Frequent Maximum PC readers will have noticed our love affair with Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler. The 212 Plus came out of nowhere and captured our hearts—and a spot on our Best of the Best list—with its excellent cooling power and rock-bottom $30 price tag way back in 2009. It’s not the best CPU cooler we’ve tested, but we’ve installed it in virtually every stock-clocked PC we’ve built since, thanks to its unbeatable price/performance ratio. Cooler Master’s all-new Hyper 212 Evo costs five dollars more than the Plus. But is it five dollars better?
Besides the heat pipes, the Evo's translucent PWM fan is the only difference between this and previous iterations of the Hyper 212 CPU cooler.
Like its predecessor, the Evo is a skyscraper-style heatsink with four direct-contact heat pipes rising through a stack of aluminum cooling fins. It’s 6.3 inches tall from the contact plate to the top of the heat pipes, 2 inches deep (3.13 inches after adding one 12cm fan), and 4.7 inches wide. Cooler Master provides a universal mounting bracket that will fit AMD and Intel LGA775, 1155/1156, and 1366 sockets, and a separate one for Socket LGA2011. Four standoff pegs bolt through the motherboard and onto the backplate, and an X-shaped bracket holds the contact plate to the CPU with four spring screws attached to the standoffs. Plastic clips secure the 12cm fan to the heat exchanger in a fashion similar to the most recent 212 Plus coolers we’ve used (the original Hyper used wire clips).
In short, the Evo is identical to its predecessor in every aspect but one: Where the 212 Plus’s heat pipes meet the cooler’s contact plate, small gaps reduce the surface area that is in direct contact with the CPU’s own heat spreader. The bottoms of the Evo’s heat pipes are so flat that these gaps are entirely eliminated.
At our i7-930 test bed’s stock speed of 2.8GHz, it was hard to tell the difference between the two coolers: The Evo ran just over a degree Celsius hotter than the Plus at idle, and just under a degree warmer at 100 percent CPU burn. Both coolers far outperformed our stock cooler, by 4-5 C at idle and by a whopping 14 C at full burn.
The Hyper 212 Evo's flat direct-contact heat pipes increase the surface area that comes into contact with the CPU's heat spreader.
We didn’t notice a meaningful difference until we cranked up the test bed to our overclocking-challenge speed of 3.9GHz. At full burn, the Evo kept our CPU fully 9 C cooler than its predecessor could manage. Neither part came close to besting our air-cooling champion, Prolimatech’s Armageddon, with this stress test, however; and the stock Intel cooler lasted just 20 seconds before the CPU began to throttle itself.
If you’re already using a Hyper 212 Plus, we don’t see a reason to switch to the Evo unless you’d like to crank your clock speeds a little higher. If you’re building a new rig, or looking to upgrade from a stock cooler, on the other hand, the Evo is a worthy successor to the 212 Plus. Five dollars for a cooler that can keep an overclocked proc 9 C cooler? We’ll take it.
We could wish for an easier mounting bracket, but honestly, the Hyper 212 Evo is a damn-good deal at $35.
$35, www.coolermaster.com
Nearly identical to the Plus; excellent value for the money; better performance on overclocked chips.
Nearly identical to the Plus; mounting bracket is getting old.
| Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus | Prolimatch Armageddon | Stock Intel Cooler | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambient (C) | 25 | 25 | 25.3 | 24.6 |
| 2.8GHz Idle (C) | 38.75 | 37.5 | 36.25 | 42.5 |
| 2.8GHz 100% Burn (C) | 57 | 56.25 | 51.25 | 71.5 |
| 3.9GHz idle (C) | 45 | 46.25 | 42.5 | 55.25 |
| 3.9 GHz 100% Burn (C) | 84.25 | 93.25 | 73 | WNR |
dAmbient represent ambient air temperature in the Lab at time of testing. All coolers tested with a Core i7-930 at both stock 2.8GHz and overclocked to 3.9GHz on an Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard in a Corsair 800D chassis with stock fans, 6GB DDR3 RAM, and Radeon HD 5850 GPU. Clock frequencies measured with TMonitor; temps with HWMonitor. Stress tests performed with Intel's internal testing utility running at 70 percent load.
TRxReFLeX
February 22, 2012 at 11:01pm
Just purchased one not to long ago hopefully kepts temps low enough for OCing
B.A.Frayd
January 30, 2012 at 2:18pm
Evo works great. On my 2600k I have yet to see the temp go over 50c, monitored by CPUID HW.
Danthrax66
January 25, 2012 at 9:15pm
HOW IS IT JUST LIKE THE + IF IT IS 9 C COOLER AT LOAD???????????
oldobamaliar
January 25, 2012 at 4:12pm
why is the armageddon the best? your OWN testing showed the nzxt havik 140 to be superior. not only that the havik 140 is 1/2 the price of the armageddon
KenLV
January 25, 2012 at 11:02pm
I've been wondering the same thing. I have the Havok 140 and LOVE it. Bought on sale for a song too. $59 less rebate, $39 after rebates.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/nzxt_havik_140_review
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/turn_down_heat_cpu_cooler_showdown
nedwards
February 02, 2012 at 11:01am
I like the mounting bracket on the Armageddon better. That said, I do need to update the BotB since it looks like the Armageddon's no longer available.
Supall
January 25, 2012 at 2:15pm
I bought the Evo for my new build. Its mounted on a Asus Sabertooth 990FX, blowing air out the top. Unfortunately, it is overlapping one of my ram slots. As a result, I can't have extended heatsinks on my ram chips. :(
SongEmu
January 25, 2012 at 12:15pm
Only reason I don't feel bad about buying the 212 Plus is because I got it for $20, not $30...
JohnP
January 25, 2012 at 10:30am
I just used up my last Hyper plus. Time to buy 3-4 EVO's. Wha'? You only buy one at a time? I was just doing my yearly purge of "stuff" and recycled 13 Intel stock coolers, heh. I also discovered that I still had NINE different mobo manuals. And Ivy bridge is coming, that's 3 computers to upgrade (I will leave my Sandy Bridge one alone).
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