COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail

A love/hate relationship

Reviewed By: Jeff on 10/14/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Cools like a block of ice without the bad melty-ness associated with frozen water.

Also one of the quietest fans in my case when on the low setting

Cons: Installing this thing was a bit of a nightmare. My computer build was all going swimmingly until I had to figure out how to mount the fan onto the CPU. Lessons to take away include:

-Don't bother looking for the instructions, look at the front of the box to figure out how to mount the bracket thing.
-DO NOT INSTALL THE FAN ONCE THE COOLER IS MOUNTED. It is crucial that you attatch the fan to the CPU cooler and then mount that to the MB/CPU.
-The little pin/brackets are confusing and frustrating but the frustration can be helped if you make sure to orient it the right way

(HINT: If you're screaming at the thing then flip it around and hopefully that will be a lot easier)

Other Thoughts: Works great once installed and keeps my i5 cool and quiet. Thanks to this cooler I was able to get my i5 to 4ghz (I voluntarily stopped at 4.0) and probably farther if I spend the time to really fine tune.

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The BEST 1366 solution

Reviewed By: Varth on 8/15/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: I must say this CPU cooler is an absolute surprise. I did much research on all the mainstream and popular CPU coolers out there to see which ones work best for i7's (LGA 1366). I pretty much accidentally came across this processor and found that out off all of the big name CPU coolers (you know who they are), this one performs just as well, if not better for a drastically, and I mean DRASTICALLY lower price. You can easily say this cooler is underrated for it's performance.

Installation is a breeze. Compared to the many other more expensive CPU coolers I've used in the past for my C2Q computers, this retention method was quicker and easier to set up although I will say it still requires the motherboard to be outside the case but that's Intel's design fault.

The finish and build quality is phenomenal. The base is very smooth although there are slight grooves inbetween the heat pipes (extra grease here I go!). The cooler isn't too heavy but it is built solidly and no fins were bent

Cons: It's not necessarily a con but I swapped out the CPU fan it came with for Cooler Master's new 90cfm 19db fans (red of course). The fan I swapped it for is quieter at the same RPM (and higher) and pushes a ton more air which really makes this cooler perform.

I will say though that the CPU fan it comes with is a 4-pin PWM fan so technically it can be turned down for silent operation but the CFM suffers. However, if you're interested in silent operation, there's fans out there that will outperform the included fan and be completely silent so it's really a moot point.

Other Thoughts: This CPU cooler is decent sized. It is tall and might be a problem for some people with small mid-towers (measure first). It is wonderful in that it doesn't block access to my RAM (first CPU cooler I've owned not to do that).

Important Rig notes:
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
Processor: Core i7 965 Extreme

CPU Temps stock (3.2ghz): 42C idle 52C load
CPU Temps OC (4.0ghz): 48C idle 65C load

I think with a combination of this fan and a high air flow case you can't get much better for cooling other than going for a water set up. I know there are other somewhat larger coolers with a much larger price that will outperform this little fella by about 2-3C on idle temps and maybe 1-2C on load temps but the key factor here is the price/performance. Here is a 30 dollar product that performs just as good as 70-150 dollar products. It's a no brainer what is the better bang for your $.

After this, I will certainly look to Cooler Master first when it eventually comes time to build anoth

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Great Cooler, easy install

Reviewed By: styrbjorn on 11/20/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Pros: * Much easier install than I anticipated, based on many of the reviews here. On a new build this should be a piece of cake, as a swapout it's still pretty starightforward (and I am not a skilled user). Hardest part by far was pulling out the mobo
* The fan clips are pretty easy once you figure out the correct orientation, and they include an extra pair for a second fan (unnecessary in my case as I'm blowing air up into two 140mm exhaust fans)
* Huge boost in performance. Idle temp dropped from ~37 to 34, with RPM down from ~1200 to 400. Load temp after some gameplay went from ~67 at 6600rpm on stock to ~48 at 1200 rpm.
* Noise level is MUCH lower than stock cooler, although at full RPM it is audible. Thank goodness for PWM!

This is a much cooler and quieter machine. Heck, I might even play around with some OC now!

Cons: * The directions are accurate but not terribly verbose - I'm glad I read some of the reviews here for clarification.
* You do have to remove the motherboard to install the backplate, but a heatsink this size with no bacplate is a bad idea anyway.

Other Thoughts: NZXT Tempest case - cooler fits with about 1/2" of space to the side window
AMD Phenom2 955BE 3.2GHz
MSI GFX790-GD mobo - CPU/cooler location does not conflict with fan location on my case.
8GB OCZ ram (the cooler cleared the RAM slots just fine)
2xRadeon 5770 GPU

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Reviewed By: clocker5 on 11/19/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: For $30 this cooler is great. It fits many platforms and has all the mounting parts you will need. I had the stock Intel I7 cooler and dropped 10 degrees with this cooler and even more when the cpu is in full use. Using a 120mm fan makes this HSF nice a quite.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: I read that some people have a hard time installing this cooler. So I watched a video on Youtube from cooler master on how to install this. I didn't have any problems at all and didn't even look at the instructions.

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Great bang for the buck

Reviewed By: fluevog on 11/19/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Keeps my cpu temp just above 40 degrees C, with overclocking an i5 to 3.62. I'm just using the one 120mm fan that comes with the cooler. I'm sure I can probably push it further, especially with the optional 120mm fan.

Cons: A little difficult to install.

READ the instructions first. There is a bracket that attaches underneath the mobo, so don't try to put this on after you screw in the mobo to case. The instructions are a little difficult to understand too.

It's pretty large and takes up a lot of space.

Other Thoughts: For the price, this is awesome cooler. Does it's job for cheap.

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