I am a custom watercooling addict. There. I admit it! Over the years, I have built hundreds of PC’s with custom watercooling loops. Most of these PC’s were for clients, however, 80% of my own builds are custom watercooled. While the end results are (usually) amazing, the high expense, the dozens of build hours and of course the maintenance required, make it a tough sell for a lot of PC enthusiasts. What should a majority of PC builders decide upon? An All-In-One CPU cooler. Enter the Cooler Master Masterliquid 360 ATMOS AIO CPU cooler. Should this AIO CPU cooler be on your short list to consider? It is time to find out.
What Cooler Master wants you to know:
Cooler Master Masterliquid 360 ATMOS Features
Cooler Master states the Masterliquid 360 ATMOS (the company also offers a 240mm variant) is their next generation of liquid cooling and this is what separates it from their previous AIO liquid coolers.
Refined dual chamber design – Our signature dual chamber pump has been refined for enhanced cooling synergy
Latest Sickleflow Edge 120 fans – Pre-installed SickleFlow Edge 120mm fans further improve cooling performance and simplify user installation
ARGB Gen 2 lighting – Next generation lighting with addressable Gen 2 RGB, compatible with both MasterPlus and MasterCTRL
Customizable pump top cover – Removable pump top cover, customizable with your own 3D-printed designs
Eco-friendly pump cover – The entire pump cover is manufactured with eco-friendly recycled plastics, putting our environment first
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The Masterliquid 360 ATMOS packaging features the slick, understated Cooler Master motif that emphasizes sustainability in packaging materials and a 30% reduction in total packaging size.
Upon opening the packaging, you are greeted with well-organized installation hardware in separate cardboard boxes. One for Intel and AMD platforms – in addition to an accessory box that contains hardware that can be used by both. Gone are the days of sifting through an entire box of random hardware looking for a particular piece to finish the installation of your cooler.
Inside of the accessory box, you will find warranty information, digital manual QR code card, 5V ARGB hub controller and more. The box has everything you will need to get up and running with your new AIO cooler, regardless if your motherboard has 5V ARGB connectors or not. Speaking of RGB, I am happy to report that the included fans are standard 5V 3 pin. No proprietary, gimmicky connectors to lock you into one brand’s ecosystem. I also love the fact that the fans 4 pin & ARGB cables are braided like the sleeves on the AIO hoses. Fantastic small detail that most AIO’s don’t include.
The Masterliquid 360 ATMOS features Cooler Master’s dual chamber AIO CPU cooler block, with increased water pressure and optimized water flow. You can customize the pump top cover with your own 3D printed designs. Although the block has a copper coldplate, there is no mention of the microfin density for us technical nerds. The block has rotary fittings, which makes installation and tube routing easier.
The AIO’s black powder coated aluminum radiator has three of Cooler Master’s latest Sickleflow Edge 120 fans pre-installed in a push orientation. The Sickleflow Edge 120 fans have a max 2500 RPM, airflow of 70.7 CRM and noise level of 27.2 dBA. The pre-installed fans will push (pun intended) you to install the AIO one way. If your preference is to have the tubes installed in the front of your case, you will have to reinstall the fans.
Installation is easy if you have installed a liquid cooler in the past. Pick either the Intel or in my case, AMD accessory box, screw the mounting brackets (the brackets have raised notches, so you can only install them the correct way) into the top and bottom of the pump with the included screws. The next step is to apply the thermal paste to the cutouts on the pre-installed paper template on the coldplate and spread it using the QR code card as the applicator. Although I applied a few drops of the provided paste to the CPU and spread it using a plastic applicator I had on hand. Cooler Master should have included a plastic applicator, specifically due to the amount of thermal paste they include will cover a repaste down the road. I do have to give a shout out to whoever wrote the following in the digital manual –
If you love RGB, the Masterliquid 360 ATMOS delivers on multiple fronts. The ARGB LEDs on the pump top and fans have no hot spots and feature smooth color gradients. As I have stated a moment ago in this review, the 360 ATMOS features standard 5V 3 pin connectors on the Sickleflow Edge fans and CPU block. The fans have male and female 5V 3 pin connectors and can be daisy chained. I am using the motherboard in my test system to control the ARGB. If you wish to use the MasterCTRL Beta software you will need to use the included ARGB hub controller connected to your motherboard’s USB header.
Performance Testing
The system I am using to test the Cooler Master Masterliquid 360 ATMOS CPU cooler has an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X with PBO enabled. Testing this cooler with this chip may appear to be overkill, but AMD’s 7000 series CPUs can hover in the 90’s no matter the core count per AMD’s TDP design. To demonstrate the out-of-box performance that can be had with the included accessories and TIM in the Masterliquid 360 ATMOS AIO’s box, I forewent my to-go paste KPX. I performed two heavy benchmarks to really push the Masterliquid 360 ATMOS CPU liquid cooler. OCCT 12.1.9 at default settings and Cinebench R23 with 3 single back to back multicore runs, followed by a 10 minute multicore stress test.
OCCT 12.1.9 is the latest version of OCCT software. It pushes CPUs much harder than past versions and normal PC uses like gaming. Couple this software with AMD’s PBO, the 7600X drew over 140W, making the CPU sing. Cinebench R23 was modest in comparison, drawing “only” 122W at load. This is all by design, as AMD’s philosophy is to extract as much performance as your cooling can handle. The Cooler Master Masterliquid 360 ATMOS CPU cooler didn’t break a sweat in either benchmark. The allcore clocks stayed consistent and there was no thermal throttling.
Conclusion
It is seldom that I am impressed by a watercooling product that is not designed for custom loops, being an avid purveyor of all things custom watercooled. Yet, Cooler Master delivered a product that isn’t just aesthetically pleasing but highly performant for its closed loop class. Considering I ran all of my benchmarks with the pump and fans around 50%, virtually inaudible, I am quite impressed.
With so many AIO brand manufacturers pushing their own proprietary RGB/Fan interface ecosystems, I applaud Cooler Master’s approach with this product. You can choose how you install and control the fans, pump and ARGB aspects via motherboard or Cooler Master’s ARGB hub. Cooler Master’s slogan of “Make It Yours” comes to mind.
The Cooler Master Masterliquid 360 ATMOS liquid cooler offers strong performance, customizable pump top, pleasing ARGB lighting and silent operation. Priced at $159.99 at the time of this review, I would recommend this product to PC builders looking for a liquid cooler that checks all of the essential boxes.
Pro's
Con's
Cooling Performance
Default Pump Top Cover is a bit busy looking
Silent Operation
Digital manual QR code card has to double as thermal paste applicator
Smooth ARGB gradients on pump and fans.
Quick and easy installation straight out of box
Five Year Warranty
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