One of the challenges for a CPU fan is to be silent while being efficient. Let's find out how cool and quiet is the Igloo 5750 Silent which is a dual-fan cooler by the Taiwanese manufacturer, GlacialTech.

FEATURES: Sporting two 92 mm fans, the Igloo 5750 Silent might seem quite deceptive when it comes to being silent. However with a fixed speed of 1400 RPM per fan, this is the quietest CPU cooler we have come across. The fans sandwich a 3.5 cm thick array of aluminum fins which draw heat from the four heat pipes that emerge from the base of the heatsink. While the upper fan takes in air and cools the fins, the one below cools the base. The fans don't interfere with each others' airflow as they both spin at the same constant speed.

The base of the unit is nickel plated copper and is topped by a heat sink. The Igloo 5750 comes attached with the bracket for the Intel LGA 775 socket. So you can directly mount the heat sink if you have a PC based on the Intel platform.
AMD users will have to replace the mounting hardware with the one bundled for the AMD platform. A good thing is that the cooler doesn't require any specific base plate, which means you won't have to go through the trouble of taking the motherboard out of your PC cabinet to install the cooler.



PERFORMANCE: Since the stock cooler is controlled by speed regulators and thermistors, they have variable speeds and speed up when the processor heats up under load. The fans of the Igloo 5750 aren't controlled by any speed regulating hardware and spins at a constant speed because of which they are very silent. We slapped the cooler on top of the Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz in an enclosed case and noted a drop of 9°C in temperature.

VERDICT: The Igloo 5750 Silent is an excellent replacement for stock CPU coolers and an ideal candidate for moderate overclocking.
FOR: Very silent, light-weight, good cooling. AGAINST: None.