Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black Review – A Modern Look For The Tried-And-True

Low Boon Shen
By Low Boon Shen 8 Min Read
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black Review – A Modern Look For The Tried-And-True
  • Appearance - 8.5/10
    8.5/10
  • Features - 8.3/10
    8.3/10
  • Materials - 8.5/10
    8.5/10
  • Performance - 8/10
    8/10
  • User Experience - 8.3/10
    8.3/10
  • Value - 8.5/10
    8.5/10

Summary

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black remains a reputable and affordable option that won’t left you behind in the style department.

Overall
8.4/10
8.4/10

Pros

+ Respectable cooling performance
+ Low fan noise
+ Modern looks
+ Simplified installation process
+ Affordable

Cons

– None

Unboxing

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Box packaging

Cooler Master’s legendary Hyper 212 series has, for many years, served many gamers’ PCs worldwide with its reliable performance and affordable cost – and today we have the most recent iteration of the classic formula, the Hyper 212 Halo Black (a white variant, Halo White, is also available for white-colored PC builds). The box carries a new look that differs from earlier generations of Hyper 212.

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Box contents

The Hyper 212 Halo Black features a significantly simplified set of parts – gone are the days that you need to manually assemble the backplate for different types of sockets, as the backplate is now solely for Intel sockets only (AMD no longer requires one). Compared to the Hyper 212 LED Turbo ARGB that we reviewed several years ago, the backplate now comes with screw holes pre-installed, which supports either 75 x 75 mm (LGA1200, 115x) and 78 x 78 mm (LGA1700) configurations.

Appearance

In terms of general size, the Hyper 212 more or less retains the relatively compact profile, mostly unchanged from earlier iterations. However, it’s given a new look: it is now all-black (all-white if you have the Halo White version), though the classic 4-heatpipe design remains.

The Halo Black/White series comes with a different set of fans originating from the company’s MasterFan HALO² lineup. In this case, the cooler comes included with one MasterFan MF120 HALO² 120mm fan in black, with full-range RGB lighting capabilities. Connect this fan to the host system with both the PWM and ARGB header, and you’re set.

Specifications

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black

CPU socket compatibility Intel: LGA1700/1200/1151/1150/1155/1156
AMD: Socket AM5/AM4
Heatsink dimensions 124 x 73 x 154 mm (fan installed)
Fan(s) Model 1x Cooler Master MasterFan MF120 HALO² 120mm
Size 120 x 120 x 25 mm
Speed 650~2050 (±10%) RPM
Airflow 51.88 CFM (Max)
Pressure 2.89 mmH₂O (Max)
MTTF >160,000 hours
Noise 27 dBA (Max)
Included accessories Cooler Master MasterGel Pro thermal paste
Heatsink mounting screws
Intel/AMD mounting brackets
Intel socket backplates
Fan mounting brackets

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Test System

CPU Intel Core i9-13900K
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black (as tested)
Cooler Master MasterGel Maker
Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO
GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
Memory Kingston FURY RENEGADE RGB DDR5-6400 CL32 (2x16GB)
Storage Samsung SSD 980 PRO 256GB (Boot)
Kingston NV1 1TB
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 1250 V2 Full Modular 1250W
Case VECTOR Bench Case (Open-air chassis)
Operating System Windows 11 Home 22H2

Installation

To install the Hyper 212 Halo Black, you must follow a specific installation process. Seasoned PC builders often say: make sure you install the CPU cooler before you install the entire thing into the case – and that holds especially true if you’re installing this CPU cooler. Given the simplified bracket design, the heatsink will screw directly into the plastic backplate, which requires you to lay the motherboard on a completely flat surface so it doesn’t slip out of place.

This is different than most designs (including its predecessor) where a set of standoffs will hold the backplate and screw holes in place before installing the heatsink – I learned it the hard way when I realized installing the heatsink on our bench case turned out to be significantly more difficult as I struggled to align both the heatsink and the backplate together. This isn’t exactly Cooler Master’s fault, to be fair.

Simply put – be sure your motherboard is outside the case before you install the heatsink, and don’t skimp the process by installing it inside a case first.

Performance

All thermal testing is done using a 10-minute OCCT v12 CPU stress test and measured via sensor readings logged through HWiNFO64. ASUS MCE is enabled on the BIOS level, with the Intel Core i9-13900K’s power limits governed by Intel XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) in Windows according to specific test passes.

We compare the Hyper 212 Halo Black against its predecessors – the Hyper 212 LED Turbo ARGB, which comes with push-pull fan configuration. Despite Halo Black having one fan to work with, the CPU temperature only increased slightly, averaging 93°C in the 180W run. It does so at significantly quieter acoustics over the older model as well (remember loudness units scales logarithmically).

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For noise tests, we use a sound meter to measure the noise level at a distance of 50cm from the noise source (air cooler itself). Fan speed is manually controlled via Fan Xpert through ASUS’s Armoury Crate software.

Generally speaking, the Halo Black is unlikely to be noticeable especially when it is installed in a case; where your GPU fan is more likely to drown out the fan noise that it will produce in the heaviest of loads, and that ignores any environmental noise (like a ceiling fan or aircon running) or the use of closed-back headphones.

Conclusion

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The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo Black is a very solid yet affordable piece of hardware, at just RM149. Suppose your PC build consists of mid-range hardware like the Intel Core i5. In that case, the cooler will handle the maximum power available for the chip just fine – and this is the kind of system that Hyper 212 often finds home with, which is part of the reason why it is so ubiquitous among PC builds today.

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On all fronts, the Halo Black does them well enough – in terms of thermals, acoustics, installation, simplicity, anything. I find very little to complain about with this cooler – there’s a reason why Hyper 212 is highly regarded in the PC community, and the Halo Black is surely continuing the legacy of Cooler Master’s finest piece. Aside from that, the Halo Black also brings the modern-day aesthetics to the good ol’ reliable, so what’s not to love?

Pokdeward-Gold

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Special thanks to Cooler Master Malaysia for providing the Hyper 212 Halo Black for this review.

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