The sub-zero number: Intel Core i9-11900K vs. Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero – the impossibility of the dreamed-of possible

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero is of course not a real cryo-cooling for really high loads, that is not specified, but it wants to guarantee temperatures that are so low in the partial load range that the highest possible boost clock rates can be run. That’s exactly what I tried to find out in a short test, because gaming in particular usually stays below 125 watts on average. However, that seems a tad too much, but I’ll get to that in a moment. The fact is: such an all-in-one water cooling has a certain rarity value and of course the play instinct always wins. The price of well over 300 euros is only a side note because it will scare off normal customers anyway.

Let’s put the whole thing together first, because the hope of a gaming temperature boost dies last, as is well known. An integrated Peltier element is used, i.e. the thermoelectric cooling principle. I save the exact explanation of the mode of action at this point, it is not really relevant. For later, however, it is important to note that you still need a lot of electrical energy in order to carry away the waste heat and to get well below room temperature on the coldplate. Efficiency looks different, but at least the CPU is in good company.

The pump, however, is an infernal background to the uncontrolled fans, which, like the pump, are connected to the 12-volt line of a SATA plug using an adapter. Of course, you can also have the whole thing regulated on the motherboard via the fan connections, but then in the worst case you can hear the pump as a bad-tempered soloist. Besides, I also want to cool whatever it takes. The background sounds are irrelevant for now.

The victim of our frost attack today is the recently launched Intel Core i9-11900K on the MSI MEG Z590 Ace, we remember. And I won’t do any big overclocking pull-ups either, it’s already running on the last groove anyway. I’m going to be optimistic about the 288-watt mode without TAU, which will certainly scratch the 125-watt mark in games, but of course not much more. The AiO should be able to remove 250 watts, i.e. twice as much. So it should work first.

The instructions are self-explanatory, so is the assembly. It’s all pretty quick and the cooling unit is installed almost faster than you can say pug. Intuitive and neat. Incidentally, there is no thermal paste included, at least not in my package. But you usually have something like that in stock. You first have to download the required software from Intel, but that is not a hurdle for anyone. I use the automatic mode for my measurements, because without Peltier support it gets too warm and using the element in continuous operation does not bring anything apart from condensate in no-load operation.

I would have the technical data from the Cooler Master homepage:

And because it was so nice, also the manual as a PDF:

Product Sheet – MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero