Cooler Master Hyper 612 VER.2 CPU Cooler Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The Cooler Master Hyper 612 Ver.2 is certainly affordable, with prices in the UK at just £39.99 from Overclockers UK. Readers in the US get an even better deal, as the cooler is currently just $45 from Newegg.

Overview

This may not be the greatest cooler in the world, but it certainly offers enough in return to justify its price tag, which doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but that’s because it’s not. What this cooler offers is good all round performance for a reasonable price and for the most part, that’s exactly what your typical consumer will be looking for. At stock clocks, the Hyper 612 Ver.2 kept our CPU running perfectly and the cooler was quiet enough to never become a nuisance. It even managed to post when overclocked and kept our test system stable, although I personally wouldn’t overclock as high as we did on this kind of cooler, it’s good to know it can handle it when needed. The added bonus there being that the cooling fans didn’t get any louder at higher clock speeds.

The real party trick for this cooler is that it can run passively, although you’ll only be able to take that up to 95W compared to the 180W with a fan installed. The passive mode is great, especially for those running low power systems such as an HTPC or an office system. You’re not going to get as great cooling performance, but as they say, silence is golden.

Build quality is pretty good throughout and while not the prettiest looking cooler in the world, you can see that some care has gone into making it look presentable. What does stand out, however, is the mounting kit. The fittings are of a good quality, easy to use and there were no screwdriver gymnastics needed to get it installed. The addition of a cut-away to allow for tall RAM modules is also nice to see, so it’s unlikely you’ll run into compatibility issues.

Pros

• Passive cooling up to 95W TDP
• Active cooling up to 180W TDP
• Dual fan mounting options included
• Fully sleeved fan cable
• RAM cut-away
• Affordable price

Cons

• Not ideal for high-end overclocking

“The Cooler Master Hyper 612 Ver.2 is a great all round cooler, it offers tidy aesthetics, an easy installation process, commendable cooling performance and the added bonus of being able to run passively for low-powered systems; it’s as versatile as it is affordable.”

Thank you Cooler Master for providing us with this sample.