The unofficial Cooler Master Hyper 212 series bashing (and defense) thread

[80-watt Hamster]

Whenever the CM 212 comes up, usually as a "safe" recommendation or a comparison point, someone inevitably fires back with something about how crappy the 212 is, and why is anyone even talking about it anymore when there are so many better options?

I'll go first: It costs too much. How many years after release and it's still 40USD? The tooling and marketing costs are WAY past recouped, and it should really be more like 30. Oh yeah, and the fan's crap. It makes too much noise for the air it moves, and doesn't sound great while doing it.

BUT: There's also nothing drastically wrong it, either. Yes, it's been bettered in its price class. Yes, there are significantly more capable coolers available for not much more money. The difference in its price range aren't that huge, though. I grabbed both a 212 Evo on discount, along with the Tom's Hardware Best Pick for budget cooler, the be quiet! Pure Rock 2. Both performed nigh-identically on an X5670 @ 4.2; not a particularly scientific test, I'll admit. For 95% of users, though? It's 100% adequate.

Change my mind. Or back me up; that's good, too.

 

[newtekie1]

I've owned several 212 Evos, I've never paid $40 for one though. I always get them on sale, they aren't worth $40. They are a basic 120mm tower cooler, the design has been done to death. And you're right, the fan that comes with them are pretty bad.

But, at the end of the day, they get the job done and are probably fine for 99% of people. Heck, I have one cooling a 10700k@5GHz all-core. So it ain't that bad. But I could probably swap it out for a dozen other coolers in the same price range.

I will give the 212 Evo some extra credit though when it comes to mounting and accessories. The mounting mechanism is pretty good, I've bought some other slightly cheaper 120mm tower coolers, and even some more expensive ones, that has horrible mounting systems. And they include a tube of decent thermal paste good for a few applications instead of just a package of cheap white crap that comes with most coolers in this price range.

 

[evernessince]

I mean, you can get the Gammaxx 400 at $25 USD and it performs 4c better on average. Hyper 212 is almost 2 times the price as of right now, which is crazy given you are getting less.

It's a decent CPU cooler but it's overpriced by a lot. Same price as the Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 and that cooler not only performs better but is far quieter. The hyper 212 looks like a budget product, the Pure rock 2 does not.

I can understand why people say to not get it, I would not touch it at anything above $25 (then again I already have a box of 20+ of them I got for free).

 

[freeagent]

I don't know why I hate it so much. I only used it for 45 minutes. That was all I needed to know.. I saw enough at that point

Its just miserable, pitiful.. a waste of material and machine time, as well as your money.

And I am not the market target, I know that.. its just so over hyped it just makes me sick.

I threw mine away, but its taint has stained me a little. My solace is that I didn't buy it, it was given to me.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I don't know why I hate it so much. I only used it for 45 minutes. That was all I needed to know.. I saw enough at that point

Its just miserable, pitiful.. a waste of material and machine time, as well as your money.

And I am not the market target, I know that.. its just so over hyped it just makes me sick.

I threw mine away, but its taint has stained me a little. My solace is that I didn't buy it, it was given to me.

The TDP of the 212 Evo is 150w. Your R9 5900x hits around 140w. You we're running it pretty much on the knife edge of its thermal capacity

 

[claes]

(TDP means nothing because everyone measures it differently)

 

[mtcn77]

I mean, you can get the Gammaxx 400 at $25 USD and it performs 4c better on average. Hyper 212 is almost 2 times the price as of right now, which is crazy given you are getting less.

It's a decent CPU cooler but it's overpriced by a lot. Same price as the Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 and that cooler not only performs better but is far quieter. The hyper 212 looks like a budget product, the Pure rock 2 does not.

I can understand why people say to not get it, I would not touch it at anything above $25 (then again I already have a box of 20+ of them I got for free).

1. Gammaxx rusts,
2. 212 has at least 10 variants,
3. It has 2 240,000 hour MTBF fan variants, 1 160,000 MTBF,
4. It has the same benchmark performance compared to Arctic Freezer 34 Esports.
5. It is no Be Quiet Pure Rock, or Scythe Kotetsu 2...

 

[Space Lynx]

Whenever the CM 212 comes up, usually as a "safe" recommendation or a comparison point, someone inevitably fires back with something about how crappy the 212 is, and why is anyone even talking about it anymore when there are so many better options?

I'll go first: It costs too much. How many years after release and it's still 40USD? The tooling and marketing costs are WAY past recouped, and it should really be more like 30. Oh yeah, and the fan's crap. It makes too much noise for the air it moves, and doesn't sound great while doing it.

BUT: There's also nothing drastically wrong it, either. Yes, it's been bettered in its price class. Yes, there are significantly more capable coolers available for not much more money. The difference in its price range aren't that huge, though. I grabbed both a 212 Evo on discount, along with the Tom's Hardware Best Pick for budget cooler, the be quiet! Pure Rock 2. Both performed nigh-identically on an X5670 @ 4.2; not a particularly scientific test, I'll admit. For 95% of users, though? It's 100% adequate.

Change my mind. Or back me up; that's good, too.

just here to give the 212 some credit... I think I paid like $15 for it many many years ago... but in todays market, with its price increases and better competition it simply isn't worth it anymore.

the arctic e34 duo was around $35 when I got it. and its only 1-2 celsius behind the Noctua NH-d15.

 

[Jetster]

This thread would have been relevant 10 years ago. I keep one around for testing boards. I have used many and never paid more than $25

 

[maxfly]

I used to pick up 3 to 5 at a time when they were on sale for $20 or less for budget builds. Same for the gammaxx 400 but i havent bought either for a couple of years due to neither being that cheap often enough. Ive been using the id cooling se 224 xt. Cools better so i can use it in both budget and higher end builds for less.
Theres nothing wrong with the 212 when you know what your buying. Like has been said, its just way over priced now and the competition has long since surpassed it.

 

[tabascosauz]

It's pretty hard to recommend the 212 EVO nowadays, but really just because it's a 212 EVO. It's long since been (spiritually) superseded by the 212 Black, which has long been a financially and aesthetically attractive budget option here in Canada.

That said, the new U12S-redux makes for pretty stiff competition for the 212 Black. The 212 is still cheaper, but the redux fan and Secufirm are hard to beat. At least, if it were readily available at its intended MSRP, which it sadly doesn't seem to be.

It's a decent CPU cooler but it's overpriced by a lot. Same price as the Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 and that cooler not only performs better but is far quieter. The hyper 212 looks like a budget product, the Pure rock 2 does not.

I can understand why people say to not get it, I would not touch it at anything above $25 (then again I already have a box of 20+ of them I got for free).

The Pure Rock looks absolutely no better than the 212 EVO with its bare heatpipes. 212 Black and Pure Rock 2 Black would be a much more fitting comparison, and in that case, the Cooler Master is usually cheaper here. And the top plate is arguably a bit better looking.

CM revamped the EVO's infamous mounting system for the 212 Black, and while it's still pretty mediocre (plastic AM4 backplate OOF), I'd no longer consider Be Quiet's mounting system to have a leg up over that cooler.

Everyone raves on about BQ's 'new and improved' mounting system on the likes of my DRP4, but compared to Secufirm, BQ's crossbar system on the Pure Rock as well honestly remains a pain in the ass.

The TDP of the 212 Evo is 150w. Your R9 5900x hits around 140w. You we're running it pretty much on the knife edge of its thermal capacity

I am 95% sure that @freeagent 's experience with the 212 EVO was on either X58 or Z77.

 

[evernessince]

The Pure Rock looks absolutely no better than the 212 EVO with its bare heatpipes. 212 Black and Pure Rock 2 Black would be a much more fitting comparison, and in that case, the Cooler Master is usually cheaper here. And the top plate is arguably a bit better looking.

CM revamped the EVO's infamous mounting system for the 212 Black, and while it's still pretty mediocre (plastic AM4 backplate OOF), I'd no longer consider Be Quiet's mounting system to have a leg up over that cooler.

Everyone raves on about BQ's 'new and improved' mounting system on the likes of my DRP4, but compared to Secufirm, BQ's crossbar system on the Pure Rock as well honestly remains a pain in the ass.

Brushed metal and top accents on the Pure Rock 2 > Dipping the Cooler in black. Not everything has to be gamery, that's just cheesy.

The mounting system isn't a factor for me unless I'm using it on my testbed. For most people you only mount the CPU once so it shouldn't be much of a factor for most. I wouldn't make any purchasing decision based on mounting system unless all other factors were equal and you need a tiebreaker. Plastic backplate seems cheap given the Hyper 212s I have use a metal one. When did they make that change?

 

[Chrispy_]

Ten years ago it was a cheap, widely-available cooler that fit almost every different socket past and present, and its four-heatpipe design had decent cooling for the sub-100W chips prevalent at the time. That's why it was recommended by everyone and incredibly popular.

Today, it is not cheap. Availability isn't as good now as it was then, it's mounting system has been bettered by almost all competitors, and CPUs are using far more power than they did ten years ago.

Times change, and the Hyper 212 has only gone up in price and had some useless bling added, which sucks. There's a new variant coming (maybe out already in some regions) that finally updates the mounting system, but otherwise it's still the same four small direct-contact heatpipes.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I don't have anything against hyper 212 evo matter of fact I'm using it's back plate and mounting screws on a 775 socket mother board and mounting a ek evo water block so yeah this was a good buy years ago
Everyone should have a back up air cooler.

 

[PaulieG]

I believe this is the cooler from this generation that is the equivalent of what the evo was a decade ago. Adequate and cheap for lower TDP chips or to keep around for a test bench. I keep 2 of them around.

Cryorig M9a...about as Cheap as it gets. | TechPowerUp Forums

 

[bonehead123]

I used several 212's many years ago and neva had any issues with them in any way. They were an affordable, well-made, and reasonably well-performing choice for most average builds for most average users back in the day.... And I really like the look of the recently updated black model, which IMHO was a nice but long overdue revision

It was never designed to cool today's uber-hot 200-400w chips by any means, and if ANYONE pays moar than ~$20 for one, then they must have moar money than brains IMHO...

And yes, it is not the #1 top performing cooler nowadays and is easily surpassed by many other coolers at similar price points, however, it still remains a classic example of the K.I.S.S. mantra.... (ie "keep..it..simple..stupid")

 

[GerKNG]

i bought one just for fun a few years ago.
the mounting is absolutely awful
the temps are "okay" but the thermal capacity is tiny. 3 runs of cinebench and it's already hotter than the wraith prism.

 

[freeagent]

The TDP of the 212 Evo is 150w. Your R9 5900x hits around 140w. You we're running it pretty much on the knife edge of its thermal capacity

I would never mount that turd to my R9

140w? 215w in hwinfo64 and 370w at the wall with only Linpack Xtreme running

Edit:

it originally cooled a 3770K, then I tried it on my x5690.

 

[claes]

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | CPU Compatibility | Noctua Compatibility Centre

Series: Vermeer, Socket: AM4

ncc.noctua.at

Curious what people think! Not trying to shill but they seem to have the best attitude towards the question

 

[freeagent]

I think that’s a big difference between the D15 and its S model. I see people say there is no difference all the time.. looks like they have been handing out bad advice over and over lol..

 

[The red spirit]

There's Gelid Phantom for the price of Cooler Master 212. I don't even know how it happened that people still recommend it, but perhaps it's good enough to not be a disappointing purchase. And certainly it's not the best for that same budget. Crazy thing is that Hyper 103 performs very similarly to 212.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Sunbeam Core Contact Breezer ftw!

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Lots of thoughts here, and I sense a recurring theme: it sucks for 40 USD, and I won't argue that. Also unsurprising: the callout of the Gammaxx 400, which did kind of eat the 212's lunch for less money.

Interesting opinion contrast: @newtekie1 giving props to the mounting system (agreed), while @GerKNG hates it.

Something I was hoping to discover here, thought it wasn't spelled out, was why the mere mention of the 212 has a non-zero chance of starting a flame war. Maybe it's just my non-confrontational nature, but it seems like a dumb thing to get worked up about. Perhaps it's the inevitable backlash against something popular. Personally, I'll take a Pure Rock 2 or M9 every time, but it still feels like the 212 just doesn't deserve all the hate.

 

[newtekie1]

Interesting opinion contrast: @newtekie1 giving props to the mounting system (agreed), while @GerKNG hates it.

The thing is, it's not the best but it's certainly far from the worst. At least it doesn't need any special tools to mount. It's a ton better than the Gammaxx 400(push-pins, really?!?).

But you're buying a cheap cooler either way at sub-$40. The fans all suck. There isn't a sub-$40 cooler that comes with a fan I'd trust for longevity. So chances are I'm going to replace the fan with a Noctua NF-F12 anyway eventually. And by the time you do that you might as well just buy a NH-U12S.

 

[freeagent]

I was probably a little hard on it like I usually am. Its not a POS. Its better than using a glass of water with TIM on it.

I kid.

It handled my 3770K @ 4300 and my X5690 at 4GHz. I was throwing a buttload of air at it too.. My chips survived..

Guys have used 5GHz Intel CPUs on it.. ugh.. ok.. that still blows my mind because I have to question their testing techniques lol..

I kid again..

I would rather use it than an old Zalman from around the same era..