By: Ben Joubert
May 6, 2016
Calgary has had a minor winter this year, with only a few days where it was super cold. Since about February, the temperature has been rising constantly, and most of the snow melted early. With summer now fast approaching and much warmer days coming ahead, there is so much more to do outside -- especially since university final exams are over. The extra time is great to go biking in a forest close to my house. During the summer months, especially on weekends, the forest gets very busy. It is great for walks or for biking, and I have even seen some people try to fish in the river, although I have no idea if they have ever caught anything. Even though I have been spending more time outside, I still have to deal with the entire house heating up quite a bit inside. Fortunately, I do live in the basement, and it is usually much cooler downstairs compared to upstairs. But my computer runs all day, it actually heats up my room quite a bit. In the winter, it was not as big an issue, but now with summer around the corner, the heat generated by my PC became much more noticeable. As such, a good heatsink is important to keep the exhaust heat away from my CPU rather than with the CPU. Today, we have the Cooler Master GeminII S524 Ver.2, a new air cooler from a company familiar to all of us here at APH Networks. Read on to find out how it performs!
The Cooler Master GeminII S524 Ver.2 arrived with some Cooler Master Silencio FP 120 PWM Performance Edition Senior Technical Editor Aaron Lai recently reviewed, along with a V750 power supply. The shipping box was a big corrugated brown box due to all the different Cooler Master products we received. It arrived via UPS Standard from the company's offices in Chino, California, and everything arrived in good condition. After opening the shipping box, we moved on to the retail packaging.
The GeminII S524 Ver.2 arrived in a small box. The sides alternate color, with the top, left, and right sides being black, and the front, bottom, and back being white. The front has a very clean look, with a photo of the product on the front, and some selling points, such as the continuous contact copper heatpipes, X-vent, and air guide airflow design. The front also displays which sockets the product is compatible with. However, it only advertises two Intel Sockets, even though it is compatible with AMD boards as well. The top of the box has the product name on a black background. The back advertises all the features of the product in different languages, while the bottom has all the contact information for different regions. The right side of the box has the specifications of the heatsink and the fan, while the left side just has another picture of the product. The fan the GeminII S524 Ver.2 uses is the Silencio FP 120mm.
Before we move on to the rest of the review, here are some specifications, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Model: RR-G5V2-20PK-R1
CPU Socket: Intel LGA 2011-3 / 2011 / 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 1151 / 1150 / 775
AMD FM2+ / FM2 / FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ / AM2
Dimensions: 144 x 141 x 105 mm (5.7 x 5.6 x 4.1 inch)
Heatsink Dimensions: 136 x 124 x 77 mm (5.4 x 4.9 x 3 inch)
Heatsink Material: 5 Continuous Direct Contact Heatpipes / Aluminum fins
Heatsink Weight : 392 g (0.9 lb)
Heatpipe Dimensions: Ø6 mm
Fan Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25 mm (4.7 x 4.7 x 1 inch)
Fan Speed : 800~2000 RPM (PWM) ± 10%
Fan Air Flow: 16.5 - 65 CFM (28 – 110.5 m3/h)
Fan Air Pressure: 0.48~4.8 mmH2O
Fan Life Expectancy: 160,000 hours
Noise Level: 6.5~22 dBA
Bearing Type: Loop Dynamic Bearing (LDB)
Connector: 4-Pin
Rated Voltage: 12 VDC
Rated Current: 0.08 A
Power Consumption: 0.16 A
Fan Weight: 0.96 W
Weight: 154 g (0.34 lb)
I was very impressed with the packaging. Cooler Master packaged the product tightly, with lots of soft foam on all sides of the cooler. Included in the box are information booklets, and a small box containing all the installation components for different sockets. The small box also contains a small tube of thermal paste. The installation booklet was slightly confusing to look at initially, but it was helpful that the booklet had all the components listed, and how many of each should be in the packaging. Overall, the packaging was good, and ensured the safety of the product.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
