MSI MAG CoreLiquid A13 360: High TDP, lighting and low price

Tests of affordable AIO liquid coolers continue. The CoreLiquid A13 with a 360 mm radiator offers not only cooling performance but also ARGB LED fans with light-guiding impellers (so the lighting can be really striking…) and comes at an attractive price. Given its features, we can talk about a fairly low sum. For this “mix,” MSI’s cooler takes home our editorial award “Smart buy!”.

You’ve already seen MSI coolers in HWC tests. Take for example the CoreLiquid S360—a true top-performer, but also a very expensive cooler. With the CoreLiquid A13 360, it’s different. At least when it comes to price. That is significantly lower here, making it a genuinely accessible option for a wide range of users—even for those convinced that a cooler should never cost a large fraction of the CPU price and ought to be much cheaper. That’s exactly the case with the CL A13 360, which sells for around 100 EUR.

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MSI MAG CoreLiquid A13 360

The construction basics match what you’d expect from other liquid coolers in this price bracket. The 360 mm radiator is aluminum, cooled by three 120 mm fans. The tubes are sleeved with textile braid, and the block side features swivel joints for easier installation on the motherboard. No issues here. The tube length (about 400 mm) is also sufficient to reach the CPU from the front position in larger PC cases.

The radiator is 27 mm thick with a fin density of 30 FPI. In this respect, the CoreLiquid A13 360 does not stand out from competing designs.

Where it does differ is in the fans. These often determine how effective the cooling will be when radiators of the same size and fin density are used, provided fluid flow is not the limiting factor. And the fans here look impressive—a modern aerodynamic design with seven blades reinforced by a unifying ring. That ring plays an important role in reducing unwanted tip vibrations.

Vibrations are often a concern with impellers made of translucent materials. The ring helps to suppress them, naturally lowering noise and preventing unwanted secondary noise caused by their transfer into the case structure.

The fans are daisy-chained and connect to the motherboard (or a hub) via a single connector. It’s a 4-pin connector, which of course allows for PWM control—standard practice for coolers.

The pump is integrated into the block, which also features illuminated ARGB LED elements on the top—both the MSI logo and the perimeter edge are lit via light guides. As a result, the CoreLiquid A13 360 lights up quite a lot across different spots. If that’s what you want, you just need to hook up the block lighting. For synchronization with the fans, you can simply daisy-chain the ARGB LED connectors. The pump lighting can be linked to the fan lighting, running together from a single 3-pin ARGB header on the motherboard.

 

The contact plate with the CPU’s IHS is large enough to cover even Intel LGA 1851 and LGA 1700 processors completely. AMD platforms (AM4 and AM5) are also supported. For these, installation relies on the backplate already included with motherboards.

For Intel CPUs, the cooler comes with its own backplate. The only downside is that it’s made of plastic. This choice can be defended by cost savings and a lower retail price, but it must be said that the backplate may also impact cooling performance. Plastic is more flexible, leading to potentially weaker mounting pressure. We’ve already shown how this can affect results in our comparison of a plastic versus a metal backplate. The situation may be similar here.

Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.