MSI Core Frozr L Review

The MSI Core Frozr L is finally here but will the dragon burn down the competition or fizzle into a puff of smoke!

MSI is a well known name in the PC industry with its famous & competent lineup of motherboards and graphics cards that have impressed many both in terms of performance and aesthetics. Recently they've stepped into unfamiliar yet promising territories of CPU Air Cooler by releasing the MSI Core Frozr CPU Air Cooler series, yes read that right, a CPU cooler from MSI! The Core Frozr is the new series from MSI and as of now comes with two models namely as the MSI Core Forzr L and MSI Core Frozr XL, the latter being bigger and supporting RGB LEDs. Thanks to MSI India I have with me the MSI Core Forzr L for review on my table today and I've never been any more excited to say the least!

With a price tag of $50 and available in India free with the MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium motherboard this 200W TDP cooler weighs in at 960g and is compatible right out of the box with almost every Intel and AMD platform including the latest AM4 and the old LGA775. It is a 120mm cooler with support for dual fans in push pull configuration.

What's in the Box!?

MSI brings the Core Frozr L in a familiar packing style with less of the dragon logo and more of the product image this time. Its a tall cardboard box which is solid and colored in the conventional MSI black and whine red color theme. The front has all the details printed along with the list of compatible sockets including the AMD AM4 socket for Ryzen CPUs.

At the back we get all the features enlisted along with supportive diagrams and pictures such as customizable cover panels, nickel plated copper base etc and a dimensional wire diagram at the bottom right to assist you in choosing a compatible cooler for your build.

Open the box and we find the cooler in a clamp shell cover, a silica gel pouch and a sleek black box with all the nuts and bolts. The box houses all the vital components required for installing the cooler and since I'm a fan of organized stuff this box is my favorite since everything inside is so meticulously kept in a foam cavity.

The box contents include the required nuts and bolts, the universal backplate and retention bracket, a pair of metal clamps to install an additional 120mm fan, the MSI Thermal Compound X thermal paste tube, a black MSI Gaming cover for the cooler for swapping, rubber spacers for the extra fan and a user manual.

All in all the packing is quite simple and to the point with enough details and all the essentials packed nicely in the right manner and quantity.

A Closer Look!

Take the cooler out and you'll notice the obvious MSI branding and signature styling all over the place which not only makes it unique but also quite functional which we'll discuss later on. The cooler is basically black and red with silver and nickel coming from the fins and pipes.

The top has a customizable MSI Gaming logo cover which is made out of plastic and is LED backlit, sadly only in static red. By default it comes with a silver cover since the cooler is aimed to be advertised as a complimentary with the silver colored MSI X370 XPower Titanium Motherboard but it also gels in with many other motherboard with a similar white/silver theme. Not to happy with silver then you can go with the black cover and make it go with your black build and since black and red is a great combination I don't think this cooler would face much issue in gelling in easily.

The fins on this cooler are designed in a very peculiar way which not only makes it look like a dragon's back but also as MSI claims provides this Air Flow control technology which actually bends the cool intake air towards the heat pipes passing through the center for better cooling performance.

MSI is an expert when it comes to designing heatsinks for its graphics cards and a similar trend can be observed with the Core Frozr L aswell. which has been designed and manufactured by the same engineers & manufacturing units as that of the graphics cards. Looking at the 140mmx155mmx84mm aluminum heatsink of the Core Frozr we see that its quite dense and is identical to the heatsinks we find on MSI graphics cards, infact its like a MSI Graphics Card heatsink mounted vertically!

You might've observed by now that the cooler is actually off-set from the center to make room for the graphics card on the first PCIe slot. This way the cooler has managed to stay broad hence provide more surface area for heat dissipation but towards the VRM heatsink of the motherboard and not towards the PCIe area!

The cooler is tower style and hence quite tall but still not tall enough to cause any incompatibility issues with the smaller chassis.

Six 8mm nickle plated copper heatpipes run through the thick aluminum heatsink of the Core Frozr L and all of these join together into a nickle plated copper base plate which is an old design but is still the best one around! The baseplate is not really smooth with mirror finishing but has a machine finish instead which isn't really bad as long as the cooler sits tightly upon the CPU and has good heat dissipation. Also its noticeable that two out of the six heatpipes, the ones on the right side in the picture, are abruptly bent to provide an off-set to the cooler which we've discussed above.

The 120mm TORX fan is a Hydro-Dynamic Bearing PWM version which has airflow optimized fan blades. The unit fan spins at 500 - 1800 ±15% RPM with PWM control, pushing 19.79 - 71.27 CFM of air, creating 0.16 - 2.09 mm of air pressure, and making up to 17.2 ~ 33.6 dBA of noise. 

Installation of the Core Frozr L

We'll be installing the MSI Core Frozr L CPU Air Cooler on two platforms two see how it fairs off, one would be a AMD Ryzen Platform while other is an Intel SkylakeX Platfrom. The reason for this is pretty simple, since the cooler comes bundled with a Ryzen motherboard in India and is touted for being a great companion for Ryzen CPUs we'll test it on Ryzen but also the cooler has  amssive TDP of 200W which is enough to cool even the latest Intel HEDT SkylakeX so it would be interesting to see how this mid-range cooler performs on this high end platform.

Installing the MSI Core Forz L is a pretty simple process if you manage to decode that manual full of hieroglyphics! For the installation on both the platforms we've used the shown parts and obviously you won't need the universal backplate for the X99/X299 platform but for every other Intel/AMD platform the backplate is a must. It is of a really high quality and one of the best I've seen with a cooler of this price range.

Put the top retention bracket and then after applying some TIM place the cooler without the fans on top of the CPU. Now using the black screws for Ryzen and the normal nickle ones for others tighten the plate that connects the cooler baseplate to the retention plate. Make sure you tighten each side equally as the plate tends to slip otherwise. Snapping on the TORX fan with the provided clips is a bit tedious job & requires effort so make sure you have a pair of extra hands for help or you yourself are ready for some work.

The cooler can either be placed with the fan towards the DIMM slots or opposite to them but its advisable that you face the fan towards the DIMM slots for two major reasons. Firstly, the fan would be able to draw cool air from the front end of the case which would be dust free since most chassis manufacturers install dust filters on the front fascia of the chassis. This would also cool the RAM sticks in the due process. Secondly, facing the back of the cooler towards the DIMM slots will result in hot air blowing onto the RAM sticks resulting in overheating, low performance and even memory failure in the long run.

Now with that being said, the Core Frozr L does block the first DIMM be it on X99/X299 or any other platform in case of a majority of RAM sticks except for some really low profile ones like the Corsair Vengeance LPX or the HyperX Fury. I did manage to fit in my Galax HOF Memory Kit but at the cost of mounting the fan a bit upwards which will cause performance loss so its best you stick with low profile RAMs or if not then just use two sticks rather than four.

The off-set indeed works and there is enough space between the cooler and the graphics card in the first PCIe slot.

Let's put it to Test!

Our Ryzen configuration for benchmarking the MSI Core Frozr L is as follows -

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700

Motherboard: Asus X370 Crosshair VI Hero

RAM: Galax HOF 16GB DDR4 3600Mhz

Cooler: MSI Core Frozr L

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GTX 1050Ti G1 Gaming OC

Storage: Corsair Neutron GTX 480 480GB

Secondary Storage: ADATA XPG SX8000 256GB M.2 SSD

Power Supply: Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 700



While our SkylakeX configuration for this benchmark is as follows -

CPU: Intel Core i7 7820X

Motherboard: MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

RAM: Kingston HyperX Predator 16GB DDR4 3000Mhz

Cooler: MSI Core Frozr L

Graphics Card: Gigabyte GTX 1050Ti G1 Gaming OC

Storage: Corsair Neutron GTX 480 480GB

Secondary Storage: ADATA XPG SX8000 256GB M.2 SSD

Power Supply: Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 700



Firstly, the AMD R7 1700 and Intel i7 7820X are kept at stock speeds with XFR/Boost enabled and temperatures are measured both at idle and at full load. Then we overclock our Ryzen 7 1700 to 3.8Ghz at 1.39v and the i7 7820X to 4.3Ghz at 1.23v which is an easily attainable frequency by the chip but also a point where it starts generating quite a lot of heat, the same process as that for the stock speed testing is repeated. Temperature is measured using HW Monitor and taking average temperature across all the cores combined. MSI Kombuster utility is what I prefer to stress test the CPU at all eight threads, I run it for a good 15 minutes before recording the temperatures since by then the temperatures reach a saturation point.

Secondly, the fan is plugged directly into the CPU Fan header with fan profile at default from the BIOS itself to rule out any discrepancy whatsoever.

The readings would be shown in delta temperature that is after subtracting the ambient temperature of the room while noise levels are recorded from a distance of three feet from the cooler which is a reasonable and practical distance for such tests.

At stock frequency its clear that the much smaller MSI Core Frozr L is almost identical to the much bigger Noctua NH-D14 both at idle and load in both the platforms. Also it beats the stock AMD Wraith Spire RGB cooler by quite a margin in both circumstances.

Once both the CPUs are overclocked the picture changes a bit, the Core Frozr L is not as good as the NH-D14 at idle but both the coolers saturate at an identical temperature when the CPU is under load however there is a bit of a difference in the Ryzen area but it is within the margin of error.

As hard as it may be to believe but the MSI Core Frozr L is the quietest Air Cooler among all the coolers we've pit it against & this is largely due to the TORX fan that it uses which has proven to be an incredibly quite cooling solution even for the MSI graphics cards.

My Verdict 

When a reputed manufacturer forays into a new territory its venture is always closely looked upon with apprehensions and expectations. Similar is what I felt when I received the MSI Core Frozr L, at first I thought that its just a good looking cooler with probably an average performance but all my apprehensions were wiped off the moment I installed and turned on the cooler!

We tested the MSI Core Frozr L on some of the hottest chips out there in the market and even though its a first from a non-cooler manufacturing brand the product is a shocker. Though it loses to the bigger AIOs but it flirts with the much bigger and veteran Noctua NH-D14, I mean we are looking at Noctua like performance from this new kid on the block. The build quality is extremely solid and well thought off with thick nickle plated aluminum fins and heatpipes to the inclusion of the 120mm TORX fan which by the way also makes it amazingly quiet. Installation wise the cooler is very easy to put together on any platform and is much more simpler and sturdier than many other coolers out there. The swappable top cover is a great inclusion to make sure the cooler goes with any theme possible today.

If we talk about the downside then it has to be the flimsy fan clips that make the fan installation a bit difficult when the heatsink has been put on the processor. Also in India buying this cooler alone is not only difficult but also very expensive so this makes it more like an add on with the MSI X370 XPower Titanium Motherboard which is a bad thing since the cooler alone is a winner. Obviously considering the fact that you are getting a very good cooler for free with a premium motherboard is a lucrative deal in its own right since it saves a lot of money in case you are going for a Ryzen CPU that doesn't come with a cooler.

"MSI Core Frozr L lives up to its name and the Frozr legacy, delivering impressive yet quiet performance, solid build quality and catchy looks to woo in any gamer, modder or system builder looking to build a budget or even a high end system!"

Pros - 

• Good Cooling Performance 


• Very Quiet


• Easy Installation process


• Supports dual fan configuration


• Customizable top cover


• Solid Build quality 


• Free with the MSI X370 XPower Titanium in India 

Cons-

• Fan clips are a bit flimsy 


• Blocks the first DIMM slot


• Not available in India exclusively 

I give it a 8/10 earning our Gold Award!