ALSEYE M90 CPU Air Cooler & Thermal Paste Review

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Nauman Siddique

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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Alseye has sent us the M90 air cooler for review. The M90 is a self-contained design in the sense that the fan is pre-installed inside the heatsink and all that the user is required to do is to install the cooler and start using the PC. This air cooler has a compact design standing at 112x92x135mm [LxWxH].

This makes the cooler ideal for builds with space constraints without compromising the cooling capability as well as giving good clearance all around. The solution comprises aluminum fins stacked with 4x copper heat pipes and a 92mm fan. The solution is black spray coated. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA1700/1200/15xx and AMD AM4 and previous sockets. The cooler has a stylish top cover that is A-RGB backlit.

We will also be taking a look at their premium thermal paste T9⁺ Platinum. This is a 2gm pack. This thermal paste is rated for 13.5W/m-k. The paste is gray in color and is non-conductive and non-curing.

• CPU Cooler: Alseye M90
• Thermal Paste: Alseye T9⁺ Platinum 2gm

                                              Here are the specifications:

Closer Look & Unboxing

The cooler is shipped inside a black color cardboard box.

The salient specifications are printed over here. The cooler is made in China.

There is a brown color accessory box provided in the main box.

ALSEYE has provided a user guide to help the user with the installation process.

ALSEYE has provided a universal style backplate. The provided backplate with this sample is not compatible with the Intel LGA1700. However, they have informed that the new batch is shipping with the LGA1700 backplate.

There are two Intel mounting brakets and two AMD mounting bracket (small size). These have spring-loaded screws.

ALSEYE has provided:

• Thermal Paste for one-time application
• 2x small screws to mount the brackets on the heatsink
• Wrench

It is time to take a closer look at the cooler. The ALSEYE M90 is a compact design which is sleek and stylish. It is compatible with Intel LGA1700/1200/115x and AMD AM4 and previous sockets. The dimension of the cooler is 112x92x134mm (LxWxH) where 134mm is the height of the cooler. The width of 92mm gives away the compact nature of the design.

There is a black color cover over the top of the solution. We can see two diffusers in a line pattern which have A-RGB LEDs underneath. ALSEYE branding is in the white color as well though it is not backlit. There is a stylish pattern between the two diffusers which further adds to the overall outlook on the top.

We have a total of 34 aluminum fins stacked up. It is a standard sort of layout. We have a dual-tower design in a single encapsulation. The complete assembly is in black color spray coating. The fins are not dense.

The back side of the heatsink has identical layout as is on the front side. We can see the rear of the pre-installed fan. The overall finishing and quality is satisfactory.

The left and right sides of both towers are identical. The fins are jointed on the sides. There are no insets or cutouts on this side. These are provided so that the clips of the fan can be hooked on the side to install the fan. The fan in this cooler is pre-installed inside the heatsink.

Accesories 

the front side part of the heatsink has less thickness as compared to the rear side which affects the flow of air throughout the heatsink. On the front, we have a 26mm thick tower whereas we have a 34mm thick tower on the rear. According to ALSEYE, this design would improve the thermal performance by making maximum use of the surface area.

The ALSEYE M90 is using 4x copper heat pipes. They are 6mm thick. They are also finished in the same black color. The heat pipes are aligned in a way to have maximum contact inside the heatsink with the fins. The overall finish is in matte black.

There is a protective cover on the base of the heat sink. It needs to be removed before installing the cooler. The cooler is following a direct contact design where the heatpipes make direct contact with the CPU surface. This is not a continuous direct contact as there are gaps between any two heat pipes. The rest of the surface is nickel plated.

The above picture shows the pre-installed fan from the base of the heatsink. Notice the varying thicknesses of the front and rear towers.

There is a 4-pin PWM cable coming out of the pre-installed fan.

There is a Molex connector and a standard 3-pin 5V A-RGB cable coming out of the heatsink. When connected to the Molex, the A-RGB lighting will work in Rainbow mode unless the 3-pin standard connector is connected to the controller or the supported motherboard.

The A-RGB lighting is compatible with:

• ASUS AURAN SYNC
• ASRock POLYCHROME SYNC
• GIGABYTE RGB FUSION 2.0
• MSI MYSTIC SYNC

The specifications of the fan are:

T9⁺ Platinum Thermal Paste 

ALSEYE T9⁺ Platinum is their premium-grade thermal paste available in multiple size packs. We have got a 2gm pack in a slim and stylish packing.

The thermal paste has 13.5W/m-k thermal conductivity rating which is quite impressive hence the topic of testing.

ALSEYE has provided a syringe and spatula in the pack. The thermal paste is in Gray color. Features include:

• Non-Curing
• High Thermal Conductivity
• Thin border line thickness
• Low thermal resistance
• Thixotropic, low slump
• Low volatile

The thermal paste is made up of thermally conductive filler particles with silicone polymers.

Installation

The mounting brackets are required to be installed on the base of the cooler using two screws as shown in the picture. The backplate is placed on the backside of the motherboard such as the threaded sockets pass through the pre-drilled holes on the motherboard around socket area. After applying thermal paste on the CPU, the cooler is placed on the CPU by aligning the threaded sockets of the backplate with the spring-loaded screws on the mounting brackets.

Now comes the challenging, cumbersome, and tricky part. One has to use the supplied, wrench to screw the spring-loaded screws in the threaded socket. This is not a convenient installation mechanism and ALSEYE should re-consider a different application method like providing long screws through the heatsink as Cooler Master has done after learning their lessons from a similar approach.

Don’t install this cooler if the motherboard is already inside the PC Case. Better bring the board out to install this cooler and then install the motherboard. Similarly, you would have to remove the motherboard from the PC Case to un-install this cooler.

Clearance

The height of the cooler is 134mm. This height should not pose any challenge with the majority of the mid-tower cases in the market.

We did not see any RAM clearance issue.

The cooler does not block the first 16x PCIe slot on the GIGABYTE Z690 AERO-G.

The rear end of the heatsink is not obstructed by the rear IO cover.

The cooler has a good enough clearance for the top side of the motherboard as well.

Digital Lighting

Here are a few pictures:

Testing

The following test bench is used: –

• Intel i7 12700k
• ALSEYE M90
• Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB
• GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G
• Sabrent Rocket 16GBx2 4800MHz DDR4 kits
• Sabrent Rocket Q 500 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD
• be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W Platinum PSU
• Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open-frame layout

Here is the settings table for testing:

The cooler was tested using different RAM hence no graph is in the content. The ambient temperature was in the range of 29°C. Let’s take a look at the results.

The T9⁺ Platinum was tested using Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB cooler with the following configuration:

A 30 minutes run of Cinebench R23 CPU was made with each thermal paste. Here is the result:

We saw a drop of roughly 1°C in the temperature when ALSEYE T9⁺ was used.

Noise

We are not measuring the noise level at the moment due to environmental noise which is beyond our control. The fan has a good noise output even at full speed which is impressive.

Verdict

We have taken a spin on ALSEYE M90 CPU air cooler. This is a compact design cooler having a dimension of 112x92x134mm [LxWxH]. The height of the cooler is 134mm. This is a sort of all-in-one design (not a liquid AIO). The fan is pre-installed between the towers and the complete assembly is in a single-piece design. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA1700/1200/115x and AMD AM4/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2/FM2/FM1 sockets. The weight of the cooler is 564.7gm.

The front tower has a thickness of 26mm and the rear tower is 34mm thick. There is a 92mm fan in between both towers. According to ALSEYE, this design helps in utilizing the surface area to the max and improves thermal performance. The heatsink has 34 aluminum fins with 4 copper heat pipes each 6mm thick. The complete assembly is black color spray coated.

The top has a stylish black color cover. It has two diffusers with ARGB LEDs underneath. The cooler is following the direct touch method in which the exposed copper portion of the heat pipes makes direct contact with the CPU. However, this cooler is not using continuous direct contact as there are gaps between any two heat pipes. The fan has a dimension of 92x92x125mm. It has an airflow of 40.5CFM and an air pressure of 2.51mmH²O. The noise level is 28 dBA.

The cooler has a compact design making it fit for space-constrained builds as it does not have a clearance issue with respect to the DRAM or PCIe slot. It is also suitable for server/workstation cooling requirements where two coolers are required on a single motherboard per se.

The installation of the cooler is not convenient. One has to use a wrench to screw in the spring-loaded screws on the threaded sockets of the backplate. One must install this cooler on the motherboard outside of the PC case. This reminds me of Cooler Master MA620P which has the same mounting. However, Cooler Master has improved the mounting subsequently.

ALSEYE T9⁺ Platinum is their premium grade thermal paste rated for 13.5W/m-k. It is non-conductive and non-curing with a thin borderline application. The thermal paste has a gray color and ALSEYE provides a spatula in the 2gm pack.

The ALSEYE M90 is retiling at $30 /- and T9⁺ Platinum is retailing at $9 at the time of the review. The cooler is a budget segment cooling solution in quite some style. Its noise performance is also good. The 92mm fan even at full rated 2400 RPM speed does not make much of a sound. Though this cooler does not have much thermal headroom, it is quite good for basic overclocking and stock cooling. In our testing, the T9⁺ Platinum has performed well, as well. We spot a difference of 1°C between the Noctua NT-H1 and ALSEYE T9⁺ Platinum when tested using Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB cooler.

Area of Improvement

While the cooler is really good at its price point, there are a few areas that ALSEYE can address for further refinement. These are:

• Provide a marker on the heatsink clearly indicating the direction of airflow or a label indicating which side is front.
• Improve the installation mechanism for a convenient experience ditching the use of a wrench.

We are thankful to the ALSEYE for the provision of M90 and T9⁺ Platinum for the review.

Nauman Siddique

[How-To Guides Expert]

Laiba, our tech guru at HI Digital, simplifies and crafts How-To Guides with a Google IT Support Certificate. Beyond tech, she captures the city’s aesthetics through her lens. Join her journey where tech meets creativity!

Get In Touch: Laiba@hidgt.com