Cooler Master GeminII CPU Cooler Review

[Apoptosis]

The Cooler Master GeminII has been around for some time, but just recently they have been available free after rebate. We ordered one of these coolers in from Newegg just to see how a free cooler does compared to the reference cooler that comes with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. With the ability to run two 120mm fans at the same time this is by far one of the largest heat sinks we have ever taken a look at. Read on and see how our free Cooler Master GemniII performs!



Article Title: Cooler Master GeminII CPU Cooler Review
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/609/1/
Pricing : $30 at time of print

[maj0r_pawnage]

looks kinda weird

[bandieramonte]

Hello;

I just bought this cpu cooler/heatsink, but now I've got an issue. See, this is my first time building a rig, and didn't know how to predict whether if a component would interfere with another or not.

The problem is that I bought this component, together with 4 sticks of OCZ Reaper RAM (4x1Gb). As you know, this memories have got a heatsink just on top of them. So if I try to set up this cpu cooler, it would not fit, because it would crush against the rams' heatsinks....

But, I found I way to avoid this, and I don't know if this solution would alter the cpu cooler's efficiency. The solution I found is to rotate the cpu cooler exactly by 180 degrees. I mean, on your picture of the 1st post of this thread, the CPU cooler would have the greater part of its body over the opposite side of the motherboard, where we can find the: mouse/keybord input, eSATA input, 1394 port, SPDIF port, USB Ports, L-Out Mic etc etc.... (this is on a P6N Diamond motherboard.) I don't know if I described my solution well.

So I would like to know if I can do this without any problem.

Thanks.

[Apoptosis]

If you flip it 180 degrees how will it fit in a case?

[bandieramonte]

Sorry, I didn't understand your question. I'm new on building rigs.

When I said to rotate it by 180 degrees, I meant to just turn the CPU cooler around its own Z axis till it has been rotated by 180 degrees. If I do this then it wouldn't fit in my case? Will it interfere with my case's wall? My case is the Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS ATX Full Tower PC Case

I made this try, and it could fit well on the MSI P6N Diamond motherboard, but I haven't still installed the motherboard in the case. Maybe I did not understand your question because still I haven't tried to install this on the case. But also of my concern is whether if this rotation would alter the cpu cooler's efficiency or not.

[ibleet]

I don't have the cooler here to test it out, but if it fits by rotating it 180, then do it. You only run into issues when the rotation changes the fan direction. In this case it appears that the fans blow air upward, so it should not be an issue.

[bubba]

So I would like to know if I can do this without any problem.

NO, you will have issues. if you turn it like you are say, so that it hangs over the IO panel instead of the ram it will not fit the case, It will stick well beyond the back of the case. You can't point it down (towards vid card) the cards won't fit under it. only way would be to point it up (to the top of the case), that or get ram with smaller heat sinks.

This pic will help show what I trying to say, see how far the cooler goes to the left of the socket.

[Apoptosis]

If you flip it 180 degrees how will it fit in a case?

Like Bubba said... if you flip it then it wont fit in a case...

[ibleet]

Like Bubba said... if you flip it then it wont fit in a case...

If thats the case, then you will have to get Ram with smaller heatsinks, or a 2x2Gb kit. I also have OCZ Reaper, but I got a 4Gb kit (2x2Gb). I was able to use banks b2,a2 instead of b1,a1 to work around my arctic cooler and still run synchronous. I didn't even bother to check if it would fit had I rotated it because the fan would have been blowing the wrong way...away from the exhaust fan instead of into it.

[bandieramonte]

I just got home from work, to try to find some way to install this cooler along with the reapers, but I couldn't.... Whatever direction I would rotate this damn cooler, it would always interfere with a component:

- Leaving at default direction would interfere with the reapers.
- Rotating 90+ degrees, would interfere with the 8800 GTS G92.
- Rotating 90- degrees would point the cooler to my case's ceiling, and would interfere with some rare metal tube that's close to the ceiling. (If I could find a way to torn it apart, it would maybe fit)
- Rotating 180 degrees would hit with the rear wall of the case.

I tried every possibility here. I'm situated in a very isolated place, and got no chance but to exchange this reapers by the following memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145184

which are not CAS4... the reapers should be faster because of tighter timings.

This is the only trade I can do here, no one has got a decent cpu cooler here. If anyone finds a work around here with this reapers and cpu cooler, I would REALLY appreciate this.

Thanks.

[bandieramonte]

wait wait wait I just thought of something new which could be the solution.

Please, have a look to the image of my motherboard:

13-130-080-11.jpg (63.89 KiB) Viewed 993 times

I could rotate the GeminiII 90 degrees clockwise making it to point towards the PCI Express Slots. If I do this, then the white PCI Express slot that's closest to the socket 775 would be unavailable because a video card would not fit there. So, I could instead just use the rest of the PCI Express Slots for my 2 video cards. I could use the yellowish PCI Express slot that is closest to the socket, as well as the white PCI Express slot that is immediately on the left.

The only drawbacks that maybe could occur with solution would be:
D1) The video cards can't be installed this way (the 2 cards must be on 2 yellow slots or on 2 white slots)
D2) The video cards won't operate at full X16 speed both, but on X8 speed. (According to the manual, to attain full X16 speed, both cards must be on the white PCI Express slots)
D3) The CPU Cooler wont work this way or it could be less efficient.

This are my 3 concerns on this solution. My questions are:

Q1) which of them would actually happen? Is there any other drawback here that I haven't anticipated?
Q2) If D2 could happen, then would my system suffer a performance penalty having one or both of the video cards operating at X8 speed? My 2 video cards are the 8800 GTS G92. I have researched on Google comparing X8 VS X16, and some say X16 performs better, while others demonstrate that they are the same, I don't know.

Thanks.

[Zertz]

INstead of changing the motherboard, maybe you could just get another kit of RAM with smaller heatsinks?