Passport characteristics, scope of delivery and price

Description

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML280 Mirror liquid cooling system is supplied in a box of medium thickness corrugated cardboard, designed using company colors. On the outer planes of the box, the product itself is depicted in color, as well as the main features (with illustrations) and technical characteristics are listed, there are also drawings of the pump and radiator with the main dimensions. Some of the images are varnished. The inscriptions are mostly in English, but some of them are duplicated in several languages, including Russian. Papier-mâché molds, polyethylene foam pads and plastic bags are used to protect and distribute parts. The sole of the heat sink is protected by a plastic film.

Inside the box is what is listed in the table above:

The installation manual is an accordion book of good printing quality. The information is mostly presented in the form of pictures and does not need to be translated, although there is an important note in several languages, including Russian. The company’s website has a description of the system , PDF files with a description of the system and installation instructions .

The system is sealed, primed and ready to use. The pump is integrated into one unit with a heat sink. The manufacturer indicates that the water block is two-chamber, apparently the pump chamber is on top, and the heat sink chamber is on the bottom. The sole of the heat sink, directly adjacent to the processor cover, is a copper plate 1.5 mm thick. Its outer surface is polished, but not polished and slightly, about 0.1 mm, convex towards the center.

The dimensions of this plate are 58×50 mm, and the internal part, limited by the screw holes, measures approximately 47×39 mm. Thermal paste in a small syringe, which, of course, is less convenient than a pre-applied layer. A complete supply of thermal paste should be enough for two times in the case of processors with a small cover area and at economical consumption. The tests used no less high-quality thermal paste from another manufacturer. Looking ahead, we will demonstrate the distribution of thermal paste after all tests are completed. On an Intel Core i9-7980XE processor:

And on the sole of the pump:

It can be seen that the thermal paste was distributed in a very thin layer over most of the area of the processor cover, and its excess was squeezed out of the edges. The dense contact area has a large area.

In case of AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor. On processor:

On the sole of the heat sink:

In this case, the thermal paste layer is also very thin on most of the processor cover, and the tight contact patch is large in area. Of course, the distribution of thermal paste changed to some extent when the processor and pump were disconnected.

The body of the pump itself is made of hard black plastic. A cylindrical add-on made of black plastic is fixed on top of the hull, the top of which is covered with a lid made of glass (probably mineral), which has the properties of a translucent mirror.

Under this cover there is an annular light diffuser made of white translucent plastic, below which there is a partition with a mirror surface through which the logo and a wide ring around the perimeter shine through. As a result, when the backlight is on, the ring and the logo are repeatedly reflected between the partition and the lid, forming the effect of a tunnel going down. The addressable RGB backlight LEDs are externally controlled via a 3-wire interface. The backlight of the pump has a separate cable with two three-pin input connectors of the “mother” type of different types.

The included controller only controls the operation of the backlight on the pump. The controller is magnetized by the bottom plane, which facilitates its installation in the computer case.

The controller’s detachable power cable is connected using a SATA power connector, which is much more convenient than a peripheral connector (“Molex type”). The second “tail” from the controller connector is the output for connecting the backlight. It connects to the backlight cable from the pump. The docked connectors on these two cables can be fixed with a special plastic bracket included in the kit. The only button on the controller switches backlight modes. Also, the modes can be switched by an external button, for example, the Reset button on the case, by connecting it to the two-pin connector on the controller. The backlight modes that are implemented in this controller can be viewed in the video below:

If the motherboard or another backlight controller has one of the two standard three-pin connectors for connecting ARGB backlight, then you can not use the controller from the kit, but connect the pump backlight to the motherboard and use the appropriate software to control the backlight.

The hoses are resilient, but relatively flexible, they are sheathed in slippery plastic, the outer diameter of the braided hoses is approximately 10 mm. The length of the hoses along the flexible part is 33 cm (not long). The L-shaped fittings at the inlet to the pump rotate, which makes it easy to install the system.

The radiator is made of aluminum and has a relatively durable matte black finish on the outside. Note that the fans can be attached to the heatsink without using a screwdriver, as the screws have large knurled heads (and they have threaded holes for attaching the heatsink to the case panel through the fans). The complete system (without the backlight controller and cables to it) with fasteners for LGA 2011 has a weight of 1438 g. Fasteners are made mainly of hardened steel and have a durable galvanized coating. The frame on the back of the motherboard is made of durable plastic and equipped with steel threaded sockets.

The fan frame is made of durable black plastic. Vibration-isolating rubber pads are glued to the eyes in the corners of the fan frame. In the uncompressed state, they protrude by about 0.5 mm relative to the plane of the frame. As conceived by the developers, this should provide vibration decoupling of the fan from the attachment point. However, if we estimate the ratio of the fan mass to the stiffness of the linings, it becomes clear that the resonant frequency of the structure is very high, that is, there can be practically no vibration decoupling. In addition, the sockets where the mounting screws are screwed are part of the fan frame, so the vibration from the fan through the screws is transmitted without interference to the radiator. As a result, such an eye design can only be considered as a fan design element.

The fan power cable is encased in a slippery braided sheath. According to the legend, the sheath reduces aerodynamic drag, but taking into account the thickness of the flat three/four-wire cable inside this sheath and its outer diameter, we strongly doubt the veracity of this legend. However, the shell will allow you to maintain a single style of interior decoration of the case. The shell is also on the branches of the fan power splitter.

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML280 Mirror system comes with a 2-year warranty.

Testing

A full description of the testing methodology is given in the corresponding article ” Testing methodology for processor coolers of the 2020 sample “. For the main load test, the powerMax (AVX) program was used, all cores of the Intel Core i9-7980XE processor worked at a fixed frequency of 3.2 GHz (multiplier 32). In all tests, unless otherwise noted, the pump runs on 12V.

Determination of the dependence of the cooler fan speed on the PWM duty cycle and / or supply voltage

A good result is a monotonous increase in the rotation speed with a change in the duty cycle from 20% to 100%, the range of rotation speed adjustment is quite wide. When the fill factor (SC) drops to 0, the fans do not stop. This may be of value if the user wants to create a hybrid cooling system that operates fully or partially in passive mode at low load.

Adjusting with voltage allows you to get a stable rotation in a slightly wider range. The horizontal section on the graph above in the range from 9.5 to 12V shows that the fan uses a speed stabilization system, which is set using short-circuit PWM. The fans stop when the voltage drops to 2.9-3.0 V, but stable rotation starts only from 4.8 V and above. Fans, apparently, it is permissible to connect to a source with a voltage of 5 V.

The rotation speed of the pump can be adjusted by changing the supply voltage:

The pump stops when the voltage drops to 3.9 V and starts from 4.1 V. It turns out that the pump can also be connected to 5 V.

Determination of the dependence of the temperature of the processor at its full load on the speed of rotation of the cooler fans

In this test, our Intel Core i9-7980XE processor does not overheat at 24 degrees of ambient air even at the minimum fan speed when adjusted using only PWM.

Determining the noise level depending on the speed of rotation of the cooler fans

The noise level from this cooling system is low throughout the entire range of fan speeds. It depends, of course, on individual characteristics and other factors, but somewhere from 40 dBA and above, the noise is, from our point of view, very high for a desktop system; from 35 to 40 dBA, the noise level is classified as tolerable; below 35 dBA, the noise from the cooling system will not stand out much against the background of typical non-noisy PC components – case fans, fans on the power supply and on the video card, as well as hard drives; and somewhere below 25 dBA the cooler can be called conditionally silent. The background level was equal to 16.0 dBA (conditional value, which shows the sound level meter). The noise level from the pump alone, when it is running at maximum speed, is 18 dBA. The pump is very quiet, so there is no point in reducing the noise from the system by reducing the pump supply voltage.

Plotting the dependence of the real maximum power on the noise level

Let’s try to get away from the conditions of the test bench to more realistic scenarios. Let’s say that the temperature of the air taken in by the cooling system fans can rise to 44 ° C, but the temperature of the processor under maximum load does not want to be raised above 80 ° C. Restricting ourselves to these conditions, let’s plot the dependence of the real maximum power (denoted as P _max (previously we used the designation Max. TDP )), consumed by the processor, on the noise level ( details are described in the methodology ):

Taking 25 dBA as a conditional noiselessness criterion, we get the approximate maximum power of processors corresponding to this level. This is about 253 W for an Intel Core i9-7980XE processor. If you do not pay attention to the noise level, then the power limits can be increased somewhere up to 275 watts. Let us clarify once again that in harsh conditions of blowing the radiator with air heated to 44 degrees, when the air temperature drops, the indicated power limits for silent operation and maximum power increase.

Comparison with other LSS when cooling the Intel Core i9-7980XE processor

Using this link , you can calculate the power limits for other boundary conditions (air temperature and maximum processor temperature) and compare this system with several other LSSs tested using the same methodology (the list is updated). In the region of high power, the efficiency of this LSS is average, in the region of low power it is high. That is, it is advisable to use this LSS if you need a quiet PC, the processor of which does not consume very much (in fact, rather, it is simply not overclocked).

Testing on an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor

As an additional test, we decided to see how this coolant will cope with the cooling of the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X . The processors of the Ryzen 9 family are assemblies of three crystals under one cover. On the one hand, increasing the area from which heat is removed can improve the cooling capacity of the cooler, but on the other hand, the design of most coolers is optimized for better cooling of the central area of the processor. All processor cores worked at a fixed frequency of 3.6 GHz (multiplier 36). The powerMax program was used as a load test (using the AVX command system).

The dependence of the temperature of the processor at its full load on the speed of rotation of the fans:

In fact, under test conditions, this processor does not overheat at 24 degrees of ambient air even with a short circuit of 20%.

Restricting ourselves to the above conditions, we plot the dependence of the real maximum power (denoted as P _max ) consumed by the processor on the noise level:

Taking 25 dBA as a conditional noiselessness criterion, we get that the maximum processor power corresponding to this level is about 138 W. If you do not pay attention to the noise level, then the power limit can be increased somewhere up to 144 watts. Once again, we will clarify: this is in harsh conditions of blowing the radiator with air heated to 44 degrees. As the air temperature drops, the specified power limits for quiet operation and maximum power increase. The result is noticeably worse than in the case of the Intel Core i9-7980XE processor. However, provided there is enough good ventilation in the case, this cooler will quite cope with the cooling of the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor, but you should not count on the possibility of significant overclocking.

Comparison with other coolers and coolers when cooling AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

Using this link , you can calculate the power limits for other boundary conditions (air temperature and maximum processor temperature) and compare this system with several other LSSs tested using the same methodology (the list is updated). The results of this LSS are not the best, but above average.

findings

Based on the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML280 Mirror liquid cooling system, you can create a conditionally silent computer (noise level 25 dBA or less) equipped with an Intel Core i9-7980XE (Intel LGA2066, Skylake-X (HCC)) processor, if the processor consumption is under maximum load will not exceed 253 W, and the temperature inside the case will not rise above 44 °C. In the case of the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X chiplet processor, the cooler efficiency is noticeably lower, and in order to comply with the above conditions, the maximum power consumed by the processor should not exceed 138 watts. With lower cooling air temperatures and/or less stringent noise requirements, the power limits can in all cases be increased. Modding enthusiasts will appreciate the pump’s multi-color and multi-zone static or dynamic lighting, with an interesting reflection effect, which has a standard three-pin connection. The pump light can be controlled using the controller included in the package or by connecting to the system board. Among other advantages, we note good workmanship, the braiding of some cables and hoses (at least helping to maintain a single design style for the computer’s insides), connecting the controller to the SATA power connector, and convenient fan mounting.