Cooler Master Hyper 6+
Jul 11th, 2005 | By Archive
Cooler Master Hyper 6+
Date
: 07/11/05 – 04:17:12 AM
Author
:
Category
: Cooling
Page 1 : Index
Manufacturer
: Cooler Master
Price
: 54.99 (Newegg)
Cooler Master could be regarded as one of the cooling authorities when it comes to enthusiast products. It's in the elite league with Thermalright, Thermaltake, and Swiftech, just to name a few. I believe it was about a year ago when Cooler Master first released the
Hyper 6
; combined with heatpipes and a large number of fins, this giant was able to cool the hottest machines.
Times have changed and Cooler Master listened to the needs of the market to develop a successor to the Hyper 6 that could outperform its predecessor and work on multiple platforms. Just recently, Cooler Master released this cooler and called it the
Hyper 6+
.
Page 2 : Package
The Hyper 6+ came in a rather large box stuffed with Styrofoam peanuts. There's good reason why they used a large packaging box; this is no dinky cooler!
The Hyper 6+ retail package allows you to clearly see the heatsink in all its glory. The entire front face is visible and you immediately get a sense of its size.
At the bottom of the package, we see a few of the key specifications. Words like "universal retention module", "power 6 heatpipes", and "ultra silent 100mm fan" paint a powerful picture about the Hyper 6+. If you own an older system, you can expect to be able to use the Hyper 6+ even after you upgrade. The heatpipe cooled by a large fan hints of the powerful performance one can achieve using a silent, high CFM, low dBa fan. So far, it sounds pretty sweet.
Tucked away beside the cooler are a few pictures that show some more properties of the Hyper 6+.
Definitions of the legend can be obtained on Cooler Master's website.
The sides of the box outline some technical specifications that all readers should be concerned about. These specs give you a good indication of what to expect with the cooler.
Cooler Master even takes the time to warn its readers to ensure thermal grease is applied to the CPU before the cooler is placed on top of the processor. I hope they included some thermal grease and not thermal gum as per the picture.
The complete packaging offers a good idea of what an end user can expect.
Page 3 : Specifications
Heat Sink Dimension: 88x88x35 mm
Heat Sink Material: 6 heat pipes, aluminum and copper alloy
Fan Dimension: 100x100x25 mm
Fan Speed: 1800 ~ 3600 R.P.M. (Control by PWM)
Fan Air flow: 31.33 ~ 72.14 CFM
Fan Air Pressure: 0.96 ~ 4.46 mmH2O
Fan Life Expectance: 50,000 hrs
Bearing Type: Rifle Bearing
Voltage Rating: 12 V
Noise Level: 20.6 ~ 46.4 dB(A)
Connector: 4 pin (PWM) / 3 pin (without PWM) (Foolproof Design)
Weight: 795.3g (without FAN)
Thermal Resistance: 0.25 ~ 0.36 C/W (Testing with Intel® Pentium® 4 570J)
Page 4 : Contents
When we open up the packaging, we're presented with the cooler and a number of other key accessories.
The first thing we'll look at is the 100mm fan. This clear cooler has several blue LEDs embedded in the frame.
We've already seen the specifications of the fan, so there's no need to look at that again.
The second bundle consists of the installation manual and a bag full of mounting equipment. All very important things, so don't lose them.
The one thing you've all been waiting for is the cooler.
Without a doubt, Cooler Master doesn't disappoint. The cooler has a large copper base with
six
heatpipes attached!
An aluminum shroud is used to protect the fins and to mount the 100mm fan. Two fans can be installed for a push-pull effect.
By removing the shroud, we can get a closer look at the metal that does all the cooling.
It's possible to see the six heatpipes and fins with saw-toothed edges. Cooler Master claims that the saw-tooth effect increases surface area for cooling. If you ask me, the amount of surface area you can gain on the edge is minimal, and a full effect could be obtained if the entire plate was wavy and not flat.
Speaking of flat, the base is smooth but could use a tiny bit of lapping and polishing to give it a nice shine.
We'll proceed to the installation and testing of this cooler.
Page 5 : Installation and Testing
The Hyper 6+ supports multiple platforms ensuring that your money doesn't go to waste. We start by taking out all of the mounting plates and finding the one you need for your system. We'll be testing all of our coolers on a K8 Venice machine. We'll also need to pull aside the proper back plate, which means we'll need to remove the motherboard to mount the Hyper 6+.
After taking the proper back plate, we can go to our bag of goodies and pull out two screws to secure to our mounting plate.
You'll then need to find four tiny screws to secure the mounting plate to the heatsink.
You'll notice that I haven't removed the label, you'll want to keep this on for as long as possible so you don't scratch the base.
There are four additional screws for attaching the fan.
The physical installation is tedious and requires a bit of patience. After applying a tiny bit of thermal paste (Cooler Master does not include a reusable tube), you need to lay the cooler down on the motherboard
and
flip the entire board and cooler around! With the motherboard resting on the cooler, place the back plate on top of the board and push down until you can see the tips of the screws sticking out. Using the provided nuts, press down hard enough so you can screw in the nut. Then do the exact same process for the other screw. This process took me 15 minutes as the screws for the heatsink just made it past my motheroard. You'll need to tighten the nuts to ensure proper contact using the provided tool, a ratchet head, that you can tighten with a screwdriver.
The fun doesn't end there.
Take a good look at that picture….the Bravo X700 isn't actually in the PCI-E x16 slot because the fan takes up the room the heatsinks need. This is a problem if you want a push-pull configuration, but it's more because I'm using such a large heatsink on my video card. A typical card may not have this problem.
The last little issue I ran into was the 4-pin power connector Cooler Master decided to use. It only works great if there isn't anything beside the CPU fan header or if your motherboard actually uses a 4-pin connector. :)
As a result, the Hyper 6+ will be powered off my chassis header, which unfortunately doesn't have a RPM sensor for me to refer to.
With everything finally on, we'll proceed with testing of this system. The system configuration and contenders are listed below:
Albatron K8SLI
nForce4 SLI Chipset @ 1.8V
AMD Venice 3000+ @ 300*9 1.65V
PDP Patriot 2*512MB XBLK 250Mhz 3-4-4-8 3.0V
PowerColor Bravo X700
Antec TrueBlue 2.0 480 Watt
40 GB Maxtor ATA 100 7200 RPM
BenQ DW1610
Components were spread out over my desk and no case was used.
Coolers
Cooler Master Hyper 6+
AMD 3000+ Venice Stock Cooler
Silverstone NT02
Ultra Products Ultra Fire
Acoustically, the Hyper 6+ isn't too loud. It's much quieter than the NT02 at full blast, but louder than both stock and silent NT02. The unique fan size makes it slightly harder for you to switch fans if you think the Hyper 6+ 100mm fan is too loud.
Page 6 : Conclusion
The Hyper 6+ faired well against the NT02, but its 100mm fan placed higher up in the heatsink frame couldn't keep the system temps the NT02 had to offer. While performance may be the most important factor for CPU coolers, we can't neglect simplicity. If its hard to install, users won't buy it. The Hyper 6+ was not the easiest cooler to install. It was more difficult to install and it would most certainly be nice if future revisions could simplify the install procedure.
Advantages
Excellent thermal performance
Universal fit
Quiet
Disadvantages
Complicated installation procedure
Large
Overclockers Online would like to thank Cooler Master for providing this sample for evaluation.