Cooler Master 212 EVO question.

chrisgregory · Oct 29, 2013

So as I am new to hardware installation I have been watching a lot of youtube videos on how to install an aftermarket CPU cooler, more specifically the Cooler Master 212 EVO. One thing Ive noticed is in most tutorials ive watched, there is almost always a second fan added to the other side of the heatsink to create the "push and pull" method. Now I have a few questions concerning this. 1. Is this recommended and if so, what are the benefits of having it set up this way. 2. Do I just need a regular 120mm fan like this -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214029, or does it need to be a PWM? I am looking to use the push and pull method (although I dont know why and I wish I did, just going by what I see on youtube) so if anybody can recommended a solid fan for me to use for no more than 15$ and preferably LED (blue) that would be excellent. And 3. last but not least, how much thermal paste do I want to use when I do this? Do I want to put a chocolate chip sized drop in the center of the CPU and then apply heat sink, or do I want to almost spread the paste onto the CPU like pb and j on a piece of bread so to speak. And again, if so, how much paste am I using.

Calculatron · Oct 30, 2013

Firstly, on the subject setting up a push-pull configuration is definitely optional. The addition of adding another fan on just about any set-up yields little gain in performance. It is safe to say that, generally, performance gains are around the 2C range; definitely no greater than 5C that I have ever seen. Here is an interesting set of posts on another forum: http://www.overclock.net/t/1274407/fans-the-most-complete-and-comprehensive-array-of-tests-and-benchmarks# Post number 2 is the one to pay attention to. They did round-up of tests on fans on a testbed, measuring temperature with push, pull, and push-pull. Only a handful of fans, in push-pull, get above 3C gain - most of those are slow-RPM fans.

So, if you really need a couple degrees to get an edge on an overclock, sure, invest the money. If you're just a standard user, I wouldn't worry about it; the extra noise wouldn't be worth it. If you still want to go ahead and do it, though, it is highly recommended that you use a matching fan set. This is the close match I could find the the stock: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103069

Lastly, as for thermal paste and its application, Tom's Hardware recently did a set of articles on this subject, it's a worthy read: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-heat-sink-heat-spreader,3600.html (Long story short: about a dot the size of a lentil.)

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

This is what I found when doing my own research on the cooler. http://www.overclocking-tv.com/content/reviews/13393/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-fight-hyper-tx3-evo-vs-212-evo/

It shows the difference between Push/Pull and single fan setup of the Hyper 212 EVO. Needless to say, i've ordered one for myself and I am fitting it tomorrow.

I've heard that a pea sized dot in the middle is the general rule for thermal paste. Tek Syndicate do a brilliant job of explaining it on youtube. Those guys are great, make these things funny and enjoyable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgFNH7zhQ

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

Thanks guys! I love tek syndicate so I was happy to see that video covering my question! That will be the method I use (pea method). Im thrilled that my unit ended up winning the battle in that article! Interesting enough though, when explaining the push pull method, they seem to have gotten better results by just using one fan. Makes me wonder what I should do now. I already placed an order for a fan and I may have messed up considering Calculatron suggested I get matching fans, because I ordered this for my second fan -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214028. Hey, if I decide Id rather just use one fan or I dont end up liking it or whatever the case, it was only a 12 dollar mistake. And itll just be one more computer part to lie around and add to the collection that seems to be piling up fast as of late, which I dont mind, maybe one day Ill be able to build something with it all.

Anyway not sure what Ill do yet. Going to wait until this fan comes in to decide and go from there. I was thinking about installing it today and throwing the fan on after but Ill just wait. I got fee 2 day shipping so Ill have the thing tomorrow. After watching multiple youtube videos on installation, I dont think it should be all too hard either! Kinda looking forward to tackling it.

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

chrisgregory :

If you still have time, you might want to check that the Cooler is compatible with your case, motherboard and RAM. I've heard of issues with the Cooler being too tall for some cases, and the cooler may be too large width-ways and touch the RAM. Just check the spec of your case to find the size and compare that with the cooler to make sure it will fit. Remember that there will need to be extra size difference between the case and the cooler, as you'll have to account for the size of the motherboard adding to it too.

If everything checks out ok, you'll be good to go! It's always good to have an extra fan or two lying around, if not just for fun (some people hook up extra fans in summer and use them for personal air conditioning lol).

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

Ive already gotten the cooler. I ran my hardware specs by a few people and they seem to think Ill be good. So fingers crossed there.

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1416421

theres my build. what do you think? i replaced the psu yesterday too. the peace of mind is amazing! that thing was junk that came with the case. lol

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

chrisgregory :

No Graphics card?

The build is nice, I was going to mention the PSU but if you've already replaced it then that's good.

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

Graphics card is my next and final step! So it will be what you see there in the link minus crappy PSU and plus Corsair cx600, minus stock CPU cooler and plus Cooler Master 212 EVO. And then finally, shell be getting an EVGA GTX 650 Ti 2gb boost (good choice? many have recommended it) in the next couple of weeks to complete what will be my first build. Equipped with a nice new 22 inch acer full HD LED monitor. After the GPU will come a nice keyboard and mouse set up. What I have now is nice but very basic and nothing special. I do have a nice set of 2.1 speakers though too. So while I could be doing better I could be doing a lot worse!

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

chrisgregory :

Awesome! That GPU will have similar performance to my HD 7870

Your build is looking great!

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

The ram thats in my build, is low profile ram, correct? If so then I hope there should be no problem fitting the cooler in. Theres plenty of room inside the case for it to exist, just worried about the ram being in the way. Im pretty positive I have low profile ram although knowing my luck itll still get in my way anyway.

Thanks! I know I said it would be done after what I mentioned above, but I might want to replace the fx4300 with the fx6300 sometime down the road. I guess probably just to future proof a little.

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

chrisgregory :

I'm pretty sure your RAM is just fine. I have similar, and it's only the ones that have the tall heatsinks on them that tend to be the issue - the kind of RAM that is higher-end. Regardless, you should be able to move your RAM over to the 2nd channel anyway as long as you only have 2 sticks of it. Also, some people just push the fan on the cooler upwards a bit to clear the RAM and they don't find any negative performance from doing so.

If you're upgrading from the fx 4300 at some point, have a look at the FX 8320 or FX 8350 to jump up to an 8 core for just a little bit more money.

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

Isnt there some sort of trick to placing the ram? I have 4 slots for ram and the way they are in now is I believe 1 stick in slot 1 and 1 stick in slot 3 -OR- 1 stick in slot 2 and 1 stick in slot 4. Im not too sure which of the two ways I have it, but its one of them. A friend of mine installed them so I cant say for sure. Ive always wondered, can they be placed in slot 1 and slot 2 side by side, the slots that are furthest from the cooler? I never quite understood how that worked.

As far as upgrading the CPU, I was told when I asked here on the forum that my MB wouldnt be good for anything higher than the 6300. Or rather what they said was that they personally wouldnt use anything greater than a 6 core 6300 with my MB. So who knows. I hear all sorts of different things, never know what to believe a lot of the time. lol But yes, originally I was going to say screw it and go all the way with the 8350 when and if I did decide to upgrade.

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

Yes, slot 1 & 3 or slot 2 & 4, you're correct. You probably have it in 1 & 3 but you can move it over to the other configuration if the cooler is too wide.

I think you should be fine putting any CPU in your mobo as long as it's compatible; in this case, your board supports AM3+ so putting any AM3+ chip in their should be fine. They may have been referring to overclocking which isn't a good idea on some cheaper motherboards, including mine (M5A97 R2.0) with which I'll only be able to get a slight overclock. Something to do with phase design I think.

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

Cool. Thanks for that info. How come the RAM needs to be inserted like that and is it ALWAYS inserted like that or is there any exceptions? Its like they want to make everything as complicated as possible haha. What happens if its not inserted right and is put in slots 1 and 2?
Once I have my new cooler on and since I replaced my PSU, I will be able to overclock my 4300 right? How do you recommend I go about doing it and how high do you think I will be able to get it safely?

chrisgregory · Oct 30, 2013

Keep in mind I dont want any complications. Im scared of complications haha. So even if I got a 4.3ghz or something out of it id be pumped. I rely on my PC for a lot of things in my life and if it went down and I couldnt get it back up id be screwed. I am however curious and want to experiment with things and cant fight the temptation to rip it apart and make it better. I had it in pieces the other day replacing the PSU and was praying to god it would turn on when I was done. Thank god it did haha. Im not looking forward to ripping the motherboard out and all of that to put this fan in but I think I should be able to get it done. Ive watched a lot of very in detail youtube tutorials now on it where I think I can handle it. Just waiting on this 2nd fan and going from there. I just want to see a slight jump in my speed when overclocking, nothing crazy. its supposed to be a 3.8ghz processor with an auto overclock of 4.0ghz when necessary but for some reason when I have cpuid open it stays at 3.9ghz and 4.0ghz flopping back and forth steadily. Not sure if it should even be doing that because i thought it was supposed to drop when not under heavy load but whenever im not sure if something is right or not i just think about how the computer runs flawlessly so whatever it is it cant be too bad or possibly not even a problem. Like how my CPU usage is never lower than 24% even after a restart with all processes and tasks closed and services.msc scanned and everything unnecessary turned off. Cant figure out for the life of me if this is how it should be or if something is wrong. And nothing I do lowers it. Some people tell me its just my Win7 Ultimate operating system using the 24% and some people tell me its too high for what is essentially an idle computer. So I dunno. My mothers computer has Win 7 ultimate on it and its an ancient pentium D dual core and when not being used or touched it stays under 10% cpu usage. Very strange.

JOOK-D · Oct 30, 2013

chrisgregory :

I think you'd just see much worse performance. There are many tutorials on YouTube for overclocking that go into much more depth than I could possibly go. Generally you slowly increase the clock speed in the BIOS and run a stress test (e.g. prime95) to check that it is stable. If not, you can increase the voltages, but when you do so temperatures will increase so you also need to keep an eye on that. You will reach a sweet spot between clock speed, voltages and temperature where everything runs better than before and does so safely and stably. Bearing in mind your motherboard, I'd say you probably shouldn't overclock over 0.5 Ghz over the stock clock speed. So yeah, 4.3 should be about right.

chrisgregory · Nov 2, 2013

So i want to install my fan but im too afraid im going to run into complications as that would be a tragedy considering how important having my PC day to day is. I read a couple reviews on the FX 8120 processor and they said as follows

"Cons: GARBAGE STOCK COOLER, when i took the stock cooler off a few months ago, THE COOLER TOOK THE CPU WITH IT, it was stuck on it like glue, and when i got it off, i noticed the pins were bent *FACEPALM*

"Cons: I hear the heat sink is hard to remove with out messing up the chip, so far not a problem for me, but the whole amd line is like that. If you an overclocker you should buy a high line chip as I could see this being a little sensitive to that."

Im assuming I could very well run into the same problem. Also will be my first time using thermal paste and although i watched a nice tutorial on how to do it im still going to be very worried when doing it. Anyway does anybody think its likely ill run into the same problem with the heatsink taking the chip with it and bending the pins? Any tips or suggestions?

JOOK-D · Nov 2, 2013

Only looking at the cons? I'm sure there are some great positive posts too.

If you pull it off straight it should be fine. It also shouldn't take much pressure to do so. The tutorials are probably the best advice you'll get though. Don't be worried, it's a pretty simple process. Enjoy it!

Cooler Master 212 EVO question.

Honorable

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Honorable

Dignified

Honorable

Dignified

Share this page