Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler Review

Fan Design

The fan which accompanies the 212 Plus is a 7 bladed, 120mm unit made by an unknown Chinese manufacturer and labeled as model FA7C1212ME-SBPNA or in Cooler Master nomenclature the A12025-20CB-4BP-C1. In typical Cooler Master fashion they have released some much need yet curious specifications. This is a Sleeve Bearing fan…or at least it is supposed to be a Sleeve Bearing fan that is capable of 2000RPMs and at its max speed it moves 76.8CFM at an impressive 3.9mmH20. Let’s take this at face value for the moment and move on.


As with other Cooler Master stock fans we have looked at in the past one displays no shaft slop and just a minuscule amount of off-axis blade slop which is consistent with a well constructed fan. As it is running at 2000RPM we expected a certain amount of noise and we certainly got it but we did notice that the majority of noise did not sound like any sleeve bearing fan we had ever heard before.

It was such a unique sound signature for a sleeve bearing fan we assumed we had one with a defective drive mechanism and requested a replacement from Cooler Master (on a side note this is half the reason why HWC did not make the NDA lift date). When we received the replacement, it sounded exactly the same. We then tried our usual spin test to get a feel for the vibrations created from it and hoped this would help shed some much needed light on just where things were going wrong. Here too we did not get the typical vibration response we have come to associate with sleeve bearing fans.

At this point we were 99% sure that we were dealing with a mislabeled Rifle Bearing fan as it made not only the typical “clicking” noise classic of that design but also the same vibration pattern (which reminds us a lot of a train on its tracks with a minute click – clack feel to it). We went back to our Cooler Master rep and they confirmed it was supposed to be a Sleeve Bearing fan. Since we had two of these things here (and we were determined to get to the bottom of this mystery) we cracked one open the get a good look at the bearing.

But first of all, let's take a look at two fans we knew were properly labeled.


The above left photo is that of a Cooler Master Rifle Bearing fan model A12025-24RB-4BP taken from a Cooler Master V10 cooler. On the right we have a Cooler Master Sleeve Bearing fan model A12025-12CB-3BN which we salvaged from our parts bin. As you can see the differences between a Sleeve Bearing and a Rifle Bearing fan are obvious.


This is a picture of the bearing which graces the fan of the Hyper 212+. As you can see its is clearly does NOT look like the other sleeve bearing fan we have pictured above or any other sleeve bearing fan we have come across in the past.

While the COoler Master reps took a look at these pictures and said that it was still a sleeve bearing fan we be believe this fan is in fact a Rifle Bearing fan. While it is not as silent as a Sleeve Bearing fan, there was a marked lack of squeal, chirps or any other noise that point to a bad fan and in this particular fan's case we would have no hesitation using it, as long as the noise output fit in with the rest of the computer build. To put it bluntly it is very, very quite for a 2000RPM rifle bearing unit.


We love the fact that Cooler Master decked this fan out with pre-installed rubber anti-vibration pads to help keep the vibrations from being transferred from the fan to the heatsink itself. We found this setup works very well but it did have the unfortunate consequences of making a gap between the fan and the fin array. This gap tends to leak air and has a negative impact on the overall effectiveness of this fan.


Also like many Cooler Master fans we have seen in the past this fan comes with the newer 4 pin plug and is thus PWM complaint. Unfortunately, there is no sleeving the wires which makes the setup look a bit messy in an otherwise clean build.