Provided by: Cooler Master
No compensation was received for review of this product.
Price Point
Price: $34.99 USD
Class: Mainstream
The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler is in the Mainstream class of CPU coolers.
Performance
The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO performed extremely well, improving upon the Hyper 212 Plus design with a noticeable temperature drop without sacrificing noise.
Reviewer's Opinion
The first CM Hyper 212 heatsink debuted in 2007 and was a tower style CPU cooler that had four copper heatpipes extending upward to two separate sets of aluminum fins and a copper base surface. Two years later, during the summer of 2009, the award winning Hyper 212 Plus debuted and improved thermal performance significantly by using what Cooler Master dubbed “Continuous Direct Contact” design technology. Cooler Master CDC design technology basically means that the copper heatpipes are making a direct contact with the CPU surface area instead of having an additional block of copper in between. The heatpipes on the Hyper 212 plus were also changed and extends to a more traditional looking aluminum fin array compared to the segregated fin design of the original Hyper 212.
The Hyper 212 Plus was well received and remains as one of the most popular and effective budget CPU coolers available on the market. For $30, the Hyper 212 Plus offers exceptional value, considering it already comes with a 120mm fan and a tube of CM thermal paste, which was enough for multiple installations. If you purchase a Hyper 212 Plus at this moment, you will get the latest revision, which actually improves upon two minor flaws of the Hyper 212 Plus, which debuted in mid-2009. I can’t remember exactly when this Hyper 212 Plus revision was released but Cooler Master didn’t publicize it much for some reason. The earliest I can remember seeing these Hyper 212 Plus revisions was around Q4 2009/Q1 2010. First, the fan wire clips for mounting the fans were replaced with plastic mounting clips. This fixed some clearance issues since the wire clips were protruding a few millimeters to the left and right of the Hyper 212 Plus. Next, a tiny protrusion on the aluminum block holding the contact base together was added to minimize movement on the spring locks.
Two years after the debut of the Hyper 212 Plus, the next step on the evolution of the world’s most popular budget cooler makes its presence known. The aptly named Hyper 212 Evo boasts two feature improvements over the Hyper 212 Plus version: a new wide-range PWM fan and an improved Continuous Direct Contact copper surface area. Just like the slight modifications found in the later versions of the Hyper 212 Plus, these improvements seem miniscule, but as we saw in the benchmarks, the performance improvement is quite noticeable. Since the fan looks very similar to the one bundled with the Cooler Master V6GT, I assumed it would be a lot louder when cooling an overclocked CPU. I was glad to be proven wrong and noticed that the fan noise was very manageable and very similar to the sound generated by the Hyper 212 Plus fan.
Overall, the Hyper 212 EVO was every bit as impressive as the Hyper 212 Plus. The new contact surface design really helps with the performance and also wastes less thermal paste, since you don’t lose a considerable amount in between the copper pipes anymore compared to the Hyper 212 plus. The CM Hyper 212 EVO will carry an introductory price of $34.99 which is $5 more than the current average retail for the CM Hyper 212 Plus. There is no word yet if the Hyper 212 Plus will be phased out soon, but I doubt it, as it still remains very highly recommended among system builders and there is enough performance difference between the two coolers that they can actually co-exist in the market.
Pros
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