Cooler Master Master Liquid 240L Core ARGB Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240L Core ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler is available now on Amazon for just £94.99 but at the time of writing it was on sale for just £88.99, making it pretty exceptional value for money! Considering it went up against the Kraken 360 which costs £200 and the Ryuo III that’s £300, and it still delivered competitive performance. Of course, the other two make no excuses about much of that money going towards extensive aesthetic options and LCD displays in their pumps. However, it’s clear you can get all that performance for a hell of a lot less.

Overview

I’m super impressed with this cooler, as it just made for an easy day’s work for me. Firstly, it’s 240mm which is just easier to work with, as there are fewer fans to install vs the 360mm models, and case compatibility is much higher, and the smaller size makes them easier to install in general. The fans come with really nice quality screws that made for easy installation, and the premium braided cables made cable routing a breeze too. Cooler Master even includes their own high-end thermal paste, so you can reapply in the future, so again, I’m very impressed.

Then there’s the performance, it made relatively easy work of our Intel Core i9-12900K, which is not a CPU to be taken lightly, as it runs notoriously hot and will quickly make a fool of an inferior CPU cooler. However, even when I overclocked it, temperatures were really consistent, and while the fans and pump did have to work a bit harder, their noise levels were still very much acceptable. That being said, if I was planning to OC and run the CPU at 100% loads for long times, I’d still get the 360mm just for the long-term TDP improvements, but for gaming or just hitting boost clocks, it’s clearly up to the job.

The RGB is a nice addition too, and while the pump ARGB lighting is fairly limited to that small logo, the quality of the lighting in the fans is really good, offering lots of vibrant colours and effects as they’re fully addressable and will work with your motherboard, hubs or built-in case ARGB controllers.

Should I Buy One?

At this price range, I think Cooler Master has done a remarkable job with their latest cooler design. Not only did it deliver performance that I would consider very good, but it also did so on our new and more potent test bench, going up against three of the best coolers on the market. Easy to install, with great performance, and it’s priced very competitively between the MasterLiquid Lite and the Masterliquid Illusion.