Gelid Silent Spirit LGA 1366 CPU Cooler Review

Acoustics and Conclusion

The Silent Spirit keeps to its name by maintaining a very low acoustic profile. In addition to this, the Silent Spirit helped maintain safe system temperatures by directing airflow over hot motherboard components. This eliminated the need of a fan for the northbridge and PWM, resulting in a quieter solution.

Compared to the Scythe Ninja, the Silent Spirit was slightly less effective at cooling the CPU but it cooled the system as a whole much more effectively. I would definitely trade 3 degrees on the CPU for 20 degrees on the PWM and 10 degrees on the northbridge. I see the Silent Spirit excelling in HTPC applications and other low-noise applications where every CFM counts.

The Silent Spirit only has one fault, but it’s an important fault. The mounting mechanism for the Silent Spirit never seems to apply enough mounting pressure and I was constantly wanting a few pounds of additional mounting pressure. The mount images show that the Silent Spirit lacks in this department and it no doubt impacts performance.

When it comes to pricing the GELID Solutions Silent Spirit LGA 1366 CPU Cooler, it can be found for $29.75 plus shipping from AeroCooler. We recently reviewed six LGA 1366 CPU coolers in a roundup and the least expensive of the six was $59.99! That makes the Gelid Silent Spirit CPU Cooler to be half the price of any other LGA 1366 heat sink, so if you are building an Intel Core i7 system on a budget and want better than stock cooling, this is a CPU cooler to take a good look at.

Legit Bottom Line: The Silent Spirit combines form with fashion and presents a unique and competitive low-noise heatsink.