Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R Review

When it comes to PC Cooling and Chassis, Cooler Master needs no introduction. Ever since its foundation in 1992, the company rolled out their first CPU Cooler in 1993 with major breakthrough coming in 1999 when their first all-aluminum based handmade chassis was launched. There was no stopping to the continuous innovation that took the company to the new frontiers of introducing liquid cooling solutions, power supply units, gaming peripherals, etc. Cooler Master is making strong come back in recent times with their cooling solutions and chassis.

Did You Know? Cooler Master MasterLiquid Won The Award For Best Budget CPU Cooler For I5-12600k.

About the time that Cooler Master has launched their ML R RGB series cooler in the local market. They have sent us for Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R Review. This cooler features a low profile dual chamber block using glass fiber housing. Low resistance radiator has a length of 360mm.

Cooler Master Master Liquid ML360R Review

The 120 and 240mm versions of this cooler are also available though, in the local market, only 240 and 360mm versions have been introduced. Sleeved FEP tubing are used in this cooler. MasterFan MF120R ARGB fans focus on the static pressure whilst providing killer ARGB lighting. I must say, after Corsair HD series of fans, these are the fans that truly move me in terms of lighting effects. A plethora of accessories and cables are included. The cooler is compatible with the leading sockets from both sides including AMD AM4 and Intel LGA-2066. A dedicated RGB controller is also bundled.

• Item:                     MasterLiquid ML360R RGB
• Manufacturer:       Cooler Master
• Category:              CPU Liquid Cooler
• Price:                    Check Price on Amazon

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R Specifications:

MasterLiquid ML360R Packaging and Unboxing:

The cooler is shipped inside a cardboard box having a Cooler Master’s typical packing theme of purple and black colors.

This side has the Cooler Master brand logo printed on the top left. The compatibility of the ARGB lighting solution with the Asus AURA Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, ASRock Polychrome Sync, and MSI Mystic Lighting Sync is printed on the top right.

The lighting solution packs 16.7M colors. There is a light-up picture of the cooler in the main section. The model of the cooler is printed at the bottom left. There is a picture of the bundled RGB controller at the bottom right side.

This side has a solid black color background. The Cooler Master brand logo is printed on the top left. The model of the cooler is printed at the bottom right side.

Also Read: GeForce GTX 1080 Review

This side of the cooler has Cooler Master brand logo and model of the cooler printed up top. There are three pictures along with the salient feature of each printed vertically.

This side has the model of the cooler printed in 15 different languages. The company’s office addresses in various regions are printed on the top right. A serial no sticker is pasted at the bottom right followed by the Part No/UPC/EAN info label.

This side has the specifications of the cooler printed in the tabular format followed by the illustrative pictures showing the dimensions.

This side has salient features of the cooler printed in the 8 languages. A block diagram of the water block is printed on the right side highlighting its main features.

Opening the box will show the white color Styrofoam covering the contents. Removing it will show the contents nicely tucked inside the egged carton.

MasterLiquid ML360R Box Contents:

There are a plethora of the accessories included in the box:

• 1x Radiator
• 3x Fans
• 1x Intel Backplate
• 2x Intel Mounting Brackets
• 2x AMD Mounting Brackets
• 4x Small Screws for the Mounting Brackets
• 4x Intel Long Screws
• 4x Intel LGA-20XX Standoffs
• 4x Plastic Arm Covers
• 4x Plastic Spacers
• 4x Hex Nuts
• 1x RGB Controller
• 1x MasterGel Pro Thermal paste
• 12x Fan Mounting Screws
• 12x Radiator Mounting Screws
• 1x 5-Way LED Splitter Cable
• 1x 3-Way Fan Splitter Cable
• 4x ARGB Extension Connectors
• 1x RGB Extension Connector
• 1x USB Cable
• 1x USB Adapter Cable
• 1x Motherboard Reset Cable
• 1x Case Front Panel Reset Cable
• 1x RGB Sync Cable
• 1x ARGB Sync Cable
• 1x Fan RGB Cable
• 1x Cable for Mirage Effect
• User Manual and Warranty Guide

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R Closer Look:

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R Review focused on bringing performance and RGB lighting in a single package. Today, I am taking a look at the 360mm version from this lineup. It is ML360R RGB. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA 775/1366/115x/20XX and AMD AMx/FMx sockets. Here is what the Cooler Master has to say about this cooler, “The MasterLiquid ML360R RGB all-in-one liquid CPU cooler is custom, inside and out.

Our low-profile dual chamber pump outperforms its single chamber predecessors in heat transfer. The MasterFan Air Balance fans work with our characteristically sturdy build quality to keep this thing as quiet as a library. Addressable RGB LEDs are installed on both the pump and fans for full-color customization that can be controlled through the provided controller. Kink-free, factory-sealed FEP tubing now comes sleeved for a premium look. Screw it in and experience the quiet muscle of liquid cooling without ever worrying about refills or maintenance. Enjoy the work of decades of thermal innovation.”

ML360R Radiator:

It is time to look into the design of this cooler followed by our testing to see what does it offer to the users. The dimension of the radiator is 394x119x27.2mm where 27.2mm is the thickness or height of the radiator. It is a slim radiator. With 25mm fans, the total height would be 52.2mm and keep in mind the thicker heads of the metal screws, expect 55mm of the total height (approximately).

This is a 360mm low resistance cooling solution from Cooler Master. The radiator is made of aluminum hence it is lightweight. FPI count is 20 on this radiator and fans with high airflow and air pressure make sense here. There are 13 channels in the radiator. The edges of the radiator are straight design to our liking, unlike some other designs where the edges are rounded.

The barbs have heat shrinks used on them. There is a sticker pasted on the near chamber/side of the radiator with a serial no of the unit printed on it.

Cooler Master Brand logo is printed in the white color on both sides of the radiator assembly. The total length of the radiator is 394mm including the head chambers. There is a 105mm of spacing between the mounting holes.

Depth of the radiator is 119mm. There is no protective plating under the mounting holes on this radiator so take care while installing the fans on it as long screws could easily damage the fins that would least impact the performance or worst leakage from the radiator.

There is what seems like a refill port – if I am not wrong – on the left side of the chamber which is covered with a Warranty Void when removed sticker.

The far chamber is a slim design.

The tubing on this cooler has two layers. The inner tubing is made of FEP while the exterior is meshed and braided for nice and clean looks. The tubings are somewhat flexible on this cooler. The approximate length of the tubing without the heat shrink barbed fittings is 346mm.

Block/Pump:

Let’s take a look at the main ingredient aka water block. The dimension of the block is 83.6×71.8×52.7mm. The main housing is in a circular shape. The Cooler Master is using a low profile, the dual-chamber design here. The Cooler Master is claiming that their pump is impervious to oxidation and corrosion!

The main theme behind the dual-chamber is to isolate the flow of heated coolant from the normal coolant.

The top lid has ARGB LEDs underneath. The main housing is translucent and glossy surface reflects. There is a protective sheet wrapped around the housing in a circular manner. The top lid is a bit protruded than the rest of the housing which is obviously for the visuals.

The above picture shows the glossy side of the pump housing. The rest of the structure is made of the plastic and is finished in matte black.

The above picture shows the 90° implementation of the barbed fittings. The tubing can be rotated on the left or right side as per the requirement and this was needed for this cooler as the mounting brackets can only be installed on the left and right sides of the pump housing.

Taking a peek on the top lid, there is a Cooler Master brand logo in the middle. Its boundary line gets light up when the LED cable is connected to the source. The Cooler Master text does not light up.

The two cables are coming out from the side as shown in the above picture. The same picture is showing the extended triangular-shaped mountings where the mounting brackets are screwed to. The pump is powered by the 3-pin flat cable having a length of 312mm approximately. The lighting is done using an ARGB LED cable having a length of approximately 307mm.

The above picture shows what is inside the pump housing. On the top, there is a white color diffuser for even lighting across the surface. Right below the diffuser, there is a PCB containing 12 ARGB LEDs.  Below it, we have a three-phase motor. Unfortunately, Cooler Master has not provided any power information of the motor except that it is rated for 70,000 years of MMTF which is superb and operates at 12V DC.

The noise level is rated at 15 dB(A) or less though in my experience the pump was audible. The motor is placed inside a PPS and fiberglass housing and nozzle. The PPS (Polyphenylene sulfide) and glass fiber construction resists a broad range of chemicals and is unaffected by moisture or immersion in water. In the center, there is a high-performance impeller. There is an O-Ring between the housing the micro-channel cold plate.

Let’s take a look at the base. The base plate is made of the copper and has a dimension of 60x55mm. It is secured with the main housing using 10 screws. There is a protective sheet cautioning the user to remove the sheet before installing the cooler.

Let’s take a look at the fans now. The Cooler Master has bundled three MasterFan MF120R ARGB fans with this cooler. Each fan measures 120x120x25mm. Its rated speed is 650~2000 RPM ±10%. Our samples at full speed were operating at 2115 RPM. Fan airflow is 66.7 CFM maximum.

Air pressure is rated at 2.34mmH₂O maximum. Noise level is rated at 6~30 dBA depending upon the speed. It has a 4-pin PWM connector. The fan is rated at 12VDC with safety current rating of 0.54A and normal current rating of 0.2A. The fan’s MTTF is massive 160,000 hours which roughly equal to 18.26 years on 24/7 hours run.

The fan has a circular black color frame with specially designed 9 blades. The MasterFan MF120R ARGB fans are using a combination of both jet engine and helicopter blade designs for maximum the static air reassure without sacrificing airflow.

The blades are transparent to the full even the central hub is transparent. This helps to create one heck of a stunning visual effect when the lighting comes on. There are anti-vibration pads on every mounting corner which are cut to shape to ensure symmetrical design.

There are two cables coming out from the fans. One is the 4-pin power connector having a length of 290mm approximately and the other is an ARGB LED cable having a length of 285mm approximately. Both cables are nicely sleeved.

There is a 3-way fan splitter cable having a length of 225mm approximately. Two connectors on this cable are in the black color and the other is in beige color. The beige color connector has 4-pins while the other two have 3 pins. This is a standard design.

Looking at the backside of the fan, we can see a 4-arms assembly holding the fan motor and blades to the frame. There is a Cooler Master brand logo printed on the top. MasterFan120 AB is printed below the logo. AB stands for the Air Balance. The fan is made in China.

ML360R RGB Lighting Gear:

Let’s take a look at what hardware and accessories, Cooler Master has bundled with their MasterLiquid ML360R RGB cooler. This is important as there is like a plethora of the cables bundled in the box and not to forget the lighting controller. Let’s start:

They have included 4x ARGB (3-pin) connectors and 1x RGB (4-pin) connector. These connectors will help to connect the ARGB devices to the lighting controller and LED splitter cable. The 4 pin connector is for the regular RGB LED device having full 4 pins and operates at 12V. The 3-pin connectors are for the addressable RGB devices that operate at 5V.

The Cooler Master has included 5-way LED splitter cable. There are 5x 3-pin addressable RGB male connector cables on one side of this splitter cable. Each one has a length of 318mm approximately.

The other end of the splitter cable has a 3-pin addressable female connector having a length of 218mm approximately. The idea is simple. Connect your 3x MF120R ARGB fans and pump ARGB cables to this splitter cable on its ARGB male connectors. Insert a 3-pin ARGB connector to the ARGB female connector of the splitter cable and connect it to the included ARGB lighting controller or simply connect the splitter cable to the 5V addressable lighting header on your motherboard.

The arrow symbol on the connectors needs to be matched or aligned with the arrow symbol on the target device/cable.

The Cooler Master has taken care of almost everything a user could need. They have included an ARGB Motherboard Sync cable. The length of this cable is 250+45mm approximately without connectors. It has two connectors. One is to be used for the Asus, ASRock and MSI motherboard whereas the other one is for the Gigabyte motherboards. The other end of the cable has 3-pin male connector which connects to the included RGB controller on the dedicated port labeled as MB ADD 5V.

A 4-pin RGB cable is also included. Its male end connects to the included lighting controller on a dedicated port labeled as MB 12V and the other end connects to the 4-pin 12V lighting header on your motherboard. The length of this cable is 352mm approximately.

The above-shown cable is connected to the included lighting controller on the dedicated port labeled as R1 where stands for RGB. This port is for regular RGB fans which operate at 12V. The length of this cable is 345mm approximately.

The above-shown cable is for the Mirage effect having a length of 146+170mm approximately. The small two-pin connector connects to the dedicated port on the lighting controller having a fan symbol on it. The other two connectors are the 4-pin power connector and a female 4-pin connector.

The above-shown cable is a two pin reset cable having a length of 194mm. Its small connector is connected to the included lighting controller on the dedicated port labeled as CASE RESET. The two-pin connector is connected to the Reset cable header coming from the front panel of your chassis.

The other similar included cable is Motherboard Reset cable having a length of 492mm approximately. Its small connector is connected to the dedicated port on the included lighting controller labeled as MB RESET. The other end is connected to the Reset pins on the motherboard’s front panel connector.

The idea behind these two cables and including the lighting controller between the chassis and the motherboard is that the user can use the chassis’s Reset button to control the lighting of the cooler. Pressing a reset button once at a time will change the lighting mode one by one. Don’t worry as you still have not lost the reset functionality of the same button. Long press the Reset button for 5 seconds will restart your PC.

Last but not least there are USB cable included. One is the regular USB cable having a length of 610mm. It’s one end is micro and it connects to the dedicated port of the included lighting controller. The other end is the regular USB A connector. The other cable is the USB Adapter having a length of 164mm approximately. It has one female USB header to which the USB A connector is connected and the other end is 9-pin format onboard USB 2.0 connector.

The idea is to connect the USB cable with the USB Adapter (Optional as you can also connect the USB cable directly to the back of the motherboard if chassis has a provision for that) and adapter, in turn, is connected to the USB 2.0 header of the motherboard. This is needed in order to use the MasterPlus software from the Cooler Master to control the lighting of the cooler using the software and especially the Mirage effect.

The lighting controller is in the shape of a box having a dimension of 86x51x14mm approximately. It is made of the plastic. The top side of it is where the control buttons are present. There is a cooler Master brand logo in the center here. There are two buttons above that logo and two below it. Here are their operations:

• The top button having O symbol controls the LED Lighting Modes.
• The second button having □ symbol toggles between the RGB and ARGB modes. The default mode is the ARGB. Pressing this button once will load the RGB mode and pressing it again will load the ARGB button.
• The third button having up and down arrow symbols adjusts the LED colors.
• The fourth button having ‹› symbol adjusts the LED speed in the dynamic modes.

This side has a translucent cover as there are white color LEDs underneath which can be seen during the operations.

Taking a look at the other side of the controller, there is nothing printed or present on the top. This side is magnetic so that you can hook the controller inside the chassis easily and take it off without hassle. The magnet is powerful and will keep the controller intact. The controller is powered using the SATA cable. SATA POWER is printed on the SATA port.

The other side of the controller has three ports. There is a micro USB port in the center. A three-pin addressable port is on the left labeled as MB ADD 5V and a regular RGB port is on the right labeled as MB 12V. The arrow symbols on the RGB/ARGB cables need to be matched with the printed arrow symbols on the controller.

There are 4 ARGB headers on this side labeled as A1, A2, A3, A4. The ARGB devices are to be connected to these ports.

This side has 5 ports. Starting from the top, the first port is reserved. The second port is for the Mirage effect for which the MasterPlus software would be needed. I have already covered above which cable goes to which port on the controller. Next port is for the CASE RESET cable. Next port is for the MB RESET cable. MB stands for Motherboard. R1 labeled port is for the RGB devices and arrow symbol on the RGB cable needs to be matched or aligned with the arrow symbol on this port.

The above picture shows all the cables connected to the control box. This is only for the illustration purpose as many of them are optional. Cable management is quite challenging with so many cables.

ML360R Setting up RGB Lighting:

There is plenty of stuff listed in the Download section of the product page on the Cooler Master website. Click on ARGB box Firmware. The control box was not working on my both systems (when connected to the PC) first but after following these steps, I was able to get it to work fully.

• Download the latest firmware from the Cooler Master website.
• Download the MasterPlus software from the Cooler Master website. Don’t install and open it right away.
• Disconnect the box from every cable if you have already connected it including the USB, SATA cables.
• Run the firmware file.
• When prompted to connect the ARGB box, connect the controller box with the PC using the USB cable. Make sure no other cable is connected to the controller box, not even the SATA cable.
• Let the firmware be updated. It will inform you about the status.
• Disconnect the controller box.
• Install the MasterPlus software.
• Connect the ARGB LED cables of the 3x MasterFan MF120R ARGB fans and the pump’s ARGB LED to the lighting control box. If you want to sync the lighting with the motherboard, you can either connect the ARGB LED directly to the 5V ARGB header on your motherboard or connect the ARGB LED cables of the devices to the control box first and connect the ARGB Sync cable to the control box and the 5V ARGB header on the motherboard.
• The default mode on the control box is ARGB. If the mode is RGB then switch it to ARGB by pressing the second button from the top. Do this before connecting the control box to the PC.
• Connect the box to the PC using the USB cable.
• Connect the SATA cable to the control box. This will power the control box and you will get the lighting on the fans and the pump if the ARGB LED cables are connected to the control box.
• PC should have picked the USB device.
• Run the MasterPlus software. The connected control box will be listed there. Select it and click on the Configuration.
• Click on the lighting bulb icon on the port of the control box to which you have connected the ARGB LED cables from the cooler.
• From the shown list of the fans and coolers, select the correct model that you have. In my case, I selected the ML360R RGB. Click on the + symbol to add it to the control box. That will connect both in the software.
• Click on the Overview. On the ARGB All option, select the Motherboard option. It is on the top and you may have to scroll up to access it.
• Selecting the Motherboard will transfer the lighting control from the control box to the motherboard and now you will be able to control the lighting of the fans and the pumps right from the motherboard’s lighting app which in my case was Asus AURA.

There are some important pointers here:

• You don’t need to update the control box firmware if you are not going to connect it to the PC using the USB cable.
• The USB connection is needed for two functions: using the MasterPlus software to control the lighting or connecting the control box to the motherboard lighting header so that you can control the lighting of the cooler from the motherboard’s lighting app. Bear in mind that, for the second function, you will have to use the MasterPlus software to transfer the lighting control to the motherboard.
• You can connect the ARGB LED Cables directly to the motherboard’s 5V ARGB headers and can ditch the control box altogether.
• Connecting the Reset cables is optional. If you are all about controlling the lighting using the software then all that you will need is the USB connectivity between the PC and the control box.
• You don’t need the USB connectivity if you are just going to use the control box for the built-in lighting modes.

That is all. Hopefully, this will help you set up your control box the right way to make it work.

Cool Master ML360R RGB Lighting:

Finally, coming to the actual topic of the ARGB lighting, the MF120R ARGB packs some stunning lighting effects that actually look that dope in person. I am in love with the amazing lighting effects on these fans. These fans pack 16.7M colors to brighten your day all along. You can have static colors on the fans and the pump by either changing the mode to the RGB using the control box or set them under customization from the MasterPlus software. Here are some of the cool pictures that I have taken for your eye candies.