The CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 is a closed loop liquid cooler that costs under £50, yes that's less than Noctua's NH-U12S 120mm air cooler. It's actually exactly the same as the MasterLiquid Lite 120 that we have previously reviewed, the only difference of course being the size of the radiator and the additional CoolerMaster MasterFan Air Balance 120mm fan included.
Speaking of the fans, they aren't the best, but that is kind of expected for a cooler in this price range, it is also pretty loud considering the pretty low 66.7 CFM.
The radiator used is made of Aluminium, with a copper CPU block which is the standard configuration for 95% of AIOs, only a few very premium options use both copper in the radiator and CPU block.
- Radiator Size – 240mm
- Radiator Thickness - 27mm
- TDP –210W
- Weight – Not listed by CoolerMaster
- Socket Compatibility - Intel® LGA 2066 / 2011-v3 / 2011 / 1366 / 1151 / 1150 / 1156 / 1155 / 775 socket, AMD® AM4 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ / AM2 / FM2+ / FM2 / FM1 socket
- Included Fan(s) – 2 x MasterFan Pro 120 Air Balance
What’s in the box?
- CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 CPU Cooler
- 2 x MasterFan Pro 120 Air Balance 120mm fan
- Mounting installation instructions
- Warranty information leaflet
- Mounting hardware for all above sockets
- Generic CoolerMaster thermal paste
Mounting
We found the mounting on the MasterLiquid Lite 240 very easy, it actually uses the exact same mounting mechanism as the CoolerMaster Hyper 103. You start by assembling the backplate with four bolts and four plastic caps to hold the bolts in place, this whole assembley them goes through the motherboard which the cooler can be screwed down onto using the included bolts.
The radiator placement is also very easy compared to other cheap AIOs such as the H45, this is because the pump is located in the CPU block itself and not on the side of the radiator, making the radiator considerably smaller therefore easier to fit! The bolts that come with the cooler are fantastic, they are a standard M4 bolt but one end has a thumb screw part that also has an M4 threaded hole, allowing you to screw something else into it, making almost any fan configuration imaginable possible.
Aesthetic
The aesthetics of the MasterLiquid Lite 240 aren't it's strong point, but to be fair it does do a pretty good job at looking decent. It sports a very understated design which I like, it would have been a shame if CoolerMaster put some cheap single colour LEDs like they did with the old Seidon AIOs. The radiator looks pretty good with it's fairly square design and the CPU block looks very basic with a simple CoolerMaster logo printed on the top of the round body.
The tubing is what really lets the MasterLiquid Lite 240 down, it uses some horrible anti-kink tubing that is thin and horrible, I'm guessing this is the cheapest tubing option available and something I really think should be different, even if it means the cooler is a few quid more expensive.
Performance
The performance is going to be the interesting part of this review, can one of the cheapest 240mm AIOs on the market from actually be good and trade blows with more expensive models? Well, we've done the testing so you're about to find out!
Test System Specs
- Processor - Intel i7 8700k
- Case - CoolerMaster H500P
- RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR4 16GB 3000Mhz (2x8)
- Motherboard - Asus Rog Strix Z370-F
- SSD - Samsung 860 EVO 250GB
- PSU - Corsair RM750x
- GPU - EVGA GTX 1050Ti
We performed a number of tests using different pieces of software, the software we used for stress testing were 3DMark Time Spy CPU Test, Priem95 with the Blend Preset and Aida64 CPU+FPU. We also logged the temperatures with Aida64's temperature logging function to record the results.
We ran the tests at both stock voltages and clock speeds, and with an overclock at 5.0GHz with 1.35V, in the results anything marked "OC" used these settings.
All of these tests were performed in out climate controlled test room at a constant 21°C. All fan speeds were set to normal in the BIOS, which worked fine and none of the coolers we tested had excessive noise levels.
The graph below shows the average temperature over a 20 minute stress test using Prime95's blend preset. We found this test to be the best at showing the performance of these air coolers visually due to the range being much higher than other tests.
Conclusion
For the money the MasterLiquid Lite 240 is a decent choice if you want an AIO that is cheap and can do a decent job when it comes down to performance. What is disappointing is the marginal gains in performance you get over the smaller MasterLiquid Lite 120.
Pros
- It's a 240mm AIO for under £50
- Decent Performance
Cons
- Doesn't look great
- Fans can be loud at high RPMs