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.
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Cableaddict - Thursday, June 5, 2008 - link
This review ranks with Anantech's H2O kit review as one of the all-time low points for internet reviews.Once again, accurate & useful data marred by horrendous conclusions.
To wit:
1: Some people have small cases, like HTPC cases & such, and cannot fit any of the top heatsinks. For all of these users, the Gemini II is quite possibly the BEST heatsink that will actually fit. (It will JUST fit into a 3U rack case, with Noctua fans installed)
2: Some people care about low noise. The Gemini II was shown, by this very review, to excel with low-noise fans. Compare any heatsink made, with the possibly exception of the Ultra-120, to the Gemini with both using 1300 rpm Noctuas- The Gemini is the clear winner.
----
But sadly, the reviewer here fails to take these situations into consideration and decides to say that the excellent Gemini II is a "poser." Because this review was the first major one to be published, no one else really bothered much, and the product all but disappeared from the marketplace.
SHAME on this reviewer. Seriously.
FWIW, I had a DuOrb on my OC'd Q6600. I couldn't get it past 3.2 Ghz.
I recently switched to a Gemini II with two Noctuas, and have reached 3.5 Ghz under heavy load. - And the noise is almost non-existant.
This review blows.
Patrick Wolf - Monday, January 24, 2011 - link
Exactly. Obviously this cooler isn't targeted or designed to compete against the big boys. So to say it's a poser is just plain ignorant.mrseew - Thursday, December 13, 2007 - link
was looking for a review on the gemini ii vs the 120, thanksFarfle - Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - link
I got this cooler for $1 buck after rebates from Newegg. I don't care if it doesn't cool any better than the Intel HSF; the box and metal itself are worth the $1 just to look at. They're so shiny!!!Uglystick - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link
I dont mind AT comparing one product agianst another in fact I welcome it as it gives me a better feel on how the product fits into the market. But I find this review a little lacking. It reviews the coolers ability to cool but states the it comes midrange in all the tests of all aircoolers tested, but i could not find any mention of how much the cooler cost in comparison to the leading performers. A little investigation of the AT site shows that the "TOP" performer costs almost double what the Gemini (the Thermalright Ultra 120 is shown as $60 and the Gemini at $33) wouldnt this indicate that the cooler is not "meant" to compete with the top line models, after all we dont compare the family sedan with a Porsche do we. There's no mention of value for $ anywhere in the article (unless i missed it) so it may not be the great cooler that you were hoping it to be but how does it compare when you bring budget and market placement into it.Samus - Tuesday, September 4, 2007 - link
you never mentioned that memory and northbridge temperatures fall off the map with the gemini IIthe purpose of the cooler isn't to be an exceptional cpu cooler. its purpose is to cool everything else, too. and it does THAT better than ANY other cooler out there. my memory and northbridge have no active cooling, so with this cooler, they run exceptionally cooler. and all at no expense to added noise.
jes1111 - Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - link
Wow! Seems some people (including the reviewer) got out of bed on the wrong side.In common with many people, when I'm in the market for a new oiece of kit, I google up as many reviews and forum posts as I can find and make purchasing decisions accordingly. I find it significant that of all the reviews for the CoolerMaster Gemini II, yours is the only negative one. This tells me a lot about your approach.
The fact is that the vast majority of readers/surfers/PC-owners are NOT looking to "OC this rig to 5.9GHz at 27,000 volts on air!" just so they can brag about it at playschool. And as a good and responsible review site, you shouldn't be pandering to these measurebators.
I find your conclusion misleading and even unfair to CoolerMaster. The Gemini fits a particular need, a niche requirement if you will, and your review should reflect that instead of dismissing it as a gimmick that fails to outperform XYZ brand.
Take my case: I have a Gigabyte DQ6 board in a Lian-Li PC-V2000 Plus II case. I've gone for a mild overclock to 3.2GHz (400x8) with the RAM running at 1:1 (800). Originally I fitted a Noctua big-tower cooler thingee. The CPU cooling was just great but I was running an uncomfortably high temp on the MCH (a common problem with tower-style coolers). Problem: on this board (and many others I'm), a tower-style cooler of the Noctua's dimensions overhangs the MCH, so I'm unable to fit a 40mm fan to the top of its heatsink to cool the wee beastie down. Solution: a Gemini II with two Noctua 120mm fans. Now I get more or less the same CPU temp as the Noctua gave me, but greatly improved MCH temp (even without the 40mm fan running) and I'm sure my RAM and power components are happier too.
In other words, the Gemini is a VERY clever and useful piece of equipment, designed to answer a specific and not uncommon problem and it does so VERY well. So, far from being dismissed as a mere gimmick, it should be praised for bucking a fashion trend (encouraged by reviews like yours) and doing exactly what it says it will do.
And, as others have pointed out, for HTPC applications none of the big towers will fit. Your review could/should have identified these points and given CoolerMaster the praise they deserve.
So there! With knobs on!
fasdl - Saturday, May 5, 2007 - link
Too bad it didn't do better... It has 8 maybe if you had a case with side intake it would have performed cooler? I'm actually going to build a a side intake system using the Enermax chakra case. It has a 250mm fan that would push air into the line of suction of these fans. I also notice it has 6 heat pipes like the 120 ultra extreme, it must be that they made it too short. If the fins were taller it would have had comparable surface area and done better perhaps. I really like the idea though of spreading out more instead of having it one tall tower. It blows on the ram too!Blacklash - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
I noticed you have been reviewing quite a few coolers as of late. Grab a Thermaltake V1 and see how it does. I know it won't out perform the Tuniq tower and it should be good for a mid range OC. I am curious what its limits are. Below is what I am talking about-[url]http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?ad=fg&...[/url]
yyrkoon - Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - link
Drop the 'an', or the 's' from supplies
Last page, second paragraph.