X-bit labs

Big Typhoon Squared: Cooler Master GeminII Review (page 5)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 04/04/2007 | 03:05 PM ]

So, you remove the protective film from its base, apply some thermal paste, put the mainboard down on it so that the CPU heat-spreader touched the cooler’s base, and finally fasten it on the reverse side of the mainboard with nuts and a special key.

A back-plate is used for AMD platforms, but there is no such thing for Intel’s platform and the mainboard bends under the pressure, which is not good.

The base and the fastening frame are compact, so nothing prevented installing the GeminII on the two mainboards I used as you can see:

Unfortunately, the cooler cannot always be oriented in the best possible way on AMD’s platforms (the mounting holes around LGA775 are symmetrical, allowing to orient the cooler just you wish). For the GeminII to be correctly installed on Socket AM2/939 mainboards it is necessary that the plastic fastening frame and the holes in the mainboard were parallel to the rear panel of the system case (or to the mainboard’s I/O connectors). This potential incompatibility is specifically mentioned by the manufacturer in the installation guide:

So, before purchasing the new cooler you should make sure it is compatible with your mainboard.

Finally, you put the mainboard with the heatsink back into the system case. Hang the fan guides onto the heatsink and attach the fans to the mainboard’s connectors.

Note that there are slits in the fan guides so that you could position the fans in the most effective way.

The frame with the fans can move to and fro by 70 millimeters.