Montech Metal DT24 Premium: A Mid-Range Air Cooler
The Montech Metal DT24 Premium is a mid-range air cooler that costs $69 (£59.99 at time of writing), putting it squarely in the same pricing bracket as offerings from be quiet! and Cooler Master. That's no bad thing, as both of those brands are well-respected in the enthusiast PC space, and it means we should be expecting some high performance.
As a Taiwanese company, founded in 2016, Montech offers a wide range of PC products, ranging from keyboards, power supplies, cases, fans, and CPU coolers. While the company has a good deal of experience when it comes to PC components, the Montech Metal DT24 Premium is my first time trying one of its coolers.
In the Box
The Montech Metal DT24 Premium arrives in a mid-size box, and is well protected thanks to molded foam and cardboard during shipping. It's a fairly standard presentation, with a list of features on one side, and a picture of the cooler on the other.
Inside the box, you'll find the cooler itself, along with all the other bits and pieces that you'll need. For AMD Ryzen users, Thermalright has included its LGA 1700 contact frame, to prevent bending of the motherboard, which can impact cooling performance. I'm not sure if this is something that all manufacturers do, but it's welcome regardless.
There are a couple of 120mm Metal 120 PWM fans included with the cooler, which follow a similar aesthetic to the cooler itself. The fans have custom-made metal shells, alongside bearings, which help maximise airflow and reduce vibrations. They're also powered by a new industrial-grade 6-pole motor, which should help extend their lifespan to a whopping 40,000 hours.
Finally, there's an instruction manual, as well as a bag of mounting hardware, which includes a selection of screws, alongside a multi-platform installation guide.
Hardware
The Montech Metal DT24 Premium is a dual tower air cooler, and it's clear that design has been prioritised over outright size, as it's not the biggest CPU cooler out there. It does feature six copper heatpipes, which are arranged in a straight line, and this design should ensure efficient heat dissipation.
The cooler's 120mm fans are arranged in a push-pull configuration, and this should help ensure that the maximum amount of air can be moved across the fins, which will hopefully result in lower CPU temperatures.
Installation
Installing the Montech Metal DT24 Premium shouldn't be a difficult task, as the company has designed all of the mounting hardware to be as user-friendly as possible. Starting with the AMD Ryzen, you'll notice that the default retention bracket has been removed, which is a good thing, as it can interfere with the cooler's base plate. On the other hand, if you're using an LGA 1150/1151 motherboard, you'll actually need to apply the backplate to the motherboard, before screwing the cooler into place.
For both Intel and AMD users, the mounting studs or standoffs, along with the mounting bars, are secured to the motherboard, before the cooler itself is slipped into place. For AMD users, the studs and mounting bars are already attached to the cooler, whereas Intel users will have to do this themselves.
Once all of the mounting hardware is secured to the motherboard, you can simply secure the cooler to the studs or standoffs by sliding the locking knob into place. It's a simple process, and one that I haven't encountered any issues with.
All-in-all, it shouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes to get the Metal DT24 Premium installed on your motherboard.
Testing
All of the testing in this review has been conducted using a 23C ambient room temperature, with multiple tests performed on each CPU. The results are obtained from 10-minute testing runs, which proved to be sufficient to tax the coolers, and provide accurate results.
Throughout this review, I'll be providing testing results for both an Intel LGA1700 platform, and an AMD AM5 platform. Both of these configurations feature the same Ryzen 7 7700X, and are a fair representation of what you'll experience in a high-end desktop build.
Noise normalized testing provides a good indicator of how loud the cooler is at its peak performance, relative to its competition. All of the coolers I've tested emit a similar low-level hum, which is unavoidable due to the laws of physics.
Default configuration thermal & acoustic testing provides a good idea of how well the cooler cools relative to its noise output. Again, the Montech Metal DT24 Premium performs well, coming in second place, just behind the be quiet! Dark Rock 6.
Power-limited scenario testing helps to highlight the cooling potential of a cooler when it's being limited by the power draw of the CPU.
