GeminII

Cooler Master have done a great job with the packaging of their GeminII and there is a huge amount of information on the box. There is also small window through which we can see part of the cooler and a useful handle is located on the top of the packaging ... it's very much needed due to the weight (850g) and general bulk of the GeminII.

Upon opening the box we find the heat sink well protected within a strong plastic case. Along with the heat sink there is also a selection of brackets used for attaching to most motherboards (S754, 939, 940, AM2 and 775). A small tube of thermal paste (unsurprisingly Cooler Master branded) is supplied as is a very detailed fold out instruction manual. Finally there are two long metal fan attachment brackets, these can be screwed to the top of the cooler and then one or two 12cm fans (not included) can be attached to the cooler.

Shown above are images of the GeminII and it really is a thing of beauty. The copper base and heat pipes compliment the aluminium fins and the “wavy” design really does look awesome. We would have been interested to see difference a solid set of fins would have made compared to the design shown above with a hole however we can give Cooler Master the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Installing the heat sink was a relatively easy process however it does require the motherboard to be removed from the case to complete the task. Our install was performed on a S775 board and shown above is the 775 bracket which is screwed to the base of the cooler prior to installation. The screws which are visible on the left picture pass through the motherboard and are held in place by 4 nuts on the underside of the board (right picture). The nuts are tightened by a small attachment (seen on the topmost nut position) and screwdriver. It’s all very easy and no awkward clamps are required as with some other enthusiast coolers.

The pictures above show the heat sink when installed, firstly on MSI's P35 motherboard (which looks great with MSI's heat pipe design) and also in the case. What is very clear from the final shot is that the choice of case, and cable routing, has to be given consideration when buying the GeminII. There is no reason why it wouldn't fit in a normal sized case as it does not overhang the width/length of an ATX board , however it might be a tight fit. Also worth noting is that memory sticks with extended height heat sinks (over 45mm) may not fit under the cooler... normal sticks should however benefit from the airflow passing through the heat sink and down on to the memory slots.