A Closer Look:

   Packed into a carton resembling that of a high-end power supply in at least the dimensions, the V10 isn't exactly something to be taken lightly. When the glossy black package twined with metallic red foil insets. Advertising the features on the front, and eventually the posse of awards on the rear, the V10's packaging will appeal to both new customers, as well as those in the know about the product within already. Opening up the carton, the exact size of the cooler is brought to light - as it's "Feature" of covering both the CPU and the DRAM will come as both a blessing and a curse, effectively ensuring that any customers that need to swap memory will have to pull the motherboard to do so. Cradled in soft foam, the V10 comes with a set of mounting accessories that covers all of the bolt-through options, which are pretty apt considering the near 3 pounds of heatsink therein.

Front of The Box	Side of The Box
Bottom of The Box	Soft Foam Cradle

Measuring in at a staggering  236.5 x  129.6 x  161.3 mm, the V10 requires no illusions of grandeur - even from the moment that it comes out of the box it gives the impression of either being impressive or problematic. In order to maintain the thematic design of an engine cover, CoolerMaster designed the sink so that the secondary fan is concealed beneath a nice mesh shroud, while the primary fan sits within the body of the unit, drawing (occasionally heated) vents via slats on the side of the cooler. On the base of the cooler, the TEC controller eats up a fair deal of room, but does maintain it's job of keeping condensation from forming. Into this controller box goes a sleeved Molex cable, which can provide the cooler with an additional 70(!)w of transferring power. In terms of architecture, the TEC is placed so that it aids in cooling the base of the cooler, and has it's own independent rack of fins to dissipate the heat - which understandably come last in the chain of fans, since it will be the hottest. On the base of the cooler, the four small tapped holes provide locations for the mounting brackets to hook into.

The Bundle	Auxiliary fan	Molex and Fan	Underside View
Bases	TEC Pipes	TEC Controller	Smooth but dull

Mounting the cooler is an entirely different measure. In the package are three separate sets of mounting arms, each of which panders to it's respective socket. Mounting this cooler is identical to the procedure done on the V8, but to re-cap, you simply screw in the mounting studs with their reverse-threading, attach them to the cooler's base, apply thermal grease, then push them through. The only difference in terms of inclusions on this run comes with the LGA1366 mounting legs - which are just 775 legs, albeit longer. Overall, the installation procedure is very nice and simple. Below, the process is pictured, followed by comparisons.

Would ye like to select thy weapon for this duel?

LGA Legs	1/2 Mounted
With Backplate	Installed!
LGA 775 Method

 

LGA Legs	Installed!
Backplate	Installed! (Again)
LGA 1366 Method

With the installations complete, it's performance time.

Performance:

  And now the real meat of the review. As per always, I give the system a 15 minute run of OCCT, provide you - the user - with the graphs, as well as a chart of average temperatures. Between all of the results below, temperatures have been kept consistent in the air by the CoolerMaster 690 chassis with it's full compliment of Yate-Loon low speed fans. Let's get started.

Well then, LGA performance is absolutely fantastic,
let's see how that carries!

Stock, Core 1	Stock, Core 2
OC, Core 1	OC, Core 2

 

For some strange reason, performance on the i7 platform isn't
exactly stellar. Let's wrap this review up

Core 1 Stock	Core 2 Stock	Core 3 Stock	Core 4 Stock
OC Core 1	OC Core 2	OC Core 3	OC Core 4

Conclusion:

   This is one of the few occasions where the inclusion of a TEC is beneficial, which may largely be due to a rare case of size equating to power. In effect, CoolerMaster has employed designers that understand that the extra current provided for the TEC must also be dissipated, which results in many coolers with less power than they could have started with. But, I digress. Apart from the strangely disappointing performance on the i7 platform (and inexplicable too), this cooler did absolutely and undeniably fantastic on the socket 775 platform, easily outperforming a few entry level watercooling kits, too. That just leaves one thing to be said - this is Extreme Air cooling, and I can't help but recommend it.