Introduction

It took me a while to remember exactly when the last time I did a CPU cooler for Cooler Master was, and I realized it was the Hyper 212. This cooler in the Hyper family has to be, even to this day, one of the most recommended coolers in the bang for the buck category. There really aren't that many coolers on the market for $30 anyways, let alone one like the 212 and 212 Plus that were more than capable out of the box to handle any average workload, and still left room to overclock. If you had a few extra dollars, you can replace the fan and add another to the back, and you had yourself one serious performer for right around $50. And it didn't take the room of some of these monster coolers on the market and that's if they were even in the same price range!

Since the Hyper 212 had two pipes, it is only logical that this cooler we are about to take a look at today should have six pipes. In order to pull that off, there has to be a major increase in fin size as well. I know there was some room left on the 212 for a pipe or two, but to fit more than say four, you are really asking for issues in design and I don't think the performance would be the same cramming all that into a tiny little cooler. With increased size comes other benefits; room for pre-coolers, room for a second fan, because if you have room for a bigger cooler, you have the room for 25mm of extra fan. That means even if the results seen here aren't all that good, or if they are great, with a second fan it can only get better.

If you haven't guessed by me saying the six pipes included bit, the cooler we are about to look at and test is the Hyper 612 in the PWM flavor. There is a second incarnation of this cooler too; it is called the Hyper 612S. The PWM version we are about to see has a faster, higher rated fan included and the S model includes a low noise adapter for the fan on top of its slower speeds for additional noise reduction if you should need it. I say we see just how much the 212 concept has grown and what the much bigger brother in the Hyper lineup from Cooler Master has in store for us.