.

But that was almost 5 years ago. How are the longevity of these AIO systems now?
 
Rob94hawk said:
Tempted. But the last AIO I had was a Swiftech H220 that I had to RMA twice cause the pump design was complete shit. Sold the 3rd one on Ebay that Swiftech sent me without even trying it out.

But that was almost 5 years ago. How are the longevity of these AIO systems now?
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Since our testing isn't long term I can't say from personal experience, the only thing I know is Cooler Master rates the pump on the ML240L at 70,000 hours MTTF.
 
pizzathehutt said:
Just bought this one today, anything i should watch for on the install or is it easysauce?
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While I can't speak for Intel mounts as our test system is AM4, the only thing is what was mentioned in the review, the little square clips the go over the hooks on the AM4 can be a bit tight, and make sure you have a MOLEX if you want to use the included RGB controller, other than that it's dead simple.
 
pizzathehutt said:
Just bought this one today, anything i should watch for on the install or is it easysauce?
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been saving that first post for a while, eh?! :) since its the two tab method its dead simple, as rg said.

Rob94hawk said:
But that was almost 5 years ago. How are the longevity of these AIO systems now?
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I've got 3 aios, all asetek based, that are between 1.5 and 6 years old, the pumps all work fine still.
 
Anybody else get one of these? Really impressed with the review.
Seems like it checks all the right boxes for me...

Air cooling isn't cutting it for my 8700k/furnace.
 
I picked one up to try out on my ryzen system. Its on sale this week on NE and Amazon too.
 
Got mine yesterday.

In the process of installing it.
Seems like a high quality piece.

NNvL9UL.jpg
 
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rgMekanic said:
Awesome man, keep us posted. Out of all the coolers I've tested so far, I don't know how anyone is going to surpass the price/performance of this one
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Alright, it's installed.

Not sure if I hooked everything up right or not...

But the fans seem to either run at 0 or full blast.

Double click on Mozilla
"whoosh"
Silent.
Right click on a file
"whoosh"
Silent.

On off on off on off.

Even my wife said it was irritating and she's used to our miner rig :LOL:
 
you need to set up a custom fan curve and spend some time tuning it. if possible set it based on the water temp in the aio, not sure if CM has that or not...
 
pendragon1 said:
you need to set up a custom fan curve and spend some time tuning it. if possible set it based on the water temp in the aio, not sure if CM has that or not...
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I set up a very quiet fan curve in the bios and it made no difference.

Does this behavior sound normal? It's like any cpu activity triggers it to go full bore.
 
craigdt said:
I set up a very quiet fan curve in the bios and it made no difference.

Does this behavior sound normal? It's like any cpu activity triggers it to go full bore.
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yup that's exactly why, and why I said what I did about water temp. you need to monitor the max "normal temp spikes" and set a fixed rpm until it starts to exceed that by a few degrees then ramp up. so say it hits 60c during short spikes, set it to 25% until then and then ramp up when it hits 65-70c. the aio will still cool it just fine during the short spikes. to find your max rpm, I would stress it will full rpm till its stabilizes temps then lower rpm until you get a temp/noise ratio that suits you. then that will be your max rpm.

hope that makes sense...
 
craigdt said:
I set up a very quiet fan curve in the bios and it made no difference.

Does this behavior sound normal? It's like any cpu activity triggers it to go full bore.
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Interesting, I had no such behavior in our review testing. There isn't a way to measure water temp in the ML240L. The only thing I could think is that the fan curve you set up is possibly too low, and not supplying enough voltage for the fans to run at all, anything below 30% can be a struggle for many fans.

In our testing on our Gigabyte board, I had the pump 3 pin hooked to the CPU Fan header, with a 100% speed set, and the included fans connected to the included splitter hooked to the CPU OPT header, our testing is done at 100% fan speed, but I did drop the speed of these to see if the buzzing noise stopped and it did, I believe I set them to 60% for that.

RGB I used the included 3 way splitter to go to both fans and the pump, to their control box, and used the included molex to 2 pin to power that.
 
rgMekanic said:
Interesting, I had no such behavior in our review testing. There isn't a way to measure water temp in the ML240L. The only thing I could think is that the fan curve you set up is possibly too low, and not supplying enough voltage for the fans to run at all, anything below 30% can be a struggle for many fans.

In our testing on our Gigabyte board, I had the pump 3 pin hooked to the CPU Fan header, with a 100% speed set, and the included fans connected to the included splitter hooked to the CPU OPT header, our testing is done at 100% fan speed, but I did drop the speed of these to see if the buzzing noise stopped and it did, I believe I set them to 60% for that.

RGB I used the included 3 way splitter to go to both fans and the pump, to their control box, and used the included molex to 2 pin to power that.
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Oh ok- based on my motherboard instructions, I plugged the pump 3 pin into the "AIO Pump" header on my motherboard. I'll try your configuration.
 
shouldnt really matter what headers they are on as long as you know which is which. but you do want the pump at 100% no matter which its on.
 
Well I never could solve the constant whooshing on/off situation. I tried every configuration in the bios I could see, used different fan headers... It's like my changes made no difference.

So I removed the included CoolerMaster fans, mounted the radiator in the front, and used my Deepcool 140mm intake fans to blow cool air over the radiator. Basically silent in this setup.

On a 15 minute RealBench stress test, with 4.6ghz, 1.250volts my 8700k temps were:

Aircooler- 99deg
MasterLiquid- 86deg

No idea if that's good or not. Seems super hot still on a very mild overclock.
 
try setting them to a fixed rpm like 70%ish and see if it actually applies or maybe try switching between pwm/voltage control in bios or maybe speedfan.
 
It's been almost 3 months and I'm still running my 8700k at 5GHz and 1.35v with no issues.

One of the fans has developed this really obnoxious rattle that comes and goes as the fan spins up faster. I've put in for a replacement fan and just waiting for them to ship me a new one.
 
Hostile said:
It's been almost 3 months and I'm still running my 8700k at 5GHz and 1.35v with no issues.

One of the fans has developed this really obnoxious rattle that comes and goes as the fan spins up faster. I've put in for a replacement fan and just waiting for them to ship me a new one.
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in some PWM fans it's normal certain "rattle" at very specific fan speed, I have couple of noctua fans that rattle at exactly 66% fan speed, not at 65% or below not at 67% or above, just at 66% crazy, but that's it.
 
craigdt said:
I absolutely I did. Set up the fan curve just as you explained- it made no difference.

Guess I'll get it delidded?
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Out of curiosity, have you drop Vcore a little bit more to see if temperature gets better. Feel like you can go lower than 1.25volt if you are only OC'ing 4.6ghz on all cores.
 
Chimpee said:
Out of curiosity, have you drop Vcore a little bit more to see if temperature gets better. Feel like you can go lower than 1.25volt if you are only OC'ing 4.6ghz on all cores.
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I'll have to check my notes. I think I would have set it lower if it were stable.
I think I definitely lost the silicon lottery
 
Araxie said:
in some PWM fans it's normal certain "rattle" at very specific fan speed, I have couple of noctua fans that rattle at exactly 66% fan speed, not at 65% or below not at 67% or above, just at 66% crazy, but that's it.
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Well the other fan doesn't do it so I'm happy to chalk it up as a faulty since CM seems to agree. I'm just waiting for the replacement as they are on backorder. :)
 
craigdt said:
I set up a very quiet fan curve in the bios and it made no difference.

Does this behavior sound normal? It's like any cpu activity triggers it to go full bore.
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An update in case anyone cares- I replaced the stock CoolerMaster fans with BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 fans, and its now totally inaudible at 100%

4ZHR8dM.jpg
 
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Ranulfo said:
Which model of the BeQuiet Silent Wings? The BLO66?
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Yes, BL066.

Im very impressed with them.

The stock fans were probably okay, but they were just way too loud for me, and I'm not particularly noise sensitive.
 
Read the review and bought 240L RGB. Bit of a warning if you own a Corsair C70 case that the 240L's radiator does not exactly fit in the top of the case because of stupid tiny screws. I shifted the screw heads and tighten them in place as let gravity do the rest. I just have to be careful when lifting the case and hope the radiator doesn't get loose and fall onto the hardware inside. I don't know who to blame more, Corsair for their big ass holes or CM for their tiny ass screws.

Af6AtcS.jpg
 
TangledThornz said:
Read the review and bought 240L RGB. Bit of a warning if you own a Corsair C70 case that the 240L's radiator does not exactly fit in the top of the case because of stupid tiny screws. I shifted the screw heads and tighten them in place as let gravity do the rest. I just have to be careful when lifting the case and hope the radiator doesn't get loose and fall onto the hardware inside. I don't know who to blame more, Corsair for their big ass holes or CM for their tiny ass screws.

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did it not come with washers?
 
No washers. Even shows no washers in the manual. I think Corsair's AIO liquid coolers have washers. I may get washers but still, I'm annoyed at both CM and Corsair over it.
 
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