Cryorig M9i Review

Today, I will be looking at their entry-level CPU cooler the M9. Cryorig M9i Review cooler comes in two configurations. M9i is for Intel only platform whereas M9a is for the AMD only platform. The sample I have got is M9i. The M9i is a 120mm slim profile, single tower heatsink, featuring their Jet Fin Acceleration design for better and quicker cooling, pure copper base, and Infinite RAM compatibility.

Related: Cryorig H7 CPU Cooler Review

Cryorig M9i CPU Cooler Review

The cooler has the height of just 124.6mm making it almost universally compatible with the majority of the PC Chassis out there in the market. How will it perform and will it be able to calm the nerves of the hot chip from the Intel aka 7700k? Let’s find out.

• Product:               Cryorig M9i Review
• Type:                    CPU Cooler
• Category:             Air Cooler
• Price:                   Check Price on Amazon

Cyrorig M9i Specifications

Cyrorig M9i Packaging and Unboxing

The cooler comes in a traditional Cryorig cardboard box packaging. The top side is in black color with Cryorig brand name embossed in silver color. Their tag line, “Research idea gear” is printed under the brand name.

The front side has a picture of the cooler printed all over it. The brand name is printed in white color on the top left side. The features highlight of the Cryorig M9i is printed on the bottom side. Intel Platform label is printed on the top right side clearly indicating that this cryorig m9i review cooler is only for the Intel platform.

The left side of the box is in plain white color with M9 printed in enlarged and bold on it.

The right side of the box has three salient features of the cooler printed like Jet Fin Acceleration design, Zero Interference, Infinite RAM compatibility and ease of installation within 4 minutes.

The backside of the box has the specifications of the cooler printed on the lower section. The upper section has diagrams of the cooler specifying the dimensions of the heatsink. Compatibility with respect to the Intel sockets is printed on the bottom section.

The bottom side of the box has the company’s website printed on it with the info label on the center and Disclaimer on the opposite side. The cooler is made in China.

Opening the top cover will reveal another cover in light blue background. Users can register their product with the Cryorig to receive an extended 3 years warranty in addition to the prime customer support and exclusive VIP Members prize draws.

Taking off the light blue flap would reveal the contents of the box. The cooler is packed inside the recycled cardboard box. User manuals are placed right behind the cooler’s box. The fan is preinstalled on the heatsink.

Cyrorig M9i Accessories

The cooler comes with a plethora of accessories which enable the users to install the cooler without worrying about any additional requirement. The user manual is well laid out and pictures are elaborative to help the installation process. Accessories include:

• Backplate for Intel
• 2x Mounting bars
• 4x long screws
• 4x black metal nuts
• 2x metal fan clips
• Cryo Paste
• Product Registration Card
• User Manuals

Cryorig M9 Closer Look

The Cryorig M9 is an entry-level CPU Cooler yet designed for efficiency and performance. The M9 features Cryorig’s proprietary Jet Fin Acceleration and a 120mm PWM fan for a highly efficient and compatible package. It is a 120mm heatsink, single tower with a height of 124.6mm which enables it to be fitted in the majority of the PC Chassis out there in the market. Let’s take a closer look on the cooler.

The cooler has the dimensions of 87mm x 102mm x 124.6mm (L x W x H). This cryorig m9i review cooler has a slim profile to it. The top side of the cooler is what makes it differentiated from the rest of the competition. Unlike typical industrial design where the heat pipes are terminated right out of the top fin, there is a black color plastic cover, covering the maximum of the top side.

A certain portion on the rear side of the top cooler is not covered by this plate. This gives a unique Black/Silver look and feel to the cooler.

A close inspection would reveal that it has angled openings on both sides implemented in opposite direction to each other. This is to ensure proper air flow even from the top side. The Cryorig brand name is embossed in black color in the middle of the plate. The black color adds to the neutrality of the looks and enables the cooler to be used in any color theme.

The front side has a 120mm fan preinstalled using metal fan clips. Taking off the fan reveals the front side fins of the cooler. There are 40 fins stacked together. If you would look closely it would become apparent that there are two layers of the fins running in parallel to each other.

The top fin plate has more outset than the second plate which is inset and this pattern repeats itself till the end. This is referred to as the structure of alternated fin stacks.  Another interesting observation is that the gap between the two fins on the right and the left sides of the cooler is 1.6mm whereas the gap between them on the front is 3.6mm.

This design allows for a combination of Jet Fin Acceleration™. The idea behind this design is by utilizing a larger and wider air intake and narrower air exhaust section on the fins compresses the air to move faster while exiting the heatsink.

Jet Fin Acceleration System™ carries the hot air out of the system faster and more efficiently which enables better cooling performance. Fins are made of aluminum. The backside of the cooler has 40 fins stacked in the narrow configuration. Fins are made of aluminum. There are cutouts on the far end sides of the backside fin stack.

The left and the right sides of the heatsink are symmetrical in design.

This cryorig m9i review cooler features 3 heat pipes each of 6mm. They are nickel plated soldered in the heatsink and the base of the cooler. Looking closely would reveal that the heat pipes are going inside the heatsink more from the front side than the rear side.

There is a gap of approx. 1.1mm from the last pipe and the rear side fin stack. There is a gap of 0.7mm between the first pipe and the front side of the fin stack. This is the area which is being covered by the top plate as well.

This cooler has a copper base plate measuring 33mm x 39mm x 0.6mm. The heat pipes are soldered into the copper base. The copper base has a large block fitted on top of it with two screws which are used to secure the cooler on the mounting bars. There is a safety sticker pasted on the cooler which reminds the user to peel it off before installing the cooler.

This cooler has an offset design much like what we saw on the Cryorig H7. This approach results in maximum compatibility for the RAM. As the cooler is not compatible with the Intel LGA-2011(3) socket so we have truly infinite RAM compatibility.

The Cryorig has supplied a 120mm fan with the cooler. Fan’s dimensions are 120mm x 120mm x 25.4mm. Weighing 80gm, it has rated speed of 630~2200 RPM with the noise levels of 26.4 dBA and 48.4 CFM airflow. Air pressure rating is 3.1 mmH2O. It takes 0.11Amps with DC 12V. It has a 4-pin PWM connector. The cable is braided in the black color sleeve and has a length of approx. 320mm including the connector.

The frame of the fan is in black color. The blades are in black color as well. There are 7 blades on the fan. The central hub a nice Cryorig sticker pasted on it with borders in different colors and Cryorig logo in the middle. The fan mount locations on all the four corners don’t have rubber padding. The airflow and the fan spin directions are indicated with the arrow marks on the frame side.

The backside of the fan shows the 4-arm structure holding the fan blades. This structure is built right into the frame of the fan. Fan’s maximum speed in terms of the RPM is printed on the top. The Cryorig website address is printed on the bottom.

Installation

The installation of the Cryorig M9i is simple and straight forward. The motherboard that I am using on my second test bench is the Asus Z170-P being powered by the Intel i7 7700k.

The first thing in the installation is to pass through the long screws through the backplate’s middle holes on each of the four corners. This hole is labeled as B and is intended for the LGA socket 115x. Refer to the user manual for more details.

The backplate should be placed on the backside of the motherboard in such a manner that Intel side faces up. Make sure that the hexagonal heads of the screws sit within the frame border of the backplate.

Next, put the two mounting bars on top of the screws on the front side of the motherboard. Decide their placement position as per the desired cooler orientation. Use the metal nuts to screw the mounting bars tight on the long screws. Don’t worry if there is flex between the backplate and the mounting bars as once the cooler will be fitted, there won’t be any flex.

Next, apply the thermal paste and place the cooler on the top of the CPU HIS in such a way that the two screws on the cooler’s base block align with the screw holder on the mounting bars. Attach the fan with the cooler and connect the 4-Pin PWM connector on CPU fan header or any fan header of your choice. This cryorig m9i review cooler can be used in Push/Pull configuration for which an additional set of fan clips is provided by the Cryorig.

Compatibility and Clearance

When it comes to the air coolers, we need to ensure the compatibility with respect to the Chassis, the RAM and the first PCIe lane. With just 124.6mm height, the Cryorig M9 has a high level of compatibility all around for the majority of the PC Chassis in the market.

Not only that, but the offset design implementation has made this cooler to have infinite RAM compatibility. I did not see any incompatibility with respect to the first PCIe lane as well.

Test Bench

Following test bench was used to test the cooler:

• Intel i7 7700k [Thanks to the PCFanatics]
• Asus Z170-P [Thanks to the PCFanatics]
• Corsair 2x8GB Vengeance Red LED @ 2666MHz
• HyperX 120GB SSD
• Thermaltake TP DPS RGB 750W PSU

Asus Realbench 2.44 and the RealTemp 3.70 are used for the stress test and the temperature monitoring. The Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste is used to test all the coolers on my test benches. This helps ensure the standardization and to reduce the effect of any bundled thermal paste that could benefit the performance.

Methodology

First, the cooler is tested on the stock clocks i.e 4.2GHz at manual 1.16V Vcore. The average of the core temps is calculated to provide the temps at idle and under the load. The ambient temps are subtracted from these temperature readings to give the delta temps. My graphs report the delta temps. This helps in an uncontrolled environment to mitigate the temperature variation.

Next, the CPU is overclocked to 4.7GHz using manual 1.22V VCore. Three runs of the stress test program are carried out. Each of 60 minutes duration with 15 minutes idling time in between. The average of each run is separately taken and the highest reading of the three tests is used. Ambient temperatures are subtracted from the selected average temperature reading and delta temperature is reported on the graph.

Let’s take a look at the results.

cryorig – m9i Results

On stock clocks i.e 4.2GHz [fixed], the Cryorig M9i’s max temp was 45C [delta temp]. The max temp on the Raijintek Lito was 46C [delta temp].

CPU was overclocked to 4.7GHz. The Cryorig M9i’s max temp was 57.25C while the max temp on the Raijintek Lito was 58.55C. Honestly speaking, I would not give blame to the coolers if the temps are on a higher side as the chip I have got has poor thermals on it.

Even my Noctua NH-D15 has struggled to keep its roaring temps in check so given that perspective; this budget cooler has performed quite well.

I did not measure the acoustic performance using the sound meter due to environmental noises which are beyond control. But, based on my experience with the fans’ testing, I have had a pleasant experience during the testing session.

Conclusion

The Cyorig M9 is a compact, slim profiled 120mm single tower design heatsink air cooler with maximum compatibility built all around the cooler. The cooler has the dimensions of L87 x W102 x H124.6mm with just 345g the weight.

The cooler has three heat pipes each of 6mm and they are nickel plated. The base is C1100 pure copper in nickel plating. The rated TDP of the cooler is 120W so it is definitely capable of handling the hot chips.

The Cryorig has used their proprietary Jet Fin Acceleration design on this cryorig m9i review cooler with the simple concept of having wider air intake and narrower exhaust would allow the hot air to leave the cooler quicker and better. We have 40 nickel plated fins. The front side fins are implemented in alternate stack configuration with the gap of 3.6mm between the fins.

There is a gap of 1.6mm between the fins on the sides or in the middle center of the cooler. The cooler has an offset design on it to ensure the maximum clearance and the compatibility. Virtually, there is no incompatibility of this cryorig m9i cooler with respect to any given high profile RAM and from the first PCIe lane. Even the height of the 124.6mm has given this cryorig m9i review cooler almost a universal compatibility with the PC Chassis.

The Cyrorig has provided a 120mm fan which has RPM rating of up to 2200, the noise level of up to 26.4dBA, and 48.4 CFM. The fan is well equipped to handle the job. It draws 0.11Amps with 12V DC. The cooler has the Cyrorig’s 3 years of extended warranty.

Let’s conclude it.

Pros:

• Compact Size Cooler
• Zero RAM Incompatibility
• TDP rating of 120W
• Performance is right on the money for the entry level cooler
• 3 Years Extended Warranty
• Good Acoustic Performance
• Ease of Installation

Cons:

None that I could think of.

With $19.99 spending one can have a stylish yet decent performing CPU cooler with the highest ever compatibility out of the box. The design speaks for itself and the Cryorig M9i has won our Must Have award.

I am thankful to the Cryorig and the PakDukaan for giving me the opportunity to review their M9i. I am also thankful to the PCFanatics for their timely help in sorting out the motherboard and the CPU for my test bench.

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