Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP BLACK CPU Cooler Review

TweakTown Rating: 98%

Our Verdict

Cooler Master and its V8 ACE 3DHP Black proves you don't need a huge air cooler to make the top of the charts. As long as you dig engines, Cooler Master has your answer.

Pros

• High-end packaging and opening experience
• Aesthetics and performance
• Availability and low noise
• Easy-to-remove / adjust fans
• Hardware for both camps included

Cons

• Camp-specific designs
• Cost

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

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Even though it shows our age, we recall when the V-series first hit, and when the Cooler Master V10 was all the rage. Back then, it required a set of fin arrays arranged to take up the top third of the motherboard. With loads of aluminum and copper used in that behemoth, Cooler Master took it a step further, and were like, what the hell, what happens if we toss in a TEC? Of course, they had limitations due to condensation in the average user environment, and they did deliver decent performance figures. Still, the real star of that show was seeing how far Cooler Master is willing to push the boundaries to get to the top of the review charts.

Keep in mind, the V10 came to us in 2009, and with seventeen years of trying almost everything under the sun, they come back to the V-series with not one of, but the best-looking CPU coolers to hit this series since its inception. We realize "chrome don't get you home," as the old hot-rodders said, but visually, we've always thought the V-series coolers should have been heavily engine-inspired in style from the beginning. While we cannot say they never took cues from engines over the many years this series has been going, it has never come together like this latest example from Cooler Master.

Today we have the pleasure of showing their V8 ACE 3DHP Black, their newest take on the V-series, in an attempt to showcase the best of what Cooler Master has evolved into since our days with the V10. With time come many advancements in tech, science, materials, and engineering, and while still a sizable CPU cooler, it takes nowhere near as much as the V10 to be good. In their attempt to deliver some of the best results in the game, they also leave us a lot to cover, so grab a cup of your favorite beverage and see what this new V8 ACE 3DHP Black cooler is all about.

To eliminate confusion, there are four versions in this product stack. We have the V8 ACE 3DHP Black in both AMD and Intel versions. The difference between the two coolers comes down to the base plate designs: the mating surface on the Intel version is convex for added pressure, more evenly across the IHS; the AMD version is flatter for the same reasons. Both coolers will work with other camp processors, and the hardware is included, but performance may not be as good as with the proper model for that system. There is also a change in how Intel's 3DHP versions work, helping remove heat from the CPU more efficiently, as Intel typically runs at much higher temperatures.

With that out of the way, we can get to the chart above. Compatibility does cover both camps, as noted above: LGA 1851, 1700, 1200, and 115x users are covered, and, with this being the AMD version of the cooler we specified in the chart, AM4 and AM5 users are covered. It says it right in the name, so expect to see a black cooler in this review.

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Dimensionally, we get a cooler that stands 167.3mm tall, is 136.47mm wide, and is 138.95mm thick. Nowhere in any information could we find a weight for the V8, but it is a hefty boy, and we'd guess over 1000g. In those confines, you get a pair of 3DHP, or 3D heat pipes, which rush heat into the fin stack, while another set of four thinner heat pipes work more conventionally. The fins are indeed aluminum, all fifty-six of them that get stacked onto the pipes. The base is a chunky bit of copper, and oddly, above it, there is no pre-cooler, just the mounting bar.

We have two different fans on this tower. The intake fan is a MasterFan 120 sporting a FA12030M12LPAH model number. The intake fan is 120mm by 120mm but is 30mm thick. In this instance, its speed range is 0 to 2500 RPM, and at full speed it can deliver 89.6 CFM and 3.85 mmH2O of pressure through the fin stack. It uses a loop dynamic bearing, good for around 200,000 hours of use, and is shown to reach 37 dB(A). Along with the notation of a 4-pin PWM connector, we are also shown a 0.2A maximum current draw and a 2.4W power consumption rating.

The exhaust fan is a bit different, but shares the MasterFan 120 moniker, this time sporting the FA12030L12LPAJ part number. A major difference is that this MasterFan 120 is a reverse-flow fan. Secondly, the speed is reduced to 2050 RPM, which is the maximum, lowering the CFM to 61 and the pressure to 2.0 mmH2O. It still uses the loop dynamic bearing, has a 200,000-hour lifespan, is powered via a 4-pin PWM connection, and draws slightly less power.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Which CPU sockets and platforms is the V8 ACE 3DHP Black compatible with (Intel and AMD)?

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Question #2

What are the dimensional clearances (height, width, thickness) of the V8 ACE 3DHP Black and how might that affect case or RAM compatibility?

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Question #3

What is the difference between the Intel and AMD versions of the V8 ACE 3DHP Black and will the other-version hardware work on my platform?

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How does the 3DHP (3D heat pipe) design and heat pipe layout operate on this cooler?

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We should also mention the blades are made with LCP technology. Essentially, for the TL;DR version, think of an oriented stand board, but made with polymers instead. Almost like carbon fiber, but larger particles and less square patterning. The intention is to eliminate wobble and flex in the blades at higher speeds, reducing vibrations and noise levels.

With two major factors yet to be considered, we are still hiding many of the features and technologies employed in this V8 ACE for the meat of the review. Nonetheless, price and warranty, no matter what you deal with, are key factors in customers' gravitation towards your products. Cooler Master backs the V8 with a lengthy six-year warranty that covers fan failure, missing parts, or production defects. The price is a bit steep at $119.99, but that is based on what we saw on paper, with no performance figures to back it up. With Cooler Master having every intention of topping charts around the globe, we have a feeling the price point may be less of a concern by the end of this review.

Packaging

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The top portion of the front of the box delivers the V8 ACE 3DHP Black product name next to the Cooler Master logo. Under it is a look at the CPU cooler, showing off what you will find inside. The panel is separated from the lower portion by a ribbon to grab onto before finding the matte black portion with the Intel and AMD stickers indicating which version you have.

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The top portion is now angled, but it delivers the information we found on the front, this time without an image of the cooler. The matte black section explains what 3DHP is and why Cooler Master implements it.

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The Cooler Master logo is the only thing we find in the top portion at the back. The matte black portion is now much larger, offering plenty of room for the specifications, model number, serial number, and code to obtain the manual in digital form.

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The left side of the box starts as the right side did, with the cooler name and logo. The lower section explains that this is a CPU cooler and that you can find more information on their product page. It is also where they have placed their legal information and addresses, along with another code to drop you at coolermaster.com.

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Typically, flip-top packaging is used for motherboards or specific manufacturers, but it is rare to find it in CPU cooling. Grabbing the ribbon on the front flips the top, exposing the cooler in all its glory. The hardware ships behind the tower, and dense, form-fitted foam keeps the cooler in place during transit.

Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP Black

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From the front, things appear normal. A plastic cap at the top, a 120mm fan blowing over the aluminum fins, and the pipes and base visible underneath. However, there are more fins behind that fan than we typically see, and that ordinary-looking fan has LPC blades and is 30mm thick.

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Rotating the V8, we see the side of the tower and are pleased to see three rows of tabs that capture most of the airflow and keep the fin spacing proper. Unlike the front, at the top of the side we get more styling and shaping, and even a brushed-metal badge with the Cooler Master logo painted on it in the center.

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This may look odd, and it should, as you are looking at the MasterFan 120 in its reverse flow design. This spins clockwise, scooping air out of the cooler, while still presenting a finished look with the hub sticker and the frame hidden against the tower.

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Since the side is essentially flat from top to bottom, we didn't lay down the tower as usual. However, at this point we saw the grooves for fan clips, but you would lose most of the appeal by doing so. We also wanted to point out the two fat pipes in the middle, being the 3DHP in the hotspot, while two thinner pipes flank either side.

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Another trick to the V8 ACE is the adjustable fan rails. The MasterFan 120s are screwed into the valve covers, for lack of a better term, but have four segmented positions you can raise them to, and shown here is their maximum height before they can completely slide out of the rail system. While you can add RAM clearance, you are increasing the height by roughly 5mm.

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Under the fin array, we see the base's top view. You can see the pipes coming out of the sides and bending into position, but there are two pipes in the middle of the base going straight up; those are the 3D portion of the 3DHP. As for the rest, there isn't a pre-cooler, but the spring-loaded screws are secured to the wings.

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Under the fins, we see the fins set up for soldering across the pipes, and the lower screws holding the fan rail system in place. You also notice that four pipes are aligned at the edge; two on the outside are bent to reach the middle of the tower, and the 3DHP comes through the middle. We will show a better look at the layout in a few more images.

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The base of this specific model is flatter than we typically see, and the machine marks are circular and applied from both sides. We can see the capture rings on the hardware, all the lower fan rail screws, and another look at the pipe layout.

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We must admit; it is the top of the tower that sold us. There is no way you can look at this and not think of a big horsepower engine. We love the machined stripes and 3DHP on the valve covers, the brushed metal badges front and back, and that intake in the center all scream big V8 horsepower.

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To remove either fan, lift it upwards; after four ridges, it slides completely out of the rails. Easy out, just as easy to put back on the cooler. We are currently dismantling the tower, which is why the screws are there; we want to see under the intake portion of the cover as well. For reference, this is the rear of the tower.

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The fin edges, both leading and trailing, are flat, with grooves for the rail system to sit in. The spacing is good until near the top, where the fins look forced into space too tight to fit and got a bit wavy, but nothing that would kill thermal performance.

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If the pipe layout was confusing from the bottom, a look at the top of the tower shows which pipes end up where and just how well Cooler Master spreads them across the available space. We have seen many pipe layouts, but we have never seen so much of the fin area used for pipe placement.

Accessories and Documentation

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As we did, and most of you will, when opening the box, you are enamored with the tower and likely missed the matte black box inserted behind it containing all your hardware and extra goodies. While blown out in this image, there is a code at the bottom for the manual.

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As the AMD version of the V8 ACE, we get standard AMD goodies for mounting the cooler. Brackets with arrows pointing at the CPU to aid installation flank the sides, while the factory brackets and screws are replaced with standoffs and locked down with Phillips-driven knurled nuts.

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Even though we get the AMD-specific cooler, Cooler Master makes sure that if you switch teams, you don't HAVE to swap your cooler. This portion of the kit includes a pair of brackets with arrows and widened holes to fit the various sockets, matching the adjustable bits on the backplate. This system also requires longer standoffs, and you would use the knurled nuts from the previous image to secure it to the motherboard.

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Cooler Master supplies a couple of attempts' worth of paste in the large tube of CryoFuze, making it easier to handle, and the Y-splitter cable for the fans simplifies the need for multiple fan headers for PWM signal to control both fans.

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If you like what you have seen so far but your theme is white, the manual is the first we have seen mention of this as an option, in the wild, at least. Inside are renderings with good detail, and while only using a few words along the way, the V8 ACE is simple to install and get your CPU cooling. There is also a warranty insert that puts in print what we explained in the specs section. Each country may have different rules in place, and this multilingual insert ensures everyone receives the correct information.

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We showed the reverse-flow fan earlier next to the tower, and you can zoom in there for the part number. Still, on the intake fan, not only does it show 2500 RPM, but the LPAH at the end of that model number does not match the exhaust fan, while both are called the same fan in a generic sense with that MasterFan 120 and no easy notation to tell them apart.

Installation and Finished Product

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Starting from scratch, remove the screws and plastic latches from the top of your AMD motherboard. Once that is done, install the standoffs Cooler Master provides into the backplate. You then set the brackets on, mindful of the arrows for orientation, and lock them down with the nuts until the threads run out.

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The fans cannot be on the tower for installation, but the rail system makes it a breeze. Lift the fans out of the way, apply some thermal paste to the CPU, set the cooler down, and align the spring-loaded screws. We used a thread to get both screws started, then alternated a few turns on each screw, again, until they stopped turning.

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After sliding both fans back onto the V8 and connecting the pair of 4-pin connectors to headers on our motherboard, we are almost ready to rock. The view hasn't changed much since the beginning of the review, but we are happy to use the V8 ACE with the fans all the way down in their as-shipped position.

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While we had plenty of space for the height of our RAM, even with a few millimeters to spare, the thickness of the V8 ACE does put it over the RAM and will cause you to pick a new kit or raise the fan, potentially lessening thermal performance.

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We aren't sure that we are mad that the RAM is partially blocked. The view of this engine-inspired design combines our love for PC and for most things with an engine in it. Figuratively, the PC's horsepower is the CPU. While having an engine cool and engine might seem silly on paper, in practice we are all for this idea, and we even hope it becomes a trend, at least with any future V-series products.

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Even though we would have loved just a touch of lighting - not even RGB, but maybe a white backlight on the top - nothing fancy - we did notice something right away when taking this picture: the lack of noise. Most engines you want to hear the rumble, but we could not be happier that the V8 ACE does not rumble like any high-horsepower motor we have heard.

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Stepping back from the system, we see that the V8 ACE is not a space-saving CPU cooling solution. It will need a large chassis for its height, and if you have tall RAM, you will need well into the 170 millimeters of width to house this single-tower dual-fan competition killer, as it's touted. While it is our job to go on, we are happy as can be with the styling and not being a dual-tower triple-fan monstrosity.

Test System Setup, Thermal Tests, and Noise Results

Chad's CPU Cooler Test System Specifications

To see our testing methodology and to find out what goes into making our charts, please refer to our 2025 CPU Cooler Testing and Methodology article for more information.

Thermal Results

Color key to the following charts. Red is the results for the AMD version of the V8 ACE 3DHP Black tested on our AMD system. Blue is used for the Intel version of the V8 ACE 3DHP Black, which is used on our AMD system. If there is a difference in performance and we have both versions, it's almost a shame not to corroborate what we are told.

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There is a new leader in the lowest idle temperature chart, with a result of 40.3°C from the V8 ACE 3DHP Black. As Cooler Master told us, we could use the Intel cooler on the AMD system. There is a two-degree penalty at idle, which doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme of things, but the convex vs. flat bases do make a difference with all other things equal.

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Using every bit of that CPU power to try to abuse the V8 coolers, we found they stood up to testing and performed very well. Only the RZ820 Display delivers a better result under load, with both V8S right behind it. The AMD cooler delivered a 66.7°C result, while the Intel cooler is only slightly behind at 67.1°C, placing second and third in our air cooler results.

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Temperature spikes happen, and we like to track them to see how well coolers handle them, as well as to check against the PWM results for curve performance. The AMD version peaked at 68°C, up from 66.7°C on average, which is great. The Intel cooler spiked from 76.1 °C to 721 °C, which aligns with what Cooler Master was referring to regarding the lack of performance potential.

CPU Speed

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AMD's boost performance is roughly what we would expect, given the thermal performance we just covered. At 5.220GHz, the AMD V8 ranks second among air-cooled solutions, 14MHz behind the RZ820 Display. We wouldn't really say the boost failed us under the Intel cooler either, as we saw an average of 5.219GHz across the twelve cores.

VRM Thermal Results

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While not the best at cooling the VRM on our motherboard, they are well within the sweet spot we see many coolers deliver. At 59°C, it is at the lower end of what air cooling can achieve, but still better than our worst result. Not great results, but still well away from any throttling.

Fan Speed and Noise Levels

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As you might assume, the intake fan makes the most noise because it spins fastest, and these are the figures we are showing in this chart. The AMD cooler averaged 1328 RPM over the test run, while the exhaust fan averaged 1143 RPM. Mostly the same applies to the Intel example. The front fan spun at 1330 RPM, while the rear reached only 1088 RPM.

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The most we heard from the AMD V8 ACE was 36 dB, which is quite low for the performance we get. The RZ820 Display, the V8 ACE is ever so slightly behind needs 52 dB to do what it does. The Intel cooler produces a little more noise at times, likely due to thermal spikes, which is why it gets a 37 dB rating despite similar average fan speeds.

Final Thoughts

From the moment we opened the cardboard shipping box, we knew there was something different. Cutting the plastic off the packaging is one thing, but not popping the top of the box until we got images was the tough part for us. Grabbing that ribbon and lifting the top of the box open to expose the cooler is one of the best things in packaging we can experience. With the cooler on full display, the machined metal bits glinting in the light against the engine-inspired styling, it is something you must experience to appreciate fully.

With slight differences between the two versions of this tower, we can see a difference in the way the bases are machined. If that wasn't enough, there are thermal differences, and with the wrong cooler on the other team's system, you can experience thermal spikes as we did. Even so, both coolers do a great job on this testbed. Visuals excluded, this thick single-tower design has more fins; they are spaced evenly and held in place with tabs, and high-powered 30mm fans, with no real problematic noise levels, all come together to deliver strong results in their class. Is Cooler Master the new air-cooling leader? Not exactly, but considering the noise of the PCCooler option and its dual-tower design, we feel Cooler Master has done what they promised, with less cooling.

Currently, the best liquid cooler costs around $240, and the RZ820 Display can be $90 to $130, if you can find it in the wild, all of which makes the MSRP of the V8 ACE 3DHP Black less aggressive than you may have thought at the beginning of this review when we initially mentioned it. At this point, it feels much less shocking and is on par with the performance results Cooler Master delivers in what we feel is the best of the V-series lineup since the V10 Hybrid all those years ago.

It has some "issues" if you'd like to call them that. We like the adjustable fans and the rail system for easy removal and replacement; however, if you need to raise the fans, you lose airflow. RAM choice matters when you want the best performance from the V8 ACE, and not having to worry about whether the side panel will still fit if you do raise them. We would much rather have a little more clearance and a slightly thinner top cover. Not to knock the styling, it's just the first place we saw extra room. We also noticed that, while the Intel version technically fits the AMD hardware, it is tougher to get the threads started. It took more force to set the spring-loaded screws, but it is manageable. Lastly, we wish the hardware were done a bit better. When threads stop, the screwdriver should not pop out of the head; it should stop. Either that or just provide us with a screwdriver. Others added a screen or lighting along with a driver, and it is our only real complaint with the V8 ACE.

Cooler Master covers these coolers for six years, which is a long time in the CPU cooler game. While you are likely to spot any defects early on in this coverage, all that's left to cover are the fans. If our math is right on 200,000 hours, that's twenty-two years before the fans "should" fail. That is a seriously long-term investment in those terms, which makes the price point even more compelling to us. Cooler Master made a lot of bold claims on their product page, and while we may not have a degree in CPU coolers, we know what works, and the numbers don't lie. This V8 ACE 3DHP Black, in its single-tower format, took to our charts and delivered some of the best figures to date. Doing this with very little noise takes this impressive design into almost magical territory. Cooler Master has proven that you do not need an excessive amount of aluminum, nor do you need 55 dB to achieve sufficient performance. All you need to do is like motors and engines, and you are set for some of the best CPU cooling has to offer, without the fear of an AIO leak and none of the LED bling that so many despise.