Finished Looks

The Cooler Master Hyper 212X won't impress in terms of size, but it doesn't need to since it's about offering good bang for the buck. Its small size does have some benefits, including solid clearance, a lower maximum height of 158mm for a less spacious chassis, etc.


While the Hyper 212X lacks a unique theme, even in terms of colors, its plain Jane looks can be considered a blessing. It will not clash with other components in a system. Only the nasty fan cable stands out, but once installed in a system, it wont be visible, which makes it a minor nuisance.


I honestly expected better clearance from the Hyper 212X. If running two sticks of RAM, you can use whatever you wish; however, try populating all four DIMM slots and you may run into some issues with the heatspreaders on various memory kits. Other than the fact that tall memory may prove problematic, the 120mm design does excel at expansion-slot clearance. The amount of space available means the 212X should be fine for mITX motherboards when it comes to graphics card clearance. Just remember to stick with standard height memory.