Coolermaster Hyper N620

Dual in-line... heatsink?

Heatsinks. They’re essential for every rig, but strangely most people are content with the bundled stock cooler that comes with their CPU. Well, SHUN to the stock cooler we say! We’ve got a bigger, better heatsink now.

Weighing in at 847 grams, this heatsink has a copper base that is machined quite well (though the warning label did leave a slight amount of residue, make sure to clean this off with some isopropyl alcohol before installation to ensure best heat transfer). This is capped with a shaped piece of aluminium that sandwiches six copper heatpipes, making sure that the heat is absorbed and taken upwards. Fifty-eight aluminium fins mate with these heatpipes as they arch skywards, pushing through the layers and spreading the heat over a large surface area.

Screwed on top of these fins is a top plate, held in by hex screws, that only seems to make it look slightly more interesting, and hide the ends of the heatpipes. It also displays the Cooler Master logo quite proudly, and provides a quartet of mounting holes for the two fans on either side. These fans are 12cm jobbies, and are made of slightly translucent smoked plastic, with blue LEDs embedded. These are controlled via PWM, share the same cable and by extension, the same header. They made (at the exhaust side) 52dBA at idle, and 61.4dBA at load, which is rather loud considering that two fans should be able to spin slower to achieve the same effect.

Cooling performance was ok on our QX6850 at stock, but overclocking would not remain stable, crashing under heavy load. The mounting system for the cooler was also quite fiddly, requiring that you use nuts and bolts through the mounting holes on the mobo to secure it. Overall, this is a decent heatsink, but there’s definitely better options out there.