MSI MPG CoreLiquid K360 – Big cooler with big ambitions

Measurement methodology

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Key features of the cooler

The MSI MPG Coreliquid K360, like all AIO liquid coolers, uses a large radiator to exchange the processor’s waste heat with the ambient air. Unfortunately, the radiator used here is made of aluminum, which is a bit of a pity due to the high price of the cooler. A copper radiator would certainly provide a longer life to the entire cooler and also offer slightly more efficient cooling.

The hoses that connect the radiator to the cooling block are braided, reasonably flexible and 40 centimeters long in total. Therefore, you should not have a problem with placing the radiator in the front position, even with larger cases. The hoses are plugged to the cooling block with the pump by means of rotary adapters. This makes it easier to run them in the case so that they do not get in the way of other components in the rig.

The imaginary heart of the entire cooler is the Asetek pump of the 7th generation, promising quiet operation even with fast circulation of liquid in the loop. The base of the cooling block is made of copper and a thin layer of paste is applied here from the factory. Unfortunately, the package is surprisingly lacking another tube of thermal paste if, for example, you want to re-install the cooler or move it to another rig. So make sure you mount the cooler on the first try.

And you must have noticed that the whole cooling block is quite large. For comparison, I’m adding a photo of the block next to the AMD Wraith Prism, which is not much larger.

The explanation for this size is simple. There is a 60 mm MSI Torx 3.0 fan above the cooling block with the pump, which has the task of cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. There are typically passive heatsinks from the processor’s power phase design, and usually one of the M.2 SSD slots. Modern SSDs can become really hot, so cooling this area is more than desirable. In addition, there are not too many AIO liquid coolers on the market to offer anything like this.

Above this fan there is also an electronic brain of the whole cooler and also a 2.4″ display. However, this display is unfortunately just an ordinary LCD panel, viewing angles are not too great and the backlight is not very even. A high-quality OLED display would be much better. This display is used to display information about the temperature or clock speed of the processor, but you can also view the system time, enter any text or you can even upload your own image here.

Everything can be controlled using the MSI Center application, where you can adjust the fan and pump curves or change the backlight of fans. You can also adjust the display orientation. You simply have everything in one place.

The entire block with the pump, fan and display is protected by a perforated removable plastic cover. It is attached to the block with four magnets. When installing the cooler, you must remove it to access the mounting bracket and attach the cooler to the processor. However, the large number of cables that are run from this block cannot be overlooked either.

There are a total of seven cables. One SATA cable for power supply, one USB 2.0 cable for communication between the cooler and the MSI Center application, one ARGB cable for controlling the fan backlight, one cable for connecting the pump to the motherboard and a total of three other cables for connecting the fans. Add six more fan cables. Each fan has one PWM cable and another cable for ARGB backlighting. You have a total of thirteen cables together! The whole thing could be partially simplified by the fact that the PWM and ARGB cables would be equipped with two connectors at the end and could be connected in series. This would greatly facilitate the subsequent untying of the cabling.

The cooler accessories are surprisingly modest. Here you will find screws and frames for installing the cooler on all current processor sockets. The installation of the cooler itself is very quick and easy. However, you will also need a different frame for the AMD TR4/sTRX4 socket. You will find that in the processor package. However, the contact area of the cooler is small for the size of the Threadripper CPU family and cannot cover the entire processor, so the cooling efficiency will not be optimal.

The package also includes a set of screws including washers for mounting the cooler to the case. There is also a 3-port hub for ARGB fan backlighting. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the previous text, you will not find any tube of thermal paste in the package. Only a pre-applied layer at the base of the block is available. Due to the price of the cooler, the absence of an extra tube of paste is difficult to understand.

Specifications of the pump, radiator and fans

The block with the pump is really large. I have already stated why this is the case in the previous text. The radiator has a standard thickness and its width does not exceed the width of a conventional fan. However, the price of this cooler is really high and it enters the territory of basic sets for building closed-loop systems.

Three MSI Torx 4.0 fans are supplied with the cooler. Their paper specs are respectable, but I especially take the value of the maximum static pressure here with a grain of salt. Due to the design of the fan, this value does not seem very real to me. However, the speed range is very wide. At low loads, you can make use of the 0 dB mode to cool the processor passively, and at high loads, you can use the 2.5k rpm for maximum cooling potential. At such high speeds, however, you must naturally take into account the high noise.

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Test methodology

The Intel Core i7-5820K in the ASRock X99 Taichi motherboard serves as a heat generator. The whole rig is placed on a Streacom BC1 benchtable without fans that would provide airflow. Stress tests are performed using the Aida64 Extreme application with a duration of 45–60 minutes. The coolers are tested at three speed levels (800, 1,200 and maximum) at a processor clock speed of 4,200 MHz with a voltage of 1.150 V. This is followed by another series of tests at 4,500 MHz with a voltage of 1.350 V. The processor power draw at these clock speeds is approx. 150 W and 200 W, respectively.

The second set of tests represents a heavy load for most coolers. Thus, not all tested coolers can be expected to be able to cool the processor at all speed levels. The noise is measured using a calibrated Voltcraft SL-100 sound level meter in quick measurement mode (125 ms) with a sensitivity range of 30–100 dBA at a distance of 50 cm from the cooler. Measurements take place at three fan speed levels: 800, 1,200 and maximum.

At the end of the test, the highest temperature reached is always recorded. All data regarding temperatures and power draw of the processor are obtained from the HWiNFO64 application. The results are then corrected for ambient temperature as the final Delta T value. The test success limit is set at 80 °C. Any higher value means the processor temperature above 100 °C and a risk of thermal throttling. Therefore, if the cooler does not pass the stress test with a Delta T value below 80 °C, such test is marked as failed.

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Results – max rpm

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Results – medium rpm

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Results – low rpm

It can already be seen here that the high amount of waste heat in combination with the low speed means that most coolers are not able to prevent the processor from overheating and subsequent throttling. This is not unexpected, it is simply the physical limit of the cooler and does not mean that it is of poor quality.

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Results – temperature and noise dependence

Due to the high noise at maximum speed during standard testing, I subsequently supplemented these results with further tests to better illustrate the relationship between cooling efficiency and fan noise. And these results are quite interesting.

Due to the flattening of the temperature curves, and conversely the steep increase of the noise curve in the area around 1,200 RPM, it is clear that here we’re encountering the limits of the cooler. Any further increase in speed has only a minimal benefit for cooling, while the noise of the fans increases dramatically. Fans with a maximum of around 1,500–1,800 RPM would suffice here. This is how you need to tune the curve of the fans or accept the higher noise level of the cooler.

The MPG Coreliquid K360 is the imaginary flagship among MSI’s coolers. Its interesting features include, for example, a fully customizable LCD display or a hidden fan for cooling the surroundings of the processor socket. Nowadays, of course, ARGB fan backlighting cannot be missing. But can this cooler also defend its high price? Today’s review will give you answers to not only this question.

Conclusion and summary

I have a rather contradictory feeling from the MSI MPG Coreliquid K360. On the one hand, it is a highly efficient cooler that will certainly tame even extremely powerful processors with a high amount of waste heat. In terms of cooling efficiency, it is the best cooler in our database at the time. The block with the pump offers attractive build quality, including an LCD display, which you can adapt to your own liking. And the fans give you an impressive backlight of the whole set.

But there are also shortcomings which, given the high price, cannot be overlooked. The use of very high speed fans unnecessarily increases the noise of the cooler. The optimum for this cooler is about half the maximum rpm of the supplied fans. Excessive cabling could certainly be solved better, and the absence of a tube of thermal paste is simply incomprehensible with the cooler being so expensive. At the same time, it would be enough to finish a few details and it would be a great product. The potential of this cooler is considerable, but the overall execution unfortunately does not correspond to its very high price.

• Contents
• Key features
• Measurement methodology
• Results – max rpm
• Results – medium rpm
• Results – low rpm
• Results – temperature and noise dependence
• Conclusion and summary