KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Prolimatech Genesis is a superb cooler which is able to roll with the best products on the market, falling in at a performance level just slightly behind the Antec Kuhler H20 620 liquid cooler … within a single degree.
The installation procedure is well thought out and the bundle is comprehensive, although there are no fans supplied. This may prove a pain for some enthusiast users, but at least you aren't paying extra for two substandard fans which you will want to immediately replace. The Thermaltake Frio springs to mind in this regard. Choosing your own fans will appeal to many users, and at least Prolimatech supply four fitting brackets.
Cooling performance is great, and the heavy duty design is capable of cooling the hottest running, overclocked processors, such as the 990x we used today. The product excels in an overclocked environment and actually performed better than we initially imagined.
Negatively, it is not tough enough to battle against the market leading Noctua NH D14 and is in many ways just as restrictive. For instance, once fitted it blocks access to the memory slots, meaning if you want to change or add additional memory, then you need to remove the motherboard from the system. As a reviewer this will never find its way into any of my systems, but if you are a ‘fit once and forget' user, then it won't prove an issue.
The UK price of the cooler is around £50 inc vat which means it is more expensive that the Antec Kuhler and the Thermaltake Frio, and you still have to budget for a couple of high quality fans, adding another potential £15 to the price. This puts it firmly against the Noctua NH D14, which costs £65 but is already supplied with two high grade fans. We used the same fans on the Genesis today.
Against such formidable competition it unfortunately loses out, and suffers from the same ‘blocked memory slots' issue. However the Genesis can work alongside memory with oversized heatspreaders.
Pros:
- Great cooling performance, in the top 5% of coolers on the market.
- fantastic build quality
- great for overclocked systems
- supplies memory and motherboard with airflow
- memory with oversized heatspreaders can be used.
Cons:
- price puts it directly in line of fire of Noctua NH D14
- very cumbersome size and blocks access to memory slots
KitGuru says: A fantastic cooler with the benefits of delivering additional component cooling. A must have? unfortunately not.
damn, I thought this was going to be awesome. I guess its pretty good, but outclassed by the D14. needs to be £10 less.
I like the idea, but I get the pain it would be to remove the memory. Not sure about it, I like the design idea and engineering quality but im not sure id take it over a frio. frio on low fan speeds is great.
The biggest problem is the market right now, everyone is cutting prices and offering coolers with fans. if they were selling this for £50 with two decent fans it would sell more. £50 without a fan? why not just cut out the middle man and get the D14? worth the extra 15 quid and you get two fans. dumb decision and seems rather greedy.
I bought this and I think its great. I do agree with the blocked memory. I dread ever wanting to change memory. You can get your fingers into it without removing the board, but I doubt changing memory would be possible. would need to be double jointed and a friend of mr elastic.
I think a purchase will boil down to the point if you have good fans at home already doing nothing. Otherwise as it says, the D14 becomes the more tempting option.
Personally I think the antec kuhler is the best of them all, and its small so you get access to the full motherboard without battling against the CPU cooler. Its very important. and I dont think companies are taking this into consideration anymore. I want to get access t o my board. I cant even get near the CMOS switch on my board if I wanted to use one of these coolers.