The Cooler Master H612PWM is the companies latest release. The H612PWM draws on some older and proven techniques and pairs them with some new ones. The result is presentable. In our test the H612PWM did perform well. Cooler Master implemented an impressive 6 heatpipes which is becoming more of a standard with high-end coolers and paired it with large surface area fins. A very smart move was to move the heatpipes from the traditional sides of the cooler to the front and back. This avoids draft from the front most heatpipe to any following heatpipe; however, it also creates a good amount of turbulence which in turn could hurt constant airflow over the fins as well as static pressure. All in all it probably was a trade-off well worth it.
The Cooler Master H612PWM handled the fully loaded i7 930 @ 4.0GHz well enough to keep it below 90c degrees. Considering that most future platforms will use less power and produce less heat we believe it save to say that this cooler will perform well here. The gathered results are good even without a 2nd fan attached.
Analyzing the testing results for the Cooler Master H612PWM shows not only that there is still more potential but also room for improvement. A 2nd fan attached could make the results for the H612PWM look much better then they are already. If that 2nd fan would be counter rotating to create a turbine effect as we have seen some other coolers, could potentially eliminate or nullify the airflow turbulence issue.
One down side we found with this cooler is the mounting mechanism. How much or how little this is a deciding factor when purchasing a CPU cooler is up to anyone's preference. We found that the mechanism is not conducive to frequent mounting and remounting. Since this is not something a regular end-user is doing on a regular basis we will not hold it against the H612PWM but even the first and only installation attempt can prove to be quite challenging and can not be conducted inside the case.
The Cooler Master H612PWM will be released in August 2011 and will be available in European markets in September 2011. The current MSRP is $49.99 USD. The performance of this cooler proves this cooler to be a good value at this price. Cooler Master released the H612PWM with a single fan, but the cooler supports a dual fan configuration. Investing in a 2nd fan or a matching pair of aftermarket fans is something we certainly could recommend.
We would like to thank Cooler Master and TechREACTION as well as all of our readers, members, supporters and our sponsors and everybody who helped make this review possible.
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