Gadgetory

small form-factor setups are quickly becoming more and more popular as gamers look to reduce the footprints of their systems as a result we have quickly seen a revolution with everything from high-performance motherboards to class-leading GPUs being awkward in sizes that are compatible with Mini ITX cases in addition those ITX enclosures have become more and more feature-rich and capable of housing high-end components unfortunately in many situations actual cooling setups haven't really kept pace with the small form-factor craze cooling overclocked processor stakes thermal mass and smaller more compact systems don't typically allow for large coolers to be installed with that in mind kula master thinks they have a solution this is their new compact a IO the master liquid maker 92 it may have a long and confusing name but it promises to offer excellent cooling for high-end overclocked processors while remaining small enough to fit into some ITX cases it isn't exactly inexpensive either at $100 which is a lot more than air cooling options from not Toula and some other companies so we're they able to cram all that AIO power into this tiny and versatile cooler you're about to find out but first we need to talk about a contest now to celebrate this availability in Canadian Best Buy's check out the link below cooler master is giving away a brand new master key slide mouse and keyboard combo to one of our viewers you may remember this combo since we reviewed it a few weeks ago do not that this giveaway is limited to North America all you have to do is apply through the gleam link which is posted in the description below alright let's get back to the cooler but first a message from our sponsor the dark bass 900 maybe the most innovative case of the year with a built-in Qi charger interior lighting tempered glass that can be installed on either side and a fully modular interior that can be inverted if you so desire be quiet stepping up their game check it out in the description below at first glance this is an incredible work of engineering by the folks over Coolermaster its unique approach towards compact AIO solutions and they're targeting this cooler specifically for mini and micro ATX bills not to mention this can be mounted inside a full-size ATX tower but remember this is a hundred dollar compact liquid cooler so you're entering the premium price category for CPU coolers and there are plenty of cheaper and more efficient alternatives in the market which fit that demographic honestly if you have a larger case you'll likely want to look elsewhere taking a closer look at the maker 92 it's relatively easy to spot the components that make up the whole structure there are dual 92 millimeter high static pressure fans in a push-pull configuration with an aluminum radiator in between them if you're wondering where the pump location is it's actually sitting on top of the radiator and they've combined them to achieve this compact form factor do note that the pump requires a dedicated power source through SATA the tubes routed towards the CPU block are braided and sleeved and speaking of the CPU block cooler master has implemented a clean copper base to maximize the contact surface that should lead to quicker heat dissipation provided the smaller radiator can keep up an interesting feature about the maker 92 is the switch and swivel mechanism that basically lets you choose between vertical and horizontal cooler configurations depending on your air flow needs there is a custom hinge bracket that swivels the radiator and pump in one direction with the intake fan facing the top and the exhaust at the bottom the horizontal support is 118 point 8 millimeters in height whereas the vertical support sits at 167 point five millimeters it's a lot taller than the Intel stock cooler so I would highly recommend to check case compatibility for this particular AIO installation was pretty straightforward coolermaster includes all the necessary mounting hardware inside the box I tested this unit on an azrog z170 and mini ITX motherboard featuring an i7 6700 K and 16 gigabytes of RAM all you have to do is install the long screws on the rear supporting bracket with these holders and tighten the cooler on the other side this is one of the benefits of the maker 92 it doesn't require you to find an open fan mount on your case but rather integrates all the liquid cooling components into one compact unit I did not experience memory constraints with this cool placed in both horizontal and vertical configurations but I'd be careful with RAM modules that feature a taller heatsink like the Dominator series from Corsair for example now this is where the actual compatibility issues start you see even though the maker 92 is small and it's advertised to fit into ITX systems if a case was compatible with the liquid cooler it would also be compatible with heat sinks from Noctua fill Montague van tanks and many others because actually finding a small form-factor enclosure which fits the Mako 92 will be a challenge Kula master doesn't have a compatibility list for competing products and to make matters worse none of their own ITX cases actually fit this small cooler here's a great example with the silverstone Sugo ESG 13 a case that highlights the strengthens of ITX design but it simply can't fit the maker 92 regardless of which position it is in with all that in mind I've decided to throw in not to as low profile CPU cooler the NHL 9i and compare the results with the liquid maker 92 what's astonishing about this cooler is its high clearance of just 37 millimeters now only does that make it compatible with nearly every ITX case on the market but the l9 is more compact than Intel's own stock cooler and by volume it's three times smaller than the maker 92 the top mountain 95 millimeter fan supports the PWM standard for full automatic speed control you know what's even more interesting the price it's a massive 50 dollars cheaper than cooler masters offering and I was really looking forward to the results so are you guys ready for it on your idle situations both coolers ran at about 27 degrees Celsius but under load the NHL 9i outperforms the maker 92 by about 4 degrees which absolutely blew away my expectations considering the tiny form factor remember the maker 92 was set at a horizontal configuration and it was curious to test out how it performed when set to vertical setting and here we are with the 92 running with just a few degrees warmer during both idle and under load situations let's listen to how they sound a few months back we did a video comparing the pro 240 liquid cooler to not to as D 15 D 15 s & u 14s and the air cooler is performed really well in our temperature and acoustic tests the only disadvantage with those coolers where the enormous hinting mass hanging off the motherboard this video puts things into another perspective because Noctua has done a fantastic job with the NHL 9i with its performance given the compact form factor on the other hand Coolermaster has engineered something marvelous with the liquid maker 92 I still can't wrap my head around the fact that they were able to cram a radiator pump and two fans into this tiny package and while it does have restrictions with certain mini ITX and micro ATX cases I think they're heading off in the right direction with this type of design maybe we can expect a much smaller size and better performance in the next revision but until then the NHL 9 is a superior choice especially considering it's $50 cheaper than the maker 92 and fits into more compact environments until Coolermaster publishes a full compatibility list or offers their own mini ITX case to fit the maker 92 I'd recommend looking elsewhere as we saw with that little knock door cooler there are certainly great alternatives out there however I can't take anything away from coolermaster either since without innovations like this the market really wouldn't go anywhere so what are your thoughts about the cooler master liquid maker 92 how are you impressed by its performance plus how surprised are you after I reveal the results of it compared against the NHL 9 I leave a comment down below and I'll make sure to check them out I'm Eva with hurricane axe thank you so much for watching and we'll see you in the next one