Double test: Cooler Master GeminII vs. Thermaltake V1

Cooler Master GeminII

A while ago we treated you to an extensive comparison test of CPU coolers (Dutch article). Today we take a closer look at two coolers in particular: the definitive versions of the Cooler Master GeminII and the Thermaltake V1.

The Cooler Master GeminII which we tested initially, was a first sample; recently we received the final product from Cooler Master, which turns out to perform a lot better than the originally tested pre-production model.

A unique aspect of the GeminII, is that you can outfit the cooler with two 12 cm fans of your own choosing. No less than six heat pipes transfer the heat, generated by the CPU, to an oversized heatsink on which both fans can be mounted. As the heatsink has a significant overhang, you can position the unit in such a way that the second fan cools the north bridge or the memory modules directly.

We've tested the cooler with a combination of two types of fans: 2x Cooler Master Ultra Silent Fan (SAF-S12) and 2x Cooler Master Neon LED-fan (TLF-S12). To start with the first combination: these fans are so quiet that the GeminII achieves a shared frst position in the noise production category. At 10 cm distance we only measured 31 dB. With these quiet fans the cooling achieved is still much better than average: even when cooling a simulated 100W CPU, the GeminII has its temperature drop to 46.3 degrees. This means this combination can cool pretty much any modern cpu quietly, while still leaving significant potential for overclocking. With the more powerful Cooler Master Neon LED-fans we attained an even better 39.8 degrees at 100 Watt. This is one of the best cooling performances we've seen, although the Cooler Master doesn't surpass the Scythe Infinity and Gigabyte 3D Rocket II. The noise levle at 10 cm with these fans is 47 dB, slightly more quiet than the average. The average price of the GeminII is only about 31 euro, but that's without any fans, which have to be bought separately.