Cooler Master NEPTON 120XL Review: One and Done

Final Thoughts

Cooler Master continues to surprise us with Nepton series. Today I had a privilege to review Nepton 120XL. From what I saw, Nepton 120XL has performed very well up against Enermax Liqmax 120S. From my benchmarks Nepton did a little bit better than Enermax Liqmax 120S in terms of cooling at max temperatures. Also it is worth to mention that when the system is idle or on low use, Nepton is whisper quiet. At 100% load the fans do ramp up as expected however the fan noise was at is minimum thanks to the Silencio fans. Silencio fans push a great deal of air at 2400 RPM yet they stay very quiet. What I found useful is the use of rubber gaskets which were designed to reduce vibration and noise.

Installation of Nepton 120XL took about 15 minutes and I have not faced any difficulties. One issue that I have discovered was clearance of the CPU pump and RAM modules on my motherboard (MSI 970 GAMING). The pumps hoses were not touching RAM modus however, they came with in millimeters of each other. This didn’t caused any issues however if you do have a similar style of motherboard, be advised.

Most of the AiO (All in One) liquid coolers have maintenance-free design and so does Nepton. The warranty for this particular unit is 5 years and it covers parts, product replacement, and free technical support. So is it worth it? Currently Nepton 120XL is offered at $116 USD. Some retail stores offer this unit at much lower price. Doing a quick Google search I found this particular unit on sale for $90 (Newegg) and with a proper rebate form, the price drops to just $70. I feel that $116 price tag is a little bit steep for this all in one water cooling loop. Looking at some of the similar models, a sweet spot for Nepton 120XL would be around 70 dollars. What exactly are you getting for your money is a long lasting/quiet performance that is backed up by 5 year comprehensive warranty. I highly recommend this unit for those who are seeking all in one cooling solution.