CM Hyper 212+ question

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speedlever

Limp Gawd
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Sep 29, 2006
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On the X bracket that holds the HSF to the CPU, what is the purpose of the center thumbscrew? It just centers the bracket on the HSF, right? I'm not clear on what purpose the thumbscrew is supposed to accomplish.
 
Yeah mainly just to center it up. It just holds everything together, and keeps tension on the middle spring, so you get a satisfying "click" when you adjust the x bracket.
 
It is meant to lock the arms from pivoting some, not to mention it applies a little bit more downpressure to the arms/heatplate to aid in cooling, this can actually be increased some by putting a washer or something there :p, but main purpose is to allow arms to stay centered while putting it together, and then apply more pressure after all said and done(though it doesnt apply much extra)

I have one, used on E8400 and now on Phenom II x4 955BE, cooler in Push/pull with identical stock fans, and temps are great, ratchet it down as hard as it would allow, very very good temps, both under load, both overvolted no more then 50c in 4+Ghz range.
 
Since it is adjustable, I thought there was some function to the adjustment. But I could neither see a purpose nor instruction to do so. I put a screwdriver on the end that goes in the HS and tightened it up before I installed it on my i5-2500k. But the HSF still had some side to side action, even with the 4 mounting screws tightened. After the install was complete, I just moved the HSF a bit to square it up on the mobo.
 
Yep mine moves side to side a little bit as well, but it cools very well for its price, not much are better at mid to high overclocks, with 2 good fans, and installed properly, the higher end sinks only get 4-7c better temps, and this is pushed to the limits.

Like said, if you wanted to "mod" it some, you could put a washer or something to add more pressure to sink, it may provide better temps because of this, however I do not think it will stop it moving side to side and may put to much pressure and bend socket or hurt cpu
 
I'll leave it alone for now. If I do anything at all, I'll replace the thermal compound and maybe add a 120mm fan from my old Noctua NHU12F from my E6600 build... I think it's a 120mm fan too. But that Noctua mounted solid on there... no movement at all. No biggee.
 
it squiggles a bit, but it does have good cooling, if you have a fan that provides near the same CFM/static pressure, I am aure it will help, as long as you have the screws and center post all the way down, it shouldn`t move to much, the stock fan of the Hyper 212+ I believe if the 78.9 or 79CFM bladmaster/R4 go to CM website and look at the Hyper 212 plus, get the same fan if you can, it would be better then holding back the faster fan, or overspinning the slower fan.
 
noctua are meant for noise/air ratio

The one you listed is 81 M3/h or 47.7 cfm, reall not that much, in Nocutas heatsinks it works fine as they are designed for high pass, low pressure type fans, or for no restriction case cooling as they move alot of thier air that way, but like alot of fans that are optimized for low noise, they are low pressure, and as such, if you put something in the way, such as a tighter heatsink, even a mesh, thier airflow is cut down drastically.

Noctua makes excellent fans, but they are not known for higher airflow, they are designed for noise, and as such have next to no pressure behind that air.

The bladmaster is a very good fan, reasonably quiet, and provides ample pressure/cfm, there are better flow fans, but really very few of them that happen to have the same pressure/airflow/noise.

Xigmatech, Enermax, Scythe, might be some, for Xigmatech they have one that does 89CFM that is almost identical noise to the R4 and slightly higher pressure, Enermax less flow overall but good pressure and quite quiet, Scythe makes incredible fans that move tons of air, however, they tend to be noisier, the Scythe Slipstream or Typhoon GT are very good. If you want stellar airflow, Deltas, but they are way louder then any fan you have ever heard :p

Anyways here is an airflow converter http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/flow-units-converter-d_405.html
M3/h to CFM is what you want for Noctua fan to standard measurements, Noctua fans are usually + a few CFM though, as they are actually lower rated for air then they actually are.
 
Thanks for the info. Sounds optimal to stick with the CM Blademaster 120 to match what's already on there. Now to look for a cheap one locally. ;)

Out of curiousity, I wonder what the cooling difference is between a single and a dual fan on the Hyper 212+?
 
I think under load from 5-10c difference, basically keeping my overclocked E8400 at 4Ghz and AMD Phenom II x4 also overclocked 46C and 38C respectively, this is with BF3 with single fan it would be easily pushing into the mid to high 50s and 46c or so on the AMD one.

Having the second fan helps the load temps, and helps it return to idle temps faster "heat soak"

I myself live in Canada, and buy all my stuff from as they do price matching, you may be able to get it locally, however I would go online, use priewatch or something similar to find best price, then go to and get them to pricematch it for you :)

But yes, you are best to go with 2 identical fans, no matter what they are, the H212+ does best with higher pressure fans, such as the R4/blademaster, Enermax series, Scythe Slipstream/ultra Kaze and the like, the same fan that is on the heatsink you can get from $6-$12, the thermal paste that comes with it is pretty good, but I like AS5 or MX4, MX4 is my preference now unless you can find Prolimatech PK1 thermal paste.

Anyways best of luck, so as said, pricematch it if you can to they pricematch to anywhere stateside or canada respecitvely, and are actually decent shipping costs, newegg is another good place of course.
 
Best way to mount this heatsink is to loosen that center screw all the way. Mount and tighten the corner screws, and then adjust the center screw to deal with any wiggle left in the heatsink.
 
dragonstongue said:
I think under load from 5-10c difference, basically keeping my overclocked E8400 at 4Ghz and AMD Phenom II x4 also overclocked 46C and 38C respectively, this is with BF3 with single fan it would be easily pushing into the mid to high 50s and 46c or so on the AMD one.

Having the second fan helps the load temps, and helps it return to idle temps faster "heat soak"

I myself live in Canada, and buy all my stuff from as they do price matching, you may be able to get it locally, however I would go online, use priewatch or something similar to find best price, then go to and get them to pricematch it for you :)

But yes, you are best to go with 2 identical fans, no matter what they are, the H212+ does best with higher pressure fans, such as the R4/blademaster, Enermax series, Scythe Slipstream/ultra Kaze and the like, the same fan that is on the heatsink you can get from $6-$12, the thermal paste that comes with it is pretty good, but I like AS5 or MX4, MX4 is my preference now unless you can find Prolimatech PK1 thermal paste.

Anyways best of luck, so as said, pricematch it if you can to they pricematch to anywhere stateside or canada respecitvely, and are actually decent shipping costs, newegg is another good place of course.
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That's more temp drop than I would have thought. Sounds like a pretty cheap way to make the cpu run even cooler.

c1001 said:
Best way to mount this heatsink is to loosen that center screw all the way. Mount and tighten the corner screws, and then adjust the center screw to deal with any wiggle left in the heatsink.
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Unless there's something in the hole in the HSF mount that stops the screw head from turning, that screw will just spin if you turn the thumbscrew. If there really is an effective adjustment which that accomplishes, it would have been nice if the instructions mentioned it. Next time I open up the case, I'll try to remember to check it (as I'd left it tight instead of loose when I mounted it.) But if all it does is tighten up on itself, I can't see how that would affect the fit on the CPU. The wiggle seems to come from the slop in the system around the pin that is supposed to keep the bracket aligned on the base.
 
the 5-10c depends on how much heatload and case of course :)

yeh that little center post thingy, does provide "some" down pressure, I know many manufactueres that do that, unfortunately to give it the tension it needs like you pointed out, it only gets so tight, you would need to put something in there to stop it from spinning.

I know in my case going from Intel to AMD, on the AMD system the heatsink seems to be a little snugger, it is not able to twist nearly as much, socket height difference, I do not know.
 
Ah well, as long as it cools properly, no big deal.

I just ordered a CM Blademaster 120mm for about $12 shipped so I can have a push/pull arrangement. We'll see if dual fans do anything for my rig.
 
XD, it very well should, I know mine works very well, I am sure the big air coolers would work better, but for the price, and reviews I have seen, not overly worth the extra cost to go with bigger :p
 
speedlever said:
Unless there's something in the hole in the HSF mount that stops the screw head from turning, that screw will just spin if you turn the thumbscrew. If there really is an effective adjustment which that accomplishes, it would have been nice if the instructions mentioned it. Next time I open up the case, I'll try to remember to check it (as I'd left it tight instead of loose when I mounted it.) But if all it does is tighten up on itself, I can't see how that would affect the fit on the CPU. The wiggle seems to come from the slop in the system around the pin that is supposed to keep the bracket aligned on the base.
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I just know what worked for me through trial and error. I installed it with the center screw tightened prior to mounting and the heatsink felt loose. I removed it, loosened the center screw, remounted and it was a much tighter fit. I just had to tighten the center screw a bit. Trial and error.
 
So can two of those Blademaster fans be hooked up to the CPU fan mobo header via a splitter without any problems?

I built my new rig a week or so ago, and was putting it through a workout with Prime95 tonight. The CPU temps started getting a little on the warm side, so I thought that since I only had a single push fan, I'd also install an additional pull fan. Didn't have a matching Coolermaster fan, but did have a new Rosewill and installed it, and then fired Prime95 up again, only to discover the temps rose even faster WITH the second fan. Pulled the Rosewill back off and tried things again, and the temps were as before (warm, but not hot). After thinking about it for a minute, (and verifying that both fans were pointed in the same direction) I'm guessing that the RPMs of the Rosewill fan (hooked up to a Molex connector) wasn't matching the Coolermaster fan and essentially created an airflow obstruction. I might be better off getting two Blademaster fans as a matching set. But I just wanted to make sure I could hook them both up to the same header without damaging anything. (too much load?)
 
FORDification said:
So can two of those Blademaster fans be hooked up to the CPU fan mobo header via a splitter without any problems?

I built my new rig a week or so ago, and was putting it through a workout with Prime95 tonight. The CPU temps started getting a little on the warm side, so I thought that since I only had a single push fan, I'd also install an additional pull fan. Didn't have a matching Coolermaster fan, but did have a new Rosewill and installed it, and then fired Prime95 up again, only to discover the temps rose even faster WITH the second fan. Pulled the Rosewill back off and tried things again, and the temps were as before (warm, but not hot). After thinking about it for a minute, (and verifying that both fans were pointed in the same direction) I'm guessing that the RPMs of the Rosewill fan (hooked up to a Molex connector) wasn't matching the Coolermaster fan and essentially created an airflow obstruction. I might be better off getting two Blademaster fans as a matching set. But I just wanted to make sure I could hook them both up to the same header without damaging anything. (too much load?)
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Well, this is why I said having 2 match fans is a good idea, for temps and for the fans not being worn out for nothing.

2 bladmasters over 1 header, that I wouldnt try, most motherboards have multiple fan headers over them, you can use one of the others if it reaches, if not you can get an adapter for the fan to hook it up to a 4 pin molex connector.

If you had 2 very low wattage/low amp, low cfm fans, possibly, however most motherboard headers for cpu can easily handle 1 fan, 2 might be pushing it, and you could blow your fan header, but it is worth researching a little.
 
c1001 said:
I just know what worked for me through trial and error. I installed it with the center screw tightened prior to mounting and the heatsink felt loose. I removed it, loosened the center screw, remounted and it was a much tighter fit. I just had to tighten the center screw a bit. Trial and error.
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Interesting. Next time I open the case, I may take that off and loosen the center screw a bit and see if anything changes.
 
I believe I did the same, as originally on an Core 2 E8400, worked very well, but it most definately was looser, when reinstalled on Phenom II x4 955BE I took it apart for dusting, and such, and the center screw was a little looser, installed it, tightened all down, then tightened center, it is noticeably tighter now, and unless this cpu is alot cooler then I think it is, it also is running around 4c idle-12c full load cooler with more volts then the E8400. I am happy I guess is all I can say :D
 
I have two of these one has always had wiggle

the other didn't really the first time i installed it ..then I pulled it and reinstalled it and now it has wiggle.

temps are the same either way ...i guess if i get super motivated I will try the technique mentioned above sometime.

but not today...
 
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