Is the 212 EVO still considered the best air-cooled solution?

[PizzaSHARK]

Thermal grease on my stock HSF appears to have worn away and needs to be replaced. Figure I can either clean all the remaining gunk off with some Goo Gone and rubbing alcohol and continue using the stock solution, with some new grease applied... or I can upgrade my HSF in the process.

Near as I can tell, recent reviews still say the Hyper 212 EVO from Cooler Master is still the big dog, especially in its price range (about $40 from Amazon.) The thing looks monstrously huge, but pretty much all reviews say it fits comfortably in a standard-sized case, so I'm not particularly concerned about that.

Is the 212 EVO still considered the best choice for air cooling, or is there a better choice now in a comparable price range?

[Saithes]

Thermal grease on my stock HSF appears to have worn away and needs to be replaced. Figure I can either clean all the remaining gunk off with some Goo Gone and rubbing alcohol and continue using the stock solution, with some new grease applied... or I can upgrade my HSF in the process.

Near as I can tell, recent reviews still say the Hyper 212 EVO from Cooler Master is still the big dog, especially in its price range (about $40 from Amazon.) The thing looks monstrously huge, but pretty much all reviews say it fits comfortably in a standard-sized case, so I'm not particularly concerned about that.

Is the 212 EVO still considered the best choice for air cooling, or is there a better choice now in a comparable price range?

While it's not actually the best it does perform quite well for the price. I use one on my i7 5820K overclocked to 4.4GHz

[Eroginous]

It's the best for price/performance when you just want to run at stock clock speeds.

[Remilia]

For $30 you can't go wrong, but it isn't the best air cooler by any means.
It is relatively loud also.

[Saithes]

It's the best for price/performance when you just want to run at stock clock speeds.

Or even want a fair amount of overclocking potential.

[potis]

Big dog?

It was never a big dog, its a cheap solution for low safe overclocking.

Noctua D15/U14-S are big dogs.

Silverarrow is a big dog.

Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 2 is a big dog.

And a few others.

A big dog doesnt cost 30$, it costs 70$ because its an actual big dog.

Despite that it doesnt mean it cant handle daily usage and light OC.

But i would not recommend it if you are planning above 4.3GHz since thats where the jump in voltage usually happens in most chips, unless you have a good one and it happens at 4.4 for you.

[Saithes]

Just to add, here's a nice list of heatsinks by their performance:

http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...id=2769&page=5

[Fallen Angel]

For $30 you can't go wrong, but it isn't the best air cooler by any means.
It is relatively loud also.

Mine is dead silent.

[PizzaSHARK]

For $30 you can't go wrong, but it isn't the best air cooler by any means.
It is relatively loud also.

Eh, I spent a couple years with a computer that used an open case and a 9 inch desk fan for a cooling solution. I can handle a little bitty 120mm fan's noise

[Remilia]

Mine is dead silent.

It's the loudest thing in my computer.
Not that noticeable if you have other things going on but when it's quiet it's there

[Fallen Angel]

It's the loudest thing in my computer.
Not that noticeable if you have other things going on but when it's quiet it's there

Only issue I had with noise was my fan came loose after I installed it and was buzzing. No noticeable noise that would be considered bothersome after that though.

[fixx]

Is the 212 EVO still considered the best choice for air cooling, or is there a better choice now in a comparable price range?

It's never been best performance, just best value for money if you're into light overclocking.

It's the best for price/performance when you just want to run at stock clock speeds.

Nope. Stock cooler from either Intel or AMD is the best value for money when you just want to run at stock clock speeds.

[Deleted]

Hi

the hyper 212 was never "the best air cooler" because the Noctua nh-d14 was already in the market by the time hyper 212 was release, now price wise i don't think is fair compare it to coolers that cost more than double is not fair for them and the Evo; in the end the question is what are u planing to do , heavy OC this is not the cpu cooler; a soft 10% oc, then yes this is the cpu cooler u need because buying a more expensive one will be just overkill

[Deleted]

ok , if feel like alot of peeps are talking out of their ass here , I've got a 212 evo in my build and the thing keeps my system cool without being too noisy.

[Deleted]

ok , if feel like alot of peeps are talking out of their ass here , I've got a 212 evo in my build and the thing keeps my system cool without being too noisy.

You clearly didn't read what other people said then. CM 212hyper evo, is a good cooler for the money it costs. Is not big or top dog, it never was. Its the cheapest decent air cooler around, usually worth 25-35 $/euro. There are coolers around costing 80-90, you think the CM evo can stand up against them? Those very expensive ones are very good and many times better than aio ones, while also being dead silent.

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@OP if you are looking for a cheap air cooler this is a solid choice provided you are up to low/mild overclocks. Also make sure your case has at least 158mm cpu cooler clearance. Time to get the sidepanel back to its place

[Ghâzh]

You clearly didn't read what other people said then. CM 212hyper evo, is a good cooler for the money it costs. Is not big or top dog, it never was. Its the cheapest decent air cooler around, usually worth 25-35 $/euro. There are coolers around costing 80-90, you think the CM evo can stand up against them? Those very expensive ones are very good and many times better than aio ones, while also being dead silent.

What a lot of people fail to see though is that the 212 evo won't limit your overclock by all the much. People saying it's only good for light overclocking are talking out of their ass.

[Deleted]

It can, depends how far up you go and at what voltage. Back on my 2500k i couldn't get over 4.3 cause i was reaching high enough temps that wasn't comfortable. You might be lucky and have a better chip that runs cooler at x volts. Do you think hyper evo on haswell is sufficient at 1.3-1.35voltage? (refresh could be better).

Besides that if it runs full speed all the time that won't be good, for your ears or longetivity.

[Ghâzh]

Yeah it can but what people usually miss is how insignificant the difference between something like evo 212 and NH-D14 actually is. The gap isn't big enough to really make much of a difference in the end when you are reaching your maximum overclock. This is because of how the temperatures ramp up exponentially after a certain point. You might get 100-200MHz more out of the chip with better cooling but because the temps ramp up so aggressively even the best traditional cooler can't keep up.

The real difference between high and low end coolers are the noise and temps compared at the same clock speeds. You could have your CPU at 4.8GHz with EVO 212 at 89C or with NH-D14 at 80C or push the overclock up to 4.9GHz and 89C with NH-D14 when the lesser cooler couldn't keep up anymore (mostly made up numbers).

[fixx]

Yeah it can but what people usually miss is how insignificant the difference between something like evo 212 and NH-D14 actually is. The gap isn't big enough to really make much of a difference in the end when you are reaching your maximum overclock.

When looking into extreme overclocking instead of NH-D14 you should compare it to something like Corsair H100i which is only marginally more expensive than Noctua's air cooler. Between Evo 212+ and H100i there can be 10C difference which is notable once you get past light or moderate OC and try to reach the maximum.

[Deleted]

The 212 Evo is still the best in terms of price/performance. Tbh, if you reach the point where you need more cooling than a 212 can provide you should really be considering water cooling anyway. The "big dog" air coolers tend to be so big that they end up crippling the air flow even in full ATX cases which is somewhat counter-productive.

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Nope. Stock cooler from either Intel or AMD is the best value for money when you just want to run at stock clock speeds.

Technically true but stock AMD coolers sound like jet engines under full load (at least for the FX series anyway).