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Written by Marko Vezmar
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 |
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Page 1 of 2  There were only few of us who could only guess that CPU air cooler GeminII will get its S version, just like it was the case with Cosmos case. GeminII S is possible to mount on every, at the moment, popular platform but we didn’t expect anything less from Cooler Master. That implies support for Intel LGA 775 or AMD 939/940/AM2 sockets. What we really liked is traditional metal black plate that we saw on Hyper Z600 model (frankly it was necessary for previous GeminII model).
Mounting of S model isn’t hard but demands to take motherboard out of the case. Tool that you will need is “crosshead” screwdriver. Novelty is fan that comes in package. Fan size is standard for one 120mm fan. What isn’t standard is design of fan blades (they are curved more than on standard one). What isn’t also standard is amount of them, to be more precise there are 9 of them. Fan is rotating with speed from 1000 up to 2000 rpm and has 4-pin connector. At minimum rpm this fan is in true sense silent fan, almost inaudible. While at full 2000 rpm it is just a bit audible but still it is not irritating sound.
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Like older brother, GeminII S has metal brackets for mounting two fans but this time two 92 mm or two 80 mm fans. Body of Cooler Master GeminII S cooler is characterized by its copper base. Finish of base surface (that goes on to CPU heat spreader) could be better, like on Hyper Z600 model. Five heat pipes connect copper base and densely packed aluminum ribs that are also embedded into base. Cooler Master obviously didn’t experiment with design. Weight of cooler itself is 560 grams. We compared GeminII S with its predecessor GeminII but also with an Intel BOX cooler. We have used different speeds and setups so take a look at results.
Test Results
We have used two test CPUs: QuadCore and DualCore. We conducted tests in air-conditioned room with temperature set at 22 degrees Celsius. Core Temp was used for actual readings of CPU temperatures. In first test we measured temperature in idle after 10 minutes. In second test CPUs were “burned” CPUs with QuadPrime95 application in 30 minutes period and we noted highest achieved temperature of CPU.
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As expected GeminII achieved better performances but not in amount that would be decisive in favor of older model (in which case user needs to buy one more fan). By mounting sliding brackets and two 92mm fans on GeminII S it is really easy to optimize cooling of CPU, chipset and memory modules. Temperature of chipset on ASUS Maximus II Formula motherboard was lower for 13 degrees Celsius when we mounted two 92mm fans instead of one 120mm (temperature readings were conducted with thermal probe).
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