Published: June 8, 2023 | Source: OC3D Internal Testing | Author: Mark Campbell

Noctua Beater? Cooler Master MasterAir MA824 STEALTH CPU Cooler Review

A well designed CPU cooler that delivers compelling thermal performance

Cooler Master’s MasterAir MA824 STEALTH is a CPU cooler that is designed to impress, and it is a CPU cooler that is showing to the world what to expect from Cooler Master moving forward. This CPU cooler is the first to utilise Cooler Master’s newÂ Superconductive Composite Heat Pipe technology, heatpipes that will be making their way into future Cooler Master products.Â

With this launch Cooler Master have also been paying special attention to the design changes that their newÂ MasterAir MA824 STEALTH heatsink incorporates, from its optimised heatpipe placement, its D-shaped heatpipes at its base, and its optimised cold plate thickness and fin stack designs. Cooler Master’s engineers went to a lot of effort to make sure that theirÂ MasterAir MA824 STEALTH was the best heatsink it could be, and it shows.Â

Thermally, the MasterAir MA824 STEALTH was able to surpass Noctua’s venerable NH-D15, what was the go-to heatsink for many PC enthusiasts. It even gets close to Cooler Master’s impressiveÂ MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB White CPU Liquid Cooler, making theÂ MA824 STEALTH competitive with similarly priced 360mm AIO CPU Liquid coolers. That’s a huge feat for an air cooler.Â

Pricing-wise, Cooler Master’s MasterAir MA824 STEALTH cost Â£99.99. This gives theÂ MA824 STEALTH the same baseline pricing as Noctua’s standard NH-D15, and a price that is Â£10 cheaper than Noctua’s Black NH-D15. Since this new heatsink from Cooler Master offers higher levels of cooling performance, this makes the MasterAir MA824 STEALTH the better buy in today’s market. It’s also worth noting that this cooler is also Â£10 cheaper than Cooler Master’sÂ MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB White CPU Liquid Cooler and delivers similar levels of cooling performance.

We love the MasterAir MA824 STEALTH, but that doesn’t mean that we love everything about Cooler Master’s new heatsink. For starters, we feel that Cooler Master should have shipped this heatsink with an all-black MOBIUS series 120mm fan. The dark navy-coloured elements of this fan take away from Cooler Master’s “STEALTH” aesthetic, and we feel that this heatsink would have looked better with an all-black fan.

Another thing that we do not like about this heatsink is how tricky it can be to install. It can be hard to locate this cooler’s mounting screws onto its motherboard mounting kit, at least when compared to heatsinks like Noctua’s NH-D15. That said, you only need to install a CPU cooler once, which means that its more fiddly installation process can quickly be forgotten about once you are finished.

Overall, we are impressed with what Cooler Master has delivered with their new MasterAir MA824 STEALTH CPU cooler. It performs well, and it has successfully surpassed Noctua’s well-known NH-D15. Beyond that, it gets itself within spitting distance of Cooler Master’sÂ MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB White, a 360mm all-in-one CPU liquid cooler. Those are two impressive feats, and we are looking forward to seeing that Cooler Master has coming next.

Cooler Master has confirmed that their newÂ Superconductive Composite Heat Pipe technology will be coming to other upcoming Cooler Master MasterAir products, including theirÂ MasterAir 412 Stratos, MasterAir 612 Stratos, and their MasterAir TD4 and TD5.

For the MasterAir MA824, we are awarding Cooler Master with the OC3D Innovation Award. It is rare that we are this impressed by a air-based CPU cooler, and rarer that we see an air-based CPU cooler that competes this well with similarly priced all-in-one liquid coolers. Cooler Master’s newÂ Superconductive Composite Heat Pipes are being used to great effect with this heatsink, and we are excited to see where this new technology will appear next.