Final Score: 89 out 100
The Cooler Master MasterAir MA824 proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that Cooler Master’s premium line lives up to its Master(of)Air(coolers) moniker. Its massive and yet has very few installation issues to worry about. It offers performance for days and yet is whisper silent. It is heavy and yet is easy to work with. Its big yet is not an eye sore like most dual towers. Quite honestly, it pretty much is the ‘perfect’ dual tower cooling solution. So, if you are looking for one of the best, and arguably the best, air-based CPU cooling solution one need look no further than MA824 series. Your toughest decision will be on whether you want a blacked out ‘Stealth’ variant, or the 30th Anniversary edition. Given how good the fans the Stealth come with… that is one tough decision.
Unfortunately, the MA824 Stealth edition does not live in a vacuum, and Cooler Master may be a wee bit of a victim of their own success. Put simply, at a cool one bill (USD) the MA824 Stealth is not an impulse buy. Premium products come with premium price tags. As such, one has to really…. really think about how much cooling a given build needs. How much hassle factor is tolerable… and how often one will be upgrading said rig. We say all this as the Hyper 622 Halo Black edition offers as good to better overall aesthetics; darn good cooling performance; (nearly) brain dead ease of installation; nearly as silent cooling; offers third fan mounting abilities; and does all that for 35 percent less up-front cost. That is going to make the MasterAir MA824 a bit of a niche product to say the least.
Thankfully, if one truly needs mega-cooling there is no Chinesium comparison worthy of the MasterAir MA824 series. No one in their right mind is going to pay 30 percent more for an ‘Assassin III’ when they can have this Master of Air. Even yes. Our previous favorite bigboi Thermalright Frost Commander 140 Black is not really worth looking at anymore. Yes, it can be had for about 60 percent of the MasterAir MA824, but it is not as well built. The installation hardware is decent but in comparison to the MA824 is flimsy feeling. The F.C. 140 Black(ish) paint is noticeably easier to scratch – and is nowhere near as deep and dark a black to begin with. The F.C. 140 fans are flaming dumpster fires… as Thermalright just copy and pasted from Big Brown’s NH-D15 specification page with their true specifications MIA. So, when you include the cost of good fans to go along with the Chinese bigboi of choice… the difference in asking price really is not enough to warrant saving a few bucks.
Even if one is feeling frisky and willing to take a risk we would recommend against doing so as the Cooler Master MasterAir MA824 is the more advanced cooler. It will outperform the Noctua NH-D15, it will outperform the F.C. 140. It will smoke the Assassin III like it’s a kipper. Cooler Master really knocked it out of the park as everything from the truly excellent fans to those advanced heat pipes pay noticeable dividends. Even the ‘loss’ of a third fan really does not matter as in return one gets two bigger fin arrays with a better heat pipe layout. So, the equation is simple: more advanced heat pipes plus more advanced layout to said heat pipes multiplied by fin arrays that offer more surface area equals cooling domination. Hell, Cooler Master even include quality of life tweaks like a rubber bumper integrated right into the top of the cooler’s base so that no vibrations from the centrally located fan can be heard… and yet the motherboard’s VRM rear-heatsink can still get some much-needed air movement.
That is a lot to like. Enough to like that while it is indeed true that the Hyper 624 Halo Black is the better deal the MasterAir MA824 still packs one heck of a value punch. With this one-two combination now available we honestly do not see much reason to look beyond Cooler Master for the majority air-based builds. So if you want the best, and can justify the best the Cooler Master MA824 is the air-based cooling solution to be looking at. To get better one need to look toward water based big All In One solutions. All of which cost significantly more than this beautifully full stealth cooler.
The Review
Cooler Master MA824 Stealth
That is a lot to like. Enough to like that while it is indeed true that the Hyper 624 Halo Black is the better deal the MasterAir MA824 still packs one heck of a value punch. With this one-two combination now available we honestly do not see much reason to look beyond Cooler Master for the majority air-based builds. So if you want the best, and can justify the best the Cooler Master MA824 is the air-based cooling solution to be looking at. To get better one need to look toward water based big All In One solutions. All of which cost significantly more than this beautifully full stealth cooler.
