Gelid Tranquillo Rev.2 Quiet CPU Cooler Review

Final ThoughtsFrom a performance point of view, Gelid’s Tranquillo Rev. 2 is nothing revolutionary. This wasn’t Gelid’s aim though. They aimed to offer acceptable performance for hot processors and fairly demanding overclocks, while still allowing the cooling solution to be quiet and non-intrusive.

The performance of the cooler was fairly good. Our hot running processor was kept under 75C, above which we consider an area to avoid. We could have probably cooled a slightly higher overclock with the Tranquillo Rev. 2 although a substantially higher overclock would not be recommended.

The acoustic performance was brilliant! At 100% fan speed, the cooler was hardly noticeable above our case fans and it was most certainly not distracting. The 1500 RPM PWM fan that Gelid use is a good compromise between performance and quietness. Setting this cooler to work on PWM profile would produce even better acoustic results and would allow the possibility of a very quiet computer, coupled with the correct surrounding hardware.

Installation wasn’t difficult, but it wasn’t particularly easy either. There were a few tricky procedures that slowed our progress, but these were nothing major and were soon overcome. Removing the cooler to clean it revealed that the GC-2 thermal paste is very, very difficult to clean off the Tranquillo’s base, so much so that we were actually left with a large proportion of the base grey in colour due to the remaining residue. The stickers we had to apply during installation also would not budge and were content on staying attached to our motherboard. They were finally removed after using the push pin leg of the stock Intel heatsink to tear them away.

Aesthetics are ‘Marmite’ sort of thing. Some people will love the looks, others will not like them. The cooler is by no means ugly, it just isn’t as appealing as some of the heatsinks we are used to from competing brands.

The price is fairly appealing. Available for around £25 from reputable retailers puts this cooler just underneath the very competitive £30-45 market. £25 isn’t too much to ask for a quiet solution that offers good performance and the potential for some quite beefy overclocks, but if noise doesn’t concern you, there are better options available.

Gelid have definitely achieved their goal of producing a good successor to the original Tranquillo. The Tranquillo Rev. 2 CPU cooler offers the same characteristics as it’s brother such as quiet operation, good performance and good overclocking potential, but it also adds some necessary features such as better compatibility and a less obstructive design. If you want a quiet CPU cooler that can handle the heat, the Gelid Tranquillo Rev. 2 is definitely worth considering.

Pros:

• Decent cooling performance
• Very quiet operation
• Good compatibility
• 5 year warranty
• Doesn’t obstruct many components

Cons:

• Not the best looking cooler
  
• No option for push-pull fans