| Cooler Master GeminII S524 CPU Heatsink |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Monday, 22 August 2011 | |
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Cooler Master GeminII S524 CPU Cooler
Manufacturer: Cooler Master Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Cooler Master I've said before that since the coolers included with retail CPUs are both quiet and effective at stock clock speeds, overclocking is the only reason anyone should buy a third party CPU cooler. Well, this isn't strictly true: not all third party CPU coolers are designed to handle ultra-high overclocks in massive tower systems; sometimes, what you need is a cooler that is more effective than the retail cooler in specific situations, such as the tight confines of a micro-ATX or HTPC case. When airflow's at a premium, a properly designed cooler that can fit into a tight space can be a big help. Benchmark Reviews looks at Cooler Master's new GeminII S524 cooler, which is designed for just such applications. The GeminII is a "blow down" style cooler, as are the stock Intel and AMD coolers. A fan blows air down over an array of fins, rather than out the back or top of the computer as most third party coolers do. 
The design used to be more popular, but has largely been replaced by "tower" style coolers which offer more effective cooling since they can be physically larger. Cooler Master GeminII S524 CPU Cooler Specifications
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Comments
I guess the key question is whether the extended fan mount bezel is flush with the RAM mounting tabs, as on every Z77 uATX board I've seen the RAM tabs' bottom is the exact point where the first PCIE slot starts. Since RAM slot + tabs is probably ~exactly 140MM (RAM I think is about 132MM, but not 100% sure), it seems like a perfectly center-mounted 140MM wide sink (which the GeminII looks like it is because of the extended lip for a 140MM fan) would be exactly flush with the top of PCIE slot 1, and since PCIE graphics cards usually have width to both sides, I'm kind of inclined to think the report I saw was accurate, but I'm also kind of inclined to think that removing the 140MM fan mount bezel/lip would fix it without altering thermals much.
Anyway, if you have any other recs for CPU sinks that would work well uATX and are under 130MM height and closer to 120MM in the top-to-bottom direction, I'm all ears.
I guess there's the Noctua NH-L12 (128MM, rather than 144), but I haven't been thrilled about it. Maybe I should reconsider.
Ironically enough my initial concern was sinks bumping interfering with the first RAM slot.
Still, I concede the possibility of interference. You probably could Dremel away some of the unused 140mm fan flange, but I think a simpler solution would be one of the single-120mm radiator water cooling setups like the Corsair H80. That should remove all your fitment concerns and provide better cooling to boot.
Anyway, thanks for replying, it's probably kind of onerous for you to have an extended comment discussion like this.
I've been looking at the H60 very seriously, actually. My major concern is that I feel that despite the 5 year warranty, the longevity and performance degradation over time aren't clear.
I know that every sink/fan based cooler I've used is still working and could probably keep on going for far longer than the useful life of my PCs and worse case probably need a fan replaced or reapplication of thermal grease, but with water cooling there are horror stories of pump seizures and coolant leaks that make me a little a ambivalent. Likewise, I've heard there's a constant, but minuscule, rate of coolant evaporation -- not sure how much it matters. Maybe I should just take the plunge. I've heard Corsair will replace your whole PC if things really go south, but it'd still be a hassle.
:)