Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Installation
Installing the MasterLiquid Pro 240 is very similar to installing any 240mm AiO. We’ll go ahead and start by attaching the fans to the radiator. With the pair mounted hanging from the bottom of the radiator we are going to set them up to pull cooler air into the radiator through the case top. Begin by placing the rubber anti vibration shroud on the radiator. With that in place put both fans onto the radiator oriented so that the wiring will go directly to the back of the case.

CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (32) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (33)

The fans are then secured with eight of the included thumb screws. CM was nice enough to actually include a full 16 of these high quality nickel finished thumbscrews just in case you want to pick up two more fans to run push/pull. With both fans attached hold the radiator up against the top of your case and secure with the included small Philips head screws. The best way to do this is to thread two screws in by hand at opposite corners to hold the radiator in place. Once held in place secure fully with the remaining screws. One thing to note is that the screws start off easy and become harder to screw in. It feels like you might be punching through the radiator’s channels which are located directly below the holes, but in fact the screws are not long enough to do this.

CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (34) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (35)

Next you need to prepare the backplate for installation. Slide the standoff screws into the proper slot for your socket and secure each with one of the black plastic clips. These can be adjusted to the proper position after they have been installed. After that simply slide the standoff screws through the holes in the back of your motherboard and you’re all set. The screws are a fairly light fit in the holes and should hold the backplate on fairly well without any clips or screws to secure them while you move the case around.

CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (36) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (37) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (38)

After the backplate we can go ahead and prep the pump for installation. Again select the correct mounts for your socket and grab the four smallest silver screws. Slide one of the mounts into the slot at the base of the pump and secure it with two of the small silver screws. Pay attention to orient the mount with the ends elevated and not turned down.

CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (39) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (40) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (41)

You will now want to install some of the included thermal material to the top of the CPU. We found that it was much thicker than we expected and didn’t spread out like we thought it would. Because of this on our first application we had to add a little and it was ugly after we were done. Later we found that it didn’t compress and spread well. For our second application we applied and tried to spread out the TIM across the surface of the CPU. The material is very thick, it turned out to be difficult even to spread. If you have access, we would recommend the use of a different TIM altogether. However switching to a less viscous TIM has one drawback. It seems that the pump sticks to the processor some thanks to the thick paste and allows you to let go of it somewhat while attaching the thumbscrews. When we tried an alternate paste is was quite the trick to keep the backplate from falling out of the motherboard while simultaneously attaching the thumb screws. A retention system for the backplate would have been nice.

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With the TIM in place align the slots on the ends of the pump mounts with the standoffs and press the pump firmly into place. Holding the pump with one hand secure it with the thumbscrews using the other. You need to be careful not to push the standoffs back out of the holes as they aren’t secured with anything. Finish off by tightening the screws gently with a flathead screwdriver. You can also go ahead and plug in the pumps four pin power connector to the CPU_FAN header.

CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (43) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (44) CM_MasterLiquid_Pro_240 (45)

To finish the installation, plug the included Y splitter into one of the additional SYS_FAN headers on the motherboard and then into the two fans.