Cooler Master Hyper 103 CPU Cooler Review

Final Thoughts

Price

At around £18 the Cooler Master Hyper 103 is superb value for money. It might not be ideal for heavy overclocks, but it is certainly much better and quieter than what a stock Intel / AMD cooler would typically offer.

Conclusion

I really like this cooler, it may not be ideal for my gaming rig but I cannot deny that its performance at stock clocks on our i5 3750K was impressive. It beat out the Ereboss cooler with ease and while the Ereboss is a little quieter, it is also more expensive.

Overclocking didn’t go so well and while this cooler could happily handle a mild overclock, I wouldn’t feel happy running it at our overclock level for long periods. This is of course no bad thing that it didn’t perform that well in overclocking tests, it is priced well enough to appeal to the budget end of the market and it is unlikely to need to handle that level of heat anyway. If you’re running a stock i5, then this will do you nicely.

It may not be the quietest cooler we’ve tested, but it was hardly noisy either and once in a half decent PC case I’d be surprised if you ever heard it on a non overclocked system.

The design is nothing special, but it does look neat and tidy. It is also nice and compact too and it is perfect for smaller form factors or any build where space is limited. The blue LED fan looks pretty cool too and I do like that you can swap out the fan should you wish to do so.

Pros

• Great cooling performance at stock clocks
• Reasonably quiet at stock clocks
• Small footprint
• Low price
• Easy to use mounting kit

Cons

• Not ideal for overclocking
• Can get a little noisy if running hot (typically when overclocked)

“For a low price CPU cooler the Hyper 103 is a great option, it is not quite award material for us, but at £18 you’ll be hard pushed to find anything better and it is a good-looking and performing CPU cooler. If you’re planning on overclocking it may be worth looking a little higher in the CM range, if you’re running stock clocks, this will be ideal for most.”

Thank you Cooler Master for providing us with this sample.