Cooler Master Hyper 212: Looking for a Winner
by Wesley Fink on October 31, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Conclusion
Those who want the very best in air cooling will not be completely satisfied with performance of the Cooler Master Hyper 212. However, those who want the best performance they can get for an investment of around $40 will have a smile on their face when they buy the Hyper 212. This Cooler Master represents excellent value for your cooling dollar and will deliver performance approaching the best we have tested, especially when mounted with two 120mm fans in a push-pull configuration.
Those who will never overclock but who want a cooler that can provide low processor temperatures for an extended CPU lifespan will be ecstatic with the Hyper 212. It matches, at both idle and load conditions, the best performance we have measured in cooler testing at AnandTech. Cooling performance at stock speeds is all but identical to stock results with the superb Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. If you never plan to overclock there is no reason to spend more money. Buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212 and be assured that your stock CPU is running as cool as it can at stock speeds. This assurance now has a price tag of just $40 instead of the $50 to $70 for a top performing air cooler.
Readers who value low noise above all else will find the Hyper 212 a quiet but not silent cooler. The attached fan on the Cooler Master is louder than a high-output Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F, but it is still very quiet. You can reach near silence by turning down the speed (voltage) slightly. If noise is very bothersome to you, or you sleep next to your computer, you can always replace the stock fan with a super-quiet 120mm fan of your choice. The Hyper 212 can mount virtually any 120 fan you fancy - in either single or dual configurations. Lower RPM fans may of course reduce the overall cooling performance somewhat.
For those going midrange to reduce size and weight of the cooler, the Hyper 212 is not really a good choice. It is large and heavy and not really any smaller than the group of slightly more expensive top-performing coolers tested at AnandTech. Those who want small and light units with decent performance will be more satisfied with the OCZ Vendetta or the Zerotherm BTF90. Those who want both top performance and a smaller size can choose the Thermalright Ultima-90 with a 120mm fan.
Finally there is the overclocker. The Hyper 212 will not take you to the top of the overclocking charts for an air cooler, but it will get you near the top if you use two push-pull fans. There are several coolers that are better overclockers than the Cooler Master Hyper 212, but they all cost $50 to $70. The Hyper 212 does provide the best overclocking you can get in the market today for an investment of $40.
All in all Cooler Master has produced an excellent cooler in the Hyper 212. At a selling price of around $40 it provides excellent value for what you pay for it. The Hyper 212 won't satisfy everyone, but many readers will find it the best buy in this price range for a new CPU cooler.
Those who want the very best in air cooling will not be completely satisfied with performance of the Cooler Master Hyper 212. However, those who want the best performance they can get for an investment of around $40 will have a smile on their face when they buy the Hyper 212. This Cooler Master represents excellent value for your cooling dollar and will deliver performance approaching the best we have tested, especially when mounted with two 120mm fans in a push-pull configuration.
Those who will never overclock but who want a cooler that can provide low processor temperatures for an extended CPU lifespan will be ecstatic with the Hyper 212. It matches, at both idle and load conditions, the best performance we have measured in cooler testing at AnandTech. Cooling performance at stock speeds is all but identical to stock results with the superb Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. If you never plan to overclock there is no reason to spend more money. Buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212 and be assured that your stock CPU is running as cool as it can at stock speeds. This assurance now has a price tag of just $40 instead of the $50 to $70 for a top performing air cooler.
Readers who value low noise above all else will find the Hyper 212 a quiet but not silent cooler. The attached fan on the Cooler Master is louder than a high-output Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F, but it is still very quiet. You can reach near silence by turning down the speed (voltage) slightly. If noise is very bothersome to you, or you sleep next to your computer, you can always replace the stock fan with a super-quiet 120mm fan of your choice. The Hyper 212 can mount virtually any 120 fan you fancy - in either single or dual configurations. Lower RPM fans may of course reduce the overall cooling performance somewhat.
For those going midrange to reduce size and weight of the cooler, the Hyper 212 is not really a good choice. It is large and heavy and not really any smaller than the group of slightly more expensive top-performing coolers tested at AnandTech. Those who want small and light units with decent performance will be more satisfied with the OCZ Vendetta or the Zerotherm BTF90. Those who want both top performance and a smaller size can choose the Thermalright Ultima-90 with a 120mm fan.
Finally there is the overclocker. The Hyper 212 will not take you to the top of the overclocking charts for an air cooler, but it will get you near the top if you use two push-pull fans. There are several coolers that are better overclockers than the Cooler Master Hyper 212, but they all cost $50 to $70. The Hyper 212 does provide the best overclocking you can get in the market today for an investment of $40.
All in all Cooler Master has produced an excellent cooler in the Hyper 212. At a selling price of around $40 it provides excellent value for what you pay for it. The Hyper 212 won't satisfy everyone, but many readers will find it the best buy in this price range for a new CPU cooler.
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pc007 - Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - link
This is only slightly related, but why do all the cooling solutions i've seen blow air into a heat sink?When blowing air it is compressed slightly and raises the temperature. When sucking the air off a heatsink the air is expanded slightly creating more cooling effect. It is possible to drop the temperature of a heatsink to below freezing when in an ambient temperature of 20degrees C, just buy reversing the fan.
Is there a reason this isn't done with computer cooling solutions?
gmchenry - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - link
The ability to remove heat is impacted by the density of the air moving across the heat source. Less dense air is less effective at removing heat. Living more than a mile above sea level, the cooling effectiveness in our systems is reduced by a factor of about .90 (1.0 is sea level). We have to cope with this loss in heat convection by increasing air speed to reach an equivalent heat transfer ratio.Having a fan that pulled air across a heatsink will have a similar effect by reducing the air density. This would deteriorate performance.
ObiWanCeleri - Saturday, March 15, 2008 - link
I think there's also another, very practical reason for this.Since the air inside a PC is very often charged with static electricity, it also carries dust, which easily collects on fins. I might be wrong but it's more efficient to blow air into the fins to disloge dust than it is to pull air.
Howard - Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - link
Below freezing? Can you show me the math?pc007 - Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - link
nope, not much of a mathmatician. But I can show you a device that does it. If you buy a portable can cooler such as this [url]http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/47292b...d/Product/View/M4500[/url] and pull it apart, you will find this is how it operates.
I have on eand if I put water in it and run it for a few minutes, the water starts to freeze.
oopyseohs - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
I believe the device you link to is in effect a mini-refrigerator. It uses a very small condenser and compressor system that changes the phase (gas -> liquid, liquid -> gas) of a refrigerant to exploit latent heat and provide cooling. This effect is used in computers via rather expensive systems that product sub-freezing conditions and cool processors very well. It is not used very extensively because there is an inherent condensation risk, an enemy to the delicate electrical components. I am no expert, but I would assume the unit you linked to there is not powerful enough to cool a processor, which produces an absurd amount of heat continuously. The one you've got there is good at cooling hot stuff down, or even freezing other stuff, but it's probably not the greatest and continuously cooling something that is very hot. I don't know if this is even right or if it makes sense, but there is a possible explanation for you.oopyseohs - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
ahh yes I am an idiot.. I see it says right there that it is a TEC. TECs are used in CPU cooling applications, but not extensively and because they are very inefficient. Actually one of the better coolers in Anandtech's CPU testing charts, the Monsoon II from Vigor Gaming, uses controlled TEC technology.Schmide - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
That's a TEC Thermoelectric Cooler. Sometimes referred to as a Peltier. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier-Seebeck_effec...">Link) They work well in extreme cooling but are horribly inefficient. To cool 100w of heat it often takes like 200w of energy, and thusly they produce 200w of heat. To run that cooler you need a 12v 5amp powersource.pc007 - Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - link
Right you are, my mistake. I pulled one of these things apart years ago and didn't look close enough obviously... at least I won't continue to think this is how they work now :)Sorry for writing useless rubbish up here.
Chuckles - Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - link
At a pressure rise of 2mm of water, the temperature rise due to PdV work is negligible.The more important design reason for mounting the fan on the blowing side is that it produces a better flow across the heat sink. If you want, start a fan in your room, then see how far away you can feel the airflow across your hand. It's much further on the output side than the intake side. The same principle applies in a fan on a heat sink. With the fan pushing air onto the cooler, you get the majority of the air covering the middle section of the cooler, whereas in a pulling configuration, a high fraction of the air flow would be coming from the edges near the fan, relatively cool portions of the heat sink.