X-bit labs

New Shining CPU Cooler: Gigabyte G-Power II Pro Review (page 3)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 01/28/2008 | 02:24 PM ]

Design and Functionality

Gigabyte once again focused on the concept of around-the-socket area cooling efficiency when designing their new Gigabyte G-Power II Pro cooling solution. One look at the newcomer is enough to see it:

So, there are five copper heat-pipes coming out of the cooler base. Four of them are 8mm in diameter, while the heat-pipe in the middle features a more widely spread 6mm diameter:

An array of thin aluminum heatsink plates sits on these heat-pipes and is cooled with a 120-mm fan in a shining plastic casing:

The casing does have mirror-shining surface that reflects everything around it. And to ensure that it will stay this way despite dust and time, Gigabyte included a small cloth for casing surface polishing. Although we have to admit that it is purely aesthetic feature that will not affect overclocking results in any way. So, let’s get back to discussing the cooler design.

If we remove the fan and the casing, it will be much easier to figure out the cooler design:

Gigabyte G-Power II Pro measures 121 x x126 x 162mm in size and weighs 642g, however, despite that the heatsink cooling surface is subjectively small. Gigabyte engineers had to bend the heat-pipes a lot trying to achieve the best cooling for around-the-socket area:

As we can see, with a heatsink shaped up like that it is rally hard to increase its cooling surface area a lot. As you can see, the ribs along the incoming airflow side are of varying height, which reduces airflow resistance and allows suing fans with lower rotation speed.