The Heatsink:

     In this picture, we can see all six copper heatpipes in all their glory.  In theory, these pipes bring the heat from the interface plate below to the elongated fins above, where the fans can use the exaggerated surface area to blow the heat off.

     On the other side of the heatsink, we get a closer look at the contoured fins.  The top plate allows for the highest amount of surface area, while still being able to clear all the components on the motherboard.

     On the top, we get a nice look at the spacing of the fins.  The spacing is roughly equivalent to the spacing of the fins on my XP-90.  We can also see the mounting holes for the fan rails.  I will explain the purpose of these later.

     Once the plastic film is pulled away, we can analyze the interface area.  Unlike many heatsinks out there, this area is very smooth, and that is a good thing.

Mounting Hardware:

     The GeminII comes with all the necessary mounting hardware for use on all current platforms, including sockets 939,940,754, AM2, and LGA775.  Included with the cooler is a single backplate that is compatible with all sockets, and two brackets:  One for “K8” based solutions, and one for LGA775. 

First Impression:

     When first looking at the pictures of the GeminII, I thought this thing was going to be HUGE.  I wondered about the weight, and if it was going to be a strain on the motherboard.  Once I got it out of the box, however, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t as large as I thought.  This is primarily because, although the heatsink supports two 120mm fans side-by-side, the heatsink isn’t actually 240mm wide.  When two fans are used, they will overlap the heatsink by quite a bit.  It’s weight doesn’t appear to be much more than my XP-90, though it still dwarfs it in size. Otherwise, the packaging and overall construction appear to be of the highest quality.

Installation:

     Now on to the installation.  At this point, I would like to warn the readers of Club Overclocker.  You will be much better off if you read the manual first before embarking on the install.  This is generally a good idea anyways, but in this case is much more so.  The reason why I say this is because, not only is the manual a miniature version of those folded up travel maps you buy at convenience stores, I think the directions were translated from Swahili and cross-referenced against the original Klingon.  OK, so it isn’t really that bad, however the directions pretty much consist of simplistic sentences and small black and white diagrams.  Hopefully having pictures of each step of the install here at ClubOC will be helpful for those who decide to purchase the GeminII.

     The first step involves mounting the bracket.  There are two brackets included: the K8 bracket, and the LGA775 bracket.  Since this install is going into a s939 system, we will be referencing the K8 instructions.  To mount the bracket, you first attach the long screws (on the top and bottom), then screw the bracket into the heatsink with 4 small screws.  One thing to note here: since the 939 bracket only has two screws, you can only mount the heatsink in the vertical fashion.  On the LGA775 socket, you can mount the heatsink in either vertical or horizontal fashion, since the mounting screws form a square.  Cooler Master should have made this possible on K8 platforms by making the interface area and the holes in the bracket a perfect square.  This would have made it possible for enthusiasts to change orientation by rotating the bracket on the heatsink 90 degrees.

     Next is installing the backplate.  The important thing to know here is that one side of the backplate is coated with an insulative film.  Installing the backplate correctly results in overclocking Zen.  Installing incorrectly only leads to tears and lamentation.  Cooler Master also includes a special tool that that covers the nut, and has a receptacle for a Phillips screwdriver on the top.  This allows you to tighten the nuts with your screwdriver rather than finding a wrench.  Very clever, indeed.

     Now the heatsink is installed.  Here we can get a good reference for size.  The heatsink almost reaches from my GPU to my PSU.  Impressive!

     Like some other high performance heatsinks, the GeminII did not come with any fans, so I did some shopping and picked up a pair of Antec TriCool 120mm fans.

     The fans are attached to the GeminII by use of a rail.  One or both fans are screwed into the rail as shown, and then another four screws goes into the slots.  This allows the fans to be positioned anyway you like. 

Now we have everything installed, and ready to fire it up!