Cooler Master Nepton 280L AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Testing

The test rig consists of the following parts:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper3
Video Card: EVGA GTX 690
Memory: Samsung Green MV-3V4G3D/US – 16GB
Power Supply: Enermax Maxrevo 1350W
Storage: OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB raid 0 Running Windows 7 64bit
Cooling: Cooler Master Nepton 280L
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe

As always testing was done using Intel Burn Test (IBT) with the AVX instruction set. The reason to use this instead of Prime95 with this setup is that it pushes our i7 3770K a whole lot harder. This gives us a better sense of extreme load temps. Most of the testing was done at the max memory setting for a single pass. While admittedly this in no way would qualify the chip as stable while overclocked, it gives us a realistic idea of what temps it will be hitting. Additionally we are going to run 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme to give you a realistic idea of performance while gaming.

Our baseline was established using a bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 with the 3770K on stock settings:

Ambient temps: 22.22C/72F
Idle temps: 38.75C/101.75F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 63.5C/146.3F core average

And here are the results for stock settings for the Nepton 280L:

Ambient temps: 20C/68F
Idle temps: 32.5C/90.5F core average
IBT temps one pass max memory: 59.75C/139.55F core average

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As opposed to simply going for a max overclock, we are simply going to shoot to hit 4.5ghz pass or fail. If the cooler will allow our 3770K to hit 4.5 ghz we note the temperatures and move on to test it on 3DMARK Firestrike Extreme. If not then back down to a more acceptable and stable overclock. Not as extreme, but slightly more consistent and far more analogous to normal use.

For the Nepton 280L, here are our results for i7 3770K @ 4.5ghz with 1.248V vCore:

Ambient temps: 20C/68F
IBT temps: 78.5C/173.3F with one core hitting 83C

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This is a very good temperature range for the absurdly hot 3770K. With 90C as our max temperature we have plenty of more room to go, but we would likely just stay here for 24/7 use.

With a positive result from IBT, we went ahead with a single run through 3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme @4.5ghz:

Ambient temps: 20C/68F
3DMARK: 65.75C/150.35F with one core hitting 68C

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These are totally acceptable temps for gaming and we would feel comfortable with the Nepton cooling our OC’d chip for hour after hour of gameplay.

The last thing we like to mention is sound. While I don’t find the JetFlo fans to be obnoxious, when you are getting the temperature up during runs of IBT or hard gaming they do become very noticeable. I recommend getting a set of headphones, load surround sound, or maybe just a different pair of fans.