Some weeks ago I shared my new PC build. It’s been wonderful. Working perfectly. One thing I did recently was put in another 500GB drive to hold my VM images. While I was in there, I moved the front mounted drives around to the back and did some better cable arranging.

One thing I had planned to do for a while was add a new CPU cooler. After reading some reviews and watching some Youtube videos, I settled on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition.

I probably didn’t really need this. But I think it’s a good investment. I’d been using the stock cooler that came with my Ryzen 5 3600. It did the job adequately. I’m not into any kind of crazy overclocking or anything, and wasn’t having any real heat problems. In general use, with a browser and a few tabs open, terminal and some music playing, maybe Slack open, the CPU would be in the high 30s to mid 40s C. Unless it was completely idle it wouldn’t stay in the 30s much. More in the low 40s. With Slack and some more active tabs open, it’d get into the 50s, maybe some short peaks into the 60s. Completely idle with nothing running, it would be mid-to-high 30s.

With the new cooler, I can see an immediate difference. Idle with just a browser and several tabs, it will settle down to 31-32. I never saw it go that low with the stock cooler. So it’s promising. I’ve only put it in this morning, so I’ll give it a few days to see how it performs under daily loads, but seems like a good improvement so far.

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Installation wasn’t too bad. Took off the old cooler and cleaned up the thermal paste. You have to use their custom back plate, so I removed the old one and set up the new one. This was probably the most complex part. The cooler is designed to fit on a number of different socket types. You have to install various posts or screws and clips and move them to various positions depending on which socket you have, as well as a couple different types of brackets that go on the cooler itself. There’s a decent manual with Ikea-like diagrams for each configuration. I managed to get it right the first time without too much difficulty.

I came very close to forgetting to put on fresh thermal paste, but caught myself before tightening any screws. Getting the four screws on the brackets started was a bit tricky. They’re all spring mounted and wobble around. You have apply a little pressure and get them at the right angle to get them going. But once they were started, easy to tighten up by alternate corners.

The cooler comes with a single 120mm Silencio fan. The instructions have you mount it in a configuration that pushes air across the cooler and towards the back fan, which makes sense. But you can also purchase and add a second fan to mount on the other side of the cooler, for a push-pull configuration. There’s also an RGB version, but I think I have enough RGB going on in there as it is.

The cooler itself is pretty tall and the reviews all said to make sure you have enough room in your case. My case is ludicrously cavernous, so there’s plenty of room to spare, but it’s good advice to check.