REVIEW Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92- Mini Review

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92- Mini Review​

Introduction

Hello community, I am back this week with a little different product to show you all. This time is the interesting and innovative Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92. Quite the mouthful.

Cooler Master has been looking for different ways to meet the market in recent years. Their new line of Maker products is making waves with their special points-of-difference.

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 isn't your usual cooler, with its design based around the current crop of AIO solutions but aimed for the lower power SFF solutions. Let’s have a look at this cool little heatsink.


Specifications

Model MLZ-H92M-A26PK-R1
CPU Intel® LGA 2011-v3/ 2011/ 1151/ 1150/ 1155/ 1156 socket
Power Connector SATA and 4-Pin
Radiator Material Aluminum
Dimension Vertical 99.9 x 81.6 x 167.5mm (3.9 x 3.2 x 6.6”)
Horizontal 99.9 x 142 x 118.8 mm (3.9 x 5.6 x 4.7”)
Fan Dimension Φ95 x 25.4 mm (3.7 x 1”)
Speed 550 ~ 2600 RPM (PWM) ± 10%
Airflow 49.7 CFM (max)
Air Pressure 6.4 mmH2O (max)
Noise Level 30 dBA (max)
MTTF 350,000 hours
L-10 Life 50,000 hours
Rated Voltage 12 VDC
Pump Noise Level <12 dBA (max)
MTTF 175,000 hours
L-10 Life 50,000 hours
Rated Voltage 12 VDC
Weight 875 g
Warranty 5 Years


Unboxing/Photos

Packaging wise, Cooler Master have taken the same approach with the smaller Maker 92 as their bigger brother, the Maker 8. Albeit, much smaller packaging, measuring 18.8cm wide x 23cm high x 15cm deep



Around the remainder of the packaging lists out all of the features and specifications for the enclosed cooler.





Opening the carton for the first time, we are greeted with the cooler, well packaged in its own enclosure. It screams of something a little special even before removing it.



Under the cooler package is a smaller box containing all of the mounting accessories and comprehensive instruction manual.





Moving back to the cooler, we can see the full make-up of this little ingenious contraption. Located at the top of the cooler is the compact pump unit, rated at 12v. From here, the fluid inside travels through the fixed lines to a waterblock integrated into the base of the cooler. There is a nicely backlit Cooler Master Logo and Operation LED on the top of the pump which helps show when the cooler is on.



The Fan and Power connection is provided through the supplied cable. SATA power connection is used for the main power feed, and an additional PWM cable is attracted for the motherboard fan speed signal to regulate the fan speeds.





Lower down, we find the 92mm 2600RPM max Static Pressure fans operating in push-pull configuration to cool the small high-fin density aluminium radiator. I was impressed by how quiet the fans actually are. Smaller fans, you usually get the high-pitched whine sound, but not with these. Yes, they do get audible at full speed, but it is not offensive at all.



To the base of the cooler now, Cooler Master has included a full copper base. It is a true flat design and has only a minor milled finish. Could it be more polished, absolutely! But, it is in my opinion of a better finish than the Cooler Master MasterAir8 cooler I reviewed previously.





Now, onto a point where this cooler goes where no other does. As the cooler is designed for the Smaller Form Factor cases around, Cooler Master have designed it so it can be installed as a traditional "Tower" cooler, or it can be simply rotated to be a more compact "Top Flow Low Profile" cooler. When installed as a Tower, the cooler measures 18.1cm from the motherboard back-plate, and only 13.2cm when in Low-Profile form.










Installation Setup

Installation of the MasterLiquid Maker 92 is very simple. For demonstration purposes, I have used a MSI Z170A Gaming M5 board I had on hand. As a typical male, I went about installing without the use of the instructions, but also sat down after and read the instructions just to be sure I did it all correctly. For those of you that like to read the instructions first, I found them quite clear and easy to follow.


The first step is to setup the back-plate with the posts in the correct fitment holes, and the lock them into place with the supplied clips. Love the clips, as I no longer needed the extra hands to install, as the posts stayed in-place without falling out on me.





Flipping the board over, it is then just a matter of cleaning the CPU and Cooler surfaces with your pick of preparation cleaner (Isopropyl Alcohol does the trick for me), and then applying the supplied MasterGel Maker thermal paste. The old grain-of-rice method still works very well. Ensure the cooler is set in the upright position so you can line up the posts and get the thumb-nuts on the posts.



I did have some trouble with accessing the thumb-nuts and posts directly under the hose connections, but this was easily worked around with the use of my non-fat fingers and rotating the hose slightly to open up the access. It's a tight fit to get a screwdriver in for the final fit-off, but achievable with a little effort and the right angle.






For reference, I tried both a lower profile RAM in the closest RAM Slots (thanks to Zadak511 for the sample) and also the highest profile heatsink RAM I had on hand, some Galax HOF OC-Lab, and still had a small amount of clearance to spare. Pics below for reference. I also tried in my Asrock Z170M OC Formula board which has RAM Slots closer to the CPU socket and had no issue with the larger heatsink RAM modules.













Test Setup

My test rig for this cooler is different from my others for a couple of reasons. With Kaby Lake around the corner, I am currently down to a dual core i3 6100 in preparation, so no 6700k to test on. But, in saying that, the other benefit to this is that the intended use for this cooler is on lower power SFF computers, which typically would not use such a CPU. So, the i3 is the perfect CPU to test on.

Test System
• CPU: Intel i3-6100 at Stock and 4.42GHz 1.25v (120MHz BLCK)
• Motherboard: Asrock Z170M OC Formula (Review Here)
• Memory: 2 x 8GB Galax HOF OC Lab 4000C19
• GPU : EVGA GTX 1070 FTW
• PSU: Cooler Master GX750
• SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
• Case: Thermaltake Core P3 Black Open Air Case
• Operating system: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit



HEAT AND SOUND MEASUREMENTS


Temperature measurements are recorded using CPUID HWMonitor and the Package temperature recorded. The measurement taken is after 30 minutes of the Blend Test in Prime95 and Highest/Lowest temperature in the other tests. This is basically an open bench scenario, with an average room air temperature of 29°C. All fan setting were left on the software’s Default Auto Settings.





For the second temperature test, I have used Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, or Intel XTU for short. For this I completed 3 runs at 1 minute intervals to allow the cooler to settle between. The results shown are the temperature measurement in software, and idle temperature taken before the run in HWMonitor. As it is only a locked CPU, the runs are only shown at stock as the program does not allow over a 103mhz BCLK.





I have added Cinebench R15 to the mix, to give another perspective on heat. This is a very repeatable bench for temperature, and will usually only show 1-degree variation between runs.





And finally, Geekbench. When it comes to overclocking your CPU or RAM, this contains a very tough test to push the limits. It's will easily show memory setting problems, and will generally incur a higher CPU temperature than others, especially when the CPU clocks are increased. Stock is not so bad.





Sound Measurements are taken using an iPhone app, by Skypa. My room in quiet times flattens at 55dB with just the main system in idle, all case fans on low, and with the phone located 30cm away from the case position. The base system itself is barely audible, with the PSU and the GPU the main noise generators. Anything below 61 is what I call in-audible in my situation.






Conclusion

Cooler Master have brought a very interesting concept to the table with this cooler. From the integrated pump, to the mounting and adjustable orientation for the cooler, it really has a lot to offer for the different forms.

Overall, the unit even with 2 smaller fans in push-pull and the built-in pump are remarkably quiet. I have a Bitfenix Spectre Pro fan on 7v that is louder than this at full speed. The only real noise it lets out is the usual radiator wind sound, and at lower speeds a bit of a hum, most likely the pump and a small bit of fan noise. Enclosed inside a case, I feel it would be barely audible at all.

With a straight edge, the base appears completely flat, with the only downside the finish. It is though, a lot better finish than the Cooler Master MasterAir Maker 8 which is showing some improvement in manufacture. Well done Cooler Master.

I also liked the inclusion of the MasterGel Maker Nano paste. I use this paste basically all the time now as it is a lot easier to source than the Gelid and Thermal Grizzly I use for my HWBot runs.

Onto performance, all I have to say on this is it isn't really a performance cooler, and most certainly works well for its intended purpose in a SFF computer. Don't get me wrong, it does a fantastic job for low power or stock CPU cooling, it just isn't intended for far more heat output than that. So if you are looking to overclock, it should handle a modest one without too much sweat, just not a lot more than that.



At this stage, I am unsure on pricing as it is yet to be released to the market here in Australia/NZ, but I believe it will be in the higher ranges as it really is a bespoke design against it's competitors.

PROS
⦁ Innovative Design
⦁ Quiet fans and pump
⦁ Adjustable orientation for different uses

CONS
⦁ Mounting thumb screws are hard to access
⦁ Not for high heat applications


Please feel free to leave comments/questions below. Hope you enjoyed.

 

Nice review, but definitely not for me..I like some sort of bling...

 

Awesome work again, nice pics

If the price is right, I could see one of these going in my HTPC, especially if helping with the noise.

 

I think you should re-scale the sound measurement graph.

It visually indicates a large difference even though it is only 1db (SFA).

 

not sure about the merits of this over a tower of similar size given it takes the same form factor.

i guess i save some space on the top down orientation but then vs other top down coolers from noctua......

i guess its main selling point is that it has dual configuration for versatility but its mostly bling and builders would choose the right cooler for their case anyway.

what concerns me is that it barely edges out stock intel cooler

 

ZafaZ , I agree. I might look at it and see what I can do. Maybe adding a could more might help it too.

Akromatic- it doesn't do a bad job against the stock cooler, but it's not groundbreaking either. I like the innovation and point of difference this has over other coolers on the market. In a low power setup and you want something different, I like the idea.

Compared to other tower/heatpipe coolers though, it definitely is not as strong.


For everyone else, agree, WE NEED RGB. RGB EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

https://www.mwave.com.au/product/cooler-master-masterliquid-maker-92-liquid-cpu-cooler-ab90483

con should be price

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_hydro_h5_sf_review,11.html

that's 104 and seems to perform a lot better...maybe a bit bigger and ganglier but still pretty small footprint and 30 odd cheaper. That is also on an oc 4790 a space heater to start with also take a look at the Db 38 full load...pretty damn silent

i honestly think they really missed the mark with this, yes it is new and has some nice features but in the end the performance is what matters to me.

 

I have to agree there, that pricing is indeed a bit more than I had expected. I was guessing they would have put it in the $100 max category.

 

Thanks for the review mate enjoyed the read

 

Seems quite underwhelming. Especially given the price, but I do like the concept. Being able to run it vertically or horizontally is definitely a plus.

 

Nice review.

Onto the product.......what a joke. Seriously this is a waste of materials. The person/people who allowed this to progress to full production should take a hard look at themselves. They have done the human race a disservice.

 

Well written review

I think this thing has an identity crisis. Its too small to be effective (performs within about 1°C of a Noctua L9 low profile, but is louder under load) but too big to fit in a proper SFF case.

Since the warm air is expelled within the case, there is basically no advantage over the little Noctua, but with an extra 100mm height in its flat orientation.

The concept is awesome, I really like it. I think it needs to be rethought though, with a larger, more effective system for real cooling. At the moment there could be no other reason for installing it than 'it looks cool', which would be very much enhanced with some bling.

I personally wouldn't buy one. Any rig which could use one of these could use the little Noctua and save a bunch of both space and cash for virtually the same performance and lower noise.