Cooler Master is well known regarding the CPU coolers market. With the Hyper 412S they have a simple cooler in their portfolio which is available at a reasonable price point. Furthermore it is also compatible with Intels latest socket LGA 2011. If now the performance is good too, then it would look like the company offers a very solid product. 
On the following pages we will show you what the Cooler Master Hyper 412S is capable of.
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Preview
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Specifications and included in delivery
Specifications
| Model | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Material | Aluminium / copper |
| Dimension (D x W x H) | 99 mm x 132 mm x 160 mm |
| Weight | 507 g |
| Fan | 1 x 120 mm x 25 mm |
| Rotation speed | 900 rpm with silent adaptor - 1300 rpm (+/- 10%) |
| Noise level | 16.1 dBa @ 900 rpm - 22.5 dBA @ 1300 rpm |
| On the manufacturer's website | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
Included in delivery
- Cooling block
- Mounting kit for Socket 775, 1155/1156, 1366 and 2011
- Mounting kit for Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+ and FM1
- Cooler Mester Grey's Thermal compound
- 1 x Fan 120 x 25 mm
- Mounting components
- Manual
The Cooler Mastere Hyper 412S comes well protected from outer influeces so that none of the parts included will be damaged during transportation. The good delivery includes a lot of accessories and therefore it's almost obvious that the mounting kits are compatible with all different sockets that are in the market today. This cooler is even ready for Intels new Socket 2011. Furthermore you'll also find one PWM 120 mm fan as well as a second mounting kit for an optional fan to provide "push and pull" cooling.
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Construction and design
Construction
The Cooler Master Hyper 412S mainly consists of aluminium and nickel coated copper. The heatpipes make use of the direct touch principle which means that they get direct contact with the CPU. To transport the heat as efficiently as possible from the CPU there are four heatpipes which all have a diameter of six millimeters. Altogether there are 40 fins soldered to the heatpipes. As standard the cooler comes equipped with one 120 millimeter PWM fan and an additional clamping mechanism if you want to add a second fan to your Hyper 412S.
Design
We did not see any manufacturing mistakes on our sample, and it seems that it has been well made which means that manufacturing is on a high level. The heatpipes do have different bending radius, which gives them an offset regarding the area where the heat is being transferred to the fins. Furhtermore Cooler Master claims that they have slightly increased the distance between the fins. They say they did so to optimize the cooler for low rpm fans (< 1000 rpm).
Fan
Cooler Master equips the Hyper 412S with one fan, measuring 120 millimeters in diameter. The fan itself comes with a sleeve bearing and PWM functionality. If you should decided to run it with low rpm you'll hear quite a slient clacking noise. Furthermore the fans shape is slightly curved. This should help increasing static pressure which is at 1.14 mmaq at 1300 rpm. If you use the fan with the adaptor in the box static pressure will then be 0.55 mmaq.
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Mounting
To mount-kit
needed for all sockets except LGA 2011 basically consists of two pieces. You get
a backplate and kind of a "four-leg clamping mechanism". If you should be used
to very well thought mounting kits then this one can make you lose your temper.
In fact the installation is quite tedious.
As we can see on the pictures, taken on a ASUS board with the Cooler Master Hyper 412S mounted, the first DIMM slot is still usable and you can even fit on it Kingston HyperX modules, which are well know for their huge heatspreaders. There even is plenty of space to install a second fan on the backside of the cooler.
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Testsystem and testroutine
Testsystem
| Mainboard | ASUS P6TD Deluxe |
| Processor | Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz 4c/8t |
| Memory | Corsair Dominator TR3X3G1600C8D, 3 x 2 GByte |
| Graphics card | Gigabyte GTX 285 |
| Hard disk | Samsung Spinpoint F1 640 GByte |
| Power supply | Enermax Revolution 85+ 1050 Watt |
| Thermal grease | Cooler Master |
Testroutine
The CPU is being evaluated using Real Temp and with Prime95 we reach nearly 100% load on the CPU. For measuring the noise level we use a Voltcraft SL-200 decibel meter, which is positioned one meter from the CPU cooler with the fan mounted.
- 2.66 GHz 12 volts load
- 2.66 GHz 7 volts load
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Results 2.66 GHz 12 volts
| Cooler / fan | Temp. diff. load | Absolute temp. | RPM | Noise | Review link |
| Noctua NH-D14 | 31 K | 56 °C | 1300/1200 rpm | 40.9 dBA | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Gelid GX-7 Dual-Fan | 33 K | 53 °C | 1800 rpm | 45.5 dBA | Gelid GX-7 |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand Dual-Fan | 33 K | 57 °C | 1500 rpm | 43.0 dBA | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow Dual-Fan | 34 K | 58 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.5 dBA | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Noctua NH-C14 Dual-Fan | 35 K | 57 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.0 dBA | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand | 35 K | 59 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.4 dBA | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Gelid GX-7 Single-Fan | 35 K | 55 °C | 1800 rpm | 45.0 dBA | Gelid GX-7 |
| Coolink Corator DS | 35 K | 57 °C | 1900 rpm | 47.9 dBA | |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow Single-Fan | 36 K | 59 °C | 1400 rpm | 37.0 dBA | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Corsair H5O Dual-Fan | 37 K | 59 °C | 1600 rpm | 44.4 dBA | Corsair H5O |
| Noctua NH-C14 Single Fan | 38 K | 60 °C | 1250 rpm | 39.4 dBA | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Noctua NH-U12P Dual-Fan | 38 K | 62 °C | 1400 rpm | 41.6 dBA | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Corsair H5O | 38 K | 60 °C | 1600 rpm | 44.0 dBA | Corsair H5O |
| Cooler Master Hyper 412S Single-Fan | 39 K | 62 °C | 1200 rpm | 41.6 dBA | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212Evo Single-Fan | 39 K | 62 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.9 dBA | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Noctua NH-U12P | 40 K | 64 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.5 dBA | Noctua NH-U12P |
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Results 2.66 GHz 7 Volts
| Cooler / fan | Temp. diff. load | Absolute temp. | RPM | Noise | Review link |
| Noctua NH-D14 | 36 K | 61 °C | 1000/900 rpm | 37.2 dBA | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Noctua NH-C14 Dual-Fan | 37 K | 59 °C | 800 rpm | 34.1 dBA | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow Dual-Fan | 37 K | 61 °C | 1000 rpm | 38.9 dBA | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow Single-Fan | 39 K | 63 °C | 1000 rpm | 36.2 dBA | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Gelid GX-7 Dual-Fan | 42 K | 62 °C | 700 rpm | 34 dBA | Gelid GX-7 |
| Noctua NH-C14 Single Fan | 42 K | 64 °C | 800 rpm | 33.5 dBA | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Corsair H5O Dual-Fan | 42 K | 64 °C | 900 rpm | 37.5 dBA | Corsair H5O |
| Cooler Master Hyper 412S Single-Fan | 43 K | 69 °C | 800 rpm | 35.8 dBA | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand Dual-Fan | 43 K | 67 °C | 700 rpm | 37.0 dBA | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Noctua NH-U12P Dual-Fan | 44 K | 68 °C | 1000 rpm | 38.0 dBA | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Gelid GX-7 Single-Fan | 45 K | 65 °C | 700 rpm | 33.5 dBA | Gelid GX-7 |
| Noctua NH-U12P | 45 K | 69 °C | 1000 rpm | 37.4 dBA | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Coolink Corator DS | 46 K | 68 °C | 800 rpm | 35.0 dBA | Coolink Corator DS |
| Corsair H5O | 46 K | 68 °C | 900 rpm | 35.4 dBA | Corsair H5O |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand | 48 K | 72 °C | 700 rpm | 36.4 dBA | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212Evo Single-Fan | 52 K | 75 °C | 750 rpm | 35.3 dBA | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the Hyper 412S, Cooler Master has a CPU cooler in its portfolio that offers some potential for improvement. For the performance you get the price should for example be lower. Furhtermore we didn't like the mounting kit. It is tedious and the pressure with which it puts the cooler onto the CPU is too low. A higher pressure might even increase cooling capacity because of better heat exchange. But fortunately there are also things we liked about this cooler. For example there is a fan that offers PWM functionality and the cooler can also be equipped with two fans. | - PWM fan - Pull and Push capable | - Performance - Price - Mounting-Kit |
|
| Installation | + | - | |
| The installation process could really be easier then it actually is. Generally the installation is more complicated than it needs to be. Just one example at this point: the screws have a special profile which should keep them in place. But in reality the screws still have space to rotate and you anyway need to fix the screws with nuts from the backside of the board. So there is no need for this kind of profile. Furhtermore there is the retaining bracket which could be of a stiffer material. This material it is made of at the moment is quite flexible and therefore the springs need to be quite soft and the pressure with which the cooler is being pushed onto the CPU is lower than it could be. | - Compatible with Intel and AMD sockets | -
Manufacturing Quality - Ergonomics |
|
| Performance | + | - | |
|
If you drive your Cooler Master fan at twelve volts it's well audible. We recommend to make use of PWM feature or the adaptor which is in the box. As we drove the fans at seven Volts, with 700 - 900 rotations per minute it was almost noiseless but there also was a decrease in cooling capacity. If you should make use of the adaptor there wont be much headroom left for overclocking. Nevertheless cooling capacity isn't too bad with a low rpm fan. |
- Noiseless at 7v - Silent Adaptor | - Performance | |
| Recommendation | + | - | |
|
In Switzerland the Cooler Master Hyper 412S comes at a price of CHF 49.90.- (est. EUR 41.60). In Germany you can get this cooler at about 35 Euro. For 50 Swiss Francs you can also get a Gelid GX-7 which offers better cooling and an easier to handle mounting kit. For only two Swiss Francs more there are other even better alternatives. If you could live with this coolers mounting kit and you really want a Cooler Master product, then your good to go for the Hyper 412S. |
- Desktop-PC - Gamer |
- Overclocker |
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