Cooler Master Eisberg 120L Prestige Review
Published by Christian Ney on 12.12.13Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| The Cooler Master Eisberg 120L Prestige is
definitely a nice and unique idea but it leaves us with mixed feelings.
While we certainly like all the features, it feels like we tested a
product which is in its beta testing stage, rather than finalized
product on the retail/e-tail shelf. Some enthusiasts will certainly
appreciate it due to its strong pump/reservoir, full copper design,
performance as well as expandability option and flexible anti-kink tubing
but some things simply do not work well. The installation is not easy and straightforward on most Intel sockets despite the fact that it is definitely a great idea, at least on paper. The pump, although with quite impressive specifications, is simply too loud at 7 and 12V and still noisy with the 5V adapter, aimed to be used when you do not need performance but silence. Supplied fans do not support PWM and are far from silent at 7V. The Cooler Master Eisberg 120L Prestige is definitely a nice idea on paper and we certainly hope that Cooler Master will perfect it on the next product. Currently it has a lot of flaws that ruins otherwise great idea. |
- Cooling capacity
- Strong pump/reservoir unit - Flexible anti-kink tubing - Expandable |
- Pump is loud, even at 5 V
- Fans aren't PWM - Not easy installation - No Y-Split fan cable |
|
| Installation | + | - | |
| The Cooler Master Eisberg 120L Prestige is
compatible with most AMD and Intel sockets and does not come with
pre-applied thermal paste, which is definitely a plus in our book
although it might not bode well with less technical average consumers.
It also ships with 5V adapter for the pump which lowers the noise a bit.
The mounting system is definitely a nice idea as it does not need access to the back of the motherboard but unfortunately it does not work well on most Intel sockets. The entire mounting system, including screws that do not stop so you'll end up with too tight or too loose water block as well as too short fan screws that only work if you get rid of the rubber washer, simply feel like an unfinished product. The bundle also lacks the Y-split cable or a Molex to 3 fan header with voltage resistors that could make the fans and the pump silent. |
- Compatible Intel and AMD
- Thermal paste in tube - Rubber spacers for the fans - 5 V adapter for the pump |
- Complicated and not easy | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| One of the things that is exceptional on the Cooler Master Eisberg 120L Prestige is definitely its performance. Although we did not see any noticeable difference between one or two fans (around 1°C), the shear cooling performance of the pump and the copper radiator were quite impressive. | - Cooling performances | ||
| Noise Levels | + | - | |
| The impressive performance definitely comes with a
price and while main idea behind water cooling the PC is actually to get
rid of the noise, Cooler Master's Eisberg 120L Prestige fails in that
area. It is simply too loud for our taste and at 7 and 12V it is
probably the loudest thing we heard in a PC system and even with the 5V
adapter the situation is not that much better as the pump still spins at
2'120RPM and produces 35.8dBA of noise. Since the fans do not support PWM and since there is no voltage adapter provided, users will either have to adjust the fan speed via BIOS or via motherboard software as we certainly doubt that anyone will hold it at 12 or even 7V. We would at least liked that Cooler Master provided voltage adaptors or PWM fans, which they do have in their product lineup. |
- Noise levels
- Pump is loud |
||
| Recommendation / Price | + | - | |
| Unfortunately we cannot recommend the Eisberg 120L
Prestige from Cooler Master as there is a lot of other AIO water coolers
on the market that are simply both cheaper and overall better as a final
product. It is definitely hard for us considering that we really liked
some of the ideas behind it and we are quite sure that there are
enthusiasts that would prefer those same features. We certainly hope
that Cooler Master will pursue this design further and hopefully one of
the next versions will be much better. Also, the price is way too high at 120 Euros. The Corsair Hydro H75, which we reviewed recently is better in every way as an overall product and only costs 66 Euros. |
- Price | ||
| Rating | |||
| We gave the Eisberg 120L Prestige from Cooler Master 2 out of 5 stars. | |||
| Page 1 - Presentation / Specifications |
| Page 2 - Photo Gallery |
| Page 3 - Installation & Test Setup |
| Page 4 - Absolute Performance |
| Page 5 - PWM Performance |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
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