Cooler Master GeminII M4 CPU Cooler Review
CPU Cooling
by leeghoofd
@ 2012-02-06
Usually when a CPU cooler is reviewed here at the Shrimps we are talking about high end big and bulky models. Dual towers, triple fan equipped, the bigger the better. But what about for them that are building a high performance HTPC or eg a mini cube ? Do they have to rely solely on the included boxed coolers ? I had the privilege to build a Mine LAN PC inside a Lian Li V353 Cube shaped case. Most important factor was the build's size, not at the cost of performance. The choice of components was pretty high end : Asus Maximus IV Gene, Intel 2600K, 16Gb of Corsair ram, 120 Corsair GT SSD and a Nvidia GTX560 GPU. More than suitable for casual gaming purposes. After the build was completed, we noticed, during stability testing, that the CPU got pretty hot. And it was still running at out of the box speeds. Time to look for a beefier cooling solution Our eye fell onto Cooler Masters' latest low profile CPU cooler : The GeminII M4 CPU cooler.
The Cooler
The M4 cooler is boxed in a typical Coolermaster looking box. Loyal to the layout and colour schemes. Sorry for the dodgy pictures, my camera is going down.
The super slim fan is only 15mm thick. Just for info a normal sized 120mm fan is 25mm thick. In total the GeminII M4 is just 59mm in height.
The U shaped heatpipes have a C shaped form to keep the total height low. Plus they are of the direct contact type, to minimise contact gaps with the CPU's heatspreader. This should allow better heat transfer.
The ultra slim fan is clipped onto the heatsink, the mount is not 100% secure, but the fan stays into position.
Assembly and Test Setup
As you saw in the specifications list almost all sockets are supported, besides Intels socket 2011. The SB-E die size is even bigger than the socket 1366 ones. The GeminII M4 base doesn't cover the entire die surface.
Installation is pretty straightforward. Screw the appropriate support brackets on to the cooler. Install the backplate on the motherboard, apply the included thermal grease and then secure the entire cooling unit.
On the Intel support bracket a spring mounted system asures the right amount of pressure. This to avoid bend pins in the CPU socket. On the right a shot of the installed backplate. Coolermaster includes a tool to secure the nuts with a basic Philips screwdriver.
Once mounted the cooler looks humoungous on the tiny micro ATX motherboard. Turn the page to see if it performs likewise...
With low profile DIMMS no clearance issues, not even when all banks are filled !
Test Results
The test setup comprises of the following hardware :
- Asus Maximus IV Gene
- Intel 2600K CPU
- 16GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600C9 rams
- eVGA GTX560 GPU
- Corsair Force GT 120Gb SSD
- BeQuiet 530W PurePower PSU
We tested the CPU temperatures by loading all the available cores ( 8 ) with Prime95 Custom test 12 - 12K. Idle temps were monitored during a duration of 30 mins. The prime95 torture test was allowed to run during a full hour. Take note that the case is pretty cramped inside. A front 120mm fan was build into the case and the PSU fan is charged with exhausting the trapped hot air. Not an ideal air flow, but it was the best we could manage in this cube case.
The GeminII M4 fan can be hooked up to a motherboards fan connector. As it supported PWM we tested this and monitored the RPMs. Afterwards we redid the heat test with the fan running at full blast. At idle the PWM and boxed cooler temperatures are pretty close. The 100% fan speed ofcourse trounces the far slower spinning coolers. But who cares about idle. It's under load that we need to judge the capabilities of this low profile cooler. The boxed cooler spins at 2783RPM and becomes quite adible, just barely managing to keep the CPU cores at 83°C. This at 3800Mhz, for all the cores as the ASUS motherboards tend to set the same Turbo speed amongst all the cores. With the fan set with the PWM setting we get a 10°C load temp difference then with the Intel boxed solution. RPM is at just 1367rpm and far less audible. Disabling the PWM function and setting the fan to run flatout nibbles of another 1.5°C with another extra 250rpm.
Since the owner wanted to have a bit more CPU ooomph for his daily applications, we checked how far the CPU could be overclocked. However taking into account a max core temp of around 85°C. The same temp we reached on the hottest core during the load test with the boxed Intel cooler. We gained a whopping 400mhz with the Coolermaster M4. Again the temps were measured in a tiny case with almost no space to spare, so do not compare the results with your cooler at home, in a standard sized case.
Noise wise the Coolermaster stays below the boxed Intel cooler ( 43 dBA). When running flatout we barely breached 41dBA, at PWM mode it was just 39dBa. So around the noise level of a normal living room. The two values were measured when we ran the CPU under full prime95 load. If you are gaming, you would easily reach about 10°C less on CPU temperatures. Lower temps reflects in a lower RPM (PWM mode ofcourse), so even less noise during normal operations.
Conclusions
Even though the Coolermaster GeminII M4 looks gigantic when being assembled on a micro ATX motherboard. In comparison to eg a Thermalright VenomousX it looks more like a little dwarf. Yet it's cooling performance makes the boxed Intel solution blush. Even when being steered by the mobo's PWM, the GeminII manages to cool 10°C better than the stock cooler. Allowing in our testcase up to 400mhz more in CPU speed, a nice 4200Mhz of raw procesing power at your disposal. The CPU stayed at the same temperatures, as when being cooled by the boxed cooler when running at just 3800mhz.
If you are using low profile dimms like the used Corsair Vengeance Lp dimms you will have no clearance issues with the GeminII M4. Not even when filling up all the dimm slots. Bigger sized dimm heatpreaders might give you small installation woes. The height of the entire M4 cooler shouldn't be any problem in even the tiniest cases.
Installation is childsplay, but requires the removal of the motherboard as you need to install the backplate. The GeminII M4 retails around 27 euros. Cheap, plus you get awarded with a super compact cooling solution, that does what it was designed for : to cool down your precious CPU. The GeminII M4 can be highly recommended for users that want a low profile CPU cooler for their HTPC, mini PC's
PROS :
- Good cooling
- Easy assembling
- Price level
CONS :
- Possible clearance issues when all memory banks are populated
A big thanks to Marco from Coolermaster for the GeminII M4 sample!
and to Raf for allowing me to use his gear to test the cooler. Cyazz next time...
