Probably a common question regarding the CM Hyper212 series coolers

DeaconFrost

DeaconFrost

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I am finding a lot of conflicting answers on what should be a simple question. I recently built a new tower with a 3700X processor. I have everything running perfectly, but when I do anything mildly intensive, my CPU fan becomes very audible. It currently uses the stock Wraith Prism cooler. Would switching to one of the Hyper 212 variants, such as the Black model give me anything in terms of lowering the noise? I am seeing tests showing that cooling performance isn't much better than stock, and that's fine. I'm purely asking about the noise comparison.

By the way, I do have the Wraith Prism set to "low" mode using it's physical switch. I've adjusted the curves in the BIOS and SIV software, and everything is running very quietly except for the CPU cooler.
 
I had a CM Hyper212 Evo from years ago. It was better than stock, the significantly larger passive heatsink will see to that. The exact model you list, Hyper 212 Black, costs $40 right now on Amazon. It was ok for marginal overclocking, a few 100mhz above stock and really nothing more. Since you have a 3700x, like most ryzens, there really isn't a huge amount of performance to be gained by OC, so that should be good for you. It's nowhere near as good as my Noctua NH-D15, but that costs well over twice as much.

I'd say go for it and know that you largely get what you pay for it. It's much better than stock, and worse than say a BeQuiet/Sycthe/Noctua that cost $50-70.

Relatedly, both these CPU cooler roundups say that its the best of the budget cpu coolers
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-cpu-coolers
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-cpu-coolers-for-desktops/
 
On a separate note, I would stay away from SIV. In fact, just uninstall the damn thing. My gaming pc is a Gigabyte Z170-HD3P and I upgraded the bios to the most recent (F22-G? something similiar). I downloaded the Gigabyte utilities and made sure SIV was updated too. It was buggy AF. Kept telling me wrong RPMs, wrong PWM, all that crap.

Uninstall it completely, if needed flash your bios to the most recent stable (non-Beta), and adjust the fan curves there.
 
212 Black will be less noisy than a Prism.

Unless you have a specific cooling requirement improvement adding an Arctic fan would improve the noise levels at a given high rpm.
There are some marginal temp gains with the 212B.
They're cheap, the 212B should be cheap, I wouldn't want to $ myself into a larger/quieter class of cooler.

Look for a used Cryorig HI or better $25 or so, those will be better temp/noise wise but you will end up buying a mounting kit off eBay or Amazon. Calculate that in the overall spend.

Used Noctua cooler, U14s or better, would be ideal if you can get it in your case for less than $60 all in.

I don't think the Be quiet Pro coolers are worth the $, I like the fans tho. If you saw one $40 or less noise is your main concern, not overclocking, so I guess that's be fine.

I went thru the exact same noise issues as OP, used cooler market is a mess to navigate $20-50.
 
True it is a mess, but if you aren't going to overclock, then most will be just fine. And practically all will be better than stock cooler
 
Worst thing about tuning air coolers is +/- 3c is what doubling up fans, or upgrading fans is pretty standard. That's not what OP and many people are trying to address as #1.

Chasing +/- decibels with a given cooler fan change, or rpm range affected by intake air, was annoying. I had to slap on the low noise capacitance wire on my U14s after pulling the solid front off my Define C.

Burned a bunch of time tweaking intake fans, grouping them so I wasn't affecting gpu, finding the upper limits of rpm range I could live with.

So it may not be just buy x cooler and your problems are solved.
 
I've never had a Wraith Prism and haven't looked at any reviews in a long time that included it but I would be very surprised if the CM Hyper 212 line didn't cool quite a bit better. My only experience is with a 2600x, Wraith Spire and a CM Hyper 212 LED in a push/pull configuration. It dropped my temps considerably under full load and allows the 2600x to boost 200mhz+ over the Wraith Spire.

I know I'm comparing my CPU with fewer cores and threads to yours with a smaller die which can cause an issue with heat dissipation so the comparison is by no means scientific. I'd still think it would likely cool better than the Prism and do so with less noise. Between the heatpipes, larger surface area and much larger fan on the Hyper 212 it would be difficult for it to not be better overall.

At the time of purchase I went with the Hyper 212 LED for three reasons. The first is that it was on sale on Amazon for $25 which was cheaper than any of the other Hyper 212 heatsinks. The second reason was because it was guaranteed to have the proper mounting accessories for AM4. The third was because it has the plastic fan brackets instead of the horribly annoying metal clips. The Hyper 212 Evo is supposed to have the mounting accessories for AM4 now but it seems there are still a few out there which don't and I didn't want to take that chance. I also absolutely hate the metal clips for fan mounting because they're such a huge pain in the ass. It's usually impossible to have the fans mounted before installing the heatsink and trying to attach or remove the clips once everything is installed in the case is at best an exercise in frustration. It's sometimes not a big deal if the motherboard isn't yet in the case but that's only if the fans aren't in the way of any of the mounting holes for the motherboard.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. My local MicroCenter has a bunch for $44.99, so I'm going to get one and give it a shot. I've been able to narrow down to the Wraith Prism being the sole noisy component.
 
You wont be disappointed over stock. However, should you go down the overclocking route, you are going to want a beefier cooler.
 
I just changed from a Wraith Prism on my VR machine to a 212 Black. It's much quieter, BUT I also replaced the CM Silencio fan with a NB eLoop, so that's likely contributing. The Silencio fan on my unit has a broken corner straight out of the package, but I bought the thing so long ago there's no chance of returning it...

In any case, it is much much quieter. That Wraith kinda sucked, honestly.
 
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