Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

It's Cooler Master's own stuff which is based off of AC MX-2.

[kidvegas]

Greetings as I'm new here. Love the site and the thoughtfulness of the reviews. Beaver FTW.

I'm posting this as I've read the reviews of the 212 Plus, as well as all the corresponding comments/debates regarding it.

In need of a cooler, and in the GTA, I decided the 29.95 price point negated the arguments regarding the results possibly being skewed. I figured, worst case, I'd run 10 degrees higher than the results indicated in the review/other users.

I am very much average joe, however, my results are far worse than what any of this thread would indicate.

For starters, Im running an i7 D0 920 on a rampage II Gene in a large, airy, dell 730x Chassis, and I'm guessing my ambients are a cool 19-22c. (I like it chilly).

What I do know is that my chip does 200x20 or 211x19 (4.0x ghz) stable at 1.24v. 500 passes of LinX, 30 hours prime. HT ON, Speedstep enabled. QTT 1.3v, Everything else at default (not auto) except DRAM, 1.6v. Im running generic Samsung HCF8 DDR3 (1066) Which happily do 8-8-8-24 at 1600+ mhz @ stock, but 1.6v is needed at anything above.

My temperatures are absolutely ridiculous. Running linx, I'm seeing 100c, 94c, 94c, 86c. (coretemp).

A 14 degree variance? I understand that a variance of 5-7 degrees is normal, but 14c?

Im using As5, and have tried several thermal paste application methods. I've remounted this cooler SEVEN times. I've tried using push-pull with a similar coolermaster fan I happened to have on hand. No difference at all.

I'm also able to touch the base of the cooler without having to immediately stick my finger in my mouth. The whole heatsink barely feels warm at all. The pattern of the thermal paste indicates decent coverage.

Idle temperatures seem normal, in the 37-42 degree range with the fanspeed ramping down. (Speedstep is enabled). At stock settings, under max load (Linx) the temperatures seem much more in line, with a much smaller varience between core 0 and core 3- about a 5 degree difference, with core 0 reading 55-58c.

I've tried other coolers. The v8 (garbage IMO, the mounting system sucks worse than any cooler Ive ever seen) and my temperatures are +/- 2-3 degrees.
Also tried the Stock Foxconn 4 heatpipe cooler/shroud/92mm fan (pretty hefty cooler) which came with the stock 730x config. The base is horrible, it's warped, but it produced slight better results before I stripped the backplate after countless mounting attempts.

What the hell is going on here? Is my CPU shooting out incorrect temp readings? Ive used several motherboards (EVGA classified, P6T) have gone through several Windows 7 installations, etc. All temp monitoring utilities spit out the same temperatures (Speedfan, realtemp, coretemp.) I'm only using 1.24v to get 4.0 ghz stable, which I feel is VERY reasonable.

Some insight please!

*edit* It may be worth noting that the 730x is a non traditional chassis- The motherboard is oriented upside-down.

[burebista]

Originally Posted by kidvegas

I'm also able to touch the base of the cooler without having to immediately stick my finger in my mouth. The whole heatsink barely feels warm at all.

That's the problem. It looks like a bad contact between CPU IHS and heatsink base (one or other or both are convex/concave) or bad IHS mount on CPU cores.

Originally Posted by kidvegas

The pattern of the thermal paste indicates decent coverage.

Can you post a picture with TIM pattern on IHS and CPU base? Something like this.

Originally Posted by kidvegas

Is my CPU shooting out incorrect temp readings? All temp monitoring utilities spit out the same temperatures (Speedfan, realtemp, coretemp.)

Do you see a HOT or LOG in Thermal Status area on RealTemp? If yes the for sure your CPU is/was in throttle.

It looks like you'll end with a CPU/heatsink lapping.

[Sushi Warrior]

Seems like you have a convex base. A little lapping should fix that for you...

[kidvegas]

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately I cannot post pictures at the moment, but what I can say is that, using a razor blade to fill in the grooves, and two small lines of AS5 across the middle heatpipes results in coverage that seems in line with what should be considered a correct application (not perfect, and I agree lapping may help here). However the patterns don't suggest anything is horrible with regards to the surface of the cpu or the cooler. (Ive done some crude checking, they dont seem bad.)

The weird thing is my temps readily hit 100c yet Ive not experience any throttling! I've sat and watched Linx, cpuz, and coretemp. Gflops dont take a hit at all (51-52Gflops throughout the test, cpuz shows 4.00ghz, as do core/realtemp and I cannot get it to throttle!

... which is why I guess I thought maybe the temperature readings were wrong. (But I assume this is unlikely based on what Ive read.)

Im going to pull it apart yet again and have a very close look at the TIM patterns, see if I can somehow coax a picture out of my blackberry.

[Sushi Warrior]

Well, I'll say a couple of things.

1. i7 is VERY hot. HDT coolers generally excel at low-TDP chips as they get the heat away faster yet have less "capacity" for heat.
2. These coolers are $20-30 for a reason. They don't have much quality control and the main problem is base quality. That is most likely your problem
3. To check 2., take a razor blade, place it against the base and look at it with a light behind the heatsink (so the heatsink blocks the light). If you see any light under the blade, you have a bad base. If it's concave (points outwards, light would be at the edges) it shouldn't be much of a problem as CPU's are generally convex anyways. If it is convex (light in the middle) you have problems and should lap it. Remember to look at it with the razor at every angle (with the direction of the heatpipes and against them).
4. i7 doesn't throttle until just over 100C AFAIK.

[burebista]

Originally Posted by Sushi Warrior

4. i7 doesn't throttle until just over 100C AFAIK.

At 100 you should see throttle. On 45 nm CPU it was at 2C until TJMax but on Nehalem it's on right on TJMax value.

kidvegas do you see that HOT/LOG in RealTemp? Because it's very precise, Kevin read a MSR bit which indicates throttle, it's not a wild guess. :)
Something like this

[kidvegas]

It was hitting 100c so briefly that nothing picked up on any throttle.. It spent most of its time teetering at 99c. That being said, Ive remounted again and saw a drop of about 5c at the moment... Which I guess is indicative of poor contact.

Sigh. The whole idea of lapping is very intimidating and probably out of my scope. Guess I'm going to have to dial back the oc and live with it. Which is a shame really, because based on the fact that I can do 4ghz stable with such low voltage and such stupid temps probably means this cpu is capable of much more at higher voltages if I had proper contact.

I might run out and grab some sandpaper and give it a shot, but I'm very hesitant to do so.

FWIW I think the cpu is the culprit. The razor blade check on the 212 only showes slight recesses where the channes between the heatpipes are. It looks pretty flat. the cpu is all over the place- at some angles it appears concave in the middle, at others, it appears convex in the middle.

Im guessing the outer edges are up and down and preventing proper contact, and If I lap it correctly it should be evident in the way the nickel wears off, correct?

Is it really possible in your experienced opinions that lapping would result in possibly 20+c lower temps? Or am I doing this for the possibility of 4-5 degrees? (Read- can a cpu ihs be that bad?)

[kidvegas]

well, $25 on sandpaper, 5 hours, from 200 to 1000 grit, and about 67remounts later, nothing's changed.

The base of the cpu is near mirror finish, and no light spots whatsoever. Same goes for the 212, and thermal paste pattern looks optimal.

There's no possible way I can get my 212 to duplicate results within even 20 degrees of others, let alone the results of the review.

[Sushi Warrior]

That really is odd. Are you using a bracket or the push-pins? What thermal paste are you using? Is the cooler mounted east/west or north/south?