Cooler Master V8 GTS CPU Cooler Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Cooler Master launched today the V8 GTS, a CPU cooler with three heatsinks, eight 6 mm heatpipes, two 140 mm fans, and a vapor chamber. Let’s see if these incredible characteristics really bring an incredible cooling performance.

Figure 1 shows the box of the Cooler Master V8 GTS.

Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 shows the contents of the box: the cooler itself, a small syringe of thermal compound, the manual, a Y-harness to connect the fans, and installation hardware.

Figure 2: Accessories

Figure 3 displays the Cooler Master V8 GTS.

Figure 3: Cooler Master V8 GTS

This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

[nextpage title=”The Cooler Master V8 GTS”]

Figure 4 illustrates the front of the heatsink. There is a smaller heatsink in front of the fan, connected to the base by two heatpipes. There is an identical heatsink on the rear of the cooler.

Figure 4: Front view

Figure 5 reveals the side of the cooler. Notice that the fans are attached to a holder that fits over the central heatsink.

Figure 5: Side view

The top of the cooler is visible in Figure 6, where the black plastic “armor” is all you can see.

Figure 6: Top view

Figure 7 shows the heatpipes at the base of the cooler. The four heatpipes at the center connect to the central heatsink, while both heatpipes at the edges connect to one of the smaller heatsinks.

Figure 7: Heatpipes

[nextpage title=”The Cooler Master V8 GTS (Cont’d)”]

Figure 8 shows the base of the cooler. This base is actually a horizontal vapor chamber that works the same way as a heatpipe, having a phase-change fluid that absorbs heat from the side that is in contact to the CPU and releases it in the upper side, where the heatpipes are welded. The point of this chamber is to equally distribute the heat among the eight heatpipes.

Figure 8: Base

Unfastening two screws at the top of the cooler, you can remove the plastic armor with the fans. The heatsink without them can be seen in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Heatsinks

Figure 10 reveals the 140 mm PWN fans (model A14025-16CB-4FBP-F1, 1,600 rpm, 82 cfm, 36 dBA, 3.72 W) that come with the V8 GTS. They are partially transparent and have red LEDs.

Figure 10: Fans

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

Figure 11 shows the backplate for use with AMD processors (at the left) and the one for Intel sockets LGA775, LGA 1150, LGA 1155, LGA 1156, and LGA1366 CPUs (at the right). Socket LGA2011 systems will use the stock mounting system.

Figure 11: Backplates

The first step of the installation is to fasten two holders at the base of the cooler. Figure 12 shows the clips for use with Intel CPUs installed.

Figure 12: Holders installed at base

Then, place the backplate on the solder side of the motherboard, and install four spacers (shown in Figure 13) on the component side.

Figure 13: Spacers

Finally, put the cooler over the CPU and hold it in with four nuts. Fastening the nuts is not easy because they are hard to reach, especially if your motherboard is already installed in the case.

Figure 14: Cooler installed

Figure 14 shows the V8 GTS in action. Besides the red LEDs in the fans, there is also a set of LEDs in the plastic cover, with a nice looking result.

Figure 15: LEDs lit

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We tested the cooler with a Core i5-2500K CPU (quad-core, 3.3 GHz), which is a socket LGA1155 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 4.0 GHz (100 MHz base clock and x40 multiplier), with 1.3 V core voltage (Vcore). This CPU was able to reach 4.8 GHz with its default core voltage, but at this setting, the processor enters thermal throttling when using mainstream coolers, reducing the clock and thus the thermal dissipation. This could interfere with the temperature readings, so we chose to maintain a moderate overclocking.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all cores, we ran Prime 95 25.11 with the “In-place Large FFTs” option. (In this version, the software uses all available threads.)

We compared the tested cooler to other coolers we already tested, and to the stock cooler that comes with the Core i5-2500K CPU. Note that the results cannot be compared to measures taken on a different hardware configuration, so we retested some “old” coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read on the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that comes with it.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings.

During the tests, the panels of the computer case were closed. The front and rear case fans were spinning at minimum speed in order to simulate the “normal” cooler use on a well-ventilated case. We assume that is the common setup used by a cooling enthusiast or overclocker.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed near the top opening of the case. This measurement is only for comparison purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i5-2500K
• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
• Memory: 16 GB G.Skill Sniper (DDR3-1600/PC3-12800), configured at 1,600 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: MSI GeForce GT 210 1 GB
• Video resolution: 1920×1080
• Video monitor: Samsung SyncMaster P2470HN
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: Cooler Master HAF 922

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2°C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2°C are considered irrelevant.

[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the full speed.

Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Temp. Diff.
Intel stock cooler	18 °C	41 dBA	2000 rpm	97 °C	79 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3	18 °C	50 dBA	2850 rpm	69 ºC	51 °C
Corsair A70	23 °C	51 dBA	2000 rpm	66 ºC	43 °C
Corsair H100	26 °C	62 dBA	2000 rpm	64 ºC	38 °C
EVGA Superclock	26 °C	57 dBA	2550 rpm	67 ºC	41 °C
NZXT HAVIK 140	20 °C	46 dBA	1250 rpm	65 ºC	45 °C
Thermalright True Spirit 120	26 °C	42 dBA	1500 rpm	82 °C	56 °C
Zalman CNPS12X	26 °C	43 dBA	1200 rpm	71 °C	45 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max	20 °C	51 dBA	1700 rpm	62 °C	42 °C
Titan Fenrir Siberia Edition	22 °C	50 dBA	2400 rpm	65 °C	43 °C
SilenX EFZ-120HA5	18 °C	44 dBA	1500 rpm	70 °C	52 °C
Noctua NH-L12	20 °C	44 dBA	1450 rpm	70 °C	50 °C
Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme	21 °C	53 dBA	2550 rpm	71 °C	50 °C
Gamer Storm Assassin	15 °C	48 dBA	1450 rpm	58 °C	43 °C
Deepcool Gammaxx 400	15 °C	44 dBA	1500 rpm	60 °C	45 °C
Cooler Master TPC 812	23 °C	51 dBA	2350 rpm	66 °C	43 °C
Deepcool Gammaxx 300	18 °C	43 dBA	1650 rpm	74 °C	56 °C
Intel stock cooler	18 °C	41 dBA	2000 rpm	97 °C	79 °C
Xigmatek Praeton	19 °C	52 dBA	2900 rpm	83 °C	64 °C
Noctua NH-U12P SE2	18 °C	42 dBA	1300 rpm	69 °C	51 °C
Deepcool Frostwin	24 °C	46 dBA	1650 rpm	78 °C	54 °C
Thermaltake Frio Advanced	13 °C	56 dBA	2000 rpm	62 °C	49 °C
Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition	9 °C	48 dBA	2100 rpm	53 °C	44 °C
Thermaltake Frio Extreme	21 °C	53 dBA	1750 rpm	59 °C	38 °C
Noctua NH-U9B SE2	12 °C	44 dBA	1700 rpm	64 °C	52 °C
Thermaltake WATER2.0 Pro	15 °C	54 dBA	2000 rpm	52 °C	37 °C
Deepcool Fiend Shark	18 °C	45 dBA	1500 rpm	74 °C	56 °C
Arctic Freezer i30	13 °C	42 dBA	1350 rpm	63 °C	50 °C
Spire TME III	8 °C	46 dBA	1700 rpm	70 °C	62 °C
Thermaltake WATER2.0 Performer	11 °C	54 dBA	2000 rpm	49 °C	38 °C
Arctic Alpine 11 PLUS	11 °C	45 dBA	2000 rpm	82 °C	71 °C
be quiet! Dark Rock 2	10 °C	41 dBA	1300 rpm	58 °C	48 °C
Phanteks PH-TC14CS	16 °C	47 dBA	1300 rpm	58 °C	42 °C
Phanteks PH-TC14PE	16 °C	48 dBA	1300 rpm	57 °C	41 °C
SilverStone HE01 (Q)	19 °C	44 dBA	1150 rpm	63 °C	44 °C
SilverStone HE01 (P)	20 °C	57 dBA	2050 rpm	62 °C	42 °C
Thermaltake WATER2.0 Extreme (S)	17 °C	44 dBA	1250 rpm	52 °C	35 °C
Thermaltake WATER2.0 Extreme (E)	17 °C	53 dBA	1900 rpm	50 °C	33 °C
Deepcool Neptwin	11 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	56 °C	45 °C
SilverStone HE02	19 °C	49 dBA	2000 rpm	64 °C	45 °C
Zalman CNPS9900DF	23 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	68 °C	45 °C
Deepcool ICE BLADE PRO V2.0	22 °C	43 dBA	1500 rpm	67 °C	45 °C
Phanteks PH-TC90LS	24 °C	47 dBA	2600 rpm	95 °C	71 °C
Rosewill AIOLOS	20 °C	40 dBA	1600 rpm	94 °C	74 °C
Corsair H60	20 °C	49 dBA	2000 rpm	64 °C	44 °C
Zalman LQ310	27 °C	51 dBA	2050 rpm	65 °C	38 °C
Noctua NH-L9i	24 °C	44 dBA	2500 rpm	95 °C	71 °C
NZXT Respire T40	20 °C	45 dBA	1850 rpm	76 °C	56 °C
NZXT Respire T20	21 °C	45 dBA	1900 rpm	77 °C	56 °C
Zalman LQ315	20 °C	52 dBA	1950 rpm	57 °C	37 °C
Corsair H80i (Quiet)	19 °C	44 dBA	1100 rpm	61 °C	42 °C
Corsair H80i (Maximum)	19 °C	57 dBA	2500 rpm	55 °C	36 °C
NZXT Kraken X40 (Silent)	25 °C	44 dBA	1050 rpm	66 °C	41 °C
NZXT Kraken X40 (Extreme)	25 °C	53 dBA	1650 rpm	62 °C	37 °C
Zalman LQ320	20 °C	52 dBA	2100 rpm	57 °C	37 °C
Corsair H100i (Quiet)	22 °C	45 dBA	1150 rpm	58 °C	36 °C
Corsair H100i (Maximum)	22 °C	61 dBA	2500 rpm	54 °C	32 °C
NZXT Kraken X60 (Silent)	26 °C	46 dBA	1000 rpm	62 °C	36 °C
NZXT Kraken X60 (Extreme)	26 °C	60 dBA	1650 rpm	60 °C	34 °C
Prolimatech Genesis Black Series	25 °C	46 dBA	1150 rpm	69 °C	44 °C
Phanteks PH-TC12DX	25 °C	51 dBA	1850 rpm	74 °C	49 °C
Corsair H90	23 °C	51 dBA	1550 rpm	61 °C	38 °C
Corsair H110	27 °C	58 dBA	1500 rpm	60 °C	33 °C
Evercool Venti	23 °C	49 dBA	2250 rpm	72 °C	49 °C
Thermalright Archon SB-E X2	22 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	68 °C	46 °C
Scythe Kabuto II	20 °C	41 dBA	1450 rpm	67 °C	47 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems Red Series	20 °C	51 dBA	1500 rpm	63 °C	43 °C
Zalman FX100 (fanless)	18 °C	NA	NA	98 °C	80 °C
Zalman FX100 (92 mm fan)	18 °C	50 dBA	2850 rpm	69 °C	51 °C
Gelid The Black Edition	21 °C	45 dBA	1650 rpm	66 °C	45 °C
Thermalright AXP-100	22 °C	42 dBA	2400 rpm	76 °C	54 °C
SilverStone NT06-PRO	19 °C	50 dBA	2400 rpm	72 °C	53 °C
SilverStone AR01	11 °C	46 dBA	2150 rpm	53 °C	42 °C
Cooler Master Seidon 120M	16 °C	52 dBA	2300 rpm	58 °C	42 °C
Enermax ETS-T40-White Cluster	16 °C	50 dBA	2200 rpm	63 °C	47 °C
Cooler Master Seidon 120XL	17 °C	54 dBA	2250 rpm	55 °C	38 °C
Cooler Master Seidon 240M	13 °C	59 dBA	2200 rpm	49 °C	36 °C
SilverStone AR02	9 °C	46 dBA	2800 rpm	60 °C	51 °C
Cooler Master V8 GTS	10 °C	51 dBA	1650 rpm	54 °C	44 °C

In the graph below, you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

In the graph below, you can see how many decibels of noise each cooler makes.

 

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the Cooler Master V8 GTS CPU cooler include:

• Application: Sockets AM2(+), AM3(+), FM1, FM2, LGA775, LGA 1150, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, and LGA2011
• Dimensions: 6.1 x 5.9 x 6.6 inches (154 x 149.8 x 166.5 mm) (W x L x H)
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Vapor chamber
• Heat-pipes: Eight 6 mm heatpipes
• Fans: Two, 140 mm
• Nominal fan speed: 1,600 rpm
• Fan air flow: 82 cfm
• Power consumption: 2 x 3.72 W
• Nominal noise level: 36 dBA
• Weight: 2.4 lb (1.07 kg)
• More information: https://www.coolermaster.com
• MSRP in the U.S.: USD 100.00

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

The Cooler Master V8 GTS is really impressive. Its specifications are amazing: three heatsinks, two 140 mm fans, eight heatpipes, and a vapor chamber base. It also looks impressive, with the black “armor” and red LEDs everywhere.

But the cooling performance in our tests was a little disappointing. Not that it performs badly; it actually performed as well as the best air coolers we tested so far. But its design is so very innovative and audacious, that we were expecting an out-of-this-world cooling performance.

With these results, as well as the numbers we saw in the Cooler Master TPC 812, we have a feeling that vapor chamber technology brings no real-world performance gain to CPU coolers, since models with a much simpler design, such as the SilverStone AR01 and EVGA Superclock, reached slightly better results.

Anyway, the Cooler Master V8 GTS CPU cooler is a great product, with a stunning look and excellent performance, so it received the Hardware Secrets Golden Award.