Introduction:

In today’s performance intensive computers there is a myriad of differing cooling solutions, all designed to entice the end-user with their specifications. Many manufacturers opt for either silence, overclocking, small form factor spacing or all of the above. Only those whom are truly willing to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the industry can hope to survive this free-for-all. Then if we throw in more esoteric forms of cooling into the bag we are in for some interesting times indeed. Today however we are focusing our attention on the cooler that is designed for the Home Theatre PC case market.

Coolermaster have sent us their brand new Gemini Two Mark Four CPU cooler and it will be very interesting to see if this cooler can hold a candle to Coolermaster’s long line of high quality products.

Company Background

Cooler Master was founded with the mission of providing the industry’s best thermal solutions. Since its establishment a decade ago, the company has remained faithful to this mission, emerging as a world leader in products and services for companies dealing with devices where heat issues must be resolved.

In pursuing this mission, Cooler Master is absolutely committed to delivering solutions that precisely meet customer requirements for features, performance, and quality. Moreover, we strive to be a reliable long-term partner for our customers that they can truly depend on. It aims to be the first and foremost name that comes to mind for companies around the world seeking thermal solutions, and seeks to build such a reputation through outstanding technology, sophisticated design, and superior service.

Cooler Master’s current business encompasses a comprehensive lineup of thermal solutions for a full range of applications. Its products range from heat sinks and fans to component housing, chassis, and ducting for computers, industrial machinery, telecommunications equipment, and many other devices.

Specifications:

GeminII M4 is a super low profile CPU cooler (59mm / 2.3in height) designed for a system with limited space, such as mini-ITX, HTPC, or any small desktop. With its four direct contact heat pipes and unique heat pipe layout, GeminII M4 not only keeps compact size but provides amazing cooling performance.

The Coolermaster Gemini Two Mark Four comes in a standard box with the usual Coolermaster theme (that is Purple and White) emblazoned on the front. What is most noticeable is that this model sports a 120mm fan that is only 15mm deep, rather than the usual 25mm. In fact it would be fair to say that the whole cooler is a ‘low profile’ version. The following shots show the packaging displayed in vivid detail.

As clearly shown in a photograph below, the cooler has been encased within a sponge material as an effective way of preventing damage to the product. Before we move on to the cooler proper let us take a brief look at the supplied accessories; that is the various socket mounting options and the thermal compound.  The mounting clips provide for almost every AMD configuration under the sun and all of Intel’s also. That is from socket 775 to 1366 and with the new 2011 pin socket the end-user would be best advised to look at other options. Before we move onto examining the cooler proper, we must take a look at the Thermal Compound used. Obviously Coolermaster do not manufacture their own thermal compound, instead it comes from another company with the name of ‘Halnziye’ namely the HY 550 series Thermal Compound .

Let us now move onto examining the Gemini Mark Four cooler itself.

First Looks

As mentioned previously this product is of the low-profile type designed for Home Theatre PC’s, and as such is very small and compact. However judging by the direct contact heatpipe idea then this should pack a nice punch. First off are are a few images of the Gemini Two MK4 in all its glory.

It was a good choice by Coolermaster to go for the direct contact heatpipe option rather than the usual CPU plate and then heatpipe. The latter solution would hinder efficiency as compared to the aforementioned method. Running a finger along the fins we get the impression of durability and solidness. The previously mentioned fins are quite hard to bend and this attention to quality (as far as coolers are concerned) we have only found in Noctua’s line of products, which are much more expensive anyway and are positioned in a differing sector of the market. CoolerMaster have opted for the spring clip solution to mount the fans, rather than screw or rubber mounts as shown below:

Next we move onto the fan itself. As we have mentioned before, this is a low speed and low profile fan in order to compliment the need in a home theatre system. However, digging around the internet we fail to find any more information about this fan, such as whom manufacturers the drive bearings, etc. So at this moment in time we just have to take Coolermaster’s word, with regards to the fan specifications.

Finally we move onto the fins themselves. Removing the fan is simplicity in itself. Just press in the spring clips and the fan dismounts, it is really that simple!

As mentioned before the fins have a high quality and sturdy feel to them. It’s not often we see high quality combined with a durable system here, however we seemed to have found it in this bundle.

Thats it for this section, let us now move onto the installation and testing of the Gemini Two Mark Four.

Installation

The installation of the Coolermaster Gemini Two Mark Four is simplicity in itself. It is so easy that we could say that even a ‘PC World Employee’ can manage it. All that needs to be done is use the four screws (two on each side) to install the mounting clips of your choice

The next step would be to place the heatsink on top of the CPU (after application of thermal compound of course) and to install the backing plate for the motherboard. Speaking of the backing plate, it is of the universal type and is suitable for both AMD and INTEL.

Note: not only have Coolermaster installed an insulation pad on the connecting parts of the backing plate (where it connects to the motherboard) but also on the obverse to prevent any possible damage to the motherboard. However, that is not the really cool (pardon the pun) part, in order to install the fan assembly to the backing plate they have provided four nuts. This is not unusual but the way of tightening these ‘nuts’ is. Coolermaster have included a socket which slots over the aforementioned and can then be tightened by the use of a standard ‘Philips’ screwdriver. What a great idea from Coolermaster!

Now that we have installed the Gemini Two Mark Four cooler, let us now move on to see how much clearance it has and to see if it fits nicely around a motherboard’s MOSFETS and Northbridge (MCH) sections.

As plainly shown by the above photos the fan itself seems to overlap the cooler and therefore giving direct airflow from the fan to other areas of the motherboard such as the Mosfets, Northbridge and even the memory modules.

The above motherboard photos plainly show how large this cooler is, with relation to the motherboard and its components.

That’s all as far as the installation goes, so let us move onto the testing phase.

Testing

The methodology we used in testing the Gemini Mark Four was to compare against a rather effective but obsolete product known as the ‘Vendetta’ from OCZ. Both products were tested using the Coolermaster thermal compound and then a days worth of curing was undergone in order to give both coolers a fair chance. Ambient temperature was a constant 23.7c in all tests and idle tests were gained by running prime 95 for one hour then letting the processor cool down naturally for half an hour. All readings were taking by using ‘Realtemp’ and by using the ‘maximum temperature readouts only!

Equipment used:

• DFI X48 DK Lanparty Motherboard
• Core 2 duo 6320 CPU 1.8GHZ at Default
• 2x GEIL DDR2 800 RAM
• OCZ Vendetta CPU cooler (for comparison purposes)

Default speeds at idle and full load for the Coolermaster and the OCZ models

Next we do some mild overclocking and push the frequency up from 1.8 to 3.0 gigahertz.

Finally an overclock reaching 3.2 gigahertz

If we examine the above data we can conclude that not only the Coolermaster model performs more efficiently, but there is less of a variance between the processor cores, in regards to the temperature read outs. Now the next question that must be asked is ‘why can a product obviously designed for HTPC’s outperform the old beast of the OCZ vendetta? Well, even for allowing that the fan speed of the Coolermaster model is lower than the OCZ product the fin density is higher and more importantly the OCZ model uses the old INTEL-Standard mounting! Meanwhile, the Coolermaster Gemini Two Mark Four utilizes a clamping mechanism where a backing plate is involved. The results above show that you can have all the fancy heatsinks and fins you wish, but if contact with the CPU is not effective, thae all other features are rendered useless.

Finally we come to the conclusion of the Coolermaster Gemini Two Mark Four

Conclusion:

Coolermaster have produced a smashing product indeed. If we factor in the size and performance of the Gemini Two Mark Four and then combine that with a RRP of around £17-18, then we have an absolute winner. It vastly out performs the OCZ model and has a great mounting system that is just simplicity in itself.

It’s performance to price range, when compared to other coolers in this market segment, allow the Coolermarster Gemini Two Mark Four to rival and overtake some of the other brands within this market scope. A fine effort from Coolermaster.

We like to at least put a token negative comment in all our reviews for balance purposes, however, in all honesty we couldn’t find one and that is a first for us.

Pros:

• Good Performance
• Price Range
• Easy Installation
• Clear Instructions
• Some great ideas for the mounting mechanism
• Nice Thermal Compound

Cons:

• None

Overclockers Tech are pleased to announce a 9.0 and therefore a gold award for the Coolermaster Gemini Two Mark Four.

Author: Christopher Cressey (Gilgamesh)