Gelid GX-7 CPU cooler review - Introduction

Gelid is a company that made a nice impression a year or two ago introducing themselves by releasing their first aftermarket CPU cooler, the 'Silent Spirit' cooler. After Gelid released that  Silent Spirit and then Tranqillo CPU coolers it was time for a new model.

Progress is made and anno Q4 2011 it's time to release their third consumer grade CPU cooler. Their latest creation comes in the form of a tower cooler called GX-7  -- aimed at gamers apparently.

Over the years we have seen several cooling methods grow in popularity, two jump out big-time, liquid cooling and heatpipe based CPU coolers.

Why did Heatpipe cooling become so popular? Well, when done right you can achieve three things. Pretty efficient cooling, low noise, and fairly nice aesthetics.  The GX-7 is usable on both Intel and AMD central processing units. To be more specific, Intel LGA 1156, LGA 1155, LGA 1366 and LGA 775 CPUs are supported, as are AM2, AM2+ and AM3 chips from Advanced Micro Devices. Later on LGA2011 for Sandy Bridge-e will be supported as well with a new mounting kit.

The cooler boasts a tower design, with a copper base that draws heat out of the chip itself and sends it into the 46 aluminum fins through seven copper heatpipes. A single "Wing 12" fan, with a diameter of 120mm disperses that heat, the air flow quite strong thanks to the 1,500 RPM (rotations per minute) fan.

Today we'll test a Intel Core i7 870 processor in both a default and overclocked state with this cooler. But let's have a peek first.