Coolermaster Jet 4 ICB-V83 Pentium 4 Heatsink Review

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Considering that Coolermaster's Jet4 heatsink measures in at 136mm tall, and belts out almost 60 dBA at full speed, you can bet that overclockers are lining up for it... For the rest of us, it's a good thing that Coolermaster equipped the ICB-V83 Jet4 with a fan speed controller to quiet things down. Dial up the speed of the squirrel cage fan for heavy duty cooling, and when quieter times are needed, dial down the speed to 1900 RPM and relax in moderate noise levels of about 45 dbA the Jet4 produces.

Squirrel cage fans have an added bonus in that the dead spot normally found under a standard fan is not an issue. The way the fan works, a steady stream of air is exhausted down into the heatsink providing excellent airflow at the outer edges and center as well.

The Coolermaster ICB-V83 Jet4 looks like a miniature aircraft engine, and comes with a small potentiometer hardwired directly into the squirrel cage fan hidden behind the chrome. The potentiometer enables you to manually adjust fan speed between 1900RPM-3500RPM. The upside to this configuration is that we can tune the computer to be as noisy or quiet as desired. The downside is that this is not a dynamic adjustment - meaning that if the computer is put under load and the processor thermals increase, the heatsink won't automatically compensate and kick up the fan's RPM.

Still, it is better than having a fixed speed fan grinding away all night like a vacuum cleaner on speed.

	Heatsink Specsheet: Model: Jet 4 ICB-V83 HS Material: Copper with aluminum shroud Fan: 1900-3500RPM, 12V, 0.55A Fan Dim: 80x80x80mm FHS Dimensions: 136x81x83mm Weight: 700 grams Made by: Coolermaster Sold By: www.coolermaster.com

The Jet4 fan draws quite a bit more current than a typical vaneaxial fan, and so power is pulled from a standard molex pass through connector instead of the motherboard fan header. A separate three-pin jack plugs into the motherboard to deliver the single RPM signal so online ran monitoring software doesn't assume your processor is seconds away from thermal destruction.

Along with the Coolermaster Jet4 heatsink comes a 3.5" aluminum bay cover, and standard steel expansion slot PCI bracket so you have your choice of where to mount the fan-speed controller. The fan-speed potentiometer has lead wires that are about 19" long, so the user can control the fan speed without cracking open the case to poke around inside.

If you have an aluminum case, you'll be pleased to see that the 3.5" aluminum bracket is tastefully done, and should fit in nicely. By mounting the dial on the PCI bracket you can put the fan speed controller in a less obvious location at the rear of the PC. However, since the potentiometer is not removable from the heatsink, it has to go in either one of these locations.

Of course, the most noticeable aspect of the Coolermaster Jet4 is the jet engine like appearance it has. With a heavy dose of chrome, this baby looks pretty damn fine, although you're going to need a case window to take full advantage of its good looks. The rear of the fan even has a little embedded red LED, to give that engine look extra credence.