Final Thoughts
Price
The Xigmatek Gaia II can be found at Overclockers.co.uk for £22.99 + shipping here in the UK. This is certainly a fair price for what you’re getting. The cooler does what it needs to do and with a low price tag you can’t expect it to outperform the higher end products.
Overview;
When unboxing this cooler I was pleasantly surprised with the aesthetics. It looks rather nice, it hasn’t got any unnecessary design features or over the top branding, it’s simple, sleek and generally feels like a quality product. Its small footprint allows the cooler to fit into some smaller cases and also allows the use of RAM with larger heatspreaders. It certainly seems like your getting a lot for your money. This is until you get to its performance, it does do its job, and it does cool your processor for a good price. However there are alternatives that are slightly cheaper that do a better job.
I am disappointed as the original Gaia was an outstanding product, but the Gaia II just misses the mark.
Pros
- Quiet
- Great build quality
- Nice aesthetics
Cons
- A little fiddly to install if you are removing the cooler often
- Doesn’t perform as good as its predecessor
- Fan could be more of a neutral colour
“Xigmatek are an innovative company that bring some of the best looking ITX and M-ATX cases to the market. In the past their coolers have also done very well and we have been impressed. On this occasion though it unfortunately misses the mark and although it is quiet and looks very nice, it just doesn’t perform as well as we had hoped. “
Unfortunately this cooler just doesn’t fall under any of our awards brackets, it’s an average cooler at a low price, it has its place on the market but just doesn’t wow us.
Thank you Xigmatek for providing us with this sample.
