Today we are going to be looking at a budget minded CPU cooler aimed at the smaller form factor builds. Low profile silent coolers, which are built to be silent, are generally targeted toward the HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) and SFF (Small Form Factor) crowds due to the tight space constraints in the chassis. The Gelid Silent Spirit is slightly larger than a stock OEM cooler plus it utilizes four heat pipes. Will the Gelid Silent Spirit have what it takes to compete with the OEM cooler variants?
First Impression:
Based out of Hong Kong, Gelid was found in 2008 and has been trying to make a name for themselves ever since. We took a look at a few of their Gelid Wing series fans back in Jan 09 and was impressed with their performance and design. Will the Silent Spirit gives us the same impression? Well only time will tell, so let's dig in and find out.
The Gelid Silent Spirit comes packaged in a white retail box that has a small window on the front to show the cooler design off. Along the sides of the box you will find the main features of the cooler as well as the specifications. The cooler itself is secured in the box by two molded plastic end caps to ensure the Silent Spirit doesn't receive any damages while in transit.
Pulling the Silent Spirit out of the box, we can see that it does resemble a OEM style cooler. Using an open frame on the fan (similar to a stock Intel cooler) is designed to eliminate humming and buzzing noises while still retaining a compact overall size. The 92mm fan also comes with PWM control which allows users to take advantage of the PWM options available with most current motherboard.
The Silent Spirit comes with two sets of mounting brackets to support the various Intel and AMD socket types. The Intel 775 brackets came pre-installed on our sample, while the AMD brackets were found in the accessories bag with a couple of Case Badges, and installation instructions. The Intel 1366 brackets came packaged in a separate box and included 2 extra screws.
