Cooler Master GeminII: Performer or Poser?
by Wesley Fink on April 30, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
One look at the attractive Cooler Master GeminII and it is easy to understand why computer enthusiasts swoon over the possibilities of putting this cooler to work in their system. The GeminII combines an innovative design with the additional promise of cooling all the components on your motherboard. With the ability to use two 120mm fans side-by-side, blowing down from above the cantilevered heatpipe tower, your first thought is surely this is as good as cooling can get.
We were just as excited as our readers to test the GeminII. We also thought this would be cooler nirvana. There were a few cracks in the prospects in that none of the reviews so far had really compared the GeminII to a top cooler like the Thermalright Ultra 120 and the Tuniq Tower 120, but we considered that just an oversight. Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that reviews that only compared the GeminII to the stock Intel cooler did not show us results that caused much excitement. The GeminII is better than stock, but that should be the starting point with cooling upgrades - not the end point.
Now that we have thoroughly evaluated the GeminII there isn't much good to say about it, at least compared to the top coolers we have been testing recently. The GeminII is not a bad cooler; it is just not the great cooler we expected it to be. We have tested 21 cooler configurations in the last few months at AnandTech, and nine of those configurations overclock better than GeminII with the same CPU. That is before we even take in to account the fact that the GeminII uses two fans to, in many case, perform worse than a single 120mm fan.
On the cooling efficiency front, the GeminII is similarly average. Of the 21 measured temperatures, the GeminII is outperformed at idle by nine coolers; at load seven tested cooler configurations outperform the GeminII. Again we are often comparing one fan solutions that perform better than the two-fan GeminII configuration. To be fair, we have been testing the best coolers on the market for the last couple months, but there is no reason at all to expect the GeminII to fall short of the top performers. The fact that it does is disappointing.
We had planned to delve deeply into the purported benefits of a down-facing cooler also cooling motherboard components. That is now a moot point, however. Since the GeminII cannot match other top coolers in cooling efficiency or overclocking, who really cares if it cools your Northbridge better than a Thermalright Ultra 120? After all we are not using supplemental fans in our test case, and evidence that a cooler was cooling the motherboard chipset better would be extended overclocking from lower chipset/board temperatures. We feed significant voltages into the chipset in our overclocking tests, which must cycle at least 30 minutes in a gaming loop to be considered stable. Perhaps we will have better results with the Andy Samurai Master or the Thermaltake Max Orb, which are also top-fan coolers. If so, then we will do more than cursory measurements of motherboard component temperatures.
Perhaps with refinement the GeminII will join the top realm of air coolers. The GeminII concept seems to have merit, but the execution leaves much to be desired. If you look closely only about half the fins extend from the cooler CPU mounting plate to the extended fins on top - the rest merely expand the fin field for the cantilevered fan ledge. More active fins might help. The fin spacing is also too close for real airflow below the cooler. Put a hand beneath a cooler with 173+ CFM on top and you will be shocked at how little air makes its way to the motherboard. Perhaps the cantilever would be more effective at cooling if it was shorter, but then if it were much shorter you couldn't mount memory. There are certainly better minds designing coolers at Cooler Master than we have second guessing them here. We hope they will find ways to make GeminII the cooler we all hoped it would be.
We apologize if we sound overly negative about the performance of GeminII. As we already said, it is a good cooler, but not a great one. It does look great, and we all wanted it to perform as well as it looks. We sincerely hope the GeminII develops into the great performer we think it can be. The potential is certainly there, but for now the Cooler Master GeminII is a poser and not a performer. We expected more.
One look at the attractive Cooler Master GeminII and it is easy to understand why computer enthusiasts swoon over the possibilities of putting this cooler to work in their system. The GeminII combines an innovative design with the additional promise of cooling all the components on your motherboard. With the ability to use two 120mm fans side-by-side, blowing down from above the cantilevered heatpipe tower, your first thought is surely this is as good as cooling can get.
We were just as excited as our readers to test the GeminII. We also thought this would be cooler nirvana. There were a few cracks in the prospects in that none of the reviews so far had really compared the GeminII to a top cooler like the Thermalright Ultra 120 and the Tuniq Tower 120, but we considered that just an oversight. Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that reviews that only compared the GeminII to the stock Intel cooler did not show us results that caused much excitement. The GeminII is better than stock, but that should be the starting point with cooling upgrades - not the end point.
Now that we have thoroughly evaluated the GeminII there isn't much good to say about it, at least compared to the top coolers we have been testing recently. The GeminII is not a bad cooler; it is just not the great cooler we expected it to be. We have tested 21 cooler configurations in the last few months at AnandTech, and nine of those configurations overclock better than GeminII with the same CPU. That is before we even take in to account the fact that the GeminII uses two fans to, in many case, perform worse than a single 120mm fan.
On the cooling efficiency front, the GeminII is similarly average. Of the 21 measured temperatures, the GeminII is outperformed at idle by nine coolers; at load seven tested cooler configurations outperform the GeminII. Again we are often comparing one fan solutions that perform better than the two-fan GeminII configuration. To be fair, we have been testing the best coolers on the market for the last couple months, but there is no reason at all to expect the GeminII to fall short of the top performers. The fact that it does is disappointing.
We had planned to delve deeply into the purported benefits of a down-facing cooler also cooling motherboard components. That is now a moot point, however. Since the GeminII cannot match other top coolers in cooling efficiency or overclocking, who really cares if it cools your Northbridge better than a Thermalright Ultra 120? After all we are not using supplemental fans in our test case, and evidence that a cooler was cooling the motherboard chipset better would be extended overclocking from lower chipset/board temperatures. We feed significant voltages into the chipset in our overclocking tests, which must cycle at least 30 minutes in a gaming loop to be considered stable. Perhaps we will have better results with the Andy Samurai Master or the Thermaltake Max Orb, which are also top-fan coolers. If so, then we will do more than cursory measurements of motherboard component temperatures.
Perhaps with refinement the GeminII will join the top realm of air coolers. The GeminII concept seems to have merit, but the execution leaves much to be desired. If you look closely only about half the fins extend from the cooler CPU mounting plate to the extended fins on top - the rest merely expand the fin field for the cantilevered fan ledge. More active fins might help. The fin spacing is also too close for real airflow below the cooler. Put a hand beneath a cooler with 173+ CFM on top and you will be shocked at how little air makes its way to the motherboard. Perhaps the cantilever would be more effective at cooling if it was shorter, but then if it were much shorter you couldn't mount memory. There are certainly better minds designing coolers at Cooler Master than we have second guessing them here. We hope they will find ways to make GeminII the cooler we all hoped it would be.
We apologize if we sound overly negative about the performance of GeminII. As we already said, it is a good cooler, but not a great one. It does look great, and we all wanted it to perform as well as it looks. We sincerely hope the GeminII develops into the great performer we think it can be. The potential is certainly there, but for now the Cooler Master GeminII is a poser and not a performer. We expected more.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
44 Comments
View All Comments
yyrkoon - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
err, make that the second to the last page. Sorry.dm - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
Nice review Wesley. I have owned this cooler and it does have its own merit. While it failed to beat the competition, what I can share is that I used this fan on an overclocked QX6700@3.2GHz at stock vCore and it performed great. If anyone would like to use it to achieve 3.8GHz+++, I suggest they get a quad core instead, say an X3210 and overclock it to 3GHz and use this cooler with a silent fan. With such cooling power, and since I have tested it personally, this cooler is great and should perform at par with competing ones.My only gripe is the price. The Ninja RevB I owned can cool the same quad core at same voltage but with much lower price tag.
joex444 - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
This thing just got pwned. It's obviously a poser. All the extra fin space did nothing, and a 2nd fan proved to be a novelty.LaGUNaMAN - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
Thanks for the review. I was waiting for this a long time. Definitely the best Gemini II review out there. (^^,)evident - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
is it me or does thermalright xp/ultra/whatever 120 series own the competition constantly? every review i read this cooler dominates the market. I'm happy to own an xp-120 and that it's not getting topped anytime soon it seems :)stromgald - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
Um, the XP-120 has been topped by the Ultra-120 (which is a completely different design than the XP), Scythe Ninja, and Zalman CNPS9500 to name a few. The Ninja barely edges it out, and the Ultra-120 beats the XP-120 by a good margin. The Zalman beats it in °C rise per W of processor heat, but is also noisier. Thermalright's good, but it's not like the competition is that far off at all.P.S. Thermalright doesn't have a 120 'series'. It's more like the XP series (XP-120, XP-90), SI series (SI-128, SI-97), and Ultra Series (Ultra-120, Ultra-90). The number is related to fan size, the name is the overall design/series.
Wesley Fink - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
Thermalright has advised that the Ultra-120 eXtreme issues with the Socket 775 adapter have been resolved and the eXtrme is now in full production. For those who asked, the IFX-14 production has been delayed and Thermalright is now looking at an end of May release for the IFX-14.We will do an update on the performance of the production Ultra-120 eXtreme which is on its way to the labs.
TA152H - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
Not to state the obvious, but shouldn't you have tested this thing with no fans? I mean, you get a heatsink with no fans at all, that says it can run with no fans, and kind of sucks when used with fans. Hmmmm, would kind of hit me like an airborne brick that I should probably test it without any fans at all, and see if it works. Cooler Master in my experience has been a pretty good company, and it makes me wonder why they made a cooler like this one that sucks so bad. Except maybe it doesn't, and for whatever peculiar reason is exceptional at running with no fans vis-a-vis other heat sinks with no fans. Of course, it could suck at that as well, but it's so obvious a question, I'm surprised no attempt was made to answer it. It could also be potentially useful. A sucky cooler like this is of little or no interest to people with fans, but if it cooled as well as a stock heat sink/fan, without the fan, that would be attractive to a much greater audience.I'm also surprised they are still making these massive beasts. With the death of the horrible P7, you'd think they would start making more reasonable sized heat sinks - unless they needed it this big to work fanless.
Wesley Fink - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
We did try to test with no fans, but temperatures immediately ran to 70C under load at stock X6800 speeds and the system rebooted. I was not comfortable continuing a "no-fan" test under those conditions. perhaps this should have been mentioned in the review, but the results already pointed to less than stellar cooling efficiency compared to the Thermalrights, for example, which actually did fanless cooling within acceptable temperature ranges.As we have also stated several times, our current test bed is not well setup for testing fanless coolers. THe new test bed, which will be introduced with the 120mm fan roundup, is much better in that regard and will better support reliable, comparable results with fanless cooling.
TA152H - Monday, April 30, 2007 - link
OK, thanks.I think you should mention that in the article, because that was the first thing that popped into my head. "Can I use this thing fanless at stock clock speeds?"
With regards to the poor cooling, with some stuff it's bad to extrapolate data, even if it's logical. More specifically, it could be possible that one did better with fans, and another without, so I resist making assumptions on stuff like that. Put another way, if you were a designer, and I told you to make two heat sinks, one that was designed to work with a fan, and one that was designed to work without, would they end up being different? I would think so, but really I don't know enough to be sure. Consequently, I think stuff like that should be spelled out instead of assumed. In this case, it sucked at everything, but that may not always be the case.
Anyway, thanks for your response. I wouldn't want to ruin my processor either, so I can understand why you'd stop testing right away. I would have done the same.