Introduction

From the Cooler Master website:

Cooler Master was founded with the mission of providing the industry's best thermal solutions. Since its establishment two decades ago, the company has remained faithful to this mission, emerging as a world leader in products and services for companies dealing with devices where heat issues must be resolved.

Cooler Master is an industry leader when it comes to PC peripherals, cooling, cases, and power supplies. They have products in just about every conceivable category. With products that fit just about every need and price segment, everyone has become familiar with Coolermaster. Enthusiasts the world over have seen, heard about, or used their products.

Cooler Master's real claim to fame is due to their wide selection of cases, like the Cosmos and HAF series, that have garnered the attention of PC gamers all over the world. That said, their growing and evolving roster of cooling products are also taking off, with the Hyper 212 Plus and EVO having cemented themselves as some of the best options available in the crowded entry-level market where they offer some serious cooling performance for little cost. Other products, like the TPC 812, show Cooler Master's innovative side, taking vapor chamber cooling normally seen on GPUs and using it to cool today's hot running CPUs.

Not content to stick to the old methods of cooling, Cooler Master is now pushing into the AIO liquid cooler market with their Seidon line of products. I will, as such, be reviewing the Seidon 120XL today. It is the mid-range product of this lineup including the Seidon 240XL and 120m to fill out the enthusiast- and entry-level segments respectively. Let us get to it and find out just what the Seidon 120XL offers today's PC enthusiasts.

Packaging & Contents

Cooler Master's Seidon 120XL AIO liquid CPU cooler comes in an average-sized box that measures roughly 28 cm in length, 26 cm in width, and 14 cm in height. The box shows what one would expect to see: relevant information on the cooler, images of its features, and a short description. The side of the box shows nothing more than an image of the cooler, with socket support shown boldly in silver. The back of the box has the sizes of the various components in millimeters, with a quick description in various languages.


The other side lists the various specifications of the Seidon 120XL, such as radiator material and dimensions as well as all the pertinent information about the two included fans. The bottom of the box lists support information for various regions should users need it. The top is left rather unadorned with simple purple color once against listing product name and socket support.

Contents

When opening up the box, I found everything neatly packaged and sealed in plastic. The pump and tubing were, of course, in a plastic bag, with the pump's coldplate protected by a plastic cover. The radiator was also placed inside a plastic bag. Overall, packaging is adequate and provides ample protection for its contents.


After removing all the contents, we can see the radiator and pump clearly. It is definitely a lot thicker than the H90 reviewed earlier and should provide fairly good cooling. The real treat here is the mounting hardware. Users will immediately notice the difference to Asetek manufactured products. It is already evident that installing and uninstalling this cooler will be far easier than with products by the competition.


The assortment of screws and small parts used for the various mounting options. I am very happy to see the PWM Y-cable which some products, like Corsair's H110, don't include. Seeing Cooler Master provide one is a nice touch. We run into something new again: The Seidon 120XL is the first AIO liquid CPU cooler I have reviewed that offers rubber gaskets for the fans. These offer some noise reduction related to rattling and are, to say the least, a nice addition. The fans are, in the meantime, standard fare, making use of a rifle bearing. This is just a small step up from a sleeve bearing; mounting orientation doesn't limit effective lifespan. That said, I feel Cooler Master could step it up a bit by including ball bearing fans or nice hydro dynamic bearing fans instead, especially for this price range.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 8x Fan screws
• 4x Stand offs for LGA 2011
• 4x Stand offs for other sockets
• 4x Metal mounting screws
• 4x Short screws
• 2x 120 mm fan
• 2x Rubber fan gaskets
• 1x Bracket for Intel
• 1x Backplate for Intel
• 1x Bracket for AMD
• 1x Backplate for AMD
• 1x Tube thermal paste
• 1x PWM Y-cable
• 1x Philips head adapter