3RSystem iCEAGE: A New Cooling Company Tackles the Heatpipe Tower

Scaling of Cooling Performance

The iCEAGE performance was decent at stock idle and average among top coolers at stock load. As overclocks were raised, the exhibited iCEAGE performance was not particularly outstanding in the ability to cool the CPU under stress conditions. To be as fair as possible all overclocking tests were run with the iCEAGE fan at the highest speed.

Click to enlarge

At 2.93GHz the retail HSF is running at 41C, compared to 29C with the iCEAGE. This is a delta of 12C. The delta becomes greater as the overclock increases. At 3.73GHz the idle with the retail fan is 56C compared to the iCEAGE at 38C - a delta of 18C. The cooling performance of the iCEAGE is much better than the Intel retail cooler at idle, but it does not reach the same cooling levels measured with the Thermalrights (with a Scythe S-Flex SFF21F fan) or the stock Tuniq 120. The top Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme, for example is at 33C at the same 3.73GHz.

Cooling efficiency of the 3RSystem iCEAGE was compared under load conditions to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers. Load testing can be very revealing of a cooler's efficiency. A basically flat line, particularly form 3.73GHz upward, indicates the cooler is still in its best cooling range. A line that is increasing rapidly indicates a cooler nearing the end of its ability to cool efficiently. Lines which parallel the best coolers over a range of values are indicate that the coolers have similar cooling efficiency.

Click to enlarge

The iCEAGE is very efficient in cooling in the 2.93 GHz to 3.83 GHz overclock range. As you can see in the chart the cooling is almost a horizontal line in this range. The iCEAGE continues on to a highest overclock of 3.87GHz, which is just short of the 3.90GHz to 3.94GHz most of the top coolers in our testing have achieved. The slope of the iCEAGE in this range is up slightly, indicating it is nearing the end of its range of efficient cooling.

The 3.87 GHz with the iCEAGE tied several heatpipe towers with a single fan - in both cooling efficiency and overclock. It is likely the iCEAGE could do 3.90GHz like other heatpipe towers if it had the ability to mount two fans in a push-pull arrangement. At 3.87 GHz the cooling temperature with the iCEAGE was 58C. This compares to the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme at the higher 3.94 GHz at 47C, 45C at 3.90GHz, and 43C at 3.83 GHz. The Tuniq 120 is 51C at 3.90 GHz.

The iCEAGE is not in the same cooling category as the best heatpipe towers we have tested, but it is a decent cooler to the range just below the best. Cooling efficiency is similar to other second tier heatpipe towers tested with just one fan.

As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.90GHz top speed with the Tuniq 120 is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. A few of the other processors tested with the best air coolers reach just over 4.0GHz, but the range has been 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab.