Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP CPU Cooler Review
Thermal Testing with Cooler Master’s HAF II 500
Does your case matter? Yes! Retesting inside the Cooler Master HAF II 500
We’ve recently reviewed Cooler Master’s HAF II 500 PC case, and it was begging us to retest the V8 ACE 3DHP inside it. We had some theories when we looked at our V8 ACE 3DHP data, and wanted to see how much of a difference this case would make to our results.
The Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP has a dense fin stack. Cooler Master even markets this as a feature. With a dense fin stack and a thick single tower design, it is hard to push air through the full fin stack. There’s a reason why this ships with two fans, and why these fans are thicker than normal and use premium materials. Cooler Master is pushing limits here, and pushing limits can cause problems.
Our theory was simple: airflow directionality matters. With our Lian Li O11 EVO XL having three side-mounted fans as its primary intakes, Cooler Master’s V8 ACE 3DHP didn’t have intake fans pointed directly at it. Our testing found that this cooler likes its fans at higher RPMs, so a PC case that offers strong directional airflow should give us better thermal results, right?
Case Design Matters
With its huge 220mm front fans and clear front-to-back airflow pattern, Cooler Master’s HAF II 500 PC case is an ideal test case for our hypothesis. If we are correct, Cooler Master’s HAF II 500 will deliver much better thermal results than our standard CPU cooler test rig. Below, you can see the results of our testing.
As you can see, the HAF II 500’s directional airflow allowed the Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP to pass our 1,000 RPM CPU cooler fan test. At 1500 RPM, moving to Cooler Master’s HAF II 500 gave us a 4.7-degree drop in average CPU thermals. At 2,000 RPM, the drop was 4.8 degrees, and at 2,450 RPM, the drop was 1.9 degrees.
Clearly, the V8 ACE 3DHP performs best when used inside a PC case with front-facing fans and a strong front-to-back airflow pattern. In other words, case design matters.
