CPU Air Cooler Roundup: Six Coolers from Noctua, SilverStone, be quiet!, and Cooler Master

Conclusions, Part 2

The second set of conclusions are for be quiet!'s ninja, the Dark Rock Pro 2, along with Cooler Master's stellar budget performer, the Hyper 212 EVO.

be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2

The biggest problem with be quiet!'s Dark Rock Pro 2 is that it's incredibly hard to find in the United States. At present, the only place you can get it as NCIXUS, and NCIXUS isn't exactly well known for their competitive pricing. The Noctua NH-D14 was already a tough sell at $81, and as much as I love the Dark Rock Pro 2, I don't think it's worth the $20 premium. This is without a doubt one of the quietest and most efficient air coolers you can find, but until the price comes down the premium won't justify the slightly superior efficiency over the Noctua.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

I'll confess I went into this part of the review with a little bit of a bias. While my experiences with Cooler Master's products have been mixed, the Hyper 212 coolers have generally been very well regarded. And why wouldn't they be? The Hyper 212 Plus and EVO employ basically the same direct touch heatpipe technology that made Xigmatek's HDT1283 such a crowd pleaser, and they're both incredibly affordable. Cooler Master is able to eke a tremendous amount of efficiency out of this design with just one good 120mm fan, and while the 212 EVO can be beaten by closed loop coolers or fancier air coolers, it's an easy sell to an enthusiast on a budget.

Conclusions

Fundamentally, what I'm left with are a series of coolers that at least, outside of SilverStone's unfortunately middle-of-the-road Heligon HE01, can all justify themselves in their own way. Users looking for a beefy air cooler will essentially find themselves choosing between the Noctua NH-D14 and be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2, and under those circumstances I have to give the edge to Noctua based on price alone.

Meanwhile, users looking for a low profile cooler are probably going to be served fairly well by the NH-L12. The NH-L9i is certainly an upgrade over an Intel stock cooler, and I can imagine corner cases where a user will want one, but under most circumstances I just don't think it does enough to really merit purchase. If you need a low profile cooler and want some extra juice out of it, the NH-L12 is likely going to be the way to go.

Finally, as I mentioned before, I went into this review with a bias toward the Hyper 212 EVO and frankly, it delivered. The price-performance ratio of Cooler Master's Hyper 212 coolers is essentially bulletproof and speaks to the same type of user who overclocked not to hit records, but to get the most out of his or her limited investment. A build using a Hyper 212 EVO and an Antec GX700 enclosure, for example, may not be the most attractive system in the world, but it'll get a tremendous amount of mileage out of the buyer's money. Because the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is able to produce fairly competitive thermals without too much noise pollution, I'm happy to award it a Bronze Editor's Choice award.