Gigabyte 3D Rocket II

Air cooling at its best, but not its quietest. Can't win them all, but it comes close.

A few years back the original 3D Rocket blasted into our world and took away top honours in the performance stakes – now Gigabyte is here with the sequel, beefed up on steroids, growth hormones, and blowing out to Akira style proportions.

Four heat pipes run from two sides of the base plate, which is interestingly ribbed as a small heatsink itself. The lower, smaller fan actually has a clear path to the top fan, the centre of the sink being hollowed out, creating a wind tunnel. Half of the top plastic section can be detached if you have clearance issues, and it is this section in which you can pop in a coloured rubber band and have it glowing like a raver on a big night, if you’re that way inclined. Four blue LEDs are placed under the top fan, which glow brighter with the more power you pump into the thing – although we had to manually reposition one as it made contact with the fan itself initially, causing horrid clacking noises.

This thing sucks some serious power, so make sure you plug it into a fan header with enough current draw or you’ll blow it. Alternatively, buy yourself a three pin-to-molex adaptor to be safe.

Variable fan speeds are available through a front or back mountable potentiometer from 1500 to 3000rpm, but it never does reach the whisper quietness of a 120mm equipped Scythe Ninja, even at its lowest rotational speed.

Nonetheless if you’re willing to put up with volume levels a little beyond comfort (that will be mostly masked by a case), it pulls an impressive 37°C in an ambient 24°C at its highest setting – a stunning result to say the least. At its lowest, this jumps up another five degrees, pulling level with our standard Ninja coupled with a Nexus Real Silent fan at 42°C.

If you want performance on air, this is the bees knees strapped to a mosquito’s chest. Just make sure to whack it in a silencing case before you turn it on.