Testing
The test rig consists of the following parts:
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H
Video Card: Zotac 560 Ti
Memory: Samsung Green MV-3V4G3D/US – 16GB
Power Supply: Enermax Maxrevo 1350W
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB raid 0 Running Windows 7 64bit
Cooling: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe
As always testing was done using Intel Burn Test (IBT) with the AVX instruction set. The reason to use this instead of Prime95 with this setup is that it pushes our i7 3770K a whole lot harder. This gives us a better sense of extreme load temps. Most of the testing was done at the max memory setting for a single pass. While admittedly this in no way would qualify the chip as stable while overclocked, it gives us a realistic idea of what temperatures the CPU will be hitting. Additionally we are going to run 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme to give you a realistic idea of performance while gaming.
Our baseline was established using a bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 with the 3770K on stock settings:
Ambient temps: 22.22C/72F
Idle temps: 38.75C/101.75F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 63.5C/146.3F core average
The first thing we did was to test the cooler with stock motherboard/CPU settings:
Ambient temps: 20.28°C/68.5°F
Idle temps: 27.69°C/81.8°F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 59.94°C/139.89°F core average
As you can see the MasterLiquid Pro 280 is going to be starting out with a bit of an advantage as the ambient temperature is 1.94°C cooler than our baseline. Don’t worry though all the final results have been adjusted to reflect the difference. Even with that advantage adjusted away you can see that the Pro 280 is just crushing our baseline cooler. At idle it’s more than 11°C cooler and under load at stock speeds its 3.56°C cooler!
Looking very good for Cooler Master, let’s continue on with a little overclocking! As opposed to going for a max overclock, we are simply going to shoot to hit 4.5ghz pass or fail. If the cooler will allow our 3770K to hit 4.5 ghz we note the temperatures and move on to test it using 3DMARK Firestrike. If not then back down to a more acceptable and stable overclock. Not as extreme as our previous testing, but slightly more consistent and far more analogous to normal use such as gaming.
Here are our results for our i7 3770K @ 4.5ghz with 1.248V vCore:
Ambient temps: 20.28°C/68.5°F
IBT temps: 76.19°C/169.14°F with one core hitting 79°C
Well no records smashed by our Pro 280 today, but still great results indeed! That temperature puts it firmly into 2nd place amongst the 280mm AiO’s we’ve tested and 8th overall. Most importantly it’s a solid 2°C cooler than it’s smaller sibling the Pro 240. While two degrees might not seem like much, that can be the difference between a stable overclocked system and one that you have to downclock to slower speeds. Job well done Pro 280.
After we finished testing the max thermal performance of the cooler, it’s time for a gaming test; that means it’s time for a pass of 3DMARK Firestrike. Here’s what we found.
Ambient temps: 20.28°C/68.5°F
3DMARK: 59.44°C/138.99°F with one core hitting 62°C
If you thought it was impressive during stability testing, you should be thrilled by these 3DMARK results. With an avg. right around 60°C and single core hot spot down to 62°C there is so much headroom for further overclocking it’s crazy. You should be easily able to drive that processor up to 4.7 maybe 4.8ghz!
As for sound over all, the Pro 280 like it’s smaller sibling was very negligible. There is a slight bit more of a whooshing sound as would be expected from a bigger fan blade, but overall you won’t be hearing the AiO fans or pump running in quiet or silent mode, especially if you have a fan cooled GPU in your rig to cover it up.
The only lighting comes from the pump and it’s a minimalistic soft blue. In a blue themed build this would be great, of course it certainly limits you elsewhere.
