X-bit labs

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Processor Cooler Review (page 2)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 12/17/2007 | 04:10 PM ]

Design and Functionality

Hyper 212 is a tower cooler and uses four copper heatpipes 6mm in diameter:

The cooler dimensions are 122 x 92 x 160mm and it weight 710g. The heatsink array is cooled with a120-mm fan fastened on one side of it:

The heatsink itself consists of two sections, each including 55 aluminum plates 0.4mm thick. The gap between the plates is 2mm:

Frankly speaking, I couldn’t figure out why they made this heatsink of two separate parts. Was it done to lower the weight and optimize the airflow in a certain way? Yes, there is the so-called “dead zone” right beneath the fan motor, but in this case they could have designed a solid heatsink array with a round hole in the center, for instance, instead of two halves, which results in smaller overall cooling surface than in case of a solid heatsink. Although it is pretty hard to build a heatsink with a hole in the center.

The heatsink sides are not covered like those of Cooler Master Hyper TX 2, for example, therefore, some of the airflow generated by the fan will be lost on the sides of the heatsink array inevitably.

The two-part heatsink design is not the only peculiarity of the Cooler Master Hyper 212 cooler. I think you may have already noticed that the heatpipes in the heatsink array are not liner to one another but are shifted a little bit. You can see it very well on the top or bottom photo of the cooler:

This simple implementation allows to distribute the heat more evenly over the heatsink plates thus increasing the overall cooler efficiency. Here I have to stress that the shifted heatpipes create more resistance to the airflow than in case of linear placement. The two holes in the top and bottom plates of the heatsink serve to fasten the second fan. The special retentions for the optional second fan are bundled with the cooler.