Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO review
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Easy to fit cooler for upgraders
By PC Format
published
Great if all you want to do is to swap out a standard cooler for quieter and more efficient one
TechRadar Verdict
Pros
- +
Easy to fit
- +
Amazing price
- +
Performance
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Apart from the new fan, the other major change with the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo is that this latest version doesn’t support the oldest AMD Sockets; 754, 939 and 940 have dropped off the list.
It will support every AMD socket up from them with all Intel sockets from the 775 up to, and including LGA 1155 are also supported.
The cooler comes with a 92mm fan attached but should you require more cooling then Cooler Master includes mounts in the box for a second 92mm fan. The fan mounts are made of plastic and look rather like the fan mounts you find in some PC cases. This makes a nice change from the usual sprung wire mounts, often a source of irritation when it comes to sticking the fan on the cooler.
Performance-wise the Evo keeps up the family tradition by offering very good result at a very keen price point. Although it’s not quite as efficient as some of its more expensive rivals when it comes to keeping the CPU cool when worked hard or overclocked.
TechRadar Labs
CPU standard clock (2600K @3.4GHz)
CPU Idle load performance
Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced C1: 24
Cooler Master GeminII M4: 25
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO: 22
Gelid GX-7: 22
Enermax ETS-T40-TA: 21
CPU full load performance
Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced C1: 52
Cooler Master GeminII M4: 61
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO: 63
Gelid GX-7: 55
Enermax ETS-T40-TA: 50
CPU Overclocked (2600K @ 4.
6GHz)
CPU Idle load performance
Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced C1: 25
Cooler Master GeminII M4: 26
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO: 24
Gelid GX-7: 22
Enermax ETS-T40-TA: 22
CPU full load performance
Degrees Centigrade: Lower is better
Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced C1: 72
Cooler Master GeminII M4: 83
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO: 85
Gelid GX-7: 78
Enermax ETS-T40-TA: 70
To be fair though it’s not aimed at overclockers and performs better than its price tag suggests. The TX3 Evo certainly gets a major thumbs up when it comes to how easy it is to fit, mainly due to the fact that once you’ve attached the Intel push pin assembly then it’s a direct swap-out for the standard Intel cooler.
It’s also very quiet, a far bit quieter in fact than its predecessor thanks to the new sleeve bearing fan it uses.
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Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO: Price Comparison
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Product Review: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler
Always look at the date when you read an article. Some of the content in this article is most likely out of date, as it was written on March 13, 2012. For newer information, see our more recent articles.
Table of Contents
Introduction
It may seem odd, but CPU heatsinks are one component that we spend a relatively large amount of time testing and qualifying. The reason is that there is a huge diversity of heatsinks available on the market and each gives a different level of both cooling and noise.
In addition to the performance aspects, we also need to take into account the heatsink’s mounting hardware since an amazing heatsink is no good if it comes loose in transit and causes damage to the other components in the system.
The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 is in the same class as our current Scythe Katana 3; both being almost identical in size and both utilizing push-pin style mounting. The reason we decided to look at this heatsink is because at the time of this article, the Scythe Katana 3 is in a bit of short supply. We were not actively looking to replace the Katana 3, but we wanted to find a heatsink that could fill in for our customers when the Katana 3 is in shortage. We are constantly on the lookout for better products however, so if this heatsink does very well there is a possibility of it replacing the Katana 3 in our current product line.
Closer Look
The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 uses three heatpipes to take advantage of the medium-sized heatsink. The heatsink itself is symmetrical, which allows the fan to be mounted on either side of the heatsink.
Included in the packaging is a second set of fan mounting hardware allowing two fans to be used in a push/pull setup if desired.
The heatsink secures to the motherboard using the same push-pin mounting as the stock Intel heatsink and the Scythe Katana 3. For a heatsink of this size and mass, there is little danger of the heatsink coming loose in shipping using this style of mounting. Push-pins are much easier to use than bolt-through mounting so as long as shipping is not a danger we prefer this type of mounting.
The heatsink fan is mounted onto a pair of plastic brackets that then clip onto the heatsink. At first glance this mounting appeared a bit fragile, but it ended up being much more secure than we initially thought. While it was possible to remove the fan from the heatsink using just our fingers, the difficulty of doing so without a flathead screwdriver laid all of our fears of the fan coming off to rest.
This heatsink utilizes direct-contact heatpipes on the CPU contact area which allows the heatpipes to come into direct contact with the CPU.
This is very good for cooling, although it has the disadvantage of making the bottom of the heatsink not completely flat. The area on either side of the heatpipes has a slight indentation between the aluminum plate and the heatpipes. This should not cause any performance issues however, so it is not that big of a deal.
Each of the four push-pin mounts are secured to the main heatsink with a pair of screws. The screws themselves are nice and long and should not be in any danger of coming out in shipping. Some may think that 2 screws per push-pin is overkill, but in our eyes anything that helps prevent shipping damage is great.
This heatsink can be mounted on both socket 1155/1156 and socket 775, but is not compatible with socket 1366 or socket 2011. The lack of socket 1366 mounting is not a concern for us, however, since in our experience this size of cooler does not do well with the high heat output of socket 1366 or socket 2011 processors.
The mounting for AMD systems uses the standard latching mechanism found on most small to medium sized AMD heatsinks.
This mounting is decent, but due to the height of the cooler is not something that we would want to use in our systems. The reason for this is that this type of latching mechanism is somewhat fragile and is relatively easy to come loose in shipping. Smaller heatsinks (like the stock AMD heatsinks) do just fine with this type of mounting but a heatsink with any amount of height to it is at risk of someing loose in transit.
Cooling and Noise Performance
Since the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 allows the fan to be mounted on either side of the heatsink in either push or a pull orientation, we wanted to include both orientations in our testing. Historically, a push configuration is better for both noise and cooling, but there are times when space limitations force you to move the fan to the opposite side of the heatsink. One specific example is the Silverstone TJ08-E in which the hard drives mount so close to the motherboard tray that most vertical heatsinks block the hard drive mounts.
With a cooler like the Hyper TX3 where the fan can be mounted on the opposite side, however, you at least still have the option of using the heatsink, even if the cooling and noise levels may be slightly sub-optimal.
For our testing we will be using the Scythe Katana 3 as a comparison cooler along with the following hardware:
As you can see, the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 in either a push or a pull configuration performs slightly better than the Scythe Katana with a 2°C improvement at both idle and load. Suprisingly, moving the fan to the back of the heatsink in a pull orientation had no effect on our cooling.
When we took a closer look at our benchmark logs, we found that the fan is running faster on the Hyper TX3 by roughly 400RPM at both idle and load. Once again, the pull orientation on the Hyper TX 3 surprised us with a 50 RPM decrease compared to the push orientation. Realistically, 50 RPMs will have no measurable effect on noise levels but it does indicate that this orientation is very, very slightly more efficient for cooling.
Unfortunately, we do not currently have a good method for measuring PWM fan noise at different RPMs (we’re working on it though!) so we cannot give accurate measurements of each heatsink at the actual idle and load RPMs. Objectively, however, we found that the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 was very slightly louder at both idle and load. The difference is so minor however that we can essentially call it a wash.
Conclusion
We were surprised at how similar this cooler is to the Scythe Katana 3. Sure, some of the main reasons we wanted to look at this cooler (physical size, standard 92mm PWM fan, push-pin mounting) are also major features on the Scythe Katana 3, but we did not expect the cooling performance and noise levels to be so close.
The fact that we can basically think of the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 as being identical to the Scythe Katana 3 makes our decision of which cooler to offer in our product line both easy and difficult. We have had a very good experience with Scythe as a brand, so we want to keep using their products when they work well for us.
The advantage of being able to use the Hyper TX3 in a chassis similar to the Silverstone TJ08-E (with a minor movement of the fan), however, is just enough of an advantage that led us to ultimately decide to start carrying the Hyper TX3 in our current product line over the Scythe Katana 3.
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO, Scythe Katana 4 and Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX
Contents
- Introduction
- Alphabetical listing
- Test participants
- Packaging and presentation
- Design features, specifications and scope of supply
- Installation
- Intel Core i7-3770K imprint on heatsink base
- Test stand, software and method
- Test results
- Noise level
- Conclusion
Introduction
Overclockers.ru lab continues large-scale testing of coolers of the middle price segment together with the Intel Core i7-3770K processor.
Three models of well-known manufacturers of cooling systems take part in the next review, held with the help of our partner, Regard. These are Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO, Scythe Katana 4 and Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX.
Alphabetical list
Let me remind you that the following coolers have already been considered:
| A Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 GT Rev. 2 Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Rev.2 Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP C |
D DeepCool GAMMA ARCHER DeepCool GAMMAXX 200 DeepCool GAMMAXX 300 DeepCool ICEEDGE MINI FS DeepCool Theta 21 PWM DeepCool Theta 30 DeepCool Theta 31 G I |
T Thermaltake Contac 16 Thermaltake Contac 21 Thermaltake Silent 1156 Thermaltake TR2 i1 /NPW(RB) Skalli Titan TTC-NC65TX(RB) Titan TTC-NK45TZ/V3 Titan TTC-NK66TZ/RPW (BX) Z |
You can find their summary results in the material «Budget and Mid-Range Cooler Test Results Database: Forty-Five Models».
recommendations
Test participants
List of all cooling systems considered:
- Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO;
- Scythe Katana 4;
- Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX.
Packaging and presentation
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO
Before us is a typical box for Cooler Master, in which the manufacturer packs its products, starting from the middle price segment. Quality and taste. But cheap models of cooling systems are deprived of such beauty, they are content with simple cardboard and are not so attractive.
Scythe Katana 4
As always, the Japanese are in their repertoire. They are famous for the beautiful appearance of the packaging, with a lot of inscriptions and, probably, the most complete information about the product itself, which can be obtained simply by reading everything that is written on the outside. Without even looking inside.
This is the case when you do not need to look at the instructions or even open the box to understand how the cooling system is installed.
Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX
The box is truly huge! Cheap cardboard of poor quality, crumbling plastic — a typical example of the approach used a few years ago in packaging design.
Design Features, Specifications and Package Contents
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO and Scythe Katana 4 received three heat pipes, while Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX received six.
The links below provide information about the technical characteristics of the products on the official website of their manufacturers. There is the most complete information about each model:
- Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO;
- Scythe Katana 4;
- Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX * .
* The link displays information about the model CL-P0114-01, this is the very first «Typhoon» with a terribly inconvenient mount.
This material uses BigTyp VX with the number CL-P0310-01, and the most interesting thing is that the official website does not say a word about this revision.
Now let’s move on to an overview of the participants themselves and their delivery kits.
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO
Cooling system.
Radiator base.
Delivery set.
Fan.
This model looks like the previously tested Hyper 101. TX3 EVO is larger, the cooling element is a 92mm fan model A9225-22RB-4BP-F1, which received PWM regulation and, accordingly, a 4pin connector. As in the case of the «one hundred and first», there is no polishing of the base. The overall workmanship is at a good level, there is nothing to complain about.
We should also note the convenience of fastening for Socket LGA 115x /775 and LGA 1366, which is no longer very relevant.
Installing the cooler on these three platforms is as easy as shelling pears, there are marks with socket names on the pressure plate. I will say right away that in order to install the cooler on LGA 115x platforms, you need to screw a screw into the middle row so that 775 and 1366 remain on the sides. It is strange that the notes about the most popular Intel socket at the moment were not on the plate, although all this information is in the installation instructions.
The product comes with proprietary thermal paste and two additional brackets for a second 92 x 92 x 25 mm fan, which (like the Hyper 101) is not included.
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Overview of Cooler Master Hyper TX3
cross-platform cooler
It seems that a company with such an ambitious and «talking» name as Cooler Master, in a good sense of the word, does not need a special introduction.
This manufacturer is well known for its extensive range of high-quality cooling systems for processors, a number of integrated cooling systems for laptops and no less high-quality computer cases. Therefore, without unnecessary lyrical digressions and all sorts of remarks, today we can immediately move on to the main topic of this material — a review of a new cross-platform cooler — Cooler Master Hyper TX3. The model is suitable for cooling the vast majority of modern (and not so) Intel and AMD processors.
Specifications
So, the cooler can be installed on two Intel platforms — the good old LGA775 and the new LGA1156, which was announced in September this year. It is noteworthy that the company refused to implement the possibility of installing Hyper TX3 on motherboards with an LGA1366 connector, leaving the top platform for more expensive and powerful solutions that are adequate to the heat dissipation of the corresponding processors.
With support for AMD processors, the situation is even better.
Hyper TX3 is compatible with all existing platforms of the company and can be installed on motherboards with Socket 754/939/940 and Socket AM2/AM3, fortunately, the mounting frames for coolers corresponding to the connectors of the first and second groups are practically identical.
The rest of the set of technical characteristics is given below, I think it does not need separate explanations, especially since we will talk about the key parameters of the product when reviewing the design.
| Manufacturer, model
Design and construction The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 is a tower-based cooler with three heat pipes (HT) that play the main role in dissipating heat from the processor. The contact of the tubes with the heat-distributing cover of the CPU is carried out using the so-called Direct Contact technology, that is, directly, without any additional plates. This technology is considered to be the most advanced and more difficult to implement than, one might say, the traditional one, where the tubes are in contact with the processor through a special plate or thickness of the base. It seems that the main, although probably the only plus of Direct Contact is obvious. To put it simply, in any business, including heat transfer, intermediaries (not to be confused with dealers, performers, etc.) are always additional difficulties and costs. The quality of the base is not ideal — the marks left by the grinding wheel are clearly visible on its surface, however, the surface roughness approximately corresponds to the roughness of the processor’s heat-distributing cover. 42 thin aluminum plates are responsible for dissipating the heat removed from the processor, the total surface area of \u200b\u200bwhich is 4788 square meters. see. Plates are qualitatively pressed onto heat pipes. The area of contact of these elements with the tubes is maximized due to the «necks» formed during pressing, tightly covering the HP in diameter. That is, the contact is provided not along the rim with a thickness equal to the thickness of the plate, which can sometimes be observed as part of cheap solutions, but along the surface of a cylinder with a decent area. Of course, this is also not a unique technological solution, but it speaks quite well about the quality and increased theoretical efficiency of the product. The plate pack is blown with a 92 mm fan. The impeller consists of 7 blades of the original form with a very aggressive angle of attack, providing decent performance over the entire operating speed range. The speed is regulated by means of power pulse width modulation (PWM), supported by the vast majority of modern motherboards. The adjustment range is very wide and can be said to cover the gap from a reasonable minimum of 800 rpm to a maximum of 2800 rpm. The impeller axle is supported by a sleeve bearing with a MTBF of 40,000 hours. The fan is attached to the heat dissipating plate pack with two wire springs. To reduce the transmission of vibration from the rotating impeller to the radiator, soft rubber gaskets are glued to the support frame at the points of contact with the plates — the solution, although simple, is quite original and useful. The manufacturer focuses on the fact that in order to increase the efficiency, one more 9 can be installed on the cooler.2mm fan, for which there is a second pair of wire springs in the kit. To attach the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 to motherboards with an LGA775 processor socket, special lugs are used on the base, to which the corresponding clips are screwed using eight screws. Installing the cooler on the AMD platform is carried out using a spring bracket and a lever bracket using a standard mounting frame, which is present on absolutely all motherboards for AMD processors. That is, almost the same as it is done with boxed coolers. This method is quite reliable and easy to use. Since the mounting frames for the two groups of processor sockets AMD Socket 754/939/940 and Socket AM2/AM3 are almost identical and differ only in the different distance between the teeth that the cooler brackets cling to, only one additional groove was needed to ensure Hyper TX3 compatibility with both platforms. Packing and contents The cooler comes to retail sale in a transparent blister, which allows you to clearly see the design and device of the product without opening the package. The components are packed in a separate cardboard box placed at the bottom of the blister. The set includes: . 4 spring brackets, for mounting two fans; Testing The cooler was tested on a stand with the following configuration: . processor: AMD Athlon 7750, 2700 MHz; The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 specifications list supports even such «hot» processors as quad-core AMD Phenom and Phenom II or, apart from models, CPUs with a maximum TDP level of up to 130W. The cooler was tested with two sets of conditions. In the first case, an open stand was used — the most objective way of testing, but, unfortunately, too «torn off» from the actual operating conditions. To test the effectiveness of the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 when working in the system unit, we used the D-computer ATX-E6099-CA case, equipped with two 90 mm intake fans rotating at a speed of about 1000 rpm, installed on the front and side walls, one 90 mm exhaust fan (about 1000 rpm) mounted on the top wall and one 120 mm Noctua fan installed in the power supply and rotating at 800 rpm. For a relative performance evaluation of the Hyper TX3, we chose the boxed AMD cooler, which can be found on sale separately from the processor. Note that this is not the simple and cheap solution with a silumin heatsink that was put in boxes with AMD CPUs before. This model is based on heat pipes and is equipped with a fairly large package of diffuser plates, and the speed of the fan that blows them can also be adjusted using the PWM mechanism. So, first let’s look at the results of tests carried out on an open bench. The picture turned out to be quite contrasting. The difference of 8°C during extreme processor heating leaves almost no chance for AMD’s boxed solution, and if its fan did not behave (despite decent speeds) quietly enough, such a cooler would have to be thrown out immediately to replace it to something more efficient. The Hyper TX3 fan impeller in this case accelerated only to 1500 rpm and it was almost impossible to distinguish the rustling of the air pumped by it against the general sound background of a running PC (by the way, quite quiet). Next in line is the situation in the closed building described above. AMD’s cooler lagged behind here by another 1°C, and its impeller accelerated to 3600 rpm and it was already quite noisy. |
To do this, these elements are inserted into the grooves in the aluminum base, and on their parts in contact with the processor cover, the planes are milled by about one third of the diameter. In this case, a part of the CPU is in direct contact with the heat pipes, and the remaining part is in direct contact with the aluminum base, which, in turn, gives off heat to the remaining part of the CT surface involved in the heat intake. 
Recall that a distinctive feature of the board’s support for PWM technology is the presence of a four-pin (instead of the old three-pin) connector for connecting a cooler. 
The method is standard — exactly the same is used in Intel box solutions. The same clips are used to mount the cooler on the LGA1156 platform. At the same time, at first glance it seems not entirely clear how this will happen if the center distances of the holes for mounting coolers on motherboards with LGA1156 are slightly larger than on LGA775. In fact, everything is simple — each clip has a pair of mounting holes. Moreover, due to a very small difference in the corresponding distances, the diameters of the first and second overlap each other slightly. 
spring. 
However, given that the estimated retail price of the cooler is about $20, most likely the model will be chosen by the user as a quality replacement for AMD’s boxed solution and will be used to cool less expensive processors. Therefore, the use of the AMD Athlon 7750 CPU on the stand, which is a Phenom with two disabled (due to a defective chip) cores, the cost of which is currently at $65, is more adequate for evaluating the performance of the cooler. In addition, the TDP level of Athlon 7750 in the nominal mode is also quite high and amounts to 95 W. Well, since the processor belongs to the Black Edition series (the frequency multiplier can be freely increased), and it is not difficult to overclock it even on motherboards that are not at all adapted for this (even the simplest ones can change the multiplier and voltage today), in practice, the level CPU heat dissipation can be brought up to a figure close to 130 watts. 
Therefore, in the second case, to simulate these same real conditions, testing was also carried out in the case. Skepticism about «real conditions» is explained by the fact that in this case the test results will very much depend on the volume of the selected building and the organization of its ventilation system. 
In retail sales, the cooler is found at the same price as the tested Cooler Master Hyper TX3, that is, it costs about $20. So this boxed solution from AMD looks like a quite adequate opponent. 