Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition Review - Old friend in a new guise | Page 2

Test and methodology

A Ryzen 5 3600 has to be cooled at factory settings, in addition 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (2x8GB) DDR4 memory on a MSI B550 Tomahawk (BIOS 7C91vA3). The Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB is running in zero-fan mode for the CPU stress tests only for the image output, and a BitFenix Whisper M 450W serves as the power source, all housed in the Thermaltake Core P3 as an open benchtable.

All data sets are recorded with HWInfo64 v6.30-4240 – 2000ms logging, the indicated temperature results from the sensor CPU Die (Average). The load of Prime95 produces an average of 88 watts of CPU package power. Since I don’t have air conditioning, the values in the graphs are the delta between room temperature and CPU temperature. This allows all cooling systems to be compared fairly, even if the ambient temperature is different. The thermal paste supplied with the cooler or pre-applied is used in each case

Benchmarks

1 fan	30% PWM	60% PWM	100% PWM
Speed front	790 RPM	1370 RPM	1975 RPM
Noise characteristics	silent	low whirring	whirring
Ambient temperature	23,3 – 23,8°C	23,6 – 23,2°C	23,1 – 22,6°C

And here is the comparison to other coolers:

Conclusion and summary

Overall, Cooler Master delivers a good cooler that can probably carry on the tradition of a sensible recommendation well. The version without RGB fan is really a bargain at just under 30 euros and is even below the unpainted version of the Scythe Kotetsu Mark II, even looks much better. The normal Black Edition fan has a slightly lower airflow rating with higher static pressure and quieter operation, but from experience the cooling performance of the two variants should still be very close.

What I think might get a little inconvenient is the little sticky label with the serial number and a thick “Warranty Void if removed” label on the fan’s cable. That certainly could have been put somewhere else out of sight. The lack of a coldplate doesn’t seem to have a negative effect on asymmetric CPUs like the current Ryzen, but maybe the results would be a bit better with one. Apart from that, there are no real points of criticism, the Hyper 212 is still a good cooler for mid-range processors in its current version. The name could use a shortening slowly though!