Cooler Master V8 CPU Cooler Review Comment Thread

[AkG]

Well its that time again! This time we took a long hard look at the CM V8 cooler....and walked away less than impressed. The biggest reason we didn't like this cooler and its lack of fan replacement options and extra mounting points for additional fans....maybe we got a bad cooler, maybe the fan is supposed to be easily replaceable and we got a factory mistake (who knows anything is possible!). Though honestly, unless CM swaps the fan out for a Panaflo or Delta, or any fan with equal an level of cooling power, we don't think ANY single fan will be powerful enough to do this cooler design justice. As it stands, in its stock configuration this cooler falls awfully short of the standard the V10 we reviewed awhile back set.

To read our take on the V8 click here: V8

We hope you enjoy the review...and like the (new) Crucible of Fire & Pain 2.0 we have put together to help really torture new coolers with! Special thanks to Gigabyte and Direct Canada for their amazing support in helping making the new testbed a reality!

[Iamcanadian7]

Hm, I had a friend use this cooler for a while before upgrading to a Zalman 9900. His temperatures at 3.8 were much better than almost 80 degrees. I believe they were more like 60-70.

Though I don't think he needed 1.45V, that might be the difference. Also for the price, it's not a great value.

I do agree with the whole lack of fan replacement, it's a major PITA to even get at the fan let alone try to replace it.

[SKYMTL]

Voltage has EVERYTHING to do with heat production. Remember, we do multiple mounts in order to reduce the possibility of a wonky mount causing odd performance differences.

[Eagle Eye]

Great review AKG, good too see you're finally working with an updated platform it was always a bit of a shock to see that E4600 still being used.

As for the fan issue if you have a quick moment see if you can't mount a alternative fan (NF-P12) with an elastic. Given it takes away from the asthetics, but there has to be a way to improve performance. Its a $70 dollar investment that sure doesn't perform like one.

EE

[aviduser]

Very well done in my opinon. I know its kind of unorthodox, but I wonder if anyone has (mickey-mouse) mounted fans on either end in a push/pull set up. Would really be interested in results after that.

I think the v8/v10's are more of a "look at my huge bad ass cooler" than bang for buck product.

[IRQ Conflict]

Good Review. Too bad CM had to stoop to this cost cutting fan.

/hugs me Vendetta 2

[ImmaPC]

I thought that the review itself was excellent, great overview and I really like the comparisons between coolers. I still can't believe that this was beaten by the OCZ Vendetta II, I thought it would even beat the V10. Although, I would have liked to have seen the TRUE 120 or the TRUE 1366 (Same thing anyway) in those comparison charts.

Damn, the V8 or the V10 are definitely not worth the money. After reading multiple reviews on both coolers, I'd like to say that you can buy a Vendetta II for $30 or so and it would be a much better buy then any of CM's cooling offerings. The V8 and V10 is a joke. I can't believe that the $175 V10 only beats the Vendetta II by a degree or so, and only at a fairly high OC. Same with the V8, much higher price, much less performance.

[Lithotech]

Originally Posted by aviduser

I think the v8/v10's are more of a "look at my huge bad ass cooler" than bang for buck product.

<----- points to self

I am quite disappointed, because I really wanted one of these. I have to run my Scythe Ninja in pull mode if I want to fill the ram slots with my tall Dominators. I liked the look of the shroud, and in my CM Haf 932 it would definately fit in nicely.

Shroud is glued to the fan? Snuh? OMG, wtf, your kidding me? Meh.

Glad I didn't already buy one I guess, I have been wanting to for months and managed to resist when I saw it at a small discount. I would have been quite irritated and probably return it.

The shroud is misleading with the allen screws on top, one would think it bolted on top and completely allowed any 120x25mm fan! Arrrrgh, why isn't it so??

The crosshatch fins may not help matters, but I am not so sure. The increased turbulance may help the air collect more heat off the fins, and certainly cause more noise. Unless they tested a version with fins orientated the same throughout, and found it to be worse performance... they would never know for sure. Still, you'd think that the more air passing the fins the better.

.

[AkG]

Litotech, you are correct. In a perfect world more air turbulence would/could improve temps (see the OCZ vendetta 2 vs Xigmatek reference desing!) BUT in this case the poor fan is gasping for breath as it has to suck all the air in through those fins and then try and push it out. It is sad, as a small tweak or two would make this one truly kick ass cooler. I can just imagine what V8 2.0 would be like if there was a 38mm fan in the center and 1 on each side! OMG the possibilities!

[IRQ Conflict]

And, OMgoodness, I can't fit my ram modules in anymore. Heh.

[Eldonko]

GJ man. Crazy vendetta 2 is still kicking every cooler's ass.

[MpG]

Nice to see an i7 testbed up and running. Any chance of backplate photos? Not all coolers handle that stock metal plate the same way.

On a slightly different note, can I ask what fan and stock Vcore you were using with V2 on the i7 board? I've got one on my own i7 board temporarily, and I can't seem to get the temps down nearly that low. Since I've been trouble-shooting temp-related problems, this may be a symptom.

[AkG]

The OCZ V2 had the optional Xigmatek backplate and a NF-p12-1300 fan for the i7 testbed. Stock speed was w/ stock voltage ;) 3.42 was 1.28v or 1.3 (in that vicinity...don't have my notes here in front of me but thats the ball park IIRC, i'll check my notes later and edit if necessary), 3.8 was 1.45'ish. I can not for the life of me remember vtt/pll settings but they were lower than the core voltage by a slight margin. The biggest thing to remember is that this is on an open bench and is the absolute best I got. I mount and remount and remount....and remount until I get the right combo of TIM and direction, then and only then do I run the "official" tests (with another 3 remounts taking only the best of the best).

All the backplates I have used so far have had no probs handling the i7 built in backplate as they are "deeper" than 775 versions. If I come across an issue I promise I will make note of it in the review!

[Miyano]

Yikes! I was planning to get this cooler for my next build...

Looks like the fan can be replaced though: take a look at post #5 on this thread Cooler Master Forum &bull; View topic - Changing V8 Fan Orientation

Great review!

[Soultribunal]

I've seen this cooler up close, And I have to admit that the way they designed the fan admist it all is less than Ideal , you have it right on the money AKG that it has to first pull air through interleaving fins and then push it out again.
Thats asking a lot of one Fan.
There is hope however, I saw some pics of the proposed V12, and I think it answers a lot of the issues this has.
Off the top of my head, it has 3 fans, and two dense sets of Fins.
I await that to see if it works better.

Good review though,

Regards,
ST