Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
PrintDon't call it a comeback
At first glance, the Hyper 212 Plus seems like Cooler Master’s original Hyper 212 with a different fan mounting system and support for sockets 1156 and 1366. But while the original had two sets of heat dissipation fins, one set for each end of the heat pipes, the 212 Plus adopts a more straightforward tower design, with the heatsink fins connected to both ends of each heat pipe. It’s the same basic and effective design seen in all of today’s top-performing air coolers. And unlike most coolers, the 212 Plus’s heat pipes contact the CPU directly. So, how do the Hyper 212 Plus’s stacks stack up against the competition?
The Hyper 212 Plus is one of the smaller air coolers we’ve tested recently—a big relief after last month’s monstrous Scythe Mugen 2. At 4.7 inches wide, 3.1 inches deep, and 6.2 inches high, the Hyper 212 is shorter than our champion, Thermalright’s U120, though it’s about an inch deeper. It’s also about a pound lighter, at 1.4 pounds to the Thermalright’s 2-plus pounds. Despite its relative lack of bulk, though, it managed to bump right up against the north-bridge heat spreaders on our EVGA 680i SLI board—a problem that would be avoided if the cooler’s fins started a half-inch higher up the pipes. To install the 212 Plus, we had to insert four standoff pegs into the motherboard and tighten them by bolting them to the backplate. An x-shaped bracket with spring screws at the corners holds the cooler to the CPU. We like this approach because it makes the cooler easy to install without having to worry about the backplate falling off, and the standoffs allow the use of shorter screws for the mounting bracket. Once the cooler was secure, we mounted the included 12cm fan using common wire retention clips—a simple task made difficult by the close proximity of the cooler to the north bridge’s cooling fins.
The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus's heat pipes contact the CPU directly, which helps it compete with larger coolers.
The direct-contact heat pipes make the cooler/CPU interface less uniform than we’re used to—there are definite ridges between the heat pipes and the rest of the heat exchanger. But after testing the Hyper 212 Plus, we wonder if Cooler Master knows something the rest of the industry doesn’t, because the 212 Plus’s cooling power is formidable. At 100 percent CPU utilization, the 212 Plus cooled our CPU to 43.5 C, nearly 30 percent lower than the stock cooler’s 61 C. Our previous favorite, the Thermalright U120 eXtreme, by comparison, cooled it to 46.75 C. Idle temps for both coolers were nearly identical—about 15 percent cooler than stock.
We’ve seen a spate of top-performing air coolers in the past few months, as nearly every manufacturer hops on the skyscraper-design bandwagon, and Cooler Master’s entry is right up there with the best we’ve tested. And at $30 from Cooler Master’s online store, it’s dirt cheap. For that price, you really can’t go wrong with this cooler.
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
High Fiber
Dirt cheap; effective cooling.
High Fructose
Can bump up against north-bridge chip cooler.
10
Benchmarks
| CM Hyper 212+ | Thermalright U120-eXtreme | Stock Cooler | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idle (C) | 29.5 | 29.75 | 34.5 |
| 100% Burn (C) | 43.5 | 46.75 | 61 |
Best scores are bolded. Idle temperatures were measured after an hour of inactivity; load temperatures were measured after an hour’s worth of CPU Burn-In (four instances). Test system consists of a stock-clock Q6700 processor on an EVGA 680i motherboard inside a Corsair 800D case with stock fans.
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FenixSS
July 18, 2011 at 9:14pm
I wonder if this compatible with AMD A8-3850 Llano cpu and MSI A75MA-G55 micro atx board.
rtaylor123
April 03, 2011 at 11:27pm
I always suggest Cooler Master to everyone because of its quality and working and I was also experienced with it long time, so that's why it's the main reason to blow up for others. http://dealzfirst.com/Picaboo-9.htm
Kinmark
January 26, 2011 at 8:06pm
Nice thank you for sharing most informative ideas Car Finder and also your good view on favorite games for us.its really cool.thank dear.
icebird
December 03, 2010 at 11:52am
I just got one of these and it doesn't seem to lock completely in place on the CPU. I'm pretty sure I have it installed correctly, but the entire piece will rotate just a little bit while locked in place. Is this normal?
michael barita
October 06, 2010 at 2:44am
Hi its very best site.But while the original had two sets of heat dissipation fins, one set for each end of the heat pipes, the 212 Plus adopts a more straightforward tower design, with the heatsink fins connected to both ends of each heat pipe. It’s the same basic and effective design seen in all of today’s top-performing air coolers.
Da1eHamann
September 12, 2010 at 7:33pm
For a long time, my computer would crash when playing intense games. I was blaming the GPU until I fired up SpeedFan and it showed me that my CPU was the one getting over heated to the point the my PC just shut off.
This weekend I installed the Hyper 212 Plus on my Core 2 Quad Q9450 (Asus P5N-D) It fit easily in my Cooler Master Cosmos. I was able to play COD Modern Warfare 2 for over 4 hours without a crash. Before it would have crashed after 5-10 minutes of play.
Thanks Maximum PC for this great recommendation!
thejake490
September 09, 2010 at 9:32pm
Just got one to cool my Phenom x4 9850 on a 3.0ghz overclock. (from 2.5ghz for the uninitiated). CPU runs rock solid and is cooled to a brisk 48°c under load. Would not POST at a higher speed than 3.2ghz even though temps never rose above 50°c. And for only $23.00?!
EXCELLENT PART!
NOTE: Just be sure to use a decent thermal paste. I saw a temp differance of about 4°c between generic white paste and Arctic Silver (which is still dirt cheap, so there is no excuse).
Larryjensen13
June 18, 2010 at 8:34am
I need to get my hands on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 plus. My CPU has been in need of a cooler for so long and it seems this is the perfect fit for only $30 which is dirt cheap. This thing has more cooling power than my Mini fridge which says a lot about this technology.
hogkill
April 10, 2010 at 12:59pm
good point, but if you think about it that would mean its actual ~twice as effective.
rodspade
March 19, 2010 at 5:21am
It's not really meaningful to say that 43.5 is "nearly 30 percent lower" than 61 C. Why should the freezing point of water be the arbitrary baseline for an air cooler? It would make more sense to compare the increases in temperature relative to the ambient air - or go uber-geeky and use Kelvin.
NicRB
July 12, 2010 at 4:47pm
It is used because it is the same baseline used in everyday life and so is most relevant to our frame of reference. Also, relative cooler effectiveness is not affected by ambient air temperature, if one cooler is more effective than another, this will remain true regardless of ambient air temp.
anonymous_reader
February 22, 2011 at 5:34pm
The phrase "30 percent lower" is mostly meaningless. Why compare against the freezing point of water? The Celsius scale is used by many people every day, and its fine to measure temps that way and water doesn't come into play. But when you say "30 percent," it is then that it becomes meaningless, as the freezing point of water has nothing to do with the temperature of chips.
For example, what if Fahrenheit was used instead? Instead of 43.5 C vs 61 C, you now have 110.3 F vs 141.8 F. That makes the difference 22 percent instead of 30 percent. So what, if I measure in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, even though its the same temp, it changes the effectiveness of the cooling?! That is why the statement is meaningless. The reason Kelvin would work is because Kelvin is a measurement of actual heat energy, where F and C measurements of heat difference against an arbitrary zero point.
Measuring against ambient air is just as wrong, as its another arbitrary zero point that has little effect on how much heat energy a processor actually generates or how much heat energy a cooler dissipates.
Ctbnj
January 12, 2010 at 4:33pm
With prime95 running, my i7 860 @3.8 Ghz (cooled by the 212+ inside a antec 900) reaches 69 degrees. Is this too high?
cahedler
January 13, 2010 at 6:40pm
That's a little bit on the toasty side. I try to keep my temps below 60, and the 212+ keeps my Q9550 below 50 after all night stress tests, but 69 is within the thermal spec for the 860, so you should be fine with that.
nekollx
January 06, 2010 at 12:33pm
Most of MaxPC's recomended cooloers ask for a tribute in blood to install, is this thing any more or less a vampire then other parts?
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Nickompoop
April 05, 2010 at 1:16pm
Just handle the copper heat pipes or the fan and you should be fine.
OS-Wiz
January 06, 2010 at 12:26pm
I went from a dual fan TRUE to the Hyper Plus and wow, I'm impressed. i5-750, ASUS P7P55D-E, OCZ Freeze, dual fans low-speed, idle 1c over ambient!
dual fans at 79cfm, 4.0GHz OC, 68C on highest core, Prime95 stable!
ronf57
December 17, 2009 at 9:47am
I have been reading maxpc since boot 1 and as you took the circuitous route to gamer mag and retruned- THANK YOU- to hardware and software issues and even mods, i have trusted your reviews.
The BEST is a moving target, i understand, but Thermalright 120 <i>was</i> the best <b>AIR</b> cooler, is this now the best and by how much?
I just read in the January 2010 issue the Corsair H50 is better, nay the best <b>WATER</b> cooler.
For the same money as thermalright 120 so is a closed system, smaller footprint water cooler better than the monster air coolers????
I just built my version of the dream machine with a i-7 920 and want to push it, i am running stock air cooler at 3.2Ghz and 4ghz sounds attractive....so do i buy a closed system water cooler, monster air cooler or a water cooler system with a reservoir?????
and no i dont play games, i use my pcs for production.
thanks
ron
JohnP
December 21, 2009 at 6:15am
Roundabout way of asking a question! Been doing O/C for a long time and truth be told, I rarely notice anything that changes the clock speed less than 10%. Yeah, it may sound shiny for a 4GHz machine, but a work machine needs stability first and formost. I run my i-7 920 at 3.2GHz even with a top of the line ASUS mobo (nice number for memory to run at stock speed without tweaking). I have gone as high as 3.6 air cooled but the temp of the CPU was too high at 100% load for keeping it alive until I upgrade again.
Do you really need to watercool just the CPU for a work machine? Not worth the effort and cost and the chance of downtime. Put that money into memory.
rapid1
December 15, 2009 at 9:49pm
I have a full new build (well everything but a case) being delivered tomorrow. This item was one of the definites on it, I also got 7 of the new Cooler Master (120) fans for my case (2 will be on this heatsink) blowing up to the top exhaust fan. I hope with 2 fans blowing up to a third on the top exhaust uber cools for me as well. I will say one thin I have been a maximum PC regular since the first days of BOOT. There reviews have always been spot on to my experience when a device gets a 10.
ChuvelxD
December 14, 2009 at 8:31am
I don't understand why people aren't including the Prolimatech Megahalems in these reviews. It smashes the U-120 eXtreme by a few degrees, not just .25. I never understand when I read reviews of high-end coolers, that the single BEST air HDT cooler available is not included. All cooling enthusiasts know the name Prolimatech, you should find a benchmark for them, they are #1 every time.
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm
darkslasher
December 29, 2009 at 11:03am
I can't see how you could trust any site that has no posted numbers, but if you want to get into it here's a site that compairs your beloved Prolimatech Megahalems to the 212, it shows in number and chart form the 212 beating or matching it's performance. well on the second to last page it shows one key detail about the 212 vs the Prolimatech Megahalems, the "Vaule" chart and how the 212 makes the Prolimatech Megahalems cry like a little girl.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/19383-cooler-master-hyper-212-plus-cpu-cooler-review-13.html
JohnP
December 19, 2009 at 7:50pm
The fact that I have never heard of ANY of the top 5 brands on the Frostytech website might have something to do with it (well there is Sunbeam but I am sure it is not the same brand!).
Looking at the Prolimatech on Amazon and it is out of stock so that may be a minus too as I just got the Cooler Master yesterday from them.
I also do not like a dual fan hookup as I have gotten some strange harmonics inside the cooler on other dual fan setups. I wonder if the Cooler Master would get top billing if I added another fan?
I guess if I have to go to an unknown website (for me anyways) and find an unknown brand to review, I may be hesitant to review it in a top magazine. How many of the Prolimatechs are made? Are they worth twice as much as this cooler?
kshub
December 12, 2009 at 9:34am
I love this thing! I've been waiting almost a year for a great 1366 heatsink and this is it my friends! You can read my review with before and after temps here: http://216blogs.blogspot.com/2009/12/i7-920-heatsink-upgrade.html. WOW! I went from the stock heatsink to this and I'm about 20 degress C below stock temps on both idle and full throttle....
KShub
DiRTDOG
December 12, 2009 at 6:42am
Whats the best way to apply the thermal paste? I am hearing two different ways, on the heat pipes or on the CPU.
athlon11
December 11, 2009 at 2:04pm
Just looked at the pictures of this on Newegg, it has to be made by Xigmatek for CM. It is very similar to their coolers.
cahedler
December 11, 2009 at 6:04am
I just got this cooler from Newegg on Monday, and I'm very impressed with it. This was my first aftermarket cooler, so I'm not sure how it compares to others, but it took my load temps on a Core 2 Quad Q9550 at stock speeds from 65+ to 42-5. It's also pretty quiet, I can't hear a difference between it and the stock Intel cooler. Installing it was a bit of a pain, but not horrendous.
Shagga
December 11, 2009 at 7:54pm
Too bad its unavailible until Tuesday. Also, how hard would it be for a first time builder?
athlon11
December 10, 2009 at 11:58pm
There has been 10s before, I remember back in 1999 they gave out their first 10 to a Dell 800MHz P3 machine. Back in 2001 they gave out a 10 to Windows XP. In 2005 they gave out an 11 to Half-Life 2. There has also been other 10s, it definitely is no where near the first 10.
punditguy
December 11, 2009 at 8:23am
I can't hear it over the din of my 4850. Amazon better get to fulfilling the backorders on the 5850 soon.
I'm using this with my i7 920 -- I never had the stock cooler installed, so I can't compare to that. I've got a safe & stable overclock going at 3.6 GHz, and I don't get up over 62 degrees under full load.
___________________________________________
Preferred boot, but will give this Maximum PC thing a try.
pratt
December 10, 2009 at 12:42pm
This cooler is every bit as good as the verdict states. Granted, I'd like to see Maximum PC stop testing on a Q6700 and test on the hotter running i7's but I digress.
I am using it on an i7 920 at stock clocks, this cooler is a beast. With Intel speed step turned on, my CPU throttles down to 1.6 ghz and it cools at a chilly 36 C (assuming the heater isn't on, at which point it rises to 39 C ). When it throttles up to 2.66, it gets to about 45 C across all CPU's. Where this cooler really shines is when overclocked. Pushing things to 4.0ghz gets warm, but not too bad. It idles at about 43 C then warms up to about 62 C or so under regular load conditions. A burn in will cause it to raise to about 70C but that's still well within tolerances. Of course, a more conservative overclock will get you better thermals but this cooler is the real deal. It deserves a 10 kick ass
nekollx
December 10, 2009 at 10:05am
a 10? wow this is like what the second 10 ever?
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
nsk chaos
December 10, 2009 at 2:36pm
i have seen 1 10 before but it was on a subwoofer. i have never seen a 10 on a fan....
nedwards
December 10, 2009 at 10:32am
It's definitely the first 10 I've ever given. For $30 this is a damn good cooler.
croman4872
December 10, 2009 at 11:50am
I've been reading MPC for a while now and this is the first 10 I've seen so far and I'm just curious.. can any one person in your staff just give a 10 to something they've reviewed or does that decision have to go through some kind of jury or the big boss man or something before that verdict can be passed? does Will Smith have the final say? WHO IS the big boss man?
Fiercedeity
December 10, 2009 at 9:50am
I am pretty surprised by the results. I wouldn't have expected from such a small and inexpensive fan. I've also never seen fan fins like that. I'll be keeping an eye out for other reviews to see if they get such results. This would be the perfect fan for my new build.
common
August 01, 2010 at 1:13am
Founded in 2003, the Lt. Dan Band often performs for the USO and at military installations.
Business Logo Design
Blues22475
June 03, 2010 at 5:10pm
Becareful when you do buy this cooler as you will need a mid-sized tower to fit this guy in. It's pretty huge when you pull it out. It does a good job in my rig. Also if you are thinking of using the 4-pin connector on a 3-pin connector board it may not work (I know my board didn't even detect this fan or give it the right voltage to spin properly).
It does a very good job for the price. And it keeps my pc tmps quite low (idle's at 24C).
-------------------------------------------
Ignorance is man's greatest enemy.
Jessberto
June 05, 2010 at 8:47pm
CM Store is sold out, Amazon will ship between 1 and 3 months and other places that carry it is almost double the msrp. If i had tons of money i would pay double for it or buy something more fancier but i don't.
Any advice you wizards can provide me with will be appreciated.
Jessberto
June 05, 2010 at 8:47pm
CM Store is sold out, Amazon will ship between 1 and 3 months and other places that carry it is almost double the msrp. If i had tons of money i would pay double for it or buy something more fancier but i don't.
Any advice you wizards can provide me with will be appreciated.
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