Stock Clock Testing
For our stock clock testing, we have configured our CPU to run at factory settings for speed, voltage, and configured memory to XMP mode. This yields an approximate power at the wall of 300w under load (a 200w differential from idle, which pulls about 100w). This results in the CPU running at 3.8GHz on all cores during the looping rounds of Cinebench R20. You can read more about this in our introduction article here.
Max Fans – 100% Pump Speed
We started our testing by turning the fans all the way up to 11 which brought the MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 to the front of the pack at 53C, besting the two that tied for second place at 55C making it the coolest effort we have seen to date on this scenario.
Keep in mind that with this test that the maximum fan speed varies from unit to unit. The MSI CORELIQUID S360 checks in at 2000RPM while the Corsair H115i Platinum and SilverStone IceGem280 top out in the 1600-1800RPM range. The Enermax LIQTECH II and SilverStone PF360-RGB check in over 2000 RPM.
1500 RPM Fans – 100% Pump Speed
Dropping the fans to 1500 RPM closed the gap a bit due to the fan speeds being set the same and eliminating that potential source of variance. The MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 remained in the coolest spot but had to share it with the SilverStone IceGem 280. The rest of the crowd was not far behind.
1000 RPM Fans – 100% Pump Speed
Lowering the fans further to 1,000 RPM shook up the playing field a bit more. The MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 slipped to third place behind the SilverStone IceGem 280 and Corsair H115i Platinum but still lead the other 360mm contestants by a couple of degrees. As the leaders are both 280mm entrants, it’s likely that the placement change has more to do with 140mm fans being able to provide higher amounts of airflow at lower RPMs compared to 120mm fans.
600 RPM Fans – 100% Pump Speed
Bringing the fans down to their lowest levels found the MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 to fall into a tie for last place with the SilverStone IceGem 280 and Enermax LIQTECH II 360 winning this match. Interestingly enough, we could not tell a difference in sound levels on the MSIJ MEG CORELIQUID S360 between 600 and 1,000 RPM.
600 RPM Fans – 50% Pump Speed
While we typically will perform an additional test at a lower pump speed, due to how MSI Center controls the pump, we were unable to set a constant 50% pump speed for two reasons. First, the minimum pump speed that can be specified in MSI Center is 60%, and second, at the temperature levels that we were testing at, MSI Center forced the pump speed up to 100% regardless of how the fan curve was configured. With that, there’s nothing to see here and you should move on to the next page.