Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black CPU Cooler Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The is available from Amazon now for a very reasonable £44.99 RRP, however, at the time of writing it was actually listed for just £39.98, which is obviously even better! Looking back at the 212 from 7-8 years ago, the prices were £30 but adjusted for inflation, that’s still about £39, so really the price is still relatively cheap, despite the fact the quality and features have gone up significantly on these colours.

Overview

I said before that the Cooler Master 212 series is a gold standard for affordable CPU coolers, and I absolutely stand by that statement now more than ever. The original 212 series coolers were humble and pretty cheap looking when they came out in 2007. I’m actually struggling to find a stock photo of one, so here’s one from Anandtech back in their 2007 review. It really has come an incredibly long way in terms of build quality, materials, and features. It used to be the absolute minimum a custom cooler could be while still taming the 2007 CPUs such as the Core 2 Quad Q6600, Athlon 64 X2 BE, Phenom X2 9600 and other 775 and AM2+ CPUs, yes, 2007 was a long time ago!

Now the minimum standard of these coolers is so amazingly close to the quality of coolers twice their price that it’s scary. A Noctua U12 is about £70 these days, and it’s bloody excellent, but total overkill for most users who aren’t running super high-end CPUs. If you’re running a 5600G or 13600K, the overall efficiency of these mid-to-high-end CPUs is really fantastic, and the 212 is all the cooler you need.

Plus, running it on our frankly ancient 7700K may seem silly right now, but this CPU runs so much hotter than the new stuff, so if it can tame this old coal-fired monster, then new CPUs are comparatively easy. Admittedly, I’d suggest a more patent cooler for the i7 and i9 high-end models, or the more high-end AMD solutions such as the Ryzen 7+ and X3Ds, but if you’re blowing big money on a CPU, you should be budgeting for a larger cooler too regardless.

I set the fan to 50%, making the cooler quiet enough that a cheap case would be enough to cocoon it to a virtually silent level and the cooling efficiency was still surprisingly potent. Plus, with just about every modern PC gaming case having a window on the side, the new aesthetically pleasing black finish and top plate, as well as that truly stunning ARGB fan and its black-sleeved cables means this cooler cools as good as it looks.

Should I Buy One?

Yes, you should! I you’re spending around or under £250/$300 on your CPU, there’s a very good chance this is all the CPU cooler you’re going to need and it’s a nice upgrade from the stock coolers, even the nicer ones you get on the AMD CPUs these days. It’s well made, easy to install, has good socket support, and it’s most definitely pleasing to the eye too. For a CPU cooler I can get just under £40, this one is hard to beat.