Introduction

GELID Solutions was born after several key players left the company Arctic Cooling and came together to form GELID. With the high quality of products produced by Arctic Cooling, let’s hope that the standard is matching with this new brand. The CPU Cooler up today for review here at Tech-Reviews is the GELID Silent Spirit. Time to find out how well the Spirit competes…

About GELID

GELID Solutions Ltd. is a Hong Kong based company with Swiss Management and founded in 2008 by Gebhard SCHERRER and VC TRAN. Both have worked in the PC Cooling industry for a number of years and successfully built up an IT company with their expertise.

GELID designs and manufactures thermal solutions, CPU coolers, fans, and other computer hardware for both gamers and silent enthusiasts. We provide computer hardware distributors, retailers and system integrators with innovative, virtually silent, high- performance and top quality thermal solutions.

Features

• Quad Sintered Heatpipes
• Unique Fin Architecture
• Special Heatsink Angle Design
• Optimized Air Flow Concept
• Intelligent PWM Fan Control Curve
• Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts

Specification

Included:	Pre-applied GC-1 high performance thermal compound
Air Flow (CFM):	45.8 max
Bearing:	Hydro Dynamic Bearing
Cable Length (mm):	250
Cooling Performance (C/W):	0.17
Current (A):	0.23
Dimensions of Cooler (mm):	108 (l) x 100.5 (w) x 125 (h)
Dimensions of Fan (mm):	100.5 (l) x 100.5 (w) x 45 (h)
Dimensions of Heatsink (mm):	108 (l) x 97 (w) x 88.5 (h)
Fan Speed (RPM):	900 – 2400
Life time MTTF at 40C (h):	50′000
Noise Level (dBA):	10 – 25.8
Voltage (V):	12
Warranty (years):	5
Weight (g):	370

The Package

The overall package for the Silent Spirit does not simply include the heatsink; instead accompanying the main product is a tube of GELID’s very own thermal compound – GC1 High Performance Thermal Compound. There is also one more box provided which is only of interest to LGA-1366 users as it contains the mounting mechanism for this type of motherboard.

The main heatsink arrives in a cube-like box with a cut out plastic triangle on the front so as to provide a glimpse of the cooler inside. The white background with streaks of silver is host to the GELID logo, website address and product blurb – ‘Quad Powered Heatpipes CPU Cooler.’

In regards to the sides, they display the nine main features included with a small image of each one as well as a speed vs. temperature graph supposed to show off the Silent Spirit’s proportionality in this department as the line doesn’t curve upwards at high CPU usage.

The reverse of the packaging displays all the different motherboard types that the Spirit is compatible with which includes LGA 775 & 1366 and AMD 754/940/AM2/AM2+.
At the bottom there is a diagram showing the airflow concept which allows air to flow under the Heatsink as it is raised and then be extracted by the rear system fan.

In terms of accessories, there isn’t many included with this CPU Cooler but there are still a couple:

• Instruction Manual
• Clips for AMD installation
• The all important GELID sticker!

The LGA 1366 socket included in a separate box merely allows compatibility for this kind of motherboard. The clips provided attach to the Heatsink and secure using the quick release press down mechanism. This is sold seperately and is not part of of the Silent Spirit’s package.

The GC1 thermal compound is packaged in a plastic heat-shrunk capsule with cardboard backing. This displays the seven features – not quite sure how there are this many for a tube of thermal paste – and the awards given to it, notably from Driver Heaven. Provided with the paste is a spatula for evenly applying the paste. Alike the LGA 1366 clip, this too is sold seperately.

The GELID Silent Spirit CPU Cooler

The Silent Spirit’s most stand-out feature is obviously the slanted Heatsink situated above the motherboard to allow airflow to circulate beneath the main Heatsink – approximately 3.5cm of elevation. This is a simple technique but could prevent the hot air produced from the CPU from being sucked back into the fan. Instead, this allows the air to flow underneath the main body and be sucked out by the system fan.

Atop, the main heatsink is a 100mm PWM fan. This can be adjusted to spin at between 900 and 2400RPM. The cable is a 4-pin PWN connector but this is also backwards compatible with a 3-pin connector. 

Four rubber strips help to stop vibrations being transferred onto the heatsink itself which could cause a rather irritating noise.

The Silent Spirit has four heat pipes which all have rounded ends so as to give a more professional finish to them and prevent the pipes from having any sharp edges. The copper pipes are positioned both sides of the bottom block and are spaced out to give maximum heat dissipation.

Moreover, the pipes bend around and attach into the aluminium fins from the block of aluminium making a base at the bottom of the body.  The fins themselves are constructed of dimpled aluminium which is supposed to break up the laminar airflow over the fins but this seems a little too complex at the speeds at which the air will be flowing.

In terms of attaching the GELID Silent Spirit, it uses a simple clip mechanism that when the plastic ends push through the motherboard they pull outwards locking the CPU Cooler in place. This is an extremely easy installation method to use and although it isn’t quite as secure as using a back plate, it does mean that motherboard removal isn’t required which is certainly a bonus if you are just replacing the cooler. At a weight of 370g, the cooler is not exactly heavy and so the clips should have no trouble coping with any strain the Spirit may inflict on them; whereas a heavier cooler would require a back plate.

These clips come off the base block that is constructed of aluminium and allows all the clips for AMD and the LGA-1366 to attach to in order for the cooler to be fitted to these types of motherboard.
Finally, the bottom of the base has a layer of pre-applied thermal paste so need to apply any for the first installation. The bottom is also a good indicator of the quality of a CPU as the flatter and smoother the finish the better the contact with the top of the CPU allowing better heat dissipation. For the Silent Spirit, the finish is really very good and the bottom is almost completely flat; evidently GELID have taken care to give the product a good machine finish – a sure sign of quality.

Testing

Installation

I installed the CPU Cooler into the following rig:

Processor	Intel C2D E5550 Dual Core 2.33GHz
Motherboard	Gigabyte S-Series GA-73PVM-S2H
Graphics Card	XFX 8600GT
Memory	GeIL DDR2 Single Channel Kit  DDR2 667 MHz (1 x 2GB)
Hard Drive	Hitachi HDT7250 (250GB)
OS	Windows XP Pro 32bit

Installation proved exceptionally easy due to the press-down clips which allow the cooler to be quickly attached without removing the motherboard. The pre-installed thermal compound also makes the first installation quicker as no more has to be applied beforehand.

The only issue was plugging in the 4-pin PSU connector as the cooler very much got in the way so I had to fiddle around with it for a while.

Methodology

To test CPU Coolers we simply boot the PC up into Windows Vista and measure temperatures under idle and load states. The temperature is recorded from the CPU’s own diode using SpeedFan.

For idle testing, we leave the PC doing nothing for half an hour and take 3 temperature readings at 10 second intervals after 30mins. We then use the average score from these as the result.

When testing at load temperatures, we use a similar method but load both cores of our CPU right to 100% by loading two processes of ‘CPU Burn-In’.

Ambient (testing environment) temperature was 19 degrees Celsius.

We’ll be comparing the Gelid Silent Spirit to the stock Intel Cooler (copper base model). Gelid’s GC1 is the thermal paste which will be used when testing both of the coolers.

The processor will be tested at stock clock.

Results

	GELID Silent Spirit	Stock Intel (Copper Base Version)
Idle	30	36
Load	45	51

As you can see the Gelid Silent Spirit easily out-performs the Stock Intel Cooler in both idle and load states. This is expected though and although the results are good, they are not amazing which makes the Spirit a mid-range CPU cooler in terms of performance but still a good one.

Conclusion

To conclude, the GELID Silent Spirit is a very innovative cooler; it uses new concepts such as the raised main body to allow airflow under the heatsink as well as the dimpled fins to break up laminar airflow.

Moreover, the results back-up the effectiveness of these concepts with very respectable temperatures at both idle and load states.

The cost too is an added bonus with the Silent Spirit retailing at around about £18; for a cooler of this quality certainly a bargain.

On the down side, the easy installation clips mean that the cooler isn’t secured as well as it might have been by using a back plate and so this means that more strain is put on the motherboard.

Overall, this cooler is a very affordable, near-silent and good performance cooler; definitely recommended.

Pros

• Innovative
• Decent temperatures – idle and load
• Good price point
• Silent

Cons

• Slightly flimsy when installed
• Annoying to install PSU connector with cooler installed