Cooler Master’s Seidon 240M puts i7-3770K under water to reach 5.0GHz
Conclusion
When it comes to cooling your overclocked hot Intel or AMD CPU efficiently and quietly, Cooler Master is a great company to turn to. Just as we previously saw aftermarket aircoolers quietly eclipse the stock cooler and the Noctua NH-DH14 silently pass the budget coolers, we see the Seidon 240M surpass our Noctua’s maximum cooling ability.
From our testing, the Seidon 240M matches or surpasses the Thermaltake Water 2.0 in its cooling ability even though the Thermaltake cooler has slightly cooler peak temperatures. Perhaps the Cooler Master Seidon 240M is a little bit slower to repond to sudden spikes in temperature as one can observe the temperature spike and an instant later the pump and the fans go to maximum rpm. However, the average temperature over time is slightly cooler than Thermaltakes’s Water2.0 Pro and we were able to keep our CPU under OCCT’s maximum load even though we eventually called off the tests when they reached 105C. However, we would never consider 5.0GHz as a reasonable overclock our particular i7-3770K even for benchmarking considering that it takes 1.425V to stabilize our CPU; whereas at only -100MHz lower – at 4.9GHz – we only need 1.350V for stability.
We only noted a degree or two cooler using four fans in push-pull, but it was enough to run OCCT at 5.0GHz, something we could not achieve with any other CPU cooler that we have tested, so far. The noise from four fans was tolerable – considering the overclock.
If you have a Core i7 or FX CPU that you really want to push to its maximum overclock, the Seidon 240M is a good choice if your case has the room. The Seidon 240M is also reasonably quiet at all but the most extreme rpm. It comes highly recommended by this reviewer!
Cooler Master Seidon
Pros:
- The Seidon 240M is a great watercooling solution for overclocking almost any modern Intel or AMD CPU to its limits and it beats our best air cooler, the flagship Noctua NH-DH14 in cooling performance and matches or surpasses the Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro.
- The Seidon 240M is a complete self-contained compact liquid system that never needs refilling
- Everything is included for installation including a tube of thermal compound useful for more than one installation.
- It is relatively easy to install into a full tower and it takes up much less space than a bulky air cooler
- Parts are well marked and the instructions are clear and well written although an included DVD might be a good idea for watercooling novice builders.
- Warranty is two years.
Cons:
- The fan noise is noticeable under maximum load and you can hear the pump although it is quieter than its competitors that we tested.
- Size. It will not easily fit inside smaller cases. Measure your case first.
The Verdict
Cooler Master’s Seidon 240M is an excellent no-compromise all-in-one quiet cooler for a reasonable price considering its build, ease of installation, and all-inclusive package. It is well-deserving of our “Editor’s Choice” award and it cools our own overclocked hot-running Ivy Bridge i7-3770K. Highly recommended!
Our next article will continue with the cooling theme and it will be a Noctua 140mm and 150mm fan evaluation. After that, you can expect a Titan versus HD 7970 GHz edition versus GTX 680 using frame time testing in additon to looking at frame rates. We will also add Crysis 3 to our benching. There is a lot coming from us at ABT! Make sure to join us on our forum for great discussions and you can even help us direct future evaluations.
Happy Gaming!
Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
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