CoolerMaster MasterAir Pro 4 Review

Conclusion

In a CPU cooling world increasingly dominated by AIOs, it’s nice to see that manufacturers are still putting time and effort into developing traditional CPU tower coolers.  The brand spanking new (deep breath now) CoolerMaster MasterAir Pro4, is one such cooler, and we have to say we’ve been mightily impressed with it.  Why so?  Well. if you cast your minds back you’ll remember that when reviewing coolers we look at what we call the holy trinity.  By this we mean that a cooler has to look good, keep it quiet and do the job.  Price and build quality do of course come into the equation, but if a cooler fails the trinity test then it really doesn’t matter if it’s well made or cheap.

So how does the Pro 4 measure up.  Well, it might not be the sexiest cooler on the shelf, but then for just a smidge over £40 it doesn’t look half bad does it?.  We especially like the thick black top plate, and the molded plastic fan cowling attachment.  Not only are these some of the easiest fan attachments we’ve come across, for which we’d like a stand alone award, but should you require a little LED bling, they also enable you to change out the stock fan for something more illuminating.  Just make sure you don’t substitute form over function.  And should you want to go push/pull, CoolerMaster even provide an extra set of plastic clips to mount a second fan.

And so we move to  the second of the holy trinity, Noise, or rather lack thereof.  take a look at the charts and you’ll see that the Pro 4 is the quietest cooler we’ve tested since we moved to the new regime.  OK, so we’re comparing it predominantly with AIOs, but at the end of the day, this is still one very quiet cooler.

But what of performance.  Does it cut the mustard?  Well we have to say yes it does.  Granted, it may come fairly low down in the charts, but remember, this is a very slim 120mm fan based tower cooler that costs just £40.  Take that, and the fact that it will enable a top end 4.7GHz Skylake, or an impressive 4.8GHz Kaby Lake overclock and we think you’ll agree that the Pro 4 has earned it’s spurs.

Well it passes the holy trinity with flying colours, but what of the other factors?  It’s well made, and well presented, certainly better than comparable coolers in the same price band.  It is though a bit of a pain to fit, but not excessively so, so we wouldn’t want that to enter to much into your decision as to whether to buy or not.  We’ve already touched on value for money, but let’s reiterate that this is a £40 cooler that will take you nearly all the way to overclock Nirvana, and for that reason alone we like it. The fact it now fully supports the Ryzen AM4 socket pretty much means we love it!

So what of the awards? As it enables big boy overclocks for just £40 we’re bestowing the Value for money award.  With products that perform as well as the CoolerMaster MasterAir Pro 4 we really can see why the traditional Air cooler market is alive and well.

You can discuss your thoughts about the CoolerMaster MasterAir Pro 4 Review on the OC3D Forums.