However, the cooling fan does not offer RGB/aRGB lighting as Cooler Master appears to be sticking with the original Hyper 212 theme of budget-minded minimalism. Believe it or not, it actually costs about the same amount as the original 212 Evo if you can find it on sale. The performance of the Hyper 212 EVO is where it really shines, and is the reason why it is regarded as one of the best air coolers for the money.

CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO Review - UK Gaming Computers CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO Review - UK Gaming Computers

A milled aluminum mounting block is fixed to the heatpipes of the Evo v2 and provides much needed relief from the struggles of installing the original 212’s with the adjustable swing arm mount. The V2 version of this cooler does bring the whole affair a little bit further forward, so you have 100% memory clearance. I mean, sure, the U12S is a good 4°C cooler at super low fan speeds, but as decibel levels increase they start running neck and neck.The faster fans on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black and the Arctic Freezer 34 eSports DUO show a slight increase over the quieter Hyper 212 EVO v2 and the be quiet!

Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition | Cooler Master UK Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition | Cooler Master UK

With taller memory DIMMs like our Corsair Dominator Platinum modules, we can easily see how fan clearance can be an issue for systems using memory and tall heat spreaders, so take this into account. Another thing I need to mention is some of these bolts might actually start pivoting in their sockets, and if that happens you simply go behind the motherboard and hold onto them for dear life as you tighten up on the top of the motherboard.However, if overclocking more than four CPU coresto the upper-end of the silicon stratosphere is on your agenda, you might consider alternatives as this pair of Hyper 212s lacks at wrangling thermal loads on HEDT (high-end desktop) CPUs. On the other hand, from a value perspective, it’s really something that I can get excited about and I can wholeheartedly recommend this cooler if you can get past that installation process. While the fan mount itself is adjustable, moving the 120mm fan also raises the airflow up and over the top of the cooler, lowering the efficiency of the cooler itself. And you can also find it on entry-level heatsinks like this one and a lot of other ones, because it does tend to be a little bit cheaper to produce. I would have liked to seen either the 212 evo or 212+ to see if it has any benefit over the originals.