Read this review:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2978
Or, if you want only the conclusions:
The Cooler Master GeminII with the best of the dual fan configurations reached 3.85GHz in the overclocking test. This was below the top coolers evaluated so far, which generally reached 3.90GHz to 3.94GHz with the same CPU and configuration. The design of the Gemini II seemed voltage limited to 1.5635V on this 680i motherboard, since any attempt to go higher in voltage for a higher overclock would crash. This compares to 1.6V capability with the top air coolers in our tests. Consider that the 3.85GHz result was with a high output fan with noise at more than 50 dB-A - nearly 60 dB-A, which is as loud as our tests have reached so far. The other three fan configurations all topped out at an overclock of 3.83GHz, which is even worse.
The overclocking results are even more disappointing when you compare cooling results under stress to the best air coolers we have tested. Considering the amount of board real estate required by the GeminII, the heavy weight of the cooler, and the dual fans putting out massive amounts of airflow, the overclocking results are extremely disappointing. The best air cooler tested topped out at 3.94GHz. The rest of the best air coolers reached 3.90GHz. 3.83GHz is average performance, and no challenge for the best tested so far.
Now that we have thoroughly evaluated the GeminII there isn't much good to say about it, at least compared to the top coolers we have been testing recently. The GeminII is not a bad cooler; it is just not the great cooler we expected it to be. We have tested 21 cooler configurations in the last few months at AnandTech, and nine of those configurations overclock better than GeminII with the same CPU. That is before we even take in to account the fact that the GeminII uses two fans to, in many case, perform worse than a single 120mm fan.
On the cooling efficiency front, the GeminII is similarly average. Of the 21 measured temperatures, the GeminII is outperformed at idle by nine coolers; at load seven tested cooler configurations outperform the GeminII. Again we are often comparing one fan solutions that perform better than the two-fan GeminII configuration. To be fair, we have been testing the best coolers on the market for the last couple months, but there is no reason at all to expect the GeminII to fall short of the top performers. The fact that it does is disappointing.
For example my Scythe Ninja does better than the Geminii in that review, even if it only uses one fan. The Xigmatek and the Core Contact don't appear in Anandtech's review but they appear in others and I decided, base don those reviews, that they're better than the Ninja.
To put things in perspective, who cares if a cooler can get you 3.8 GHz or 4 GHz - the CPU will wait on the GPU and HDD most of the time anyway so there's no real life difference. As for noise, again, who can really distinguish between 38 dB and 42 dB, especially with a video card at 60 dB in the same case?
Don't worry, just get whatever cooler you want.
The E8400/E8500 thing: I see there's a $20 difference at newegg. There shouldn't be, according to Intel, but I guess newegg does it because otherwise nobody would buy their remaining E8400 stock. The E8500 has a 9.5 multiplier (as opposed to 9 for the E8400). No idea if that's worth $20.
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