Three Low Profile CPU Coolers Tested

Results Analysis and Final Thoughts

Due to these coolers' small sizes, we weren’t expecting stellar cooling performance and we weren’t surprised to find that idle performance was for all three was similar to the Intel stock HSF, with the GELID matching Intel’s cooler despite being half the size, the VF-2000 falling either side of the stock cooler depending on its manually set fan speed, and the diminutive Akasa AK-CC044 bringing up the rear and idling a good 2°C higher than the stock Intel cooler.

Fully loading the Intel E5200 made things a lot more interesting though, and reality demonstrates the advantage which the VF-2000’s heatpipe based design holds over the more simple Akasa and GELID designs. At full speed, the Zalman kept our 65W CPU 3°C cooler than the Intel stock HSF, and at low speed produced near identical performance to Intel’s much larger cooler.

What’s more, the Zalman was able to accomplish this without producing any noticeable noise – at its lowest fan setting it really is as quiet a cooler as you’ll ever find and was utterly inaudible even in a quiet room. Sadly at full speed it’s another story and was by far the loudest cooler on test despite offering only minor improvements in cooling.

The Akasa and GELID coolers didn’t fare so well when under load though, with the GELID keeping our 65W Intel E5200 a full 4.5°C hotter than the stock cooler and the Akasa cooling the CPU to a disappointing 38.5°C above ambient temperature – 10.5°C more than Intel’s stock cooler. Acoustically, these coolers weren’t too impressive either and were both louder than Intel’s stock cooler both when idle and under full load despite the use of low profile fans and in the case of the GELID a 4-pin PWM fan controller.

Final Thoughts

We must say we were surprised to find that the Zalman VF-2000 was the standout performer in our testing, especially as we’d mostly written it off after seeing the “hybrid CPU-VGA,” written on the side of the box. Happily though, it’s proven resoundingly that you can make a cooler that’s not only significantly smaller than Intel’s reference design, but that can match it for cooling performance whilst being completely silent. We’re not exaggerating that the VF-2000’s 92mm fan is inaudible at its lowest fan speed, and as the cooling benefits from running the fan at full speed are minimal, we think it’s best to simply run the cooler in its silent mode permanently.

Comparatively the smaller coolers from GELID and Akasa were pretty disappointing both thermally and acoustically. Not only did they run hotter than the Intel reference cooler, but both were noticeably louder too, although were by no means seriously intrusive. While the cooling and noise delivered by both isn’t a serious cause for concern, and both coolers “did the job,” when you’re spending money on an aftermarket cooler you expect at least some improvement over the free heatsink you get with the processor. As it stands the only real draw for either the GELID or the Akasa is the fact that they’re half the height of the Intel stock cooler, whereas the Zalman is a good 1.6cm taller.

Impressed with the VF-2000’s performance we also tasked it with cooling a 95W 2.13GHz Xeon X3210, and even under silent operation the cooler was able to keep the first generation quad-core well below its 100°C thermal threshold, idling at 18.5°C above ambient and hitting 52°C above ambient at load – impressive performance for a cooler just 4.5cm tall and which is completely silent, although there's obviously not going to be much room for overclocking.

In the end your choice when it comes to a low profile cooler will be mostly decided by the space requirements that have made you opt for a low profile cooler in the first place. If there really is almost no available headroom above a northbridge, as we found in the Akasa Enigma, then the GELID Slim Silence 775 is the best option, coming close to the stock cooler’s performance both thermal and acoustically and reasonably priced at around £17. In comparison the Akasa is a great deal hotter and despite its bargain price tag of less than £8, isn’t worth the investment.

With even a little bit more room to spare though the Zalman VF-2000 is the only choice. It delivers identical performance to the Intel Stock HSF, fits into smaller spaces and is wonderfully silent even under full load. Amazingly it’s even able to cope with the cooling demands of 95W quad core processors (although there’ll be little or no room for overclocking). Zalman may market the VF-2000 as a hybrid CPU-GPU cooler but it’s proven to be a low profile champion that’s ideally suited to mini-ITX or HTPC builds. If you’re considering either then it should definitely be on your shortlist, but be wary of the additional space requirements you need to take into account.

Akasa Low Profile Cooler AK-CC044

• Features
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• -
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• 6/10

• Performance
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• -
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• 5/10

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• 8/10

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• 8/10

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• 6/10

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• 5/10

GELID Slim SIlence 775

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• 7/10

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• 7/10

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• 8/10

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• 7/10

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• 7/10

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• 7/10

Zalman VF-2000 Hybrid VGA-CPU Cooler

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• 8/10

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• 8/10

• Build Quality
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• 9/10

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• 7/10

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• 7/10

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• -
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• 8/10

Score Guide