Verdict: Cools your CPU and motherboard.

The moment Cooler Master told us about the GeminII we knew it would be something special. Thanks to its innovative design, the GeminII can support two 120mm fans, which is more than most cases were equipped with only a couple of years ago.

Heat is removed from the CPU by a large copper contact plate before passing into six extra-long copper heatpipes. These heatpipes then conduct the heat into a two-tier aluminium heatsink. The lower tier is narrower than the upper one, so the upper tier is lifted well clear of the CPU socket, leaving plenty of space for the two 120mm fans. Cooler Master doesn't supply any fans, leaving you free to choose your own. The two fans are positioned parallel to the motherboard, which means that they direct air over the heatsink and the motherboard, particularly the area around the VRMs, DIMM sockets and Northbridge. Given that these components also need to be cooled in an overclocked PC, the additional cooling provided by the GeminII is an excellent advantage.

Although the GeminII has mounts for Socket AM2 and LGA775 CPUs, we couldn't test it on the former, as it isn't compatible with Socket AM2 motherboards with vertically orientated CPU sockets. This is due to the sheer size of the HSF, which is so long that it would clash with the graphics card. With a pair of very quiet ADDAAD1212MS-A71GL fans fitted, the GeminII performed well in our LGA775 test rig, cooling the CPU to 4ûC below the reference Intel HSF.

While the GeminII isn't the most powerful HSF around, its ability to cool components surrounding the CPU socket is a great advantage.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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