GELID Solutions Black Edition Review and Unboxing
Pros: Dual Tower, Optimized Heat Pipe Arrangement, Support for 3 Fans, GC Extreme Thermal Compound Included
Cons: Covers a RAM Slot, Fans are Extremely Difficult to Install,
The GELID Solutions Black Edition cooler is a great cooler.
It has what we have come to expect in compatibility and even has LGA 2011 support right out of the box. Lots of air coolers today do not include 2011 mounting hardware; you must purchase them separately. That is just one of many small things Gelid has done to make their Black Edition stand out.
The specs listed on the box:
The box includes the unit, instructions, all mounting hardware, 2 fans, GC Extreme thermal compound, and a 2 fan Y-splitter.
Some closeups of the unit
The base looks to be Copper and you can make out the non standard heat pipe arrangement.
The unique arrangement of the heatpipes allows for more heat to be dissipated from the heatpipes.
The unit comes with 2 fans and a third may be added. The user will not see that much of a performance gain and the fan mounting system is nearly impossible.
I spent more than 30 minutes trying to figure out how to install the middle fan. The clips must be installed in a very specific way, then lowered into the unit. The clips are very flimsy and tend to fall out during installation.
Being a large cooler has benefits and drawbacks. It can dissipate massive amounts of heat, but it takes up a lot of real estate in the case. The cooler takes up a whole RAM slot, and next slot has only a millimeter of space.
The cooler just barely makes it over the VRM heatsinks on my P8Z77-V PRO.
The mounting to the motherboard was also too difficult, but not nearly as bad as the fan mounting.
Aside from all these negatives, the Gelid Black Edition does an excellent job at what it is supposed to do. It cools the CPU much better than the stock cooler, and much better than the industry standard Hyper-212.
These results were from a 3570k on an Asus P8Z77-V PRO motherboard.
The temperature difference is noticeable at stock frequency, but it is amazing at a 4.0 GHz overclock. The graph shows the small 3 degree increase when going from 4.0 to 4.5 GHz. I did not want to run the stock cooler at 4.5 GHz because I knew it would be well over 90 degrees, which is too hot for me.
The graph does not show it, but the Black Edition also beat the Hyper 212 at stock by about 5 degrees, and at the 4.5 GHz overclock by about 25 degrees.
Besides outstanding performance, The cooler also looks nice.
In conclusion, the Gelid Black Edition is yet another excellent cooling product from the people at Gelid. It performs at the top of today's high end air coolers. It looks amazing, but does have some usability drawbacks.
I give the Gelid black edition:
9.5/10 Performance
7/10 User Friendliness
7.5/10 Compatibility
for an overall rating of an 8/10.
I recommend the Gelid Black Edition to all overclockers who don't need all of their RAM slots, and are patient in stalling hardware.
It has what we have come to expect in compatibility and even has LGA 2011 support right out of the box. Lots of air coolers today do not include 2011 mounting hardware; you must purchase them separately. That is just one of many small things Gelid has done to make their Black Edition stand out.
The specs listed on the box:
The box includes the unit, instructions, all mounting hardware, 2 fans, GC Extreme thermal compound, and a 2 fan Y-splitter.
Some closeups of the unit
The base looks to be Copper and you can make out the non standard heat pipe arrangement.
The unique arrangement of the heatpipes allows for more heat to be dissipated from the heatpipes.
The unit comes with 2 fans and a third may be added. The user will not see that much of a performance gain and the fan mounting system is nearly impossible.
I spent more than 30 minutes trying to figure out how to install the middle fan. The clips must be installed in a very specific way, then lowered into the unit. The clips are very flimsy and tend to fall out during installation.
Being a large cooler has benefits and drawbacks. It can dissipate massive amounts of heat, but it takes up a lot of real estate in the case. The cooler takes up a whole RAM slot, and next slot has only a millimeter of space.
The cooler just barely makes it over the VRM heatsinks on my P8Z77-V PRO.
The mounting to the motherboard was also too difficult, but not nearly as bad as the fan mounting.
Aside from all these negatives, the Gelid Black Edition does an excellent job at what it is supposed to do. It cools the CPU much better than the stock cooler, and much better than the industry standard Hyper-212.
These results were from a 3570k on an Asus P8Z77-V PRO motherboard.
The temperature difference is noticeable at stock frequency, but it is amazing at a 4.0 GHz overclock. The graph shows the small 3 degree increase when going from 4.0 to 4.5 GHz. I did not want to run the stock cooler at 4.5 GHz because I knew it would be well over 90 degrees, which is too hot for me.
The graph does not show it, but the Black Edition also beat the Hyper 212 at stock by about 5 degrees, and at the 4.5 GHz overclock by about 25 degrees.
Besides outstanding performance, The cooler also looks nice.
In conclusion, the Gelid Black Edition is yet another excellent cooling product from the people at Gelid. It performs at the top of today's high end air coolers. It looks amazing, but does have some usability drawbacks.
I give the Gelid black edition:
9.5/10 Performance
7/10 User Friendliness
7.5/10 Compatibility
for an overall rating of an 8/10.
I recommend the Gelid Black Edition to all overclockers who don't need all of their RAM slots, and are patient in stalling hardware.
