Gelid recently released a new CPU cooler. The Antarctica features a 140mm fan and is supposed to offer good cooling performance with low noise. Time to test how it really performs.

Lately manufacturers release more and more CPU coolers equipped with a 140mm fan, instead of a 120mm fan. We've already seen this trend with casefans for a longer period: larger fans usually produce the same airflow at lower fan speeds (which leads to lower noise levels), therefore strongly increasing the efficiency of the cooling. It should come as a surprise that many of the best tested CPU coolers feature a 140mm fan.

The Gelid Antarctica features five heatpipes made from aluminum and copper. These should transfer 220 Watt of heat from the processor to the heatsink, which is enough to cool an overclocked high-end processor. The minimum fan speed is 450 rpm and the maximum is 1500 rpm. The fan header is 4-pins, which is why it supports PWM - when the fan is connected to a PWM fan header the fan speed can be controlled much more precise. The fan also feature a Hydrodynamic bearing, a bearing which very much resembles the patented Fluid Dynamic Bearing (the quietest bearing with the longest lifespan), but is free of licensing costs for Gelid.