The manufacturers of processor coolers seem to have realized that they have finally exhausted the potential of these systems on contemporary CPUs. We haven’t come across an air cooler yet that would prove significantly more efficient than the existing solutions, although we have already tested a few dozens of coolers in our labs. As a result, each company tries to find its own way of winning the consumers’ hearts. Some of them use original cooler designs and shapes, others focus on cooling the area around the processor socket in a more aggressive manner, while some introduce all sorts of modding-friendly features.
However, some manufacturers are ready to offer absolutely noiseless passive cooling solutions to those users who are tired of annoying noise generated by their computer systems. In fact, these coolers consist only of a heatsink and have an optional fan at best. In the early days practically the only cooler like that was Scythe Ninja. Then Scythe launched their Orochi, which we are going to review very soon, too. However, not only the Japanese Company was moving in that direction. The well-known Cooler Master announced and launched into mass production their passive cooler called Hyper Z600. out today’s review will be devoted to this particular solution, the peculiarities of its design, its expandability, efficiency in passive and active modes and the whole bunch of other important factors.
Package and Accessories
The front of the relatively small box of the new Cooler Master Hyper Z600 is decorated with an embossed sticker looking like the top view of the actual cooler:
It looks very stylish and original. As far as I understand, Gigabyte used to put embossed logos on their mainboard packages, so now this trend reached the cooling solutions.
There is not that much info on the box, just a few cooler photos taken at different angles, a list of key features and scarce technical specifications:
There is another box inside this package that is made of thick cardboard. When you open it, you find cooler heatsink sitting between polyurethane foam pads and accessories packed in individual plastic bags in the lower box sections:
Let me list all the bundled accessories from left to right and from the top row to the bottom:
- Cooler retention bracket for AMD K8 mainboards;
- Backplate for AMD K8 mainboards;
- Two retention brackets for Intel platforms with LGA 775 socket;
- Backplate for Intel LGA 775 mainboards;
- Warranty sheet;
- Four plastic retentions holding a fan on the heatsink;
- A set of screws, nuts, plastic pads and rubber rings;
- A cross-cut screwdriver button;
- Cooler Master thermal compound;
- Step-by-step assembly and installation guide in several languages.
Cooler Master Hyper Z600 comes without any rotation speed controllers or fans, as it is positioned primarily as an absolutely silent passive cooler.
Now let’s take a closer look at its design and features.
