CPU Heatsink Roundup April 2007

Cooling/CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2007-04-14

We continue our testing of the latest CPU heatsinks on our reference system, this time new contestants from Coolermaster and Scythe enter the fray. Whether you’re looking for extreme silence or extreme performance, this roundup will help you decide.

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Coolermaster GeminII - Specifications

Coolermaster GeminII
Provided by: Coolermaster

Coolermaster introduces a new high end heatsink large enough to fit 2x120mm, sure we have seen tower coolers with the feature in the past, but the GeminII is not a tower cooler. The fans are blowing the air onto the motherboard cooling not only the heat pipes of the CPU heatsink but also the memory slots and the chipset heatsink;

Madshrimps (c)
no the box is not empty


  • Platform compatibility: Intel Socket 775/AMD AM2/939
  • Fan Support: 2x120mm (no fan included)
  • Dimensions: 175x124.6x81.5 mm
  • Weight (without fan): 847gr

    Madshrimps (c)


    Inside the package you find mounting gear for the Intel/AMD platforms, a descriptive manual, a small tube of thermal compound and fan support rails which come on top of the GeminII.

    The GeminII has an impressive surface area for a lower profile heatsink, the 6 heatpipes which are joined in the copper base remove the heat from the CPU to the large series of aluminum fins;

    Madshrimps (c)

    Madshrimps (c)


    The base is very smooth with only very faint traces of machine lapping:

    Madshrimps (c)
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    Comment from Rutar @ 2007/04/14
    I hear the Darth Vader theme everytime I see the Gemini altough the results are quite a dissapointment =O

    So it's time you get the dual 140 heatsink from Thermalright.
    Comment from jmke @ 2007/04/14
    why do you find the results for the GeminII a disappointment?
    Comment from Rutar @ 2007/04/14
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jmke View Post
    why do you find the results for the GeminII a disappointment?
    It is barely able to beat the Tuniq and the Ninia when using the second best fan on the market for noise performance. If you use 2 120s on the Ninia it will most likely annihilate it.

    Hence, I assume that the fin or heatpipe design is flawed so Thermalright needs some better engineers as they simply are outclassed by Scythe and Tuniq.

    Have they lost anyone in the past year so we have a Oskar Wu situation?


    Can you get ahold of a pair of Silent Eagles? I'm sure Sharkoon would like their product to appear in more reviews, as it deserves it for being the best fan on the market.
    Comment from jmke @ 2007/04/14
    GeminII is Coolermaster fyi it's build for high performance, so logically, that it will fall behind when used with slower CFM fans; the design is not meant for this.
    Coolermaster has another new Tower heatsink coming with 120mm support which will maybe challenge the Ninja and others alike

    Sharkoon fan-wise, I'm testing with the amount of fans standard provided, I started with the NCB, need to continue with that one, otherwise I can start from scratch
    Comment from Rutar @ 2007/04/14
    oops


    The age of Tornados and Deltas is over since the XP-120 came out so it is pretty much pointless to optimize it for noisy fans, especially since the Tower heatsinks max out a CPU already if you use those noisy fans.
    Comment from jmke @ 2007/04/14
    the idea behind the GeminII was to cool mosfets, chipsets, ram too, so I heard
    Comment from Church of Noise @ 2007/04/17
    Is there a possibility to test the Thermalright Ultra 120 (extreme or normal version) in the near future?
    These seem to beat the Tuniq Tower and be very very silent (up to the point where one could use one without a fan on a non-oc'd E6600).

    Just an idea of course
    Comment from jmke @ 2007/04/18
    I tested it here: http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=496 while I'm sure it performs lovely with high speed fans, at low CFM the Ultra doesn't shine
    Comment from Rutar @ 2007/04/18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Church of Noise View Post
    Is there a possibility to test the Thermalright Ultra 120 (extreme or normal version) in the near future?
    These seem to beat the Tuniq Tower and be very very silent (up to the point where one could use one without a fan on a non-oc'd E6600).

    Just an idea of course
    If you like passive cooling, the Ninja is optimized for low speed fans or passive use with large fin spacing.

    that's the benefit of the test setup used by madshrimps, it uses fans that would be considered quiet by the majority of users and that is what most people want today
    Comment from Spanki @ 2007/05/10
    Hey jmke,

    First off, great job on the fan and heatsink reviews. Since you've had first-hand experience with them, I'm curious what your take is on why the CM Hyper Tx does so well, compared to say the Scythe Katana 2?

    It looks like they both use a ~42 cfm fan / 3 heat-pipes and the Scythe appears to have more fins, which have more contact with each fin (oval slot, due to slanting vs round slot). I guess I was thinking that the Scyth would do better.

    You think the difference is in the higher impedence of the Scythe? The way the heat-pipes are mounted at the base (the Tx seems better in that regard)?

    I guess I'm just surprised at the Hyper Tx performance I'm seeing in reviews - a light-weight cooler, with push-pin mounting that out-performs all kinds of HSFs you wouldn't expect it to (maybe a bit loud at full load? but that's ok when there's a lot of gunfire and explosions going off ).
    Comment from Spanki @ 2007/05/10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jmke View Post
    Coolermaster has another new Tower heatsink coming with 120mm support which will maybe challenge the Ninja and others alike
    Oooh... do tell! . Show us a pic - we won't tell.
    Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Spanki View Post
    I guess I'm just surprised at the Hyper Tx performance I'm seeing in reviews - a light-weight cooler, with push-pin mounting that out-performs all kinds of HSFs you wouldn't expect it to .
    like the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 (Pro) did then? can't put my finger on the exact reason why they do so good, but combination of custom fan which sends airflow over every part of the heatsink with help of a shroud at the top to further help cool things down certainly seems to off.

    The new coolermaster 2*12 we saw at Cebit



    more pics here: http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=get...&articID=5 50
    Comment from Rutar @ 2007/05/10
    Are those 38mm fans for more pressure?
    Comment from Spanki @ 2007/05/10
    Thanks, I must have missed that Cebit coverage before - I wish they'd moved to 8mm pipes on the Tx 2/3.

    BTW, any chance of adding a Enzotech Ultra-X to your review lineup?

    How about getting a preview sample of the Thermalright Ultima 90?

     

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