Overall and Final Verdict
I came into things today looking to see what Cooler Master had changed with their new Hyper 212 Evo V2 heatsink. Given the past performance and the popularity, I was worried that changes could make the cooler lose its magic, but it is clear that Cooler Master knows exactly what people want here. Good performance, a cooler that will fit in most builds, and a price doesn’t make the cooler a big purchase when doing a budget build. All of that is still here with the Evo V2. The big changes they made are the new SickleFlow fan, a slight angle in the heatpipes that helps with tall memory clearance, an improved bracket design, and they now include the bracket and fan splitter needed to run two fans on the cooler. ALL of those are big improvements. The new fan is significantly quieter than the old design and the tall memory clearance means it should fit in any traditional mid-tower build. The new brackets make installation easier but not perfect. Losing those stupid X brackets is huge though. The extra fan bracket and adapter are a nice touch, though I would still be okay if those weren’t included.
Cooler Master has managed to keep the simplicity of the original designs and just improve on things. So this is just a natural progression. Performance was right there with the Dark Rock Slim and the Noctua U12S which are great coolers as well and both cost a lot more.
Speaking of pricing, the new MSRP of the Hyper 212 Evo V2 is $39.99 which is $5 more than the Hyper 212 Evo. I have to wonder if not having the hardware for the second fan would help get it a little closer. But even with the slightly higher price, this is still a value when you compare the performance against higher-end 120mm air coolers. The Noctua NH-U12S is just under $65 for example.
Live Pricing: HERE
