In our build recommendation for 2022/2023, we featured the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary Edition as we determined the product to be an all-rounder. It has great looks, performs very well, and is priced adequately.
In fact, MasterLiquid PL360 is one of the flagship AiO Liquid Cooler from Cooler Master, and is expected to perform very well with its unique designs. Moreover, celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary, the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux has also gotten a makeover with a special design that’s available in limited quantities.
In this review, we are going to take a look at the difference a CPU cooler can bring to a computer system. We will also see how the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary Edition adds design and class to the overall desktop and workstation build.
The MasterLiquid PL360 Flux by Cooler Master
The limited edition MasterLiquid PL360 Flux is designed with the “30th Anniversary” branding throughout the product. This comes on top of the RGB effects that is featured on the pump and fans. It is true that most computer cases these days tries to retain a minimal and simple colour scheme, which allows the components within the PC to stand out and shine. Literally, the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux truly shines within the computer case.
The surrounding RGB colours on the Liquid Cooler’s pump allows the 30th Anniversary logo on it to stand out. You can also easily customize the colours of the lighting to your own preference, or synchronize it with the other components within the PC.
There are a few ways in which you can mount the radiator, and we’ve decided to place the fans outwards so that the attractive RGB lights can be shown towards the exterior of the case, rather than on the inside of the case. We would have trouble trying to fit the MasterLiquid PL360 into this case, but thankfully and luckily, the radiator is slimmer than typical radiators and we were able to fit the fans and radiator setup within the case just well.
The MasterLiquid PL360 also uses a Dual Chamber Pump design. Instead of having the pump and heat dissipating conducting metal fins of the CPU block within the same chamber, this design separates them. This design claims to extends the reliability of the pump, as the coolant around the pump will be cooler compared to traditional designs. Cooler Master also claims that this design gives the setup a “balance of waterflow and pressure”.
Test Setup and Performance
In our tests, we will focus on understanding the performance difference between having a liquid cooler and a usual air cooler on a Ryzen 9 7900X setup. The Ryzen 9 7900X is one of the latest processors from AMD, which is based on the new Zen 4 architecture.
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7900X | AMD Ryzen 7900X |
| RAM | GSkill Trident Z5 Neo 32GB Kit @ 6000MHz | GSkill Trident Z5 Neo 32GB Kit @ 6000MHz |
| Storage (OS) | MSI SPATIUM M480 PLAY | MSI SPATIUM M480 PLAY |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E Gaming WIFI | Gigabyte X670E AORUS MASTER |
| PSU | Cooler Master V1000 | Cooler Master V1000 |
| Cooler | MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary by Cooler Master | AMD Wraith Prism (Stock) |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080Ti |
Final Words and Conclusion
It’s obvious how important a good cooling system is required for a system running on the Ryzen 9 7900X. The system cooled with the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary Edition was performing better than the air cooled system in almost all the test. Moreover, in multi-threaded tests where the processor can get really hot, we saw how the air cooler was unable to keep up, and limiting the Ryzen 9 7900X’s potential to reach higher performance levels. On the other hand, the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux 30th Anniversary Edition could tame the Ryzen 9 7900X, as we’ve seen very significant multi-threaded performance improvements. It’s interesting to see the differences in results, as they are almost identical systems.
Certainly, the MasterLiquid PL360 Flux was able to live up to its name and could properly cool a high-end CPU like the Ryzen 9 7900X. We’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a capable AIO Liquid Cooling solution for their setups.
