CPU cooling is by far the most important part of reaching higher OC levels. If your CPU gets too hot then not only does your overclock become unstable but the life expectancy of your build is seriously compromised. GELID Solutions is fairly new to the cooling world, in name, but the founder of the company was also the co founder of Arctic Cooling so when it comes to cooling design they have a few years of quality products under their belt and they know what it take to build a robust cooler capable of taking whatever you can throw at it. Today we will be taking a look at the GELID Solutions Tranquillo CPU Cooler and GC Extreme Thermal paste and see if GELID has done their homework right on this one:
Provided by: GELID Solutions
Price: $37.99
Closer Look:
Specifications and Features:
| Air Flow (CFM): | 58 max |
| Bearing: | Hydro Dynamic Bearing |
| Cable Length (mm): | 500 |
| Current (A): | 0.18 |
| DC Voltage (V): | 12 |
| Fan Dimensions (mm) | 120 (l) x 120 (w) x 25 (h) |
| Fan Speed (RPM): | 750 – 1500 |
| Heat Sink Dimensions (mm): | 74 (l) x 125 (w) x 153 (h) |
| INCLUDED: | GC-2 Thermal Compound & Installation Kit for AMD & Intel sockets |
| Life time MTTF at 40C (h): | 50 000 |
| Noise Level (dBA): | 12 – 25.5 |
| Static Pressure (mmAq): | 1.6 |
| Warranty (years): | 5 |
| Weight (g): | 645 |
Applications:
Intel Socket 775, 1366 and 1156:
CPU: All Pentium D/ Pentium 4/ All Celeron D/ All Pentium Dual-Core/ Extreme/ All Core 2 Extreme/ Core 2 Quad/ Core 2 Duo, Core i5, Core i7
AMD Socket 754/ 939/ 940/ AM2/ AM2+/ AM3:
CPU: All Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, All Athlon 64 FX, Opteron, Sempron, Phenom, Phenom II
All brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Design Concept of Tranquillo:
The tower CPU Cooler “Tranquillo” uses 4 power heat pipes and a special heat pipe constellation to achieve best heat transfer from CPU core to the aluminium fins in its class. After precise software simulation and calculation during the development stage a unique heat sink shape was created to lower air flow resistance as much as possible.
A silent 120mm fan with the intelligent GELID PWM (Pulse Width Module) control has been chosen to make this heat sink more valuable. The fan blades were optimised to guarantee high airflow while running silently. The intelligent GELID PWM curve keeps the fan silent when no necessary cooling is needed and accelerates the fan speed whenever additional cooling is needed. The multi-award winning high performance GC-2 thermal compound is already included in the package.
To prevent any conflicts with the components on your motherboard please check with this dimension restriction drawing:
Additionally mounting clips for AMD 754/ 939/ 940/ AM2/ AM2+ and for Intel 775, 1366 and latest 1156 sockets as same as back plates for Intel LGA 775, Core i5 and Core i7 boards are all included. The cooler is RoHS and WEEE conform and carries a 5 year warranty.
Testing Setup:
- AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition
- Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler
- Crucial Ballistix DDR3 PC3 16000 4 x 1 GB
- PowerColor Radeon 5870 PCS+ Video Card
- Asus M4At85TD-V EVO Motherboard
- Western Digital 1TB HDD
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Edition
Testing:
I am going to be running my tests at an ambient room temperature of 20°C. I will be running both a load and idle test for each cooler. The Tranquillo will be going up against the Xigmatek Balder, Xigmatek Thors Hammer, and the SilenX Effizio.
|
Cooler |
SilenX Effizio |
|
GELID (GC Extreme) Tranquillo |
|
|
State |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
|
CPU :3.4GHz |
35 C |
29 C |
32 C |
28 C |
|
CPU: 3.6GHz |
36 C |
31 C |
34 C |
27 C |
|
Cooler |
Xigmatek Balder |
|
Xigmatek Thors Hammer |
|
|
State |
Load |
Idle |
Load |
Idle |
|
CPU :3.4GHz |
37 C |
29C |
36 C |
31C |
|
CPU: 3.6GHz |
38C |
31 C |
37 C |
33 C |
Conclusion:
Well I am not going to lie, I never thought that this cooler would have fared as well as it did against these other coolers. A couple of these coolers are a lot bigger and a lot more impressive looking but the fact remains that the Tranquillo did much better. It is a great cooler and very quiet and I think it would be a great addition to any enthusiast or gamers rig. I remember the first cooler GELID launched and it was not very good comparatively to the coolers around at that time. It did beat a stock cooler but other than that it wasn’t a great flagship for GELID the introduction of the Tranquillo is GELID’s way of absolving themselves once again. Kudos GELID I look forward to seeing what else you have for us in the future.
Pros:
- Price
- Performance
- It’s Quiet
- Looks Aren’t too Shabby at all
Cons:
- No Pretty Lights for LED addicted Gamers but you can Always add Your own
