Hyper 212+ Cooler

In this post I will be chatting about one of my newer purchases - the Hyper 212+ cpu cooler. This air based cooler really is a work of art, and supports a multitude of new and older cpu brackets. I am using it on my Core2Quad 9550 cpu and it does a fantastic job.

The cooler itself is quite a size, in fact it is massive. I had a mid atx case and it barely fits in. When i say barely, there is about 2 centimeters between the cooler and the side of the case. Still i'm not bothered about this due to the phenomenal value it provides. The 212+ is a couple of years old now, but even today it still provides terrific performance. The retail price is around $29.99 currently, and the cooler performs at the same level as some of the coolers double its price!
Lets be honest though, you can't expect to get top range overclocks on this thing, but what you can do is get a very reasonable overclock on a tight budget.
If you want a real world example, my Q9550 runs at a stock speed of 2.8ghz. With my Hyper 212+ I can safely add a 25% overclock pushing my speeds up to 3.5ghz. With the 25% overclock temperatures are in the mid forties when it is idling, and never go past 65C even when the system is under a full load. A 12 hour stress test with Orthos when I first installed the cooler yielded great results, and a year later it is still running very smoothly. My pc room is rather dusty, so I make a mental note to give it a a quick clean every 3 months. This is quite a simple process since the fan clips on to the radiator, so it is simply a case of unclipping the fan, and blowing the dust out from the opposite direction.

Installation is a little tricky, as you need to remove your current cpu bracket. This is somewhat of an annoyance as the motherboard has to be removed to do this. For this task I employed my boyfriend who helped me figure out where the bracket was supposed to go. Once you have the cpu bracket in place then you need to spread some thermal paste onto the cpu and you can fit the cooler. The cooler is held in place by four screws that connect to a plate which holds it onto the motherboard. I can't think of a better way to describe it, but you can check out this handy youtube video below if you want a better idea of how it is fitted.


In terms of noise it isn't too bad. I think it is a little noisier than my stock Intel cooler, but not that much more noticeable. I definitely got used to the extra noise after a few hours, and I don't notice it anymore.
The look of the cooler is pretty average. Most of these big tower style coolers all look the same, so I'm not too bothered with that. It does a good job, so that is my main concern.
So to sum things up:
Looks: 3/5
Installation: 2/5
Performance: 5/5
Value for money: 5/5
If you want to overclock your pc then this is the cooler you need! This will give you a moderate overclock with ease, and will completely walk all over any other cooler in the same price range.
Overclockersclub do a great write on the Hyper 212+, you can read it right here: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/cm_hyper212_evo/