Introduction

GlacialTech have successfully build a very cheap, easy to install and good looking little CPU cooler; it is mostly intended for environments that do not imply overclocking. In the performed tests, however, even if on the package it was listed that the i5 750 CPU is supported with its stock 2.66GHz frequency, I could do 3.2GHz without problems at all and with decent temperatures too, in both IDLE and Full Load.



At first I want to thank the GlacialTech for making a review of their Igloo 5760 CPU Cooler possible.

About the GlacialTech Company

GlacialTech Inc. was established in June 2001 by a team of 8 world-class researchers (PHDs) and three factory owners. Its technological areas of expertise include specialized thermal theory, soldering and mounting technologies, mechanism design, test and verification environment build-up and advanced conduct material development.

As a total thermal solution provider, GlacialTech is committed to using lighter weight materials, lower noise and lower manufacturing cost to deliver superior cooling solutions. All this has brought about the increased value for our customers with lighter system board loading, quiet working environment and optimal price performance. Price performance, noise performance and weight performance are our three cooling design philosophy. Having acquired ISO 9001 and 14001, GlacialTech commits itself to using green materials for its products designs and to perfecting green manufacturing processes in manufacturing its products.

GlacialTech offers two kinds of standard and customized cooling solutions. The standard cooling solutions deal with the CPU coolers for desktop and server PC system, PC case fan, VGA coolers and other accessory cooling products. The customized cooling solutions are furnished with applications for specialized PC barebones system, notebook, consumer products and telecommunication products.

Product description:

Heat-pipe cooler is a kind of complex cooling system, where every parameter influences the thermal performance. The important restriction for heat pipe is the filling ratio (F.R) of working fluid. Some heat-pipes show lowest thermal resistance in less thermal design power which is called maximum heat capacity of heat-pipe. After the thermal design power gets over the maximum heat capacity, the thermal resistance starts to rise since the radiator is not powerful enough to cool down the vapor of the cooling end, hence the working fluid can’t return to the evaporator smoothly.

Igloo 5760 use copper base with mirror surface to reduce the contact resistance between CPU and cooler; high precise inserted fin plus 9 cm bullet axial fan are used to be the high efficiency radiator to enhance the thermal cycle of heat-pipe; three 8 mm diameter heat-pipes are used to carry heat from evaporator to radiator since 8mm heat-pipe have larger thermal capacity than 6 mm. The test results show Igloo 5760 delivers better thermal performance (lower thermal resistance) in higher thermal design power, and the CPU temperatures are not over than 79°C when the room temperatures are controlled between 23~25°C.

Specifications :



Supported CPUs and Clock Speeds:

Packaging:

The Igloo 5760 CPU cooler from GlacialTech comes in a cardboard box which matches the colors of the product; on the frontal part we can see the main product features represented by graphical icons, the product full name, a large photo of the CPU cooler and the compatible sockets are also specified:



On one of the laterals, we get to see what CPUs are tested and supported (GlacialTech lists i5 processors up to i5 750, which we will use in our tests, but in overclocking environment), but also the technical specifications on the right side:



The box contents are carefully packed inside, to avoid damages during transport:



Both the bundle and the cooler itself can be found in a transparent plastic support:



As a bundle, we can find in separate bags back plates for each socket, the retention mechanism for AMD sockets and fixing screws. The user manual explains the installation process, step-by-step:



All the back plates can be glued properly on the side that makes direct contact with the motherboard to allow an easier installation:



From left to right, we can see the LGA1156, LGA775 and LGA1366 back plates:

A closer look

The fan that is mounted on top of the heatsink is 92mm (2000RPM reported by the manufacturer, 2219RPM reported by the motherboard BIOS) and is held by one clip on each side:



On the back, we can see a protective transparent plastic, mounted on the plate that makes direct contact with the CPU; some paste is pre-applied:



The contact plate has a mirror finish, to ensure very good heat conductivity between it and the CPU HSF:



On the opposite side we can see the terminations of the 3 heatpipes:



The plate that makes contact with the CPU is not plane on the upper side, but it is designed in such a way to dissipate heat better:



Here is a photo which shows the heatpipes reaching from the bottom plate to the top part of the heatsink, where they will be cooled better by the active fan:



On the other side, the upper heatpipe terminations can be found, along with the GlacialTech and the product name embossed onto the surface:



On each side of the bottom plate, we can see two holes, in which we have to insert the screws to fix properly the mount mechanism:





Since the installation will be done on a LGA1156 socket, I have chosen the Intel mounting brackets and fixed them on both sides of the plate:



After fixing the back plate on the other side of the motherboard, I have applied some thermal compound on the CPU HSF, same used for the other two coolers in the comparison test (this is necessary only for review purposes, other people can use the same thermal compound that has been pre-applied on the plate):



After sitting the CPU cooler on the HSF, we have to fix it with the provided long screws with springs, that will help push on the retention mechanism to keep the heatsink securely in place:



The screws should be first inserted by hand to fit them properly into the holes; we have to be very careful at this operation, because the heatsink can slip very easy on the HSF when the paste is applied and we can scratch the surface of the motherboard PCB:



To screw them tighter, GlacialTech provides us with a little wrench:



The final step would be to connect the 4-pin PWM fan into the CPU fan header; as it can be seen from the photo, the fan seems to integrate perfectly into the color scheme that the ASUS P7P55D EVO does have:

The Tests

Testbench:

CPU: Intel I5 750 Retail
Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D-EVO Preliminary
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM
Video: ATI RADEON 4890 1GB OEM
Power Supply: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W
HDD: Apogee SSD Convertor with 2xAPOGEE CompactFlash Cards 606x 16GB, JBOD(32GB)

In this review we will compare the GlacialTech 5760 with the Stock i5 750 Intel Cooler and also the high performance Noctua NH-U12P SE2 which features two NF-P12 fans in a push-pull configuration. In all the tests, the same thermal compound was used, Arctic Cooling MX-2.

The tests were performed in an open-air environment, with the test system mounted on the removable motherboard tray of the Cooler Master ATCS840 case.

The stress test application that was used is named OCCT 3.1.0, ran with the CPU OCCT Test, Small Data Set, 30 minutes settings.

The ambient temperature during all tests was 25.9 degrees Celsius.

Summary graph



Detailed results below:

Stock Intel Cooler 3.2GHz, 1.25VCore



Stock Intel Cooler 4.0GHz, 1.38VCore



GlacialTech Igloo 5760 3.2GHz, 1.25VCore



GlacialTech Igloo 5760 4.0GHz, 1.38VCore



Noctua NH-U12P SE2 3.2GHz, 1.25VCore



Noctua NH-U12P SE2 4.0GHz 1.38VCore

Conclusive Thoughts

GlacialTech have succeeded to build a very cheap, easy to install and good looking little CPU cooler; it is mostly intended for environments that do not imply overclocking. In the performed tests, however, even if on the package it was listed that the i5 750 CPU is supported with its stock 2.66GHz frequency, I could do 3.2GHz without problems at all and with decent temperatures too, in both IDLE and Full Load.



The Igloo 5760 is compatible with all CPU sockets and the retention mechanism is really easy to install; the back plates are provided with the adhesive, so they won't fall off when we try to install the screws onto them.

The fan that comes with the 5760 is 92nm with a maximum recorded speed of 2219RPM. It is PWM and can be controlled very easy with the motherboard, if we consider that the max speed is too loud for us.

Considering that the recommended product price by the manufacturer is 17Euros, it is a good replacement from any stock cooling solution and it does not take a lot of space either.

I would like to thank again to GlacialTech for giving us the chance to review this product!