3RSystem iCEAGE: A New Cooling Company Tackles the Heatpipe Tower
by Wesley Fink on June 21, 2007 12:02 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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STL - Friday, June 22, 2007 - link
A couple of suggestions:1. One of the most important things about any heatsink is its mounting system, but this article (like other AnandTech reviews) has no detailed photos of how the heatsink mounts to the motherboard.
"That's like the only thing that matters!", I scream in agony.
Such photos are somewhat difficult to take, but a few good macro shots can vastly improve a review.
2. Will AnandTech ever review the Enzotech Ultra-X? It's a down-blowing 120mm heatsink with four 8mm heatpipes (larger than the usual 6mm). It also has a bolt-through-board-to-backplate mounting system with spring thumbscrews, making four points of contact with the base - i.e. ABSOLUTE HEAVEN, at least on Socket 775. (These three criteria don't seem to be satisfied by *any* other modern heatsink. The old Swiftech MCX-4000 was bolt-through-board, spring screws, four points of contact with the base - although it had no backplate, thus exerting bending force on the board.)
I decided on the Ultra-X after reading horror stories about the Ultra 120 Extreme's tendency to not stay flush with the heatspreader, since it's held down by only one point of contact to the base.
It would be nice to see an AnandTech review that acknowledged the importance of the mounting system, and that the Ultra 120 Extreme isn't perfect.
strikeback03 - Friday, June 22, 2007 - link
Technically, a plane is defined by three points, so adding a 4th is next to impossible without one point being out-of-plane. So a 3 point mounting system would be the most flat.IIRC the Tuniq uses 4 thumbscrews with springs to bolt through the board to a backplate.
STL - Saturday, June 23, 2007 - link
No argument there - however, a spring-loaded mounting system ensures that minor variations in height between the mounting points don't make a difference.When the base is held down by only two (or worse, one) points of contact, the heatsink can *tip* off of the core, because we use towers and not desktops.
If you look at the Tuniq Tower 120, it indeed uses a bolt-through-board-to-backplate system with four spring thumbscrews, but what is bolted through the board is an H-shaped mounting plate that pins the heatsink down along a single line. The bar of the H looks too narrow to prevent the heavy heatsink from potentially tipping off of the CPU, although it might be wide enough.
StraightPipe - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
I've been looking for a quiet HSF to run in my living room, but these graphs can be hard to sort through.If you differentiated the low and high speeds by making them 2 different colors it would be much easier to read.
It's pretty darn easy to find a fan that will idle silently next to a +500W PSU, but It's a whole nother story to find one that runs on high quietly.
xsilver - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
silentpcreview rates the scythe ninja as the best "quiet" cooler available right now - AT's graphs dont show that because they have a lower ceiling on their graphs.Wesley Fink - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
Actually the Scythe Ninja is not the quietest cooler, as coolers are basically noise-free. The Scythe Ninja FAN is among the quietest we have tested, but it is just average in cooling ability. The Ninja performs better with more air flow than the stock fan can provide. The Noctua fan is one of the quietest we have tested, and any of the towers will be quiet indeed with a Noctua fan. Higher output but still quiet is the Scythe SFlex SFF21F. We are working on a 120mm fan roundup to select a stock fan to use in all cooler tests - in addition to stock fan tests.erikpurne - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
What? That's absurd. Maybe the serrated edges of the fins help with cooling in some obscure way having to do with turbulence or something, but they most definitely do not affect the surface area in any significant way.
Serrating the edges of the fins increases the amount of edge for a given surface area of fin. So yeah, technically, the surface area of the edges is increased. But the surface area of the edges of the fins is, at most, what... 0.01% of the total surface area of the cooling fins?
Retarded, but I guess when you have to come up with 8 pages of filler, some of it is going to be stupid.
Also, does anyone know how Anandtech compensates for ambient temperature? I'm starting to worry that they don't, since I haven't heard it mentioned, which would make their temperature readings worthless.
customcoms - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
"Room temperature is measured before beginning the cooler tests and is maintained in the 20 to 22C (68 to 72F) range for all testing."That is how the compensate for ambient...by keeping it the same for all tests. yeah, That is a four degree F range, 2 degree Celsius, but do you have a better system in your computer room?
Wesley Fink - Thursday, June 21, 2007 - link
We doubt those using the coolers we are testing have a heating/cooling system that maintains better than 2C in ambient temperature. This is very much in line with our philosophy of "real-world" component testing. We do agree comparisons of summer tests in Phoenix without air-conditioning to winter tests in Buffalo, NY in 4 feet of snow would not be a fair comparison, but we do monitor and maintain temperatures within reasonable limits as stated.Spanki - Friday, June 22, 2007 - link
D'oh! I always hav trouble with this "comment" software... please see http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">this thread for my comments. Thanks.