Glacialtech's Igloo 5710 Plus Silent is an economical low noise heatsink for Intel socket 775/1366 and AMD socket 939/AM2/AM3 processors. Produced by Taiwanese heatsink manufacturer Glacialtech, the Igloo 5710 Plus Silent is a straightforward CPU cooler, weighing 425 grams and built around a thin copper base, three copper heatpipes and a small tower of aluminum fins.

The Igloo 5710 Plus Silent ships with a quiet 1300RPM 100mm fan and installs out of the box thanks to a pre-applied patch of shinetsu thermal compound. A nice touch given its suitability for generic office PCs where non-experts may be tasked with the heatsink's installation. It's economical price should help make the heatsink attractive to office type PC applications.

Given its relatively compact height of 139mm, the Igloo 5710 Plus Silent will fit in most mid-tower and compact PC cases easily enough. The versatile mounting hardware allows it to be used on either Intel or AMD processors. As needs change, the Igloo 5710 Plus Silent can be migrated along with the processor platform.

Glacialtech Igloo 5710 Plus Silent Heatsink

heatsink specsheet manufacturer: glacialtech model no.: igloo 5710 plus silent materials: aluminum fins, nickel-plated copper heatpipes and base, fan mfg: powerlogic pla10025s12l fan spec: 1300rpm, 12v, 0.17a fan dim: 25x100x100mm heatsink & fan dim: 139x100x75mm weight: 425 grams includes: multi-socket mounting hardware, pre-applied thermal compound, instructions. Compatible with Sockets: AMD - 939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3 Intel - 775/1366 Est. Pricing: $32USD ($33CDN)

Like several other Glacialtech heatsinks, the Igloo 5710 Plus Silent has scalloped leading and trailing edges on its aluminum fins. Seen from the top down in the picture below, the wavy pattern helps break up laminar air flow and decrease back pressure as the air enters.

The aluminum fins are press-fit over the three 6mm diameter nickel-plated heatpipes, but not soldered. The heatpipes are soldered to the copper base however.

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 a straight edge in two axis.

Shown after the pre-applied thermal pad had been removed, the chrome plated copper base of Glacialtech's Igloo 5710 Plus Silent is smooth and polished, with a surface roughness of about ~8 microinches. Unfortunately the base is not very flat, only the outside corners of it make good contact with processors having a IHS larger than 32mm square.

In one axis (perpendicular to the heatpipes) the base is somewhat concave and warped across the entire surface. The straight edge in the photo above is pictured at the outside corner where this is most visible. At the center of the base the copper pad is flatter, but suffers from raised edges from when the copper blank was punched out.

In the opposite axis (parallel to heatpipes) the base is significantly concave to the degree it is unacceptable for use on CPUs with a large integrated heat spreader.

After testing the Glacialtech Igloo 5710 Plus Silent on Frostytech's AMD synthetic thermal test platform we were surprised by the resulting pattern in the thermal compound which remained... only the outer edges of the heatsink's base had actually made contact! This factor goes a long way to explain the lackluster thermal test results this heatsink achieved. The Intel CPU die being a quite a bit smaller, was significantly less affected in the test results since the raised edges overlapped the CPU itself.

Installation Hardware

The Glacialtech Igloo 5710 Plus Silent heatsink ships with stamped steel mounting hardware for Intel and AMD processors. The brackets are screwed to the side of the heatsink base with two screws, and use a matching rear motherboard support bracket for the LGA1366 Intel platform. For Intel LGA775 processors, the standard push-to-click retention tabs are utilized.

The AMD bracket uses screws as well, and is compatible with socket 939/940AM2/AM2+/AM3 processors. Two additional fan brackets are included so a second 92mm fan can be installed if desired.

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!