[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
This time we tested Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler from Cooler Master. It is a relatively inexpensive cooler with tower design, 120 mm fan and four heatpipes in CPU direct touch. Let’s how it goes in our tests.
Hyper 212 Plus box uses the same color pattern as other products from Cooler Master, like Hyper N620 we recently tested, with no transparent window.
Figure 1: Box.
In Figure 2 we can see the box contents: besides the cooler itself, there is an instruction flyer, gray thermal compound and installation hardware.
Figure 2: Box contents.
In Figure 3 we have a general view of Hyper 212 Plus.
Figure 3: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.
In the next pages we will see this cooler in detail.
[nextpage title=”Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus”]
In Figure 4 we have a front view of the cooler. The 120 mm fan covers all the heatsink frame and you can notice that the blade design is somewhat different, with the tips wider than the ends that are attached to the central body.
Figure 4: Front view.
In a side view we notice that the heatsink from Hyper 212 Plus is quite narrow. We can also see the four copper heatpipes.
Figure 5: Side view.
In Figure 6 we can see the back of the cooler. Note how the heatpipes are not in the same line, thus receiving more direct airflow.
Figure 6: Rear view.
In a top view we can see the almost rectangular shape used by the fins. We can also note the position of the heatpipes. Notice the room available for a second fan.
Figure 7: Top view.
[nextpage title=”Cooler Maste Hyper 212 Plus (Cont’d)”]
In Figure 8 we see the heatsink without the fan. It is a relatively small and light heatsink compared to other cooler with similar design.
Figure 8: Heatsink without the fan.
In Figure 9 we can see the black plastic fan, which looks very basic. It comes screwed on two plastic holders that fit the heatsink. This fan has PWM automatic speed control and thus its connector is a four-pin type.
Figure 9: Fan.
In Figure 10 we see the fan holder. Note how there are small rubber cushions stuck to the fan in order to absorb the vibration produced by it. The product comes with another set of holders and rubber stickers, so you can easily install a second fan (not included).
Figure 10: Detail of the fan.
In Figure 11 we can see the base of the cooler, smooth but with no mirror-like finishing. The heatpipes make direct contact with the CPU. There are some recesses between the aluminum base and the heatpipes, so with this cooler we had to use more thermal compound than with flat-base coolers.
Figure 11: Base.
[nextpage title=”Installation”]
Hyper 212 Plus installation is a little bit complicated. For both Intel and AMD processors you must use the same clip and the same backplate. The clip that stays over the base of the cooler moves like a pair of scissors, adapting itself for AMD or Intel CPU installation.
Figure 12: Installation hardware.
In Figure 13 we can see the backplate in place. For AMD CPUs the other face of the backplate is used. The nuts are tightened by a small tool that comes with the cooler and that allows you to use a Phillips screwdriver in this procedure. After installing the backplate the rest of the installation is simple.
Figure 13: Backplate.In Figure 14 we can see the "scissors clip" over the base of the cooler.
Figure 14: Clip over the base of the cooler.
[nextpage title=”Installation (Cont’d)”]
The Hyper 212 Plus comes with the fan already in place, but you must remove it in order to screw the cooler to the previously installed holder.
Figure 15: Installed on our motherboard.
After attaching the cooler to the base, you must put the fan back in place, which is a very simple task: you just need to push it into place.
Figure 16: Installed on our motherboard.
In Figure 17, you can see the cooler installed in our case.
Figure 17: Installed inside our case.
[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]
We are adopting the following methodology for our CPU cooler reviews.
First, we chose the CPU with the highest TDP (Thermal Design Power) we had available, a Core 2 Extreme QX6850, which has a 130 W TDP. The choice for a CPU with a high TDP is obvious. To measure the efficiency of the tested cooler, we need a processor that gets very hot. This CPU works by default at 3.0 GHz, but we overclocked it to 3.33 GHz, in order to heat it as much as possible.
We took noise and temperature measurements with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to achieve 100% CPU load on the four processing cores we ran Prime95 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option, and three instances of the StressCPU program, all at the same time.
We also compared the reviewed cooler to the Intel stock cooler (with copper base), which comes with the processor we used, and also with some other coolers we have tested using the same methodology.
Temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer, with the sensor touching the base of the cooler, and also with the core temperature reading (given by the CPU thermal sensor) from the from the SpeedFan program, using an arithmetic average of the four core temperature readings.
The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the video board cooler so it wouldn’t interfere with the results, but this measurement is only for comparative purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.
Hardware Configuration
- Processor: Core 2 Extreme QX6850
- Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
- Memory: 4 GB G.Skill F2-6400CL5S-2GBNY (DDR2-800/PC2-6400 with 5-5-5-15 timings), configured at 800 MHz
- Hard drive: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (ST31000528AS, SATA-300, 7200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
- Video card: PNY Verto Geforce 9600 GT
- Video resolution: 1680×1050
- Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
- Power supply required: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
- Case: 3RSystem K100
Software Configuration
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Software Used
Error Margin
We adopted a 2 °C error margin, i.e., temperature differences below 2 °C are considered irrelevant.
[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]
On the tables below you can see our results. We ran the same tests with the coolers shown on below tables. Each test ran with the CPU idle and the with the CPU fully loaded. On BigTyp 14Pro, TMG IA1, NH-U12P and ISGC-300 the tests were done with the fan at full speed and at minimum speed. The other coolers were connected directly to the motherboard and it controls the fan speed based on CPU load level and temperature on PWM models. ISGC-400, iCEAGE Prima Boss, Megahalems Rev. B, Thermaltake SpinQ VT, Zalman CNPS10X Flex and Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme were tested at minimum speed on idle test and at maximum speed on full load test.
|
CPU Idle |
|||||
| Cooler | Room Temp. | Noise | Fan Speed | Base Temp. | Core Temp. |
| Intel stock | 14 °C | 44 dBA | 1000 rpm | 31 °C | 42 °C |
| BigTyp 14Pro (min) | 17 °C | 47 dBA | 880 rpm | 29 °C | 36 °C |
| BigTyp 14Pro (max) | 17 °C | 59 dBA | 1500 rpm | 26 °C | 34 °C |
| Akasa Nero | 18 °C | 41 dBA | 500 rpm | 26 °C | 35 °C |
| Cooler Master V10 | 14 °C | 44 dBA | 1200 rpm | 21 °C | 26 °C |
| TMG IA1 (max) | 16 °C | 47 dBA | 1500 rpm | 22 °C | 30 °C |
| TMG IA1 (min) | 16 °C | 57 dBA | 2250 rpm | 21 °C | 30 °C |
| Zalman CN PS10X Extreme |
16 °C | 44 dBA | 1200 rpm | 21 °C | 29 °C |
| Thermaltake ISGC-100 | 18 °C | 44 dBA | 1450 rpm | 35 °C | 49 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12P (low) | 15 °C | 42 dBA | 1000 rpm | 20 °C | 30 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12P | 15 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 20 °C | 28 °C |
| Noctua NH-C12P | 17 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 23 °C | 28 °C |
| Thermaltake ISGC-200 | 21 °C | 43 dBA | 1100 rpm | 31 °C | 35 °C |
| Schythe Kabuto | 22 °C | 42 dBA | 800 rpm | 29 °C | 34 °C |
| Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro | 20 °C | 43 dBA | 1500 rpm | 32 °C | 39 °C |
| ISGC-300 (min) | 18 °C | 42 dBA | 800 rpm | 26 °C | 30 °C |
| ISGC-300 (max) | 18 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 24 °C | 26 °C |
| SilverStone NT06-E | 21 °C | 66 dBA | 2600 rpm | 30 °C | 41 °C |
| Zalman CNPS9700 NT | 22 °C | 48 dBA | 1700 rpm | 28 °C | 35 °C |
| Scythe Mugen-2 | 17 °C | 41 dBA | 700 rpm | 25 °C | 30 °C |
| ISGC-400 (min) | 17 °C | 44 dBA | 850 rpm | 24 °C | 30 °C |
| Cooler Master Vortex 752 | 20 °C | 48 dBA | 1700 rpm | 32 °C | 44 °C |
| iCEAGE Prima Boss (min) | 22 °C | 42 dBA | 1000 rpm | 29 °C | 36 °C |
| Evercool Buffalo | 17 °C | 51 dBA | 1850 rpm | 22 °C | 29 °C |
| Scythe Big Shuriken | 20 °C | 42 dBA | 900 rpm | 31 °C | 39 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper TX3 | 21 °C | 44 dBA | 1700 rpm | 30 °C | 39 °C |
| Titan Skalli | 20 °C | 43 dBA | 1200 rpm | 27 °C | 34 °C |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B | 21 °C | 40 dBA | 800 rpm | 28 °C | 32 °C |
| Zalman CNPS9900 NT | 23 °C | 45 dBA | 900 rpm | 30 °C | 34 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper N620 | 21 °C | 44 dBA | 1200 rpm | 28 °C | 34 °C |
| Nexus LOW-7000 R2 | 23 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 33 °C | 42 °C |
| Evercool HPK-10025EA | 20 °C | 54 dBA | 1900 rpm | 27 °C | 34 °C |
| Evercool HPH-9525EA | 23 °C | 50 dBA | 1900 rpm | 38 °C | 49 °C |
| iCEAGE Prima Boss II | 23 °C< /td> | 42 dBA | 1000 rpm | 29 °C | 35 °C |
| Thermaltake SpinQ VT | 24 °C | 45 dBA | 950 rpm | 32 °C | 39 °C |
| Titan Fenrir | 21 °C | 42 dBA | 950 rpm | 29 °C | 35 °C |
| Zalman CNPS 10 Flex | 23 °C | 40 dBA | 800 rpm | 32 °C | 39 °C |
| Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme | 24 °C | 43 dBA | 1100 rpm | 30 °C | 37 °C |
| Gelid Tranquillo | 22 °C | 41 dBA | 850 rpm | 29 °C | 36 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus | 20 °C | 45 dBA | 1200 rpm | 27 °C | 35 °C |
|
CPU Fully Loaded |
|||||
| Cooler | Room Temp. | Noise | Fan Speed | Base Temp. | Core Temp. |
| Intel stock | 14 °C | 48 dBA | 1740 rpm | 42 °C | 100 °C |
| BigTyp 14Pro (min) | 17 °C | 47 dBA | 880 rpm | 43 °C | 77 °C |
| BigTyp 14Pro (max) | 17 °C | 59 dBA | 1500 rpm | 35 °C | 70 °C |
| Akasa Nero | 18 °C | 48 dBA | 1500 rpm | 34 °C | 68 °C |
| Cooler Master V10 | 14 °C | 54 dBA | 1900 rpm | 24 °C | 52 °C |
| TMG IA1 (max) | 16 °C | 47 dBA | 1500 rpm | 27 °C | 63 °C |
| TMG IA1 (min) | 16 °C | 57 dBA | 2250 rpm | 25 °C | 60 °C |
| Zalman CNPS10X Extreme | 16 °C | 51 dBA | 1900 rpm | 24 °C | 50 °C |
| Thermaltake ISG-100 | 18 °C | 50 dBA | 1800 rpm | 58 °C | 93 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12P (low) | 15 °C | 42 dBA | 1000 rpm | 28 °C | 59 °C |
| Noctua NH-U12P | 15 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 25 °C | 54 °C |
| Noctua NH-C12P | 17 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 37 °C | 76 °C |
| Thermaltake ISGC-200 | 21 °C | 48 dBA | 1900 rpm | 42 °C | 68 °C |
| Scythe Kabuto | 22 °C | 47 dBA | 1200 rpm | 38 °C | 63 °C |
| Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro | 20 °C | 51 dBA | 2300 rpm | 49 °C | 85 °C |
| ISGC-300 (min) | 18 °C | 42 dBA | 800 rpm | 36 °C | 64 °C |
| ISGC-300 (max) | 18 °C | 46 dBA | 1400 rpm | 31 °C | 56 °C |
| SilverStone NT06-E | 21 °C | 66 dBA | 2600 rpm | 96 °C | |
| Zalman CNPS9700 NT | 22 °C | 56 dBA | 2600 rpm | 34 °C | 63 °C |
| Scythe Mugen-2 | 17 °C | 46 dBA | 1300 rpm | 28 °C | 54 °C |
| ISGC-400 (max) | 17 °C | 47 dBA | 1400 rpm | 36 °C | 69 °C |
| Cooler Master Vortex 752 | 20 °C | 55 dBA | 2300 rpm | 48 °C | 92 °C |
| iCEAGE Prima Boss (max) | 22 °C | 53 dBA | 2000 rpm | 35 °C | 59 °C |
| Evercool Buffalo | 17 °C | 51 dBA | 1850 rpm | 32 °C | 67 °C |
| Scythe Big Shuriken | 20 °C | 50 dBA | 1500 rpm | 51 °C | 85 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper TX3 | 21 °C | 53 dBA | 2700 rpm | 39 °C | 66 °C |
| Titan Skalli | 20 °C | 47 dBA | 1550 rpm | 37 °C | 69 °C |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B | 21 °C | 61 dBA | 2600 rpm | 30 °C | 51 °C |
| Zalman CNPS9900 NT | 23 °C | 56 dBA | 2000 rpm | 34 °C | 54 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper N620 | 21 °C | 50 dBA | 1650 rpm | 32 °C | 56 °C |
| Nexus LOW-7000 R2 | 23 °C | 53 dBA | 1900 rpm | 45 °C | 74 °C |
| Evercool HPK-10025EA | 20 °C | 54 dBA | 1900 rpm | 39 °C | 69 °C |
| Evercool HPH-9525EA | 23 °C | 50 dBA | 1900 rpm | 58 °C | 100 °C |
| iCEAGE Prima Boss II | 23 °C | 56 dBA | 2100 rpm | 32 °C | 56 °C |
| Thermaltake SpinQ VT | 24 °C | 52 dBA | 1500 rpm | 40 °C | 68 °C |
| Titan Fenrir | 21 °C | 50 dBA | 1600 rpm | 33 °C | 58 °C |
| Zalman CNPS 10 Flex | 23 °C | 61 dBA | 2600 rpm | 33 °C | 59 °C |
| Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme | 24 °C | 56 dBA | 1900 rpm | 35 °C | 60 °C |
| Gelid Tranquillo | 22 °C | 46 dBA | 1450 rpm | 31 °C | 60 °C |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus | 20 °C | 52 dBA | 1900 rpm | 32 °C | 64 °C |
The next graph shows how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our idle tests.
The next graph gives you an idea on how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our full load tests.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus main features are:
- Application: Socket LGA775, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+ and AM2 processors.
- Fins: Aluminum.
- Base: Aluminum, with heatpipes in direct contact with the CPU.
- Heat-pipes: Four U-shaped copper heat-pipes.
- Fan: Up to two 120 mm (one included).
- Nominal fan speed: 2,000 rpm.
- Fan air flow: 76.8 cfm.
- Maximum power consumption: 4.32 W.
- Nominal noise level: 32 dBA.
- Weight: 1.44 lbs (626 g).
- More information: https://www.coolermaster.com
- Average price in the US*: USD 35.00
* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is a good cooler with reasonable performance. It has a good construction quality and its fan is strong and quiet.
It, however, does not reach the performance level shown by top-shelf coolers, probably because of its relatively small heatsink. Other weak point is the installation, which is a little complicated. Its looks is average; it is pretty but does not draw attention like more sofisticated models.
Its strongest point, however, is its price, below top-performance models. Thus it is a cooler with an excellent cost/benefit ratio and you can still install a second fan in order to improve performance.
As Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus has shown an average performance but a good cost/benefit ratio, it deserves the Hardware Secrets Bronze Award.
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