Unboxing & Review: Cooler Master V8 GTS CPU Cooler

Cooler Master has been one of the pioneer in PC cooling products, CPU cooler especially. Among the coolers that Cooler Master has produced, the V8  renown for its unique shape that resembles a car engine that adds a shine for themed builds. Its legacy continues as Cooler Master announced the new revision of V8, the V8 GTS - a colossal triple tower heatsink design CPU Cooler with vapor chamber that comes with a pair of 140mm cooling fans sandwiched in between.  

The Cooler Master V8 GTS arrived at our lab earlier and we thanked to Cooler Master Malaysia for their support in making this review possible. With no further adieu, let us proceed with the review and see what the V8 GTS is made of!

(The Cooler Master V8 GTS is retailed at RM329)

Specifications

Model	RR-V8VC-16PR-R1
CPU Socket	Intel® LGA 2011-3/2011/1366/1156/1155/1150/775 AMD FM2+/FM2/FM1/AM3+/AM3 /AM2
Dimensions (LxWxH)	154 x 149.8 x 166.5mm (6.1 x 5.9 x 6.6 in)
Heat Sink Dimensions (LxWxH)	154 x 140 x 153.5mm (6.1 x 5.5 x 6.0 in)
Heat Sink Material	Vapor Chamber / 8 Heat Pipes / Aluminum Fins
Heat Sink Weight	854g (1.9lb)
Heat Pipe Dimensions	Ø6mm
Fan Dimensions	Ø 140 x 20 mm (5.5 x 0.8 inch)
Fan Speed	600 – 1,600 RPM (PWM) ± 10%
Fan Air Flow	28 – 82 CFM ± 10%
Fan Air Pressure	0. 3 – 1.45 mmH2O ± 10%
Fan Life Expectancy	160,000 hrs
Noise Level	16~36 dBA
Bearing Type	POM bearing – Cooler Master 4th Gen. Bearing (*POM = Polyoxymethylene)
Connector	4-Pin
Rated Voltage	12 VDC
Rated Current	0.31A
Power Consumption	3.72W
Fan Weight	110g (0.24 lb) x 2

Unboxing

Brief feature of the cooler can be found at the back of the box.

Detailed specifications of the cooler can be found at the side of the box.

The accessories box.

A layer of foam is used to protect the cooler.

The accessories included are as below:

• Warranty notice and user's manual
• Mounting bracket for Intel® LGA 2011-3/2011/1366/1156/1155/1150/775
• Mounting bracket for AMD FM2+/FM2/FM1/AM3+/AM3 /AM2
• Thermal paste

The all new V8 GTS is definitely one of the best looking CPU cooler that we've reviewed this year. It retained the similar design for the outer tower but now with a pair of 140mm fans to enhance the cooler performance.

The side view shows the plastic shroud that holds both of the fans in place, just like old times.

A view of the V8 GTS from the top, stunning we'd say.

Removing the shroud requires a hex key set as it is secured to the heatsink by 2 hex screws.

The new design now comes with 3 colossal heatsink tower with 2 spaces in between to fit in the 140mm pair fans.

The shroud removed, revealing the 140mm pair fans that cools down the heatsink.

We've noticed this compatibility issue as soon as the fan bracket is removed, there's no other fans we've seen that can be installed on this bracket. It'll be troublesome if the fan went dead. 

The fan blades resembles the ones on the Cooler Master XtraFlo 120 we have.  

Moving on to the bottom of the V8 GTS, there's a total of 6 nickel plated copper heatpipes under the large vapor chamber base for maximum heat dissipation for its current design. 

The base is rather rough as you'd notice the rough finishing on the vapor chamber base, it'll be great if the surface can be a little smoother. 

The top plate of the cooler base has a slot on each sides with a soft foam like material to  provide support the fans while absorbing the vibration from the fans to prevent noise being generated.

Installation
The installation is a little tricky for smaller form factor motherboards with large VRM heatsink, but we've managed to get it installed firmly.

Starting with the easy part, aligning the backplate and the screw doesn't takes much time at all. 

After the backplate is ready, simply secure the mounting screws at the front to keep the backplate secured.

Moving on to the cooler itself, just the mounting bracket with this small piece of screw and you're good to go.

As we've mentioned earlier, installation on smaller form factor motherboards is rather tricky because of the large VRM heatsink that is obstructing our way to secure the mounting screw at this very corner. 

Once the tricky part is done, the others can be secured easily.

The RAM clearance is excelled as we're able to mount our Corsair Vengeance Pro easily even with the cooler installed before it.

The fans can be connected to the motherboard in either way; through the Y adapter provided or directly to the motherboard.

The end result looks great but we're unable to install our graphics card in the first PCIe slot due to the layout of mATX form factor motherboards.

Performance Test

Test Bench Configuration
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master V8 GTS
CPU	Intel Core i7 4770k
Graphics Card	ASUS GTX 680 DirectCU II OC
Memory	Corsair Vengeance Pro 4GB x 2
Primary Hard Drive	Intel 520 Series 240GB
Power Supply	SilverStone Strider Plus 600W
Chassis	Vector Bech Case

We fired up a CPU stress test with Prime95 with the option 'In-place large FFTs' for maximum heat output, under room temperature of 28ºC. We've also included results for various CPU coolers that we've tested with the same configuration as a comparison for the Cooler Master V8 GTS.



The V8 GTS might not be as powerful as the Noctua NH-D15, but it still manage to maintain a pretty good temperature which is somewhere near to the DeepCool Gamer Storm Lucifer in overall performance.  


Our VerdictIn terms of performance, the Cooler Master V8 GTS is definitely not going to be able to keep up with high end air coolers like the Noctua NH-D15 or the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3, but you'll still manage to get a decent overclocking out of with without going over the thermal limit. As for fan noise, the V8 GTS is surprisingly quiet even as it doesn't even ramp up to an exaggerated noise even when the CPU is on load.

Build quality is phenomenal, great RAM compatibility, great appearance for themed build but not for the installation. It's virtually impossible to performed inside the case due to its size and Cooler Master should really work out on a more user friendly installation kit for the V8 GTS. 
Pros

• Good looking and great for themed build
• Decent cooling performance
• Very quiet
• Excellent RAM compatibility

Cons

• A little expensive for what it is capable of
• Installation kit needs to be revised