Cooler Master Seidon 120XL

[crazyeyesreaper]

In a crowded market where everyone is releasing all-in-one liquid CPU coolers, is Cooler Master's Seidon 120XL different enough to distinguish itself from the competition? The low price point of $89 is certainly enough to attract attention.

Show full review

 

[brandonwh64]

This cooler seems to do quite well against some of the higher priced competition.

 

[erixx]

Hi CrazyEyes,

Great review, first of all, well done. Some comments:

Mounting brackets look like Noctua patent overruns in the pics.
"Fits best in HAF cases" kinda song seems an overstatement, but I may be wrong, never seen one in real life. Looks are neutral to me. No military or macho smells anywhere.

Your OC testing seems conservative, would LOVE to see how it does at 5000 Mhz!

You compare mostly with Asetek and say it is much better. Is deeper comparisons with Corsair not allowed, being a godly brand for many? }

At the end, I feel tempted to try this kit...

 

[brandonwh64]

Hi CrazyEyes,

Great review, first of all, well done. Some comments:

Mounting brackets look like Noctua patent overruns in the pics.
"Fits best in HAF cases" kinda song seems an overstatement, but I may be wrong, never seen one in real life. Looks are neutral to me. No military or macho smells anywhere.

Your OC testing seems conservative, would LOVE to see how it does at 5000 Mhz!

You compare mostly with Asetek and say it is much better. Is deeper comparisons with Corsair not allowed, being a godly brand for many? }

At the end, I feel tempted to try this kit...

A reviewers job is to show what the product will do with the everyday user, with that being said an OC of 4.1Ghz is just a bonus since most PC enthusiasts that will run this cooler 24/7 will not be doing high clocks like 5Ghz+. This cooler is not designed to do that and since it is not then this is his main reason of not wasting his time doing it.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Also if i run 5ghz that means every entry to mid range cooler will fail the tests, yes lets use an overclock that means 50-75% of coolers that sell cant pass the test

3960x ES sample already hits around 150w at load at overclock the Chip is around 175-185w estimated.

I would love to run a higher overclock but it is what it is. 4.1 on all 6 cores is still a 800 MHz overclock compared to Intel stock, granted XMP on my board pushes the chip to 3.6 on all cores regardless its still a 500 MHz overclock.

The chip will definitely go higher so thats not the issue either, but when literally every cooler I have here except the Seidon 120XL, H110, H100 would be likely to fail it loses merit as a comparison.

as for Corsair you do realize Erixx that the Corsair units are made by Asetek, they are Asetek units with a nice logo and a few changes.

example: http://www.asetek.com/corsair-h90.html

 

[erixx]

Thanks for the replies to understand those decisions! I have never used water so i am a newby there. No idea asetek=corsair.

Well I am at 4800 Mhz 24/7 with a Noctua C14 (only 1 fan!) (of course it clocks down to 1600Mhz most of the day, but stays strong during gaming (80ºC) or video conversion(90ºC)

There is another review out there of the bigger brother of this 120XL at http://lanoc.org/review/cooling/6158-cooler-master-seidon-240m?start=4 which is bigger and the outcome is kinda bland.

So for now I am not running to a shop to buy one and start with water...

Thanks!

 

[RCoon]

Glad to see my H100 is still kicking ass.

 

[erixx]

A reviewers job is to show what the product will do with the everyday user, with that being said an OC of 4.1Ghz is just a bonus since most PC enthusiasts that will run this cooler 24/7 will not be doing high clocks like 5Ghz+. This cooler is not designed to do that and since it is not then this is his main reason of not wasting his time doing it.

Do not agree, sorry This kind of parts are for enthusiasts not everyday. Most non overclocking friends that come to BBQ or dinner at home do scream like girls at Bieber when they see my big Noctua, they use stock cooling solutions, unless I mantain their kits... so...

PD: I mean, a reviewer can (or not) set its own limits and do mainstream or freak reviews...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Well let me put it this way Erixx what manufacturer would send me a cooler to review if it was automatically guaranteed to fail the test?

 

[brandonwh64]

Do not agree, sorry This kind of parts are for enthusiasts not everyday. Most non overclocking friends that come to BBQ or dinner at home do scream like girls at Bieber when they see my big Noctua, they use stock cooling solutions, unless I mantain their kits... so...

PD: I mean, a reviewer can (or not) set its own limits and do mainstream or freak reviews...

Sure a AIO cooler is better than stock and does the job at moderate clocks but if you want full out enthusiast 5Ghz+ then full loop is what you need to find a review of or a phase unit. You are asking for above the comfortable voltages and clocks for a product that is made to tame the mediocre clocker. Sure you get props for a nocuta on a custom build but have you seen many benches were it was used on a 3960X at 5GHz+ (which would probably put the CPU at 250+ wattage)? If so please direct me to this because its a complete waste of the reviewers time.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

I think he forgets that 3960x is 6 cores 12 threads not 4 cores 8 threads like the 3770k with a TDP that is double the 3770ks

3960x also thermal throttles at 86'C so the C14 and Hyper 212 EVO in my testing were just 1'C away from thermal throttle in a room with ambient temps of 20'C

 

[brandonwh64]

Even on a 3770K at 5Ghz would still get quite toasty and 5ghz is not guaranteed on any chip. The review is suppose to represent what the average clocker would like to see on a 24/7 rig not a short time bencher of 5Ghz+

 

[erixx]

I didn't know that an AIO water cooler is so much inferior to handmade pipes and tubes stuff (the limit is the sky, isn't it?). 4,1 Mhz just sounded conservative to me, but of course it is the sweet spot of many 3960X.

From now on I will look differently at boxes with AIO waters... No hats off and that...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

The big draw for AIO kits is they tend to cool reasonable well but they dont block DIMM slots

so you can use whatever ram you want along with ram coolers and all those extra things something thats rather hard to do when using say a Noctua NH-D14

theres also the fact that these AIO kits are mounted to the case so they dont hang off the mobo via backplates etc. So we could say there is less stress on the motherboard,

Overall the big draw for these kits for me remains that you can use any kind of ram you want so if you have Dominator Platniums or the like you dont have to be worried that your heatsink and fan will keep you from using them.

 

[erixx]

Absolutely true! And -if windowed- you can enjoy the view of the mobo, that uses to be nicer than a big fan and so, specially nicer to the eye than a noctua fan ...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Another interesting thing is users can use these AIO liquid coolers from all the various brands in cases where tall giant heatsinks dont work, they make a good pair with Mini-ITX and Small Form Factor builds.

 

[Florentino]

I have to admit that kind of cooling system looks better than it performs

Actually compare to thermalright SB-E

Corsair H100 is an Epic Fail

too noisy&not so cool

 

[Frogger]

Sweet review. With that mounting sys this cooler might be of use to modders as a VGA cooler. If you still have the unit could you measure the 2 lines in the pic to compare to the mount holes on the cards. THE RED MOD

Thanks
strait bolt thru

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea i can do that

Roughly across the top in the image you posted is

2 1/4 inches
diagonal is 3 1/8 inches

give or take those are rough estimates

 

[cadaveca]

4,1 Mhz just sounded conservative to me,

To you. I senty Crazy that CPU, and it had bee nwell abused by me before he got it. clocks are not important here, what is important is the amount of heat output the CPU gives, and a clock does not say ANYTHING about heat dump. You run 4.8 GHz, but are likely only pulling 125W through your chip. That 3960X pulls an additional 30W OVER your 4.8 GHz IVB, when it's at stock.

In reality, Crazy's overclock is bigger than yours, you aren't looking at the right numbers. He's likely pulling twice as much power through his chip @ 4.2 GHz, close to 250W.

My 3960X does 4.6 GHz with 200W. That's 500 MHz more than Crazy's chip. Clock speed is irrelevant to cooler testing.

 

[erixx]

Thanks again revealing those aspects we ordinary people are unaware off. That is a huge power gap. Great lesson learned! Not that I associated 100% clock speed=power= heat, but somehow that was the idea. Idling I am at 78 W right now.

 

[ChaoticG8R]

yea i can do that

Roughly across the top in the image you posted is

2 1/4 inches
diagonal is 3 1/8 inches

give or take those are rough estimates

Might be useful to purchase some digital calipers....for this comment and for future reviews. They are less than $20 nearly everywhere

 

[brandonwh64]

Might be useful to purchase some digital calipers....for this comment and for future reviews. They are less than $20 nearly everywhere

Why?

 

[sneekypeet]

accuracy, and the fact that the industry standard of measurement is in millimeters. They just plain old come in very handy. You can measure fin thickness, you can measure hardware if you have an issue with fit, there are quite a few times where I was very glad I had one handy.

 

[silkstone]

I've just ordered one of these to replace my V8. Newegg have them for about $50 after rebate.

I'm just looking to replace the V8 with the equivilent cooling potential as having a 1kg heatsink hanging off my board has been worrying me.

Can anyone reassure me that I made the right decision?

Oh, 1 other question. If the pump were ever to fail. The computer would shut down before any damage was done, right?