MSI Core Frozr L

[crazyeyesreaper]

MSI looks to break into the CPU cooling market with the Core Frozr L. Offering their distinct GAMING series looks with solid performance and exceptional build quality, it looks to give the competition a serious run for their money.

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[Evo85]

LOVE the looks! Would be so sexy in my MSI gaming themed build. Not very impressive results though for the price.

If only I could mod it into NB cooler....

 

[mastershake575]

Not very impressive results though for the price.

Little confused by this comment (actually very confused to be honest).

The 5 products that are classified as the same tier as the Core Frozr are ALL more expensive.......... (Noctua U12 and U14, cryorig r1, be quite pure rock/dark force ALL cost more).

The product perfectly fills a void in the market. Most either get the CM 212 for $30 to 35 or jump to $70 or higher for a mid tier water cooler or a highend air cooler.

There is a void from 35 to 70 dollars market (someone might want better than 212 performance but don't want to pay twice the price to get a significantly better product).

$50 is not only a good price but fits perfectly in market share

 

[Caring1]

Acceptable noise levels?
It seemed a bit high to me, definitely nowhere near silent.
Perhaps it would be quieter and cooler with two fans.

 

[Evo85]

Little confused by this comment (actually very confused to be honest).

The 5 products that are classified as the same tier as the Core Frozr are ALL more expensive.......... (Noctua U12 and U14, cryorig r1, be quite pure rock/dark force ALL cost more).

The product perfectly fills a void in the market. Most either get the CM 212 for $30 to 35 or jump to $70 or higher for a mid tier water cooler or a highend air cooler.

There is a void from 35 to 70 dollars market (someone might want better than 212 performance but don't want to pay twice the price to get a significantly better product).

$50 is not only a good price but fits perfectly in market share

Because for $10.00 more you can go AIO water. 39.00 would be a much more attractive price point.

My opinion. Mileage may vary.

 

[owen10578]

Damn that's actually a solid performance showing for a first time show. Well I guess we can expect that since they make damn good gpu coolers too.

 

[deu]

Looks cool! Like that they try to do something about the fans aswell. Alot just puts random looking fans in. (not that I ever open my case.)

 

[mastershake575]

Because for $10.00 more you can go AIO water. 39.00 would be a much more attractive price point.

My opinion. Mileage may vary.

Budget/lowend AIO coolers are very hit or miss both in terms of quality and performance (most go at least mid tier on AIO, especially if they do research).

That's why I said most either go $30-35 on a budget cooler or go $70 and up on either a mid range watercooler or a highend air cooler

I would not take points away/fault the MSI Core Frozr on the basis of something that's not the norm or often recommended (with that mentality you could pick apart/nitpick literally anything, even it's its generally accepted as success).

At the end of a day is a mid tier air cooler that beats almost all the competition in it's price range (some of which higher than its price range) and properly fills a price void ("not very impressive for the price" is an ignorant statement and you know it).

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Acceptable noise levels?
It seemed a bit high to me, definitely nowhere near silent.
Perhaps it would be quieter and cooler with two fans.

Keep in mind I test on an open Test bench from 30 cm thats roughly 12 inches away.

so sub 50 dBA at 12 inches. Now add the typical 2-3 feet distance and a case.

Another example

Swiftech H220x2 Prestige hit 46 dBA at full speed in my case at same distance 44 dBA at 3 ft its 41 dBA

That means roughly speaking the MSI should drop same 46 to around 40 dBA in a case at 3 ft
At which point HDD / PSU etc are more likely to be noticeable

 

[owen10578]

Keep in mind I test on an open Test bench from 30 cm thats roughly 12 inches away.

so sub 50 dBA at 12 inches. Now add the typical 2-3 feet distance and a case.

Another example

Swiftech H220x2 Prestige hit 46 dBA at full speed in my case at same distance 44 dBA at 3 ft its 41 dBA

That means roughly speaking the MSI should drop same 46 to around 40 dBA in a case at 3 ft
At which point HDD / PSU etc are more likely to be noticeable

Is the noise a motor noise or a wind noise?

 

[Air]

The msi logo with the dragon ruins a lot of their products for me. It makes its components look a bit "vintage", which unlike for sports cars and guitars, is not something usually regarded as cool for PCs.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Is the noise a motor noise or a wind noise?

Wind noise.

 

[owen10578]

Wind noise.

I see. So the fan seems like it's pretty good then!

 

[MRM]

Budget/lowend AIO coolers are very hit or miss both in terms of quality and performance (most go at least mid tier on AIO, especially if they do research).

That's why I said most either go $30-35 on a budget cooler or go $70 and up on either a mid range watercooler or a highend air cooler

I would not take points away/fault the MSI Core Frozr on the basis of something that's not the norm or often recommended (with that mentality you could pick apart/nitpick literally anything, even it's its generally accepted as success).

At the end of a day is a mid tier air cooler that beats almost all the competition in it's price range (some of which higher than its price range) and properly fills a price void ("not very impressive for the price" is an ignorant statement and you know it).

If I remembered correctly, Cryorig H5 is around this price range.
Similar performance, perfect memory clearance but block first expansion slot.

 

[Folterknecht]

Price/performance (incl. noise) don't really fit considering there are coolers like the Pure Rock or H7 starting at 35€ and Artics 240mm AIO (good performance and low noise) at 70€. And then there is the issue of that ridiculous dragon logo ... just black/red colour scheme would still fit into their design language.

 

[mastershake575]

If I remembered correctly, Cryorig H5 is around this price range.
Similar performance, perfect memory clearance but block first expansion slot.

Yeah the H5 is almost identical in both price and performance

I'm not sure why Techpowerup didn't put in the H5 in this review under the "relative performance" section of the performance summary portion (they reviewed the H5 so I don't see why it wouldn't be in the comparison).

The MSI Core Frozr will basically be the H5 but more easily found (especially in brick n mortar stores).

 

[0v3rl0rd]

Hi everyone

I was reading the reviews from the list here on techpowerup and there is something I noticed and that got me a little confused.
Just for a example let's use this two reviews:
1. MSI Core Frozr L from THIS link, and
2. CRYORIG R1 Universal from THIS link.

Let's look at STOCK IDLE temps for the Cryorig R1 Universal cooler: from the MSI link, the temp for the Cryorig is 25°C, and from the Cryorig's linkg, the temp is 29°C (30˘C tri fan) for that same cooler.

My question is, why are those two temperatures different? We're talking about the same cooler,

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Different processor. 4770k vs 6700k sometimes it makes sense to read the review and pay attention the Test System specs.

 

[0v3rl0rd]

Different processor. 4770k vs 6700k sometimes it makes sense to read the review and pay attention the Test System specs.

I read the review but I got confused because I didn't know that they retake every (almost) cooler with the new CPU (6700k). Anyway, thank You for clearing that up

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

I read the review but I got confused because I didn't know that they retake every (almost) cooler with the new CPU (6700k). Anyway, thank You for clearing that up

Yes for every new test system I pick a subset of the more popular coolers at various price points to carry forward. In order to maintain a diverse set of coolers some do not make the final cut.

 

[0v3rl0rd]

Yes for every new test system I pick a subset of the more popular coolers at various price points to carry forward. In order to maintain a diverse set of coolers some do not make the final cut.

Thanks for that info

 

[kliffjack]

Do you know if it is possible to mount fan on the other side of the heatsink? Would it not solve the first RAM slot issue?

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Do you know if it is possible to mount fan on the other side of the heatsink? Would it not solve the first RAM slot issue?

Yes you can swap the fan direction but that in a way creates other problems.

1) On x79 x99 it can still interfere with ram no matter fan location depending on number of sticks used / heatsink design / board. Lot of variables

2) In mainstream systems depending on board it will or will not interfere with ram but in the most common setups it can cause conflicts.

3) In many situation in order to work with regular case airflow would require a fan in a pull setup which reduces effectiveness thus lower performance since most cases from front to back are set up as so: back | <- CPU cooler <- <-| front air goes in front feeds fan on the heatsink then pushed out the back. Changing that dynamic can be difficult depending on the case. So while in some situations this can work just fine in regards to typical chassis designs today it would lead to a less effective cooling solution.

 

[kliffjack]

Forgot about the fan direction lol.

I'm kinda puzzled with this cooler , it looks great (if you go for all MSI build) , performs decent , price is OK i guess , but the thing that it blocks RAM slot is a huge fat minus i think. I get it, you can use low profile modules or 2 out of 4 but the main reason to buy this cooler in my opinion is pure aesthetics on mainstream socket , i don't think a lot of people would choose this cooler for x99 build , a small offset from base like for example cryorig H5 would have done the job + cooler is not THAT big , after all ram sticks are also a design element.

 

[M0dG0d]

I own this cooler and I'm not seeing any ram clearance issues. My ram is not low-profile. I'm running 2x8GB Team T-Force Night Hawk, which are pretty tall sticks. The cooler keeps my Ryzen 1700 at 33 degrees idle, max 65 under load, clocked at 3.9GHz 1.38v. It does a good job and the price point is perfect.

https://imgur.com/a/EaNLy