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Home » Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler Review

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler Review

[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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 2: Box contents.

In Figure 3 we have a general view of Hyper 212 Plus.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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).

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 13: Backplate.

In Figure 14 we can see the "scissors clip" over the base of the cooler.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 16: Installed on our motherboard.

In Figure 17, you can see the cooler installed in our case.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 PlusFigure 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

  • Prime95
  • StressCPU
  • SpeedFan

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 39 °C 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.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

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.

 Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

[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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