With the vast majority of closed-loop
water-cooling kits based on either Asetek or CoolIt designs, Cooler Master’s
in-house-designed Seidon 120M easily stands out from the crowd. At just $70,
it’s one of the more affordable kits we’ve seen, too, and though it’s not the
answer to our cooling prayers, it proves you don’t need to spend a lot of money
to get a decent water cooler.
Cooler
Master Seidon 120M
Like its competitors, the kit includes all
the usual ingredient: a prefilled aluminum radiator with a 12cm fan, a copper
contact plate, two tubes to shuttle coolant black and forth, and a pump built
directly into the CPU water block. Though the Seidon 120M looks a lot like
Asetek-designed coolers, its water block/ pump apparatus is noticeably more
low-profile than others we’ve tested.
Installing the water cooler was, for the
most part, a drama-free affair. The 120M features a universal backplate with
pre-attached screws (for use with retention other than LGA2011). Even the
retention clips include pre-attached and easily adjustable screws. We ran into
a little trouble differentiating between the AMD and Intel clips, and it would
have been nice if they were labeled (either the clips themselves or the bags
they came in), because the Intel and AMD parts look confusingly similar. Once
we eyeballed the clips next to the sockets to figure out which was which, we
had no trouble attaching the clips to the base of the water block and securing
them to the backplate, and then mounting that on top of the CPU’s heat
spreader. Attaching the radiator to the chassis was also a walk in the park, as
we used the included screws to mount the fan to the radiator and the radiator
to our Level 10 GT chassis. The last step was to simply plug the power cable
from the pump into the CPU header, and to connect the 12cm fan’s PWM connector
to a fan controller.
Cooler
Master says that Teflon tubing on the 120M minimizes water evaporation.
Once installed, the fan was very quiet with
Q-Fan enable in the BIOS, but under a heavy thermal load at 4.2GHz on our Core
i7-3960X, it didn’t perform much better than a Hyper 212 Evo air cooler. When
we ran the system at full speed, however, cooling performance improved
dramatically, running six degrees cooler dual-fan Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro. To
its credit though, the Seidon was quitter at full tilt than the Water2.0, which
sounded like a wind tunnel,
Though the Seidon only comes with one 12cm
fan, we added a second Thermal-take fan to test a push-pull configuration
putting it on par with the more-expensive Water2.0 Pro, but sadly its noise
output was equally loud.
If you’re looking for a super-cool and
quiet water, you’re not going to find it with the Seidon 120M – it can be cool
and quiet, just not at the same time. Cooler Master doesn’t reinvent the water
cooling wheel with its Seidon 120M, but the cooler’s affordable $70 price makes
it a good value considering that its performance is very close to much more
expensive competitors.
Verdict Cooler Master Seidon 120M: 8
+ Ice-cold Beer: affordable; easy
installation.
- Ice-cold hands: similar performance to an
air-cooler when quiet, but loud when the fan’s turned up.
Price: $70
Website: www.coolermaster.com
Best scores are bolded. All temperatures
are in degrees Celsius. All tests performed using an Intel Core i7-3960X at
4.2GHz, on an Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard in a Thermaltake Level 10GT with stock
fans set to High.
Specifications
·
Radiator Dimensions (H x D x W): 5.9 x 4.6 x
1.1 inches
·
Weight: 1.5 lbs
·
Stock Fans: 1 x 12cm PWM
·
Socket Support: LGA775/ 1155/ 1156/ 1366/
2011; AM2/ AM3. AM3+/ FM1
·
Additional Fan Support: one 12 cm (screws not included)
Verdict
Cooler Master Seidon 120M (performance mode)
·
Ambient Air: 21.6
·
Idle Temperature: 30.7
·
Burn Temperature: 68.3
·
Burn – Ambient: 46.7
Cooler Master Seidon 120 (quiet mode)
·
Ambient Air: 22.2
·
Idle Temperature: 36.4
·
Burn Temperature: 73
·
Burn – Ambient: 50.8
Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro (performance mode)
·
Ambient Air: 21.2
·
Idle Temperature: 32.2
·
Burn Temperature: 66.6
·
Burn – Ambient: 45.6
CM Hyper 212 EVO (performance mode)
·
Ambient Air: 23.8
·
Idle Temperature: 36.2
·
Burn Temperature: 74
·
Burn – Ambient: 50.2
Cooler Master Seidon 120M (performance mode with two fans)
·
Ambient Air: 23.7
·
Idle Temperature: 31.8
·
Burn Temperature: 67.5
·
Burn – Ambient: 43.8
Corsair H80 (performance)
·
Ambient Air: 23.2
·
Idle Temperature: 34.9
·
Burn Temperature: 65.3
·
Burn – Ambient: 42.7
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