You see, manufacturing an exposed heatpipe base heatsink is trickier than it first appears. Most of us see four copper tubes in four channels, that seems pretty simple to make... However, the heatsink maker has to; 1) keep the flat plane of the heatpipes even with one another. 2) Keep the heatpipes attached to the aluminum mounting plate. 3) Flatten the heatpipes in just the right way so as not to damage the internal wick structure. 4) Finish the heatsink base by skimming a hair of copper off the bottom to provide a good CPU mounting surface. 5) And lastly, it has to choose just the right channel profile (circle, oval, egg-shape, flattened circle, flattened oval, etc.) to swage the heatpipes into the aluminum so nothing shifts around after repeated heating and cooling cycles.

The thin aluminum base cap the heatsink's mounting brackets attach to is just 26mm wide where it sits on the processor. If I understand what's going on in the designers mind correctly, it's a very clever solution... sharp bends you see, are not a heatpipes friend. ;)

Heatsink Mounting Hardware

The Glacialtech Igloo H46 heatsink ships with one rear motherboard support bracket that fits every CPU socket configuration imaginable. Separate metal brackets are provided for Intel or AMD platforms. Glacialtech have finally improved the quality of its mounting hardware; the brackets are much thicker metal and sturdier than past Glacialtech heatsinks, definitely a welcome sight!

The Intel socket 775/1155/1156/1366 mounting bracket accommodates the full gamut of Intel processors. It screws onto the motherboard with collared screws.

For AMD motherboards, Glacialtech use metal brackets which accommodate AMD socket AM2/AM3/FM1 processors. These screw into the common motherboard support plate supplied with the heatsink.

The instruction manual is clear and easy to understand. You will need access to the rear of the motherboard to install this heatsink, we'd recommend taking the board out of the case for easier access. Four wire fan mounting clips are supplied along with a tube of Glacialtech IceTherm II thermal interface material.

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!