Introduction

We have reviewed three Thermaltake's ISGC series coolers, ISGC-100, ISGC-200 and ISGC-300, with results varying from one to the other. Lets see how the fourth cooler, ISGC-400, will perform?

ISGC-400's box has the same graphic design of this series other coolers', but it is smaller than ISGC-300's.

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Figure 1: Box.

Inside the box we found the heatsink, fan (not installed), user manual, installation hardware and a small tube of gray thermal compound.

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Figure 2: Box contents.

In Figure 3 you can have a general view of ISGC-400 heatsink. It is a horizontal cooler with six copper heatpipes, with a design that resembles the Noctua NH-C12P and SilverStone NT06-E. Let's see it in detail on the next few pages.

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Figure 3: ISGC-400 heatsink.

Thermaltake ISGC-400

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Figure 4: Side view.

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Figure 5: Front view.
 

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Figure 6: Rear view.

In Figure 7 we have a top view of the cooler. Note that the heatpipes are closer to each other on the outer side of the heatsink, because it is the area that receives more airflow from the fan. There is no heatpipe in the center, simply because this area gets less airflow.

 

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Figure 7: Top view.

Thermaltake ISGC-400 (cont’d)

The 120 mm fan that comes with ISGC-400 comes uninstalled and it is the same model used on ISGC-300. It is attached to the heatsink by two metal wire clips, with no anti-vibration device.

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Figure 8: Fan.

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Figure 9: Fan detail.

The cooler base is made of mirrored copper.

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Figure 10: Base.

Installation

In Figure 11, you can see the clips and the backplate used to install the cooler on AMD socket AM3, AM2+ and AM2 processors.

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Figure 11: AMD CPUs clips.

In Figure 12 we can see the installing clips used on Intel sockets 133 and 775 CPUs. In this case there is no backplate, but you still need to remove the motherboard from the case (unless it gives access to the solder side of the motherboard) to install the nuts that hold the cooler on place. It is not a good solution, because it is not simple nor protects the motheboard from bending.

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Figure 12: Intel CPUs clips.

In Figure 13, you can see the ISGC-400 base with the socket 775 clips installed.

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Figure 13: With socket 775 clips.

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Figure 14: Installed on the motherboard.

ISGC-400 is not as tall as 120mm fan tower coolers, and so it can be installed into slim cases, i.e., mid tower cases with reduced width, because it is no taller than standard height expansion boards.

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Figure 15: Installed into the case.

How We Tested

We are adopting the following metodology on our CPU cooler reviews.

First, we chose the CPU with the highest TDP (Thermal Design Power) we had available, a Core 2 Extreme QX6850, which has a 130 W TDP. The choice for a CPU with a high TDP is obvious. To measure the efficiency of the tested cooler, we need a processor that gets very hot. This CPU works by default at 3.0 GHz, but we overclocked it to 3.33 GHz, in order to heat it as much as possible.

We took noise and temperature measurements with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to achieve 100% CPU load on the four processing cores we ran Prime95 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option, and three instances of the StressCPU program, all at the same time.

We also compared the reviewed cooler to the Intel stock cooler (with copper base), which comes with the processor we used, and also with some other coolers we have tested using the same methodology.

Temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer, with the sensor touching the base of the cooler, and also with the core temperature reading (given by the CPU thermal sensor) from the from the SpeedFan program, using an arithmetic average of the four core temperature readings.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the video board cooler so it wouldn't interfere with the results, but this measurement is only for comparative purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core 2 Extreme QX6850
• Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
• Memory: 2 GB Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX G (DDR2-800/PC2-6400 with timings 4-4-4-12), running at 800 MHz
• Hard drive: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST3500320AS, SATA-300, 7200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
• Video card: PNY Verto Geforce 9600 GT
• Video resolution: 1680x1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply required: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem K100
  

Software Configuration

• Windows XP Professional installed on FAT32 partition
• Service Pack 3
• Intel Inf driver version: 8.3.1.1009
• NVIDIA video driver version: 182.08

Software Used

• Prime95
• StressCPU
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 ^oC error margin, i.e., temperature differences below 2 ^oC are considered irrelevant.

Our Tests

On the tables below you can see our results. We ran the same tests with the Intel stock cooler, Thermaltake BigTyp 14Pro, Akasa Nero, Cooler Master V10, Thermaltake TMG IA1, Zalman CNPS10X Extreme, Thermaltake ISGC-100, Noctua NH-U12P, Noctua NH-C12P, Thermaltake ISGC-200, Scythe Kabuto, Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro, Thermaltake ISGC-300, SilverStone NT06-E, Zalman CNPS9700 NT,  Scythe Mugen-2 and Thermaltake ISGC-400. Each test ran with the CPU idle and the with the CPU fully loaded. On BigTyp 14Pro, TMG IA1, NH-U12P and ISGC-300 the tests were done with the fan at full speed and at minimum speed. The other coolers were connected directly to the motherboard and it controls the fan speed based on CPU load level and temperature on PWM models. ISGC-400 was tested at minimum speed on idle test and at maximum speed on full load test.

On the graph below you can see the temperature difference between the cooler base and the room temperature with the CPU idle and fully loaded.  The values shown are in degrees Celsius. Remember that the lower the number the better the cooling performance.

The next graph will give you an idea on how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during the tests.

Main Specifications

Thermaltake ISGC-400 main features are:

• Application: Socket 1366, 775, AM3, AM2+ and AM2 processors.
• Fins: Aluminum.
• Base: Copper.
• Heat-pipes: Six copper heat-pipes.
• Fan: 120 mm.
• Nominal fan speed: 800 to 1,300 rpm.
• Fan air flow: 58.3 cfm.
• Maximum power consumption: 3.96 W.
• Nominal noise level: 16 dBA.
• Weight: 1.54 lbs (697 g).
• More information: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 52.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.