Final Score: 84 out 100
Is the Cooler Master MasterAir MA624 Stealth perfect? No. We have yet to see any cooling solution meet such unicorn standards. Noctua, Phanteks, Be Quiet, Scythe; they too all have their minor niggling issues that keep them from perfection. So instead of looking for perfection, the proper question to ask oneself is simple: “Is XYZ a good cooling solution? A cooling solution that meets my needs and matches my system build’s requirements?”.
By that metric, yes the MasterAir MA624 Stealth is a very, very good cooling solution. The all-black aesthetics means it will seamlessly blend into a wide variety of custom color schemes. In its dual 140mm configuration the MasterAir MA624 Stealth is rather quiet and in 120+dual 140 offers more than enough cooling potential to handle even high overclocked consumer grade (I.E. Intel Core or AMD Ryzen) CPUs. While extremely large in either dual or tri-fan configurations the rather high offset / “cutouts” on each fin array mean that typical people, with typical system components, will not run into many deal-breaker compatibility issues. Mix in an easy, for its size, installation process and honestly the MasterAir MA624 Stealth is a solid choice for those that can get over the sticker shock.
With that said the MasterAir MA624 Stealth is not perfect. It is not even close to being perfect. Cooler Master really need to include either a second set of plastic fan mounts for the included third fan or drop the third fan… and asking price. Right now, you are paying for the ‘out of the box’ ability to customize RAM height compatibility. Not the ability to use three fans. This “I have left over parts that I cannot use but paid for… what did I do wrong?!” installation issue will annoy many people. The fact that Cooler Master did not tune/pair the 120 and 140 fans included will also annoy people. Furthermore, if the MasterAir MA624 Stealth could use all the fans that are included in the box the relatively weak performance compared to say a Noctua D15… would be greatly reduced. Of course, getting the third fan on to the array is child’s play. It just takes a bit of time and effort. It however will annoy people who expect more from a 100 dollar air cooling solution.
This slightly flawed but easy to fix implementation is a great summary for the MasterAir MA624 Stealth. It looks great. It comes with very good cooling potential. It just does not live up the design’s potential… but can be ‘fixed’ with a little bit of effort. We are pretty sure that minor issues like this will be worked out in the future so you don’t have to do it yourself. We say this as Cooler Master built their reputation on listening to their customers feedback and then fixing it. Until that happens, we still would have very little qualms on buying the MasterAir MA624 Stealth. It is a very decent cooling solution with a ton of potential. So if you are looking for an air based CPU cooler, in the 100 dollar range, that looks like a million bucks the MasterAir MA624 Stealth deserves to be on your short list. Just understand that it does have some quirks, but as long as you know how to overcome them it will provide you with years and years of cooling goodness.
The Review
Cooler Master MA624 Stealth
So if you are looking for an air based CPU cooler, in the 100 dollar range, that looks like a million bucks the MasterAir MA624 Stealth deserves to be on your short list. Just understand that it does have some quirks, but as long as you know how to overcome them it will provide you with years and years of cooling goodness.
