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Why "Rocket"?

Gigabyte's Rocket Cooler-Pro addresses the concern that some hardcore users have regarding the cooling of components on the motherboard and around the CPU area. In air cooled rigs, heat dissipation around the CPU region is normally quite slow, creating hot pockets around the CPU's surrounding area. Heat dissipation of the heatsink can be hampered by this dead hotair zone around the CPU. There's also the fact that some onboard components and some surrounding components like RAM tend to get warm but are completely without any active cooling whatsoever. The Rocket airflow design enables the cooler to blow air down and outwards from the cooler towards the surrounding mosfets, capacitors, RAM, and even close lying cards like the VGA card. I know not everyone agrees to the cooling requirements of components like mosfets and RAM, but for those who want that extra airflow, the Rocket Cooler-Pro provides it.

Looking at the below diagram you can also see a generic illustration of the airflow in the Rocket Cooler Pro. You will notice that according to the illustration air is pulled IN from the sides surrounding the upper 2/3rds of the cooler. and pushed downwards and out in the bottom area of the cooler. A clear plastic shield on the top prevents air from being pulled in from the top of the cooler.

The Look

The Rocket Cooler-Pro sports the same good looks as the other 3D Coolers we've reviewed from Gigabyte. The great looking blue LEDs are still there, and now with the cooler weighing in at 500g and measuring at 119mm long, it towers over just about any other air cooler out there. I think some of you might pick this baby up just for its imposing size.

I think the shear size and weight of the unit makes it unlikely that Gigabyte will make a copper version of the Rocket Cooler-Pro, but at the same time the performance of the cooler is already nearly as good as the all copper 3D Cooler-Ultra GT.

Other Features and Installation

The Rocket Cooler Pro comes with a fan rheobus controller you can install in a free external 3.5" drive bay. If you don't want to have this mounted on the front of your case, a rear rheobus PCI bracket is also included. Installation, as I mentioned earlier, is very easy using the proper "spring clip" for your platform. This tooless installation is quite convenient and very easy to use. The top of the cooler is mounted with high intensity blue LEDs, some of the brightest LED's you can find. This is yet another reason why the coolers remain so popular.