December of 2003 the tier one motherboard manufacturer went out on a limb and announced a cooling product to cater for a wide range of processors. Dubbed the '3D Cooler-Pro', Gigabyte has cleverly designed this heatsink making it possible to be installed on not only the latest Athlon64 processors but also the older AthlonXP processor. However, its cooling abilities expand beyond the AMD line of processors as the 3D Cooler-Pro can also be installed on Pentium 4 processors. This kind of universal support is very unique as very few heatsinks currently available on the market can cover so many products.

The release of such a product from Gigabyte was quite a shock and certainly unexpected. There is no reason for a large tier one motherboard manufacturer such a Gigabyte not to produce processor cooling products. Its just that is has never really been done before. Well Gigabyte has done it and they did it well, the 3D Cooler-Pro was an exceptional product. Due to the quick success of the 3D Cooler-Pro, Gigabyte has been fast to unleash a new cooling solution. Just months after the 3D Cooler-Pro became available I did not expect Gigabyte to produce another solution.

This new cooler is based on the 3D design and goes by the name of 3D Cooler-Ultra 2004 GT Edition. Now there is a name you dont want to repeat too often, for that reason I will refer to it as the 3D Cooler-Ultra in this review. Like me you are probably asking what does this new cooler offer over the original. Not a lot has changed but the improvements made are quite significant. In my 3D Cooler-Pro review I discussed what could make the cooler better or more efficient. The idea of a 100% copper design was an obvious one. Gigabyte has also realized this building the 3D Cooler-Ultra on a 100% copper design from the heatpipes to the fins and down to the base!

The 3D Cooler-Ultra is very distinct when compared to the wide range of identical coolers out there. These 3D-Cooler products are unlike anything I have ever seen or tested before, and surprisingly the design makes sense. Far too often I find new outrageous looking cooling products that are nothing more than just that. They look fantastic but when it comes to performing they're most often better off just being used as paper weights. Gigabyte being who they are, you would naturally assume if they are going to release a cooling product that it would uphold a certain level of quality.

Their reputation has served them well once again with the release of the 3D Cooler-Ultra. This new and innovative cooling solution is not only eye-catching but it has an intelligent design that will help maximize its performance. The cooler comes with impressive looking blue LED lights and, to be honest, this is one of the most visually appealing coolers I have ever tested. However as we all know looks count for very little in this business as performance is where manufacturers will score their points. The 3D Cooler-Ultra scores its three dimensional name from the design concept which expels heat through its cylindrical fins in a 360-degree fashion.

A lot of new and successful cooling products over the past months have begun to adopt what is called a Heatpipe design. Gigabytes 3D Cooler-Ultra relies heavily on this technology to transfer heat from the copper base to the aluminum cylindrical fins. However, the 3D Cooler-Ultra does this unlike any other heatpipe based cooler I have come across.