It's hard to make a heatsink work well with dual fans, because the airflow from each one can sometimes interfere with the other. In this case, Glacialtech's approach works... just how well, you'll soon see. It is however, far from an elegant thermal solution design.

What the Glacialtech Igloo 5750 Silent lacks in innovation it makes up in low cost and ease of installation. This heatsink retails for about $30 bucks and installs with standard Intel and AMD mounting hardware.

In the face of a half-dozen heatsinks Frostytech has just tested that use complicated custom mounting brackets, we appreciate the simplicity here. You'll appreciate not having to remove the motherboard from the case, or fiddle around with the Igloo 5750 Silent before slapping it onto your CPU.

The mounting hardware for Intel processors comes attached to the heatsink, so if you're running an Intel Core 2 Duo processor installation is literally a breeze. For AMD processors, Glacialtech supply both socket 939 and socket AM2/+ mounting brackets. These replace the clips on the base of the heatsink, and attach to the motherboard using the existing AMD support plate. For that you'll need a small phillips screwdriver.

Base Finish and Flatness

Flipping a heatsink over to inspect the business end is often a simple indicator of overall cooler quality. More practically speaking, a heatsink is in many ways only as effective as the contact it makes with the processor - the flatter and smoother the better. Base finish is one of the criteria that Frostytech measure in the course of evaluating heatsinks, and it involves two distinct aspects. Surface Finish is the first; this is calculated with the aid of Surface Roughness Comparator that has a cross section of common machine surface finishes and their numerical surface roughness equivalents in microinches. The second is Surface Flatness. This is tested with an engineers straight edge or proven flat surface, in two axis.

The base of the Glacialtech Igloo 5750 Silent heatsink has a surface roughness of ~48 microinches, which is considered good. The nickel-plated copper base itself has a sanded finish that is perfectly flat in both axis.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail here if you care to know what equipment is used, and the parameters under which the tests are conducted. Now let's move forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and of course its performance in the thermal tests!