Cooler Master Hyper 6+ (Athlon64) Grange-over-Sands

What a difference a 'plus' makes; when we first reviewed the Hyper 6 just over a year ago, it provided effective cooling but the mounting mechanism meant it wasn't compatible with some motherboards, and even when it was, it was tricky to get in place.

The Hyper 6 was an entirely copper HSF, and while the new Hyper 6+ retains the copper base, it uses aluminium fins, bringing the weight down to 795g (excluding fan) compared to the original, which weighed nearly 1kg. The mounting mechanism has been overhauled too. With the Hyper 6+, you choose the correct plate for your socket type and screw it to the base. The screws are then attached to this and pass through the holes in the motherboard. They're then bolted on the other side. This can be a tricky affair, especially given the size of the Hyper 6+.

Like the Hyper 6, the Hyper 6+ is based around six heatpipes, but uses a 100mm fan. This has blue LEDs, and pushes a whopping 72cfm of air. Unless your motherboard has a 4-pin fan header, the fan will be stuck at its lowest speed of 1,800rpm. On our Pentium 4e test system, the 4-pin connection meant the fan defaulted to an incredibly noisy 3,600rpm.

On our Athlon 64 and Pentium 4e test rigs, the CPU was 19ûC cooler than it was with the reference HSFs. The Hyper 6+ was also more effective than the other HSFs on test in this issue, and even cooled the Pentium 4e to 5ûC below the Labs-winning Arctic Cooling Freezer 7.

CONCLUSION

The big problem with the Hyper 6+ is that it makes a terrible racket, so it isn't worth considering unless you aren't bothered about fan noise. That said, its cooling ability is pretty amazing, so it's a good choice if you want big overclocks without using water cooling.

Author: Andrew Spode Miller

Cooler Master Hyper 6+ (Athlon64)