Manufacturer Product Page: V8 - Cooler Master
Part Number: RR-UV8-XBU1-GP
TechWiki Info: V8 - Features, Specs, Images, Videos, and Reviews - TechWiki
Availability: Now
Click Here to Check Prices: CM V8



Recently, we had the pleasure to test, torture…. and even kill a Cooler Master V10. To say we had more fun with with that cooler than we have had in a long while is really, really understating things. Today we get to continue to see yet another evolution of the Cooler Master "V" series and see if it can live up the the high expectations we now have.

In this review we are going to take a long hard look at the Cooler Master V8 air based cooling solution. This heatsink may lack the TEC cooling (and mystic aura which accompanies that tech) of its bigger brother but it promises to offer some amazing air cooling performance. The V8 is widely available at retailer and e-tailers throughout the country and unlike its “big brother” it doesn’t exactly cost an arm and a leg and is going for about $70.

To further add to the spice of this review, we have just recently updated our Crucible of Fire & Pain to version 2.0 and have dropped the low end dual e4600 from the tests while replacing it with an i7 920. We may not always agree with what you our readers have to say, but we do listen and we thought it was high time to change to the newer generation of CPUs. We will still be using our hot-running Q6600 so if you have decided to sit out Generation 1 of Intel’s latest and greatest we still have some love for you. You may notice that while this may be our first i7 Air Cooler review the charts will not be empty. We have gone back to Ye Olde Parts Bin and updated the mounting brackets on not only the V10…but also the Xigmatek S1283 and OCZ Vendetta 2. Needless to say the latter coolers will be set up with the optional i7 backplate and as such may outperform any stock i7 capable S1283/V2 (if such an OEM beast ever comes to fruition).

The V8 has awfully big shoes to fill and it will be interesting to see how it performs not only on the i7 test bed but the older 775 one as well. We believe that this one-two punch will give you our beloved readers a much clearer and precise understanding of where this bad boy falls in air cooling spectrum. Will it be an OCZ V2 killer and displace the champ as our favourite cooler? Only time and testing will tell; but if your are like us you must be itching to find out, so lets go get the i7 test bed broken in!