Results at 2.4Ghz



With the stock Delta fan on both heatsinks the difference is very small, with the fan at 12v the difference is only 1°C, at 7v it's 1.5°C. In the noise department you can see that the Hyper 48 creates more air turbulence which translates into a slightly nosier HSF.



Switching to the Papst 92mm gives comparable results to the stock fan when comparing performance, at lower CFM the Hyper 48 is trailing slightly while at higher CFM the difference becomes nihil.



Switching to the high performance and noisy Vantec Tornado fan further confirms the previous findings; at very high CFM the Hyper 48 pulls away from the competition.


Results at 3.0Ghz

At 2.4Ghz the difference between the 2 contenders was quite minimal, let's turn up the heat:



With the Delta fan the difference at 12V slightly increases in favor of the XP-90, while at 7v the Hyper 48 scores quite poorly, I verified this several times but got the same result.



The Papst fan at 12V pushes a bit more air then the Delta, keeping the difference minimal, at 7V the Hyper 48 fares much better now when compared to the XP-90.



The Vantec Tornado once again gives the Hyper 48 a, albeit small, lead.


Flipping the fan

As an additional test I flipped the stock Delta fan, by default it blows down air through the fins:



A negligible difference between the two configurations; which is quite good, this gives you the possibility to experiment with both setups without losing performance.


Conclusions

The Hyper 48 is available at a competitive price of ~$50 from different stores, easy to install, multi- platform compatible and an excellent performer.

In my tests comparing the Hyper 48 to the Thermalright XP-90, it stood its ground and delivered comparable results. The Hyper 48 becomes a cooling monster when combined with a high output fan, while it will keep your CPU running sufficiently cool with the most silent fans.

The extra fins in its design cause more turbulence which translates into a slightly higher noise, I should say very slightly, as I was unable to notice a difference between a fan running on the Hyper 48 versus the XP-90; only the dBA meter noticed this difference.

The engineers at Coolermaster continue their excellent trend of producing ever improving cooling solutions, their latest is on par with the best out there and worth a look if you consider building a low noise or high performance system.

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