Cooler Master Hyper 103 Review

Today we are looking at the Cooler Master Hyper 103. Aimed at users on a restrictive budget, the Hyper 103 sports three 6 mm heat pipes, vents to aid airflow around the heat pipes and a 92 mm PWM fan. Retailing for as little as £9.99, can the Hyper 103 hold its own against other budget coolers such as the Silverstone Argon AR01? Specifications: Intel LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/1150/775. AMD FM2/FM1/AM3+/AM3 /AM2. Dimensions: 108 x 89.5 x 138.5 mm (4.3 x 3.5 x 5.5 in). Heat Pipe dimensions: Ø6 mm. Heat Sink Material: 3 Direct Contact Heatpipes / Aluminum Fins. Fan Dimensions: 92 x 92 x 25 mm (4.7 x 4.7 x 1 in). Fan Speed: 800~2,200 RPM (PWM) ± 10%. Fan Air Flow: 15.7~43.1 CFM ± 10%. Noise Level: 17~30 dBA. Bearing Type: Long life sleeve bearing. Around the back we can see a number of diagrams detailing the cooler's dimensions and the same information in different languages. The Cooler Master Hyper 103 ships in a white and purple box with a clear image of the cooler on the front. The front also lists a number of key features. Inside the box we find the cooler, a backplate, the mounting brackets, a tube of thermal paste, all the necessary screws and a manual. The Cooler Master brand name is proudly displayed on top of the cooler. Dubbed X-Vent Technology, each Heat Pipe is surrounded by four vents which are said to improve airflow directly around the heat pipes. The rear of the cooler shows there is no option to install a secondary fan. The same vents can be found at the bottom as well. Cooler Master has chosen to not use a separate mounting bar. The included 92 mm PWM fan is rated to deliver 43.1 CFM at 2200 RPM with a maximum noise level of 30 dBa. The fan is held in place with clips and can be easily removed and Cooler Master have included an additional set of rubber spacers to reduce vibrations. On this page we document the installation of the Cooler Master Hyper 103 on a Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI LGA 1155 motherboard. As there is no separate mounting bar we can start off by installing the mounting brackets. A single screw holds each bracket in place. Installing the backplate is as simple as lining the pins up with the motherboard and pushing them through. With the backplate installed the rest of the installation is as simple as lining the cooler up with the backplate pins and fastening the screws. This is one of the fastest and easiest methods we have seen. With the fan in place there is still enough clearance for even the largest RAM modules. We are using an Intel Core i7 3770k running at stock speeds and overclocked to 4.3GHz with voltage set at 1.3v. Test System: Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Memory: 8GB G.Skill Ares Blue Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 7790 2GB GDDR5 OC Power Supply: Seasonic G-Series 650W Chassis: Aerocool Dead Silence Gaming Cube Monitor: Acer X243HQ Boot Drive: Intel SSD 510 Storage Drive: 2TB Seagate Barracuda Software: CPUID HW Monitor 1.23 CPUID CPU-Z 1.65 Prime95 v27.1 We are testing the Cooler Master Hyper 103's performance as follows: Ambient temperatures are kept at 22° throughout our tests. The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control. Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes. Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95′s Small FTTs test for 15 minutes. To measure noise levels we disable the case fans and manually disconnect the GPU fan. We remove the CPU fan to test passive cooling performance with our Core i7 3770k running at stock speeds. CPU-Z Validation is available here. The Cooler Master Hyper 103 managed to keep our overclocked i7 3770k in check, topping out at 62 degrees. An impressive result considering it uses a single 92 mm fan to do so. To measure noise levels we place our sound level meter approximately 1 meter away from the chassis and 4 feet off the ground. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet take off/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum Under normal PWM conditions the fan's noise levels fell below our meter's lower limits. Running at full speed we recorded 38.4 dBa ... noticeable but not frustratingly loud. Overall, we are very pleased with the Cooler Master Hyper 103. The build quality is on par with what we have come to expect from Cooler Master and it actually rivals the finish and builds quality of some higher cost products from competitors. Our review sample arrived with all fins intact and even the plastic fan mount feels sturdy. In terms of cooling performance the Hyper 103 fits in nicely with the other budget coolers in Cooler Master's line-up. Its only real competition coming from the likes of the Hyper 212 EVO. Our only gripe with the Hyper 103 is the lack of support for an additional fan. That said the Hyper 103 is firmly marketed as a budget cooler so we can overlook the lack of a dual fan option. At the time of publication we found retailers selling the Hyper 103 for as little as £9.99 inc vat. Discuss on our FACEBOOK page, over HERE. Pros: Excellent build quality. Extremely easy to install. Great cooling performance. Very competitively priced. Cons: Lack of support for a second fan puts the Hyper 103 in a tough spot against the likes of the Hyper 212 EVO. KitGuru says: A well-made cooler that faces competition from Cooler Master's other budget coolers.