With their "The Black Edition", Gelid Solutions has a twin tower cooler in its portfolio which is a bit different from what you usually see these days. Taking a closer look at the heatpipes shows that they have been placed above one another. We're curious about the effect on the cooling performance this has. 
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On the following pages we will show you what the Gelid Solutions The Black Edition twin tower cooler is capable of.
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Preview
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Specifications and included in delivery
Specifications
| Model | Gelid Solutions The Black Edition |
| Material | Aluminium / copper / nickel |
| Dimension (D x W x H) | 109 mm x 126 mm x 160 mm |
| Weight | 990 g without fans |
| Fan | 120 x 120 x 25 mm - PWM: 750 - 1500 rpm 120 x 120 x 15 mm - PWM: 750 - 1600 rpm |
| Warranty[/de] | 5 [en]years[/de] |
| [en]On the manufacturer's website | Gelid Solutions The Black Edition |
Included in delivery
- Cooling block
- Mounting kit for Socket LGA 775 / LGA 1155 / LGA 1156 / LGA 1366 / LGA 2011 / AMD Socket AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2
- Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal compound
- Mounting components
- Manual
The "The Black Edition" comes well protected from outer influences, that none of the parts included will be damaged during transportation. Gelid Solutions includes not only an Intel but also an AMD mounting kit. Therefore the cooler is compatible to both worlds right out of the box. Gelid Solutions ships this cooler with two fans. The first one, which has been preinstalled, measures only 15 millimeter in height. The reason for that is improved compatibility with memory that features big heatspreaders. If Gelid Solutions would have chosen a 120 x 120 x 25 millimeter fan at this place, the cooler wouldn't have been compatible with enthusiast grade memory. Between the two towers you find a standard 120 x 120 x 25 millimeter fan. Both fans can be regulated using the PWM signal. The lowest rpm speeds is 750 in both cases and the highest is 1500 for the 25 millimeter and 1600 for the 15 millimeter thick fan.
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Construction and design
Construction
If we had to define the type of cooler the The Black Edition is, then we would describe it as a twin tower cooler. This type of cooler comes with the advantage that manufacturers can realize a huge area for heat dissipation. The disadvantage over down-draft coolers is that no air is directed towards the motherboard, therefore none of the onboard components receives direct cooling. Gelid Solutions manufactures their The Black Edition cooler from aluminium and copper. You can find a copper base plate which leads the dissipation power to the heatpipes. Talking about heatpipes: Gelid Solutions has has chosen a rather unusual arrangement. There are three eight millimeter Heatpipes right above the CPU core. Two six millimeter heatpipes are right next to the eight millimeter pipes and two more six millimeter heatpipes can be found above the eight millimeter ones. Gelid Solutions promises that using this kind of arrangement helps increasing cooling capacity.
Design
We did not see any manufacturing mistakes on our sample, and it seems that it has been very well made which means that manufacturing quality is on a good level. The heatpipes do have different bending radius, which results in less additional vortex. Furhtermore this cooler comes with a total of 43 fins. Gelid Solutions chose a similar fin design for both sides of the cooler.
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Mounting
Gelid Solutions ships their The Black Edition with a mounting kit, which is compatible to the Intel as well as AMD sockets. Basically mounting the cooler is simple, but still we'd recommend to consult the manual since there are quite a few pieces which need to be put together before the cooler can actually be mounted.
On these pictures you can clearly see that the The Black Edition has been reasonably sized. Therfore it's possible to install memory modules which feature oversized heatsinks.
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Testsystem and testroutine
Testsystem
| Cooler | |
| Mainboard | ASUS P6T Deluxe |
| Processor | Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz 4C / 8T |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX 3 x 1 GByte |
| Graphics card | Gigabyte GTX 285 |
| Hard disk | Samsung Spinpoint F1 640 GByte |
| Power supply | Seasonic SS-520FL2 250 Watts Platinum Series Fanless |
Testroutine
The CPU is being evaluated using Real Temp and with Prime95 we reach nearly 100% load on the CPU. For measuring the noise level we use a Voltcraft SL-200 decibel meter, which is positioned one meter from the CPU cooler with the fan mounted.
- 2.66 GHz 12 volts load
- 2.66 GHz 7 volts load
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Results 2.66 GHz 12 volts
| Cooler / fan | Temp. diff. load | Absolute temp. | RPM | Noise | Price | Review link |
| Cooler Master Eisberg 240L Prestige | 27 K | 52 °C | 1600 rpm | 46.5 dBA | CHF 186.- (EUR 155.-) | Cooler Master Eisberg 240L Prestige |
| Phanteks PH-TC14PE - Triple Fan | 28 K | 57 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.3 dBA | CHF 124.- (EUR 103.-) | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| Phanteks PH-TC14PE - Dual Fan | 29 K | 58 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.1 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E - Dual Fan | 30 K | 56 °C | 1100/1300 rpm | 41.8 dBA | CHF 70.- (EUR 58.-) | Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E |
| Phanteks PH-TC14PE - Single Fan | 30 K | 59 °C | 1250 rpm | 40.7 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega - Dual Fan | 30 K | 57 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.8 dBA | CHF 126.- (EUR 105.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega Dual Fan |
| Noctua NH-D14 - Single Fan | 31 K | 56 °C | 1300/1200 rpm | 40.9 dBA | CHF 114.- (EUR 95.-) | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Cooler Master TPC 800 - Dual Fan | 32 K | 61 °C | 1400 rpm | 41.2 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Cooler Master TPC 800 |
| Enermax ELC240 - Dual Fan | 32 K | 57 °C | 1500 rpm | 43.4 dBA | CHF 107.- (EUR 89.-) | Enermax ELC240 |
| Prolimatech Armageddon - Dual Fan | 33 K | 56 °C | 1100/1100 rpm | 36.4 dBA | CHF 70.- (EUR 58.-) | Proliatech Armageddon |
| BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 | 33 K | 61 °C | 1400/1400 rpm | 42.0 dBA | CHF 96.- (EUR 80.-) | BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Dual Fan | 33 K | 57 °C | 1500 rpm | 43.0 dBA | CHF 103.- (EUR 86.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Gelid Solutions GX-7 - Dual-Fan | 33 K | 53 °C | 1800 rpm | 45.5 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid Solutions GX-7 |
| Alpenföhn Gotthard - Single Fan | 34 K | 60 °C | 1200 rpm | 39.7 dBA | CHF 65.- (EUR 54.-) | Alpenföhn Gotthard |
| Gelid Solutions The Black Edition - Dual Fan | 34 K | 60 °C | 1600/1500 rpm | 41.4 dBA | CHF 72.- (EUR 59.-) | Gelid Solutions The Black Edition |
| SilverStone Heligon HE01 | 35 K | 61 °C | 1900 rpm | 48.2 dBA | CHF 84.- (EUR 70.-) | SilverStone Heligon HE01 |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Dual Fan | 34 K | 58 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.5 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Enermax ETS-T40-VD - Single Fan | 34 K | 57 °C | 1900 rpm | 42.4 dBA | CHF 43.- (EUR 36.-) | Enermax ETS-T40-VD |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Dual Fan | 35 K | 57 °C | 1250 rpm | 41.0 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Single Fan | 35 K | 59 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.4 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Gelid Solutions GX-7 - Single Fan | 35 K | 55 °C | 1800 rpm | 45.0 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid Solutions GX-7 |
| Coolink Corator DS - Single Fan | 35 K | 57 °C | 1900 rpm | 47.9 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Single Fan | 36 K | 59 °C | 1400 rpm | 37.0 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 65.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Prolimatech Armageddon - Single Fan | 37 K | 60 °C | 1100 rpm | 35.9 dBA | CHF 88.- (EUR 73.-) | Proliatech Armageddon |
| BeQuiet! Shadow Rock - Single Fan | 37 K | 60 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.7 dBA | CHF 63.- (EUR 53.-) | BeQuiet Shadow Rock |
| Corsair H5O - Dual Fan | 37 K | 59 °C | 1600 rpm | 44.4 dBA | CHF 133.- (EUR 111.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Single Fan | 38 K | 60 °C | 1250 rpm | 39.4 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Thermalright Macho 120 - Single Fan | 38 K | 64 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.8 dBA | CHF 38.- (EUR 32.-) | Thermalright Macho 120 |
| BeQuiet! Dark Rock 2 - Single Fan | 38 K | 65 °C | 1400 rpm | 42.0 dBA | CHF 77.- (EUR 64.-) | BeQuiet! Dark Rock 2 |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Dual Fan | 38 K | 62 °C | 1400 rpm | 41.6 dBA | CHF 125.- (EUR 104.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Corsair H5O - Single Fan | 38 K | 60 °C | 1600 rpm | 44.0 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Cooler Master Hyper 412S - Single-Fan | 39 K | 62 °C | 1200 rpm | 41.6 dBA | CHF 57.- (EUR 48.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212Evo - Single-Fan | 39 K | 62 °C | 1500 rpm | 42.9 dBA | CHF 50.- (EUR 40.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 212S |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Single Fan | 40 K | 64 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.5 dBA | CHF 85.- (EUR 71.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Prolimatech Samuel 17 - Single Fan | 56 K | 85 °C | 1400 rpm | 40.1 dBA | CHF 49.- (EUR 41.-) | Prolimatech Samuel 17 |
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Results 2.66 GHz 7 Volts
| Cooler / fan | Temp. diff. load | Absolute temp. | RPM | Price | Review link | |
| Cooler Master Eisberg 240L Prestige | 32 K | 56 °C | 800 rpm | 43.8 dBA | CHF 186.- (EUR 155.-) | Cooler Master Eisberg 240L Prestige |
| Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E - Dual Fan | 34 K | 60 °C | 500/900 rpm | 35.0 dBA | CHF 70.- (EUR 58.-) | Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E |
| Phanteks PH-TC14PE - Triple Fan | 34 K | 63 °C | 750 rpm | 35.1 dBA | CHF 124.- (EUR 103.-) | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| Phanteks PH-TC14PE - Dual Fan | 35 K | 64 °C | 750 rpm | 34.9 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega - Dual Fan | 35 K | 62 °C | 800 rpm | 40.8 dBA | CHF 126.- (EUR 105.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Super Mega Dual Fan |
| Noctua NH-D14 - Single Fan | 36 K | 61 °C | 1000/900 rpm | 37.2 dBA | CHF 114.- (EUR 95.-) | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Dual Fan | 37 K | 59 °C | 800 rpm | 34.1 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Cooler Master TPC 800 - Dual Fan | 37 K | 66 °C | 800 rpm | 34.2 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Cooler Master TPC 800 |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Dual Fan | 37 K | 61 °C | 1000 rpm | 38.9 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Enermax ELC240 - Dual Fan | 37 K | 62 °C | 1500 rpm | 37.0 dBA | CHF 107.- (EUR 89.-) | Enermax ELC240 |
| Prolimatech Armageddon - Dual Fan | 38 K | 61 °C | 650 rpm | 32.1 dBA | CHF 70.- (EUR 58.-) | Proliatech Armageddon |
| Phanteks PH-TC14PE - Single Fan | 38 K | 67 °C | 750 rpm | 34.6 dBA | CHF 99.- (EUR 83.-) | Phanteks PH-TC14PE |
| SilverStone Heligon HE01 | 38 K | 64 °C | 1000 rpm | 34.7 dBA | CHF 84.- (EUR 70.-) | SilverStone Heligon HE01 |
| Gelid Solutions The Black Edition - Dual Fan | 38 K | 64 °C | 1100/1000 rpm | 34.8 dBA | CHF 72.- (EUR 59.-) | Gelid Solutions The Black Edition |
| Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow - Single Fan | 39 K | 63 °C | 1000 rpm | 36.2 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Prolimatech Megahalems Megashadow |
| Prolimatech Armageddon - Single Fan | 41 K | 64 °C | 650 rpm | 32.3 dBA | CHF 88.- (EUR 73.-) | Proliatech Armageddon |
| BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 | 40 K | 67 °C | 500/500 rpm | 33.3 dBA | CHF 96.- (EUR 80.-) | BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 |
| Alpenföhn Gotthard - Single Fan | 41 K | 67 °C | 700 rpm | 35.5 dBA | CHF 65.- (EUR 54.-) | Alpenföhn Gotthard |
| Gelid Solutions GX-7 - Dual Fan | 42 K | 62 °C | 700 rpm | 34.0 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid Solutions GX-7 |
| Noctua NH-C14 - Single Fan | 42 K | 64 °C | 800 rpm | 33.5 dBA | CHF 91.- (EUR 76.-) | Noctua NH-C14 |
| Corsair H5O - Dual Fan | 42 K | 64 °C | 900 rpm | 37.5 dBA | CHF 133.- (EUR 111.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Dual Fan | 43 K | 67 °C | 700 rpm | 37.0 dBA | CHF 103.- (EUR 86.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| BeQuiet! Shadow Rock - Single Fan | 43 K | 66 °C | 800 rpm | 36.7 dBA | CHF 63.- (EUR 53.-) | BeQuiet Shadow Rock |
| Cooler Master Hyper 412S - Single Fan | 43 K | 69 °C | 800 rpm | 35.8 dBA | CHF 57.- (EUR 48.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 412S |
| BeQuiet! Dark Rock 2 - Single Fan | 44 K | 70 °C | 500 rpm | 32.9 dBA | CHF 77.- (EUR 64.-) | BeQuiet! Dark Rock 2 |
| Thermalright Macho 120 - Single Fan | 44 K | 70 °C | 700 rpm | 34.2 dBA | CHF 38.- (EUR 32.-) | Thermalright Macho 120 |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Dual Fan | 44 K | 68 °C | 1000 rpm | 38.0 dBA | CHF 125.- (EUR 104.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Enermax ETS-T40-VD - Single Fan | 45 K | 66 °C | 650 rpm | 32.7 dBA | CHF 43.- (EUR 36.-) | Enermax ETS-T40-VD |
| Gelid Solutions GX-7 - Single-Fan | 45 K | 65 °C | 700 rpm | 33.5 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Gelid Solutions GX-7 |
| Noctua NH-U12P - Single Fan | 45 K | 69 °C | 1000 rpm | 37.4 dBA | CHF 85.- (EUR 71.-) | Noctua NH-U12P |
| Coolink Corator DS - Single Fan | 46 K | 68 °C | 800 rpm | 35.0 dBA | CHF 45.- (EUR 38.-) | Coolink Corator DS |
| Corsair H5O - Single Fan | 46 K | 68 °C | 900 rpm | 35.4 dBA | CHF 113.- (EUR 94.-) | Corsair H5O |
| Alpenföhn Nordwand - Single Fan | 48 K | 72 °C | 700 rpm | 36.4 dBA | CHF 79.- (EUR 66.-) | Alpenföhn Nordwand |
| Cooler Master Hyper 212Evo - Single-Fan | 52 K | 75 °C | 750 rpm | 35.3 dBA | CHF 50.- (EUR 40.-) | Cooler Master Hyper 212S |
| Prolimatech Samuel 17 -Single Fan | 67 K | 96 °C | 800 rpm | 36.2 dBA | CHF 49.- (EUR 41.-) | Prolimatech Samuel 17 |
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| With the The Black Edition, Gelid Solutions shows an overall good cooler. In terms of cooling capacity the The Black Edition has been able to reach the center span of our comparison tables. In this regard we have to say that the competition is very hard concerning our test field. There are almost no entry level coolers in our comparison table and therefore the The Black Edition has to compete with the absolute best in class. It's not only the performance that is on a good level with this cooler, we also like the build quality. Looking at the design of the cooler it looks quite unusual because of the asymmetrically thick fans. | -
Performance - Manufacturing quality |
||
| Installation | + | - | |
| The installation process is easy and you can mount the cooler quickly. Nevertheless we didn't want to install it without consulting the manual. Furthermore we would have loved to see screws which could be tightened to the backplate before you put the backplate in place. This would make the entire mounting process quite a bit easier. | - Robust | -
Screws
can't be tightened to backplate
|
|
| Performance | + | - | |
|
During our tests we used the fans which were in the delivery. If you drive the fans at low rotation speeds, they are silent. Driving them at 12 Volt makes the fanblades rotate with 1500 and 1600 rpm which causes an audible noiselevel. In the end performance is on a reasonable level and even overclocking is possible. |
- Good cooling capacity | ||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you're looking for a well performing CPU cooler, which is reasonably sized and leaves space for every single oversized memory module available out there, then the The Black Edition from Gelid Solutions is a good choice. |
- Gamer - Overclocker |
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Author: Marc Büchel m.buechel@ocaholic.ch