Cooler Master Hyper 6+: Universal Heatpipe Tower
by Wesley Fink on February 14, 2007 12:02 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Cooling Results
The Cooler Master Hyper 6+ is not the most effective air cooler we have tested. That distinction still is held by the Tuniq Tower 120. However the Hyper 6+ is very close to the performance level of the Tuniq, and it definitely belongs in the comparison of top heatpipe towers.
Where the very good Intel stock cooler keeps the X6800 at 41C at idle, the Hyper 6+ can manage 31C. This is not quite as cool as the Tuniq Tower 120 at stock idle, but it is significantly better than the stock Intel cooler. As processor speed increases the delta between the Tuniq and Hyper 6+ increases slightly, so that at 3.83 GHz the Tuniq is 36C and the Hyper 6+ is 44C. The larger 120mm fan on the Tuniq, coupled with the mid cooler fan mount, seems to make the performance difference.
As the processor is pushed to its highest stable overclock using the retail HSF, the delta between the Hyper 6+ and the Intel retail increases. At 3.73GHz the retail HSF is running at 56C, compared to 43C with the Cooler Master. The Hyper 6+ and Tuniq Tower 120 perform similarly at idle speeds across the operating speeds they can achieve, with the Tuniq about 4C to 5C cooler at all speeds. The Hyper 6+ also reaches much higher than the Intel stock fan, reaching 3.87 GHz overclock - only 30 MHz behind the leading Tuniq Tower 120.
It is easy to measure the effectiveness of a cooling solution at idle - when the computer is doing nothing except running the temperature measurement program. It is more difficult, however, to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates running a demanding contemporary game.
The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the stress test is then reported. Cooling efficiency of the Cooler Master Hyper 6+ under stress conditions was compared to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers. Once again the well-regarded Tuniq Tower 120 was the top air cooling solution, with the TEC/air hybrid Monsoon II Lite as the top performer. The Cooler master Hyper 6+ was just behind the Tuniq at the top of the air cooling chart.
The Tuniq keeps the CPU at 34C under stress at stock speeds, where the Hyper 6+ manages 41C. By 3.83 GHz the Tuniq is at 50C compared to the Cooler Master at 59C. Only the TEC/air hybrid Monsoon II was able to reach 3.96 GHz with this processor, but the Tuniq reached an air cooling record of 3.9 GHz, with the Hyper 6+ just behind at 3.87GHz.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the Tuniq is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. A few of the other processors tested with the best air coolers reach just over 4 GHz, but the range has been 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab. The 3.87 GHz with the Hyper 6+ places the Cooler Master performance in the top range of air cooling.
The Cooler Master Hyper 6+ is not the most effective air cooler we have tested. That distinction still is held by the Tuniq Tower 120. However the Hyper 6+ is very close to the performance level of the Tuniq, and it definitely belongs in the comparison of top heatpipe towers.
Where the very good Intel stock cooler keeps the X6800 at 41C at idle, the Hyper 6+ can manage 31C. This is not quite as cool as the Tuniq Tower 120 at stock idle, but it is significantly better than the stock Intel cooler. As processor speed increases the delta between the Tuniq and Hyper 6+ increases slightly, so that at 3.83 GHz the Tuniq is 36C and the Hyper 6+ is 44C. The larger 120mm fan on the Tuniq, coupled with the mid cooler fan mount, seems to make the performance difference.
As the processor is pushed to its highest stable overclock using the retail HSF, the delta between the Hyper 6+ and the Intel retail increases. At 3.73GHz the retail HSF is running at 56C, compared to 43C with the Cooler Master. The Hyper 6+ and Tuniq Tower 120 perform similarly at idle speeds across the operating speeds they can achieve, with the Tuniq about 4C to 5C cooler at all speeds. The Hyper 6+ also reaches much higher than the Intel stock fan, reaching 3.87 GHz overclock - only 30 MHz behind the leading Tuniq Tower 120.
It is easy to measure the effectiveness of a cooling solution at idle - when the computer is doing nothing except running the temperature measurement program. It is more difficult, however, to effectively simulate a computer being stressed by all of the conditions it might be exposed to in different operating environments. For most home users CPU power is most taxed with contemporary gaming. Therefore our stress test simulates running a demanding contemporary game.
The Far Cry River demo is looped for 30 minutes and the CPU temperature is captured at 4 second intervals with the NVIDIA monitor "logging" option. The highest temperature during the stress test is then reported. Cooling efficiency of the Cooler Master Hyper 6+ under stress conditions was compared to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers. Once again the well-regarded Tuniq Tower 120 was the top air cooling solution, with the TEC/air hybrid Monsoon II Lite as the top performer. The Cooler master Hyper 6+ was just behind the Tuniq at the top of the air cooling chart.
The Tuniq keeps the CPU at 34C under stress at stock speeds, where the Hyper 6+ manages 41C. By 3.83 GHz the Tuniq is at 50C compared to the Cooler Master at 59C. Only the TEC/air hybrid Monsoon II was able to reach 3.96 GHz with this processor, but the Tuniq reached an air cooling record of 3.9 GHz, with the Hyper 6+ just behind at 3.87GHz.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the Tuniq is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. A few of the other processors tested with the best air coolers reach just over 4 GHz, but the range has been 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab. The 3.87 GHz with the Hyper 6+ places the Cooler Master performance in the top range of air cooling.
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Samus - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
What a waste of metal, what are the odd's that someone is going to buy this $50 cooler to overclock their AthlonXP. Do people even have AthlonXP's anymore? They've been discontinued for years.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, February 15, 2007 - link
If you've got an Athlon XP-M, it really might be fun to try this one out. My XP-M 2500+ made 2.4GHz on air (Thermalright cooler) when I had it, which is even now competetive for a lot of apps. The advantage is that an XP owner can buy this cooler, and then continue to use it when they step up to a new CPU/mainboard. It adds a selling point to this cooler that I'm sure some will appreciate.Shinei - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
To be honest, I would. I still run an Athlon XP, and it's cheaper to pay $50 for a new HSF that might buy me a couple extra MHz than $800 on a total refit (CPU, board, RAM, video card). Unless, of course, you're offering to buy me a new computer, in which case, I accept! B)Macuser89 - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
I wish you would compare a similar Zalmen cooler. Zalmen are pretty good, and i just wonder how they compare to others.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
We have the top-of-the-line Zalman 9700 in the lab for review.strikeback03 - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
Any chance of testing a 9500 as well? I don't think a 9700 will fit beneath my PSU.And I think it might have been mentioned in the Tuniq review, but was all temperature testing done with it at high speed? Would temps be affected if it were slowed down the same way the PWM-controlled fans slow down?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
The Hyper 6+ has a 4-pin fan connection that can control fan speed. Temperature testing was done at default speed, although we did manually force highest speed to see if it made any difference in OC. It really did not improve OC performance. For noise testing we manually forced highest speed and reported both low speed (1800 RPM) and high speed (3600 RPM) results.Since the kit auto controls fan speed on a 4-pin header we thought this was the fairest way to test performance. For noise we were concerned with the loudest you could possibly encounter with this cooler, which is why we manually forced highest speed.
tuteja1986 - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
Can't someone make a much better air cooler than Tuniq Tower 120 for overclocking needs.LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - link
If you ever buy a Tuniq Tower, I think you'll find that it cools so well, that improving upon it without liquid or a TEC would be extremely difficult.Up until recently I was using a Swiftech MCX-64V that I thought was a pretty darn good cooler, albeit a little older, with a low-noise Delta 80mm fan.
The Tuniq beats it by 8-10C when idle, and by 10-15C under load in my system (Athlon 64 X2 4800+). And it isn't any louder (it may indeed be quieter, but my case fans overshadow the noise it makes anyway). About the only thing that I think Tuniq could try is lapping the contact surface better (on an IHS-based chip with AS5 goop I doubt this will help much) or adding additional heatpipes (i.e. going from six to eight), and I'm not sure that will do that much good either. The Tuniq is already amazing at how cool it can keep a CPU under load, a good indicator of its performance in overclocked situations (provided you have the right CPU/mainboard/ram/power supply to go with, of course). It also has the advantage of taking a 120mm fan, as opposed to the good, but proprietary Zalman, or the 100mm of the Coolermaster, allowing you to select from a wide range of fans to favor hardcore cooling, or near-silent operation.
I'm curious (no disrespect intended) --how do you think someone would go about making a better air cooler than the Tuniq?
flipmode - Thursday, February 15, 2007 - link
Start with the Tuniq and the make one that's lighter, with an even quieter fan, and not so large, with a better mounting system. That would be better in my book. Better doesn't always have to apply to cooling power - though I think that's probably what you were talking about.