First Look: Cooler Master’s “Tuf Gaming Alliance” Components

[Crashman]

Cooler Master joins Asus's Tuf Gaming Alliance with a case, two coolers, and a power supply. We put them together, like Voltron, into a formidable budget rig.

First Look: Cooler Master’s “Tuf Gaming Alliance” Components : Read more

 

[Jake Hall]

TUF & FRAGILE

 

[jpe1701]

"Corsair included special standoffs..." I think you meant Cooler master.

 

[Crashman]

"Corsair included special standoffs..." I think you meant Cooler master.

Excellent, thanks!

 

[Karadjgne]

Did they at least go back and fix the MA620P? Last I heard it was barely any better than its smaller (and cheaper) brother, the MA420P.

Really nice looking case, but adding less than an inch of height would open up top mount rads ability dramatically, and thats where ppl do like to put them, especially combined with some RGB fans.

Changing out a good, solid steel backer for a cheap pos piece of plastic, and then having to 'wiggle' the mount to seat it right? Really? Is Diy John Doe really going to read that in the mounting instructions and then wonder why temps are off the charts?

The only thing 'TUF' I see in this whole thing is what the salesman says ( followed by 'Luck') when you try and return everything.

 

[Crashman]

Did they at least go back and fix the MA620P? Last I heard it was barely any better than its smaller (and cheaper) brother, the MA420P.

Really nice looking case, but adding less than an inch of height would open up top mount rads ability dramatically, and thats where ppl do like to put them, especially combined with some RGB fans.

Changing out a good, solid steel backer for a cheap pos piece of plastic, and then having to 'wiggle' the mount to seat it right? Really? Is Diy John Doe really going to read that in the mounting instructions and then wonder why temps are off the charts?

The only thing 'TUF' I see in this whole thing is what the salesman says ( followed by 'Luck') when you try and return everything.

Remember that Tuf is Asus's low-cost alternative to its ROG line. So it would be nice if the case, power supply, and motherboard were also $60 each. But that kind of price alignment is just a dream.

 

[Soda-88]

Worst VRM among all your motherboards? Better call it TUF

 

[hdmark]

im not sure about others, but i realy like the orange/black theme they have going on in the 3rd picture

 

[Calculatron]

Haven't the last batch of TUF products been rather lackluster?

I remember when I bought my AM3+ Sabertooth 990FX motherboard, and it was one of the best motherboards for AMD on the market.

 

[Crashman]

Haven't the last batch of TUF products been rather lackluster?

I remember when I bought my AM3+ Sabertooth 990FX motherboard, and it was one of the best motherboards for AMD on the market.

We will have reviews to sort all of that out.

 

[rubix_1011]

Did they at least go back and fix the MA620P? Last I heard it was barely any better than its smaller (and cheaper) brother, the MA420P.

The reviews for both the MA620P TUF and MA410M TUF highlighted in this article will be available very soon and I'll be addressing these questions in each breakdown. But like it is mentioned in the article, the MA410M TUF and MA620P TUF are each (currently) priced at $60, which does allow for some interesting talking points and conclusions...

 

[wmdavid.wallace]

I have one of the fairly pricey Cooler Master cases. I tried two different cases of the same model. Neither worked properly in terms of the front panel. They failed in different ways. I like the actual case but their QC suckes big time. In my current one audio works along with USB 3 but USB 2 and the plug in 2.5 hrd drive slot do not work. My view is that Cooler Master makes crap and when I build another big gaming system, Cooler Masker will not be on my buy list.

 

[DotNetMaster777]

Looks that it is competitive in its own segment !!

 

[husky1055]

Must be pretty dumb for CM to neglect the AM4 install!!! Ever heard of Ryzen cpu being a smash hit!!!

 

[alan_rave]

It looks like a bargain.

 

[Rexer]

That cooler is big. But I don't always know if bigger is better. I bounced away from CM's EVO 212 only to come back to it. The fans are a big difference, too. Finding a balance between noise and volume. Course, it's more than that. I think a lot has to do with how easy it is for air to move about the configuration of your hardware and out the case. Some of the cases baffle air movement quite a bit. I've implemented directional air guides like Dell did some 15 years ago in the case. Even experimented cutting off the back exit grill on a case all which helped a little.
Heh, the best result was an open chassis a dedicated air conditioner for the room. Since I work everyday on my computer, I flip the bill.