Acoustic Samples: Listen to this Heatsink!

The fan on the Igloo 2310 is slightly louder than that of the fan on the Taisol CGK760092, even though both move about the same amount of air. To hear for yourself what this heatsink actually sounds like, just click on the headphones and listen to the MP3 recording.

FrostyTech Acoustic Sampling Chamber
Standard Waveform view of a 10 second recording. Click on the headphones to listen to an MP3 recording of this heatsink in operation.

Sound Level Measurements:

Listening to the actual noise a heatsink makes allows you to hear what pure numbers alone cannot get across. To further emphasize FrostyTech's reliance on cold hard facts when evaluating a heatsink, we also take Decibel readings with a sound level meter. These results may be higher than the manufacturer's listed specs, but then again these are real world measurements.

FrostyTech Sound Level Results
-	Manufacturer	Model	Noise Level	Scale
	Zalman	All Flower HSF	47.4/28.9 dB	quiet
	Taisol	CGK760092	48.4 dB
	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	49.4 dB
	Noisecontrol	Silverado	50.8 dB
	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	53.0 dB
	Tocools	Crown	54.5 dB
	Sibak	AT01515B	55.8 dB
	Dynatron	DC1206BMP	65.1 dB	louder

With a measured noise level of 49.4 dB the GlacialTech Igloo 2310 is pretty good. It is really hard to say what level of sound is the threshold where things become annoying because power supplies and other components may produce more noise. Compared to the very loud Dynatron heatsink you can see that the Igloo 2310 will not pose much of a problem.

Synthetic Temperature Test Results: *Ranked according to 100W small interface die test results.

FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform Results
	Mfg.	Model	Ambient Temp.	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block	Thermal pad	No. Fans	Fan Noise	Clip force
				50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	26.5	39.1	44.4		57.5	63.6	grey	1	med	med
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	21.4	38.3	43.4		53.5	65.7	none	1	med	med
3	Tocools	Crown	23.2	38.8	53.2		47.9	70.2	none	1	loud	stiff
4	OCZ	Gladiator	21.4	33.3	47.3		50.6	70.3	none	1	very loud	med
5	Vantec	CCK-6027D	27.4	45.4	49.6		64.9	73.4	none	1	med	med
6	Swiftech	MCX370	22.3	42.0	46.1		60.3	75.6	none	1	med	hard
7	Taisol	CGK760092	23.4	42.7	61.2		51.3	77.5	pink	1	low	med
8	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	24.8	46.4	53.8		65.6	78.2	none	1	very low	easy
9	AVC	112AM1	24.8	46.6	52.9		70.1	79.6	none	1	low	stiff
10	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	23.5	44.9	66.7		53.7	80.8	silver	1	med	very stiff
11	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	26.5	40.3	55.3		58.6	84.4	carbon	1	loud	med
12	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	24.9	48.3	56.3		72.2	86.0	none	1	low	med
13	Sibak	AT01515B	23.0	45.1	64.6		60.1	95.2	none	2	med	stiff
				50W	50W		100W	100W

The initial results are not to great on the small interface die. Heatspreader covered processors may fair a bit better here however. When tested with a 100W heatload the Igloo 2310 comes towards the lower end of this list of reference heatsinks.

Rise Above Ambient Temp. (c)
	Mfg.	Model	27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block		27mm large copper block	15mm small copper block
			50W	50W		100W	100W
1	Thermal Integration	TI-V77L	12.6	17.9		31.0	37.1
2	Swiftech	MCXC370	16.9	22.0		32.1	44.3
3	Vantec	CCK-6027D	18.0	22.2		37.5	46.0
4	Tocools	Crown	15.6	30.0		24.7	47.0
5	OCZ	Gladiator	12.0	26.0		29.2	49.0
6	Swiftech	MCX370	19.7	23.8		38.0	53.3
7	Zalman	CNPS6000-Cu	21.6	29.0		40.8	53.4
8	Taisol	CGK760092	19.3	37.8		27.9	54.1
9	AVC	112AM1	21.8	28.1		45.3	54.8
10	GlacialTech	Igloo 2310	21.4	43.2		30.2	57.3
11	Thermaltake	Volcano 6cu+	13.8	28.8		32.1	57.9
12	Zalman	CNPS6000AlCu	23.4	31.4		47.3	61.1
13	Sibak	AT01515B	22.1	41.6		37.1	72.2
			50W	50W		100W	100W

While the Igloo 2310 was able to remain under a rise above ambient temperature of 60 degrees, that doesn't really say much about it as a "performance" heatsink.

Instead we can see that under a 100W heatload on the small interface die (which is a pretty stressful test in itself) that the Igloo 2310 comes in as an OEM class cooler, which really isn't unexpected given the design and choice of materials used. On the bright side, at the 2310 doesn't make that much noise. However even with the extra tight clip and little swatch of silver compound on the base of the 2310, there isn't a whole lot here to get excited about.