Cooler Master Z600 CPU Cooler

Value and Final Thoughts

From our results, we’ve seen that the performance of the Cooler Master Hyper Z600 can vary enormously depending upon which configuration it’s fitted in, and onto what hardware it’s fitted onto. It’s clear from our slightly unfair passive test on our 130W TDP test that, like the Scythe Ninja Copper before it, a passive cooler just can’t cope with the high thermal output of such high TDP chips.

This is more of a problem that you might think – the minimum TDP of Intel’s new Core i7 range of processors is set to be 130W, which means that despite the promised compatibility with LGA1366, you’ll certainly need a cooling fan if you plan on fitting the Hyper Z600 to your new Nehalem machine.

However, from our test run with a Core 2 Duo E6400, it’s clear that the Hyper Z600 can quite capably cool less heat happy chips in its totally silent passive mode, although having seen it struggle so much with very high heat loads, we wouldn’t be too confident overclocking. It’s certainly got more than enough to passively cool any of Intel’s 85W dual core E8xxx series processors, but those who have opted for a quad core will want to look elsewhere – even the Q6600 G0 with its 95W TDP output will be too much for the Hyper Z600 to cool passively.


In fact, it’s not been the passive performance that has disappointed us so much as the performance we saw once one, and then two high end cooling fans were fitted. With a single Noctua NF-P12 fitted the Hyper Z600 sat firmly in the middle of the table, and with two fitted was able to match the previous top results.

For a cooler that sits on the wrong side of £30 and sells without a cooling fan, we expected better performance with a single fan, and with two fitted thoroughly expected this cooler to take the lead by a couple of degrees, rather than simply match coolers equipped just a single 120mm cooling fan. A deltaT of just 22°C is still a great result, but the fact that we needed two 120mm fans to reach it somewhat sours the achievement.

For the asking price of close to £35, you could instead pick up the still superb Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme – another cooler that’s going to be supporting the LGA1366 socket through an adaptor bracket (Rich has been benchmarking with a modified TRUE120 all week in fact), and one that can obtain chart topping results with just a single 120mm cooling fan.


If all you’re looking for is total silence from your CPU cooler then the Cooler Master Z600 is certainly worth considering, as long as your hardware fits the bill. As we’ve seen, using the Z600 to try and cool certain chips just results in the cooler struggling to deal with the increased heat load and keeping the CPU at dangerously high temperatures, even in a well ventilated case, but if all you’ve got is a dual core processor from the Intel E6xxx or E8xxx families than the Hyper Z600 is certainly enough to keep your CPU stable, although still nowhere near as cool as competing high performance heatsinks.

We certainly get the feeling that the Cooler Master Z600 has tried to be a Jack of all trades, but has instead found itself a master of none. If you’re looking to build an extremely quiet dual core PC, it’s almost certainly worth considering as long as you don't plan on overclocking too much and plan on fitting it into a case with decent airflow – we’d imagine the Z600 combined with Cooler Master’s HAF 932 high air flow case would be a very effective match up.

However if you’re looking more for lower temperatures rather than absolute silence, there are plenty of much better offerings out there with, thankfully, much easier mounting brackets.

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Score Guide