Introduction
MSI is a titan in the PC components space, offering a massive range of product options across the entire scope of PC building, peripherals, accessories, and more. One particular market that they’ve tapped into is cooling. Although MSI isn’t exactly the most well known manufacturer when it comes to cooling, they’ve really started to step up their game over the past couple of years, offering a myriad of liquid AIOs that cater to a plethora of use-cases.
In today’s review, we’ll be taking a look at the MAG CoreLiquid E360, a triple-fan 360mm option which seeks to combat other high-end options by coming in at a rather tantalising price point. We’ll be doing a deep dive on the aesthetics of the CoreLiquid E360, along with performance metrics, and we’ll be taking a look at some potential alternatives at the end.
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Suggested Article: Best 360mm Liquid Coolers
360mm Coolers – Are They Overkill?
Within the past couple of years we’ve seen a significant shift in the CPU cooling space, with the market slowly moving away from air cooling, and moving towards liquid coolers. The primary reason why this has become the case is down to the significant thermal demands of new processor that have hit the market.
CPUs like the Core i7-13700K, or even AMD’s Ryzen 7700X boast rather high temperature thresholds. This means those pushing these CPUs with more intense multi-core workloads will see very high thermals, which in turn requires a strong cooler to handle them.
Which leads us to our next question, are 360mm options starting to become a requirement? Or are they just plain overkill? It depends on your use-case, but 360mm coolers are really starting to become the norm for some mid-range and the vast majority of high-end CPU options. Due to the increased power consumption that comes with more cores, threads, and higher boost clock capability, all of the new generation of processors kick out a lot of heat. It is for this reason that 360mm coolers are becoming more of a requirement to handle and deal with the heat.
For budget and some other mid-range systems, a 360mm liquid cooler is overkill, because your CPU isn’t likely to output enough heat for a large radiator to be needed. But with newer CPU options that have a TDP of 250W or more, you’re going to want to consider picking up a 360mm cooler, especially if your system is designed for more intense multi-core workloads.
MSI MAG CoreLiquid E360 Design & Aesthetic
Moving onto the design of the CoreLiquid E360, MSI have opted for a more minimalist aesthetic. All three of the radiator fans are RGB, which provides consumers with some additional flair to play around with and configure within MSI’s Mystic Light software. The top of the CPU block is also RGB as well, featuring a rounded circular design with a ring of lighting around the top.
The CPU block of the E360 is also fully rotatable, which is something we’ll touch upon later. This just adds some more usability to the cooler, alleviating some of the hassle when building a PC. Looking at size, the E360 comes in with a height of 27mm, which is pretty standard for a 360mm AIO. The radiator itself isn’t particularly large, so you shouldn’t have any major clearance problems within your case, as long as the chassis officially supports 360mm coolers.
Overall, the design of the CoreLiquid E360 isn’t impressive, but it also isn’t disappointing, I feel almost neutral about it. As always, you’ve got the choice between white or black, and the additional RGB is a nice touch. I imagine MSI haven’t put much of a priority on the aesthetic in order to save some costs, which is a point that we’ll be touching upon later. Regardless, the E360 is a relatively nice looking 360mm AIO, but don’t expect to be blown out of the water by any insane or crazy design choices.
Rotatable Block Head Design
Normally we’d use this section to talk about the features, but because the E360 isn’t exactly jam packed, there isn’t much to talk about. However, the rotatable block head is worth briefly touching on. When installing your cooler and getting the CPU block head mounted, you might quickly realise that you’ve mounted the block upside down. But by having a rotatable head, all you need to do is quickly rotate the blockhead, allowing you get the cooler upright.
This ultimately saves some time and hassle when it comes to building. As I’ve alluded, MSI haven’t gone crazy on the feature-set of this cooler, but including quality of life features like this is just a nice touch. It’s great to see manufacturers make building easier, especially when liquid coolers can, at times, be a nightmare to install.
Thermals
To see how this cooler holds up against the rest of the market, we’ve put it through the wringer within a range of different benchmarks. To do this, we fired up HWInfo to see what temperatures our CPU was hitting and ran Cinebench R23, along with CPU-Z. Cinebench R23 was used to assess four-thread and eight-thread configurations, indicative of gaming and workstation workloads, while CPU-Z was only using eight-threads.
Cinebench R23
The Core i7-14700K saw an average temperature of 61 degrees Celsius during the four-thread benchmark. Max temperatures hovered around 70 degrees, which is a 9-degree difference when compared to the average. We were impressive with the level of control that the CoreLiquid E360 displayed, on the graph this area is dominated by 360mm liquid coolers, so it’s great to see a budget option provide a strong showing thermally.
In the Cinebench eight-thread test, the CoreLiquid E360 maintained an average of 72 degrees. Again, we were highly impressed with the temperature control, as the CoreLiquid E360 was able to keep the maximum and average very steady.
Conclusion
MSI MAG CoreLiquid E360
Product Name: MAG CoreLiquid E360
Brand: MSI
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Features
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Design
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Performance
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Value For Money
Summary
MSI’s MAG CoreLiquid E360 is a new 360mm liquid cooler that puts a massive priority on affordability and performance. 360mm AIOs typically come with a significant premium that puts them in an area of the market that most would consider ‘high-end’. But with the exceptional price point of the E360, and the well-rounded performance across multi and single core metrics, I can easily say that the CoreLiquid E360 is one of the best value options on the market.
There isn’t much of a focus on design or aesthetics, but if you’re the kind of consumer that needs a solid liquid cooler to keep your beast of a CPU at bay because of the power it draws, the E360 is the option that we’d recommend looking at. This cooler caters to a massive range of users that don’t quite have the money to pick up that fancy cooler with a screen, and all of the bells and whistles, which is why it is such an excellent option. Hats off to MSI for this one, because the competitive nature of the E360 is going to be very hard for other manufacturers to beat!
Pros
✅ Easily one of the best priced 360mm coolers on the market.
✅ Very strong single and multi-core metrics.
✅ Has some nice quality of life features.
Cons
❌ Design and aesthetic isn’t much of a priority here.
❌ MSI Mystic Light is a pain to use.
❌ Core i9 and Ryzen 9 may prove to be too much.
