Introduction

For those who can remember the original GeminII S, you will see where this new submission gets most of its dominant traits and features. For those who don't remember it so well, or not at all, let me summarize it for you. The GeminII S was a small footprint cooler with the use of a 120mm fan blowing down at the motherboard. It packed quite a bit of aluminum under the fan and used a solid copper base and five, 6mm, heat pipes to remove the heat and get it under the fan for quick removal. I only wish that I had seen this cooler personally, but from what I can see and gather from Cooler Master's site is that the cooler offered quite a bit of bang for the buck in its day!

Even then, Cooler Master was conscious of the need to cool memory. Especially for those who overclocked it, DDR1 and DDR2 can and did get quite warm when pushed. On the original, the idea was to use optional mounting to be able to add a second 120mm fan. This fans sole purpose was to cool whatever was under it, as the fins of the cooler weren't under the additional fan. This time around the idea is similar, but the way the same idea gets carried out is completely different. This time around there are fins under the fan, and the cooler still keeps RAM or motherboard component cooling in mind. The basic idea here was to still offer both under one roof, or cooler as this may be, and not need the additional fan.

Stick with me here, as I know the description is a bit lacking, but I don't want to spoil everything before you get to see this cooler for yourself. This second incarnation from Cooler Master that we are about to see is the GeminII S524. This at first glance appears to be a perfect solution for those looking to abuse systems with DDR2, or even add a fair bit more cooling to a SFF chassis. Either way, I think you should get comfortable and skim through the specifications so we can move on to the images and testing so that you may make the call as to whether the GeminII S524 is the cooler for you.