ML 240L RGB AIO CPU Liquid Cooler Review

If I remember correctly the first cpu heat sink (Passive Air Cooling) I saw was on the Intel 386 processor, the first heat sink with a fan was on the Pentium 4, however the DIY'r had been innovative with heat sinks and fans as far back as the 486 and 486DX which brings me to the latest innovation in cooling technology: Liquid Cooling.

Liquid Cooling is much like the cooling for a engine in a car (notice I wrote engine not motor - engine's are chemical power, motor's are electrical), it is an active system consisting of a block of metal the coolant will circulate through then with hoses or in some cases pipes the coolant will circulate through another block of metal that has very thin passages for the coolant and the transporter (air) to pass through. the air passing through one side of the metal draws away the heat from the coolant on the other side of the metal. Thus it is considered an "heat exchanger" the coolant is then returned to the metal block that is absorbing the heat, the coolant is heated then sent back to the other metal block.

For the computer cpu the metal block is called a "heat sink" for the cooler the metal block is called a "radiator". Add the tubes or hoses to connect the heat sink to the radiator and you have an efficient way to remove excessive and damaging heat from a processor. To help the radiator expel the heat from the radiator an electrical fan is added.

The last computer I built I had a Core 2 Quad Q9650 processor, it ran hot but the Thermaltake heat sink and fan worked quite well, now I have an Intel i7-9700K that has turbo, this cpu can run at 4.9 GHz constontly. Air or Passive cooling doesn't remove the heat fast enough, the cpu will burn up, not instantly but over time (a short time) it will burn up.

Why doesn't burn up as soon as the cpu hits it's 4.9GHz? Sensors built into the cpu and motherboard, they will curtail power to a point where the cpu is protected or shut the computer down. You may have experanced the sensor curtailing the cpu, when you are using a program and all the sudden your program closes and you are back at the desktop. That was a warning that the cpu was getting to hot or over heating and if you continue with out increasing the cooling for the processor it will burn up.

How would you increase the cooling from passive or active cooling to a point where the processor will be stable and not burn up when in turbo mode at 4.9 GHz or more?

The way I did it:

A review of the ML 240L RGB AIO CPU Liquid Cooler

A. Quiet Cooling Fan Technology - By using noise reduction technology and sound absorbing rubber pads for lower fan noise even when the fan is at 100%.

B. Fan Design - Aerodynamic blade design of both jet engine and helicopter rotor blade gives you needed cooling without sacrificing airflow.

C. Pump Dissipation - The low-profile two chamber pump delivers a large performance increase over past gen technology

D. With Wired LED - For customize colors and LED effects

E. Processor Socket Support: Intel and AMD (Check web site for details)

ML 240L Dimensions:

The fan is 120mm (approximately 4 ^3/4 x 4 ^3/4 inch)

The radiator is approximately 6 ^1/4 x 4  ^3/4 x 1 inch (Height x Width x Thick)

The hoses are approximately 8 inches long from the cpu heat sink/pump block to the radiator

The AIO Pump/heat sink will vary in size according to the processor to be cooled.

ML 240L Connections:

A. Your motherboard must support the AIO/Pump, you could use a normal motherboard fan connector however with out the BIOS and motherboard AIO connector the BIOS and/or software can not control the speed of the pump. This AIO/Pump connector has a four pin connector, this gives the BIOS control over how fast the pump runs thus increasing the flow of the coolant when temperatures reach a certain level.

B. The fan, this connector will be connected to the four pin connector labeled "cpu fan" (on ASUS motherboards) the reason you need the four pin connector is for the BIOS to control the speed of the fan, slower speeds means less cooling and lower noise, however when the temperature rises the speed of the fan needs to increase otherwise the processor will overheat and the system will shut down.

ML 240L Mounting:

The radiator and fan, the short hoses/tubes will dictate where you mount the fan/radiator combination. The kit has mounting brackets for the cooling block/pump and screws long enough to pass through the mounting holes in the fan to attach to the nut plates in the radiator.

Liquid cooler has 8 inch hoses you will need to consider where and how the fan/radiator are mounted. Another consideration for this liquid cooler is which way the fan will pass air through the radiator. On the side of the fan are two arrows, one will indicate which direction the air is exhausted from the fan (air flow out) and the other will indicate the rotation of the fan. You could mount the fan to pull air through the radiator or push air through the radiator. If your case does not have an opening large enough to mount the fan/radiator to either push or pull air through (120mm) you may have to improvise a way to mount the fan/radiator. For air flow the best option is to pull air through the radiator and exhaust it out of the computer case; that is how I mounted the liquid cooler in my new computer.