GlacialTech is known for their light and cool materials. Both the Igloo Silent and PWM are just that, with superior noise reduction. The Silent has a 3-pin connector and the PWM has a 4-pin, meaning that the PWM takes advantage of the newer CPU fan connectors on the latest motherboards, allowing the motherboard itself to control the speed of the fan. In short, when things get hot, the Igloo PWM gets going. When temperatures are back to normal, the motherboard sends a signal through the fourth wire that tells the fan to slow down. But fear not if you only have a 3-pin on your mobo, either one will still work on older and newer motherboards.
Igloo 5610 Silent Specifications
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Now that class is over, on to the good stuff. Right out of the box I realized this was intended for the DIY pc enthusiast. It comes pre-assembled and ready to go with thermal compound already applied, a small folded instruction page and a bracket for a cushioned rest on your motherboard.
And weighing in at a mere 373g, there is really not even a need for it. The unit itself is so light that you can pretty much put any weight-related fears out of your head.
Before putting it inside my case, I took time to admire the craftmanship of the unit. The first thing it brought to mind was the high tech radiators used in many stock cars. The vertical heatsink uses two U-tubes to feed cold air into the bottom heatsink, and both are thoroughly supplied with air by the large 80mm fan. Okay, I’ll admit, despite its nice design and the obious airflow that it could produce, I still had my doubts.
It was just so damned small, I didn’t see it cooling off my CPU, which undergoes F.E.A.R. and Far Cry for hours at a time. In case you are not familiar with these games, that is one heck of a workload, and creates massive heat after a while. So I went about the tiring task of removing all the Monster Energy cans and empty Twinkie wrappers from the top of my case and prepared to hook this baby up.
Right away I noticed something I didn’t notice before. My usual cooler uses simple plastic pins to hold it in place. The Igloo uses screws. I shudder. I detest the thought of aiming a screwdriver at my precious motherboard. The fear of slipping an punching a hole straight through is always there.
But my fears where eased once I began installation. Each screw is surrounded by a plasic “cup” that prevents you from turning your system into Swiss cheese. Regardless of the screws, installation was relatively easy. Unlike OEM heatsinks, the Igloo must be screwed into a metal plate on the underside, which requires removal of the motherboard.
The next step was to pop open a can of Monster and do work on this thing with the new Turok game. I used the same software to measure the temperature of the CPU at 2 different times: After 30 minutes of idle running, and after running Turok for 2 hours nonstop. This I did with both the PWM and the Silent. The results were quite surprising.
Here are the specs of the machine used to test the Igloo Cooler. Room temperature was 63 degrees and temperatures were taken using onboard motherboard sensors via Everest Ultimate.
- Intel Core2 Duo Quad 2.4Ghz
- 2GB Geil DDR3 PC6400
- 2x 500GB SATA HDD
- Sony BluRay/DVD combo drive
GlacialTech Igloo 5610 Performance Results
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The Silent quickly trumped the PWM in noise reduction, with the PWM being noisy as hell when it sped up to cool my CPU down, and the PWM pwned the Silent when it came to temperature control. Either way, I saw at least a 6 degree drop from my original cooler, and decided to leave the Silent running in my system. In the long run, it really is up the the buyer and their level of expertise. I personally am going to stick with the GlacialTech Igloo 5610 Silent.
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