Our today’s guest is Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler coming from Cooler Master. Our readers are probably familiar with the name Hyper 212, but the moniker EVO means that the company launched a new and hopefully improved version of its Hyper 212 cooler.

Cooler Master has redesigned its Hyper 212 CPU cooler several times. The last, EVO version is based on the Hyper 212 Plus design. The main difference is in the design of the cooler base, whereas the heatsink remained.

Hyper 212 EVO is compatible with all current AMD and Intel sockets and costs around €32. The package holds one fan but Hyper 212 EVO will take another one thanks to supplied brackets. The following page lists the specs of the Hyper 212 EVO.

Cooler Master launched several coolers during the last month, Hyper 212 EVO being one of them. As you can see from the pictures below, all the launched coolers use the same packaging design.

Once Intel’s LGA 2011 socket is available on the market, Cooler Master will offer free LGA 2011 brackets for Hyper 212 EVO.

The Hyper 212 EVO is a result of redesigning the Hyper 212 Plus, but the story of Hyper 212 series started much earlier. Namely, the first Hyper 212 was launched in 2007. It had a classic copper base with four heatpipes branching out into two separate tower heatsinks (picture below).

The Hyper 212 was redesigned in full in 2009 and renamed to Hyper 212 Plus. The single tower heatsink used on the Plus version remained to date. The Hyper 212 Plus comes with Direct Contact technology, meaning that the heatpipes are in direct contact with the CPU.

That’s not to say that the updated Hyper 212 Plus is identical to the initially launched Hyper 212 Plus. The updated Hyper 212 Plus comes with plastic brackets that are more practical and take up less space than before. A small notch on the top of the base also differentiates the Hyper 212 Plus from its predecessor, where the notch prevents the cooler from turning or sliding. Other than that, the coolers are identical but that’s where the Hyper 212 EVO comes in.

The Hyper 212 Evo uses Continuous Direct Contact technology of placing the heatpipes into the base, while the Hyper 212 Plus used the less advanced Direct Contact.

The picture above shows that the Hyper 212 Plus’ base plate is not entirely flat; the heatpipes are surrounded by small channels which take the bulk of applied thermal paste. The picture below shows that the Hyper 212 EVO’ base plate is entirely flat; the heatpipes are close to one another and brushed so that there are no holes between them.

The Hyper 212 EVO weighs in at 465 grams without the fan. It measures 116 x 51 x 158.5 mm (4.7 x 3.0 x 6.2 inches) without the fan. The heatsink is 158.5 mm tall, which means that the Hyper 212 EVO will fit in most mid-tower computer cases. Note that the Hyper 212 Plus has the same size.

Both of the wider sides of the cooler are identical, so it does not matter which one faces the rear panel.

Although Hyper 212 EVO’s fan has the same number of fan fins, they are longer and thus provide better airflow than possible with the Hyper 212 Plus’ one. The fan is a 12cm PWM one and will spin between 600 and 1600rpm. Additional brackets mean that the Hyper 212 EVO will take another 12cm fan.

The notches on the side of the heatsink are used to place fan brackets.

The heatsink is a traditional tower design. The heatpipes are U shaped and go through the aluminum heatsink in four vertical columns. 

Cooler Master applied some really nice finishing touches on the Hyper 212 EVO, as is evident on every part of the cooler. The ends of heatpipes are nicely closed and contact points tough. 

The top of the base has a small notch that prevents the cooler from turning.

The heatpipes are 6mm wide and are connected to the virtual vapor chamber on the bottom of the base.

We used Hyper 212 EVO mounted on EVGA’s FTW3 motherboard in Corsair Obsidian 800D case (with three 900rpm fans) at 22°C room temperature. We measured temperatures at Core i7 930’s reference clock (2.9GHz) and after overclocking it to 3.6GHz. In our tables, we used average temperatures of all four cores. We used GC-Extreme thermal paste for all our testing.

We first tested with the one provided Cooler Master’s Fan (PWM, 9 – 31 dBA, 0.16A, 600 - 1600 rpm ), and then repeated the test using another fan (taken from the Hyper 612S cooler) that spins at 1300rpm.

The Hyper EVO surprised us by outscoring the Hyper 612S, which we attributed to 212 EVO’s superior cooler. The 212 EVO’s fan is not loud, not even when running at maximum rpm. Note however that the maximum rpm we measured was at 1500rpm, rather than the specified 1600rpm. We tried the Hyper 612S with the 212 EVO’s cooler and, just as we suspected, got better results.

Conclusion

Cooler Master launched a bunch of new coolers recently - Hyper 612S, Hyper 612PWM, Hyper 212 EVO, Hyper TX3 EVO and Gemini II M4. We reviewed the Hyper 612S earlier, here, while our today’s guest was the Hyper 212 EVO.

The Hyper 212 EVO is a quality and affordable CPU cooler based on the tried and true desing of the Hyper 212 Plus. Unfortunately, it’s not easily found at the moment but we’ve seen that it’s priced at about €32. Five more euros can get you the new Hyper 612S, while five less can buy you the old Hyper 212 Plus.

The Hyper 212 EVO’s design is not much different from that on the Hyper 212 Plus, with the sole difference being how the heatpipes were stacked in the cooler base. The Hyper 212 EVO uses Continuous Direct Contact technology of placing the heatpipes into the base, whereas the Hyper 212 Plus has the less advanced Direct Contact tech.

Cooling performance of the Hyper 212 EVo outperformed even the pricier Hyper 612S. We suppose that the reason is that the Hyper 212 EVO uses a better fan than the one on 612S coolers. The Hyper 212 EVO’s fan is almost inaudible during operation, but it’s pretty quiet when at 1500rpm as well.

Cooler Master did a great job with its Hyper 212 EVO coolers and the competition will surely have a tough time in this price range. The Hyper 212 EVO supports all the current sockets and, judging by the performance and craftsmanship, there is no excuse for not considering this cooler.