GELID has typically always been an excellent value-for-money brand known for its coolers, amongst other things. Today we take a look at their Rev. 5 Tranquillo CPU cooler. We last looked at the Tranquillo Rev. 3 back in 2015, so it’s great to see future revisions on a popular cooler all these years later…
GELID Rev. 5 Tranquillo: Specifications
| Air Flow (CFM/CMH): | max. 65.5 |
| Bearing: | Hydro Dynamic |
| DC Voltage (V): | 12 |
| Dimensions (mm): | 72 x 120 x 154 |
| Fan Current (A): | max. 0.18 |
| Fan Connector: | 4 Pin PWM |
| Fan Dimension (mm): | 120 x 120 x 25 |
| Fan Speed (RPM): | 700 – 1600 |
| Noise Level (dBA): | max. 26.5 |
| Static Pressure (mmH2O): | 1.47 |
| Warranty (years): | 5 |
| Weight (g): | 491 |
GELID Rev. 5 Tranquillo: Closer Look
A nice fully printed box with plenty of clear and easy-to-understand info about the Rev.5 Tranquillo laid out, along with the specifications on one whole side.
Internally, the cooler arrived in a cardboard cover with a small piece of foam covering the top from additional damage and knocks. This is more than adequate to ensure it arrived safe and sound.
Looking at the accessories: we have a black plastic backplate for mounting the cooler on Intel CPU motherboards. The yellow plastic on the edges allows the clips to move depending on the socket used. Intel and AMD mounting clips are also included with 4 mounting screws to attach them to the base of the heatsink. Finally, some GELID branded thermal paste and a spatula can be found.
A view of the Rev. 5 Tranquillo from the front and rear. The included all black 120mm PWM (4-pin) fan comes pre-attached with a pair of clips, but will need to be removed at the time of installation.
Keeping with the black theme, GELID have painted the heatsink fins and heatpipes black to match the theme. It has to be said, this is a much better aesthetic than previous revisions and is great to see!
A view of the heatsink from the side and rear. Showing a “remove before installation” sticker, we’ve all made that mistake once, but the cooler works much better when said sticker is removed before installation.
A final view from the top down shows the 4 heatpipes in a stacked U-shaped configuration, this is a typical layout stack and generally works pretty well.
The bottom of the heatsink with the sticker removed shows us the 4 heatpipes using Heatpipe Direct Contact (HDC) technology mounted to a metal, in this case, an aluminium block which is where the brackets get installed for mounting the cooler. The base of the heatpipes have been flattened in order to maximise contact, and therefore heat transfer, with the top of the processor, rather than being fully embedded into the aluminium block.
GELID Rev. 5 Tranquillo: Installation
Installing the Rev. 5 Tranquillo was very easy in our Intel Z790 testbed. We simply adjusted the backplate to match the 1700 socket holes and locked it in place, and inserted it from beneath the motherboard using the desk to hold it in position.
I did the same for the Intel mounting brackets once there we screwed into the base of the cooler using the 4 attached screws. The cooler was then placed onto the motherboard and some Noctua NT-H2 thermal paste was applied, as it’s our paste of choice for all our CPU cooler testing.
The heatsink was then screwed into the backplate with ease, as the fan was removed before installation. Once screwed into place, the fan can simply be re-installed onto the cooler and the 4-pin PWM fan connector is inserted into the CPU header on the motherboard.
Thumbs up to GELID for making the installation as easy as possible!
GELID Rev. 5 Tranquillo: Thermal Performance
It isn’t ideal for running Prime95 for a prolonged period, and if you get called away to do something, it could be left running for much longer than needed. We have decided to update the testing method for better and more consistent results. Our new methodology involves running a multi-threaded performance benchmark called Cinebench R23.
We’ve elected to use 50% and 100% fan speeds set in the BIOS to provide additional results and a dB measurement, with influences ranging in the +/-1.5 dB range with our equipment.
Test Setup
- CPU – Intel Core i5-13600K 5.1GHz P-core 3.9GHz E-core @ 1.3v
- Motherboard – Z790 AORUS Elite AX DDR5
- RAM – Kingston Fury Renegade 6800MT/s 32GB DDR5
- SSD – WesternDigital SN730 500GB NVMe
- PSU – Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850w
- Case – Thermaltake Ceres 500 TG ARGB Black
- OS – Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
In addition to keeping our test setup consistent for all CPU cooling tests, we always use the same thermal paste rather than any that is supplied or pre-applied. Our thermal paste of choice is NT-H2 from Noctua.
Idle Testing Methodology
To test each cooler at idle, the minimum temperature is taken after leaving the PC, with only start-up programs being allowed to run for 5 minutes. This temperature is deducted from the current room temperature, and our final delta temperature is provided. The mean of three tests is recorded.
Load Testing Methodology
We run Cinebench R23 for 30 minutes to test each cooler under load using the multicore CPU stability test. This temperature is deducted from the current room temperature, and our final delta temperature is provided. The mean of three tests is recorded.
Thermal Results
Acoustic Results
50% fan speed: 38.4 dB
100% fan speed: 46.8 dB
GELID Rev. 5 Tranquillo: The Verdict
It’s great to see as expected thermal performance from the GELID Rev. 5 Tranquillo as it does exactly what it says on the box, a no-frills cooler that offers 150w TDP of cooling performance! Remember though, an overclocked CPU often has a lot more than the stock TDP listed on the websites, with our Intel i5 13600k having a max boost TDP of 181w. At 100% fan speed the cooler outdid itself and just about managed to keep the CPU cool at a couple of degrees below TJ max. So we’d recommend anything below an Intel Core i5 13600k or AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and this cooler will do you just fine!
With a nice black overall aesthetic, it’s much better looking than its siblings so it has that going for it also!
Noise levels were good, with the fans spinning up to 50% at 38.4 dB and a rather surprising 46.8 dB at 100% speed. It’s not quiet, but it’s at the stage where any louder and it would be annoying. Well done GELID!
As mentioned before, the presentation of the product itself is good, and the good build quality is evident, with GELID having plenty of previous experience in that department. The mounting kit GELID has included works flawlessly and installs with ease, on the latest and greatest sockets from both Intel and AMD.
For its price tag, it’s not a huge surprise that there is no included RGB or addressable RGB of any kind. Some will love it, some will look elsewhere.
Adding to its overall appeal is the £35/$35 price tag at the time of writing. That makes this a pretty affordable cooler and one we can recommend providing you own a CPU that maxes out at around 150w TDP.
What’s hot:
- Thermal performance is good for its size.
- The build quality is great.
- It’s priced to compete and does, up to 150w TDP.
What’s not:
- Some £35/$35 coolers are better.
A big thank you to GELID for sending over the Rev. 5 Tranquillo for today’s review.
Further reading…
