 |
|||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||
The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus comes disassembled in a creative little box that is a little more eye catching than most of their competition. Inside the box you get mounting brackets for all current Intel and AMD platforms, along with a high-quality 120mm fan, thermal paste, and two sets of fan clips.  The Hyper 212 Plus heatsink measures 120mm long, 80mm wide, and 158.5mm tall, making it roughly the same size as the Cogage TRUE Spirit and even the Prolimatech Megahalems. However while the Megahalems weighs in at 790 grams, the Hyper 212 Plus weighs just 626 grams.   There is a good reason as to why the Hyper 212 Plus is much lighter than the Megahalems and even the TRUE Spirit. That reason being that Cooler Master has incorporated the popular Direct Contact heat-pipe design. This design is both lighter and cheaper than using a traditional copper base plate, while we have found that it can work even better.  The trick is making sure that the surface is flat, and Cooler Master has not bothered to do so. Rather, the surface of the Hyper 212 Plus is very rough, featuring about a dozen indentations alongside and between the copper heatpipes. However this has been done on purpose, and Cooler Master expects that the thick thermal paste that is supplied with the Hyper 212 Plus will take up this space.   Cooler Master has devised a very clever mounting system for the Hyper 212 Plus, which enables it to be used on Intel’s LGA775/1156/1366 platforms as well as AMD’s AM3/AM2/AM2+ platforms. Amazingly the same bracket can be used for installation on any one of these platforms, which is quite incredible and not something that we have seen before.  The intelligent universal mounting system is likely one aspect of the Hyper 212 Plus that has helped Cooler Master keep costs down, as it features very few parts. Still, there is no aspect of the Hyper 212 Plus that appears cheap and the attention to detail here is very impressive. Even the 120mm fan features its own pre-installed anti-vibration pads, which help reduce the operating volume.  The 120mm fan can operate between 600 – 2000 RPM and is voltage regulated. At full speed we found the fan to be remarkably quiet, despite moving 76.8 CFM at a claimed 32dBA. Overall the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus looks like a decent enough product, especially at just $30 US, but the big question still remains, how does it perform? |
|||||
|