GlacialTech Igloo 5750 Silent CPU Cooler Review

Manufacturer Product Page: Global glacialtech
Product Number: Igloo 5750 Silent
Availability: Mid February 2008
Price: $40 MSRP
Warranty Length: 1 year



In the never ending search for quieter and quieter computers one of the easiest and fastest ways to reduce a noisy system is by swapping out the stock CPU heatsink and fan. While the stock coolers that come with modern day CPU’s are very good in comparison to those from the days of yore, noise levels are not really their forte. Intel and AMD engineers who design & spec the stock coolers are more concerned with its abilities to handle high thermal loads yet still be “price competitive”. As the old saying goes “You can have Cheap, Efficient or Quiet….pick any two.”

Today we will be looking at an aftermarket cooler that will be released shortly and is marketed as a not only a budget cooler but a “silent budget” CPU cooling solution. GlacialTech may be a newcomer to the marketplace, as they only opened for business in April 2006, but the founders of the company are anything but inexperienced. These founders consist of not only 8 PHD's but also 3 factory owners. This gives them the theoretical and the practical knowledge to make some great cooling solutions. The end result of all this knowledge is that they should be able to release a quiet CPU cooling solution that will not "break the bank" so to speak.

Today we will be lookin at the GlacialTech Igloo 5750 Silent is an interesting cooler in that unlike the 5710 model (which is a tower design) this cooler is not only a down-draft style cooler that comes with not one but two 92mm low rpm fans in a typical push-pull setup. Equally interesting is its ability to fit just about any CPU on the market. While we will be pushing the Igloo 5750 as far as it can go thermal load wise, this review will laso focus on silent the fans really are, and answering the age old question: “are two fans really better than one?”. After all, if you are looking for a silent pc you are more than willing to give up raw performance for this highly laudable goal and not everyone wants to beat the latest world air overclocking record. More importantly one of the GlacialTech's stated objectives is to produce not only efficient cooling solutions but quiet ones as well.

Something that should also be mentioned is that the "Silent" model is one of two 5750 coolers from GlacialTech. In addition to the product we will be reviewing today, GlacialTech has released a "PWM" model which looks the same but its fan speeds vary depending on the thermal load. In addition, this PWM model has a pair of deeper fans which can potentially move more air. This makes the PWM model a more likely candidate if you are cooling a CPU which produces more heat rather than aiming for near-silence.