Introduction

We just tested the GlacialTech's Siberia CPU cooler, which has a horizontal heatsink, six heatpipes, one 140 mm fan over the heatsink, and a 92 mm fan under it. Check it out!

The Siberia box is large, with a frontal transparent window affording you a look at the cooler.

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Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 shows what is inside the package: the cooler itself, thermal grease, manual, and installation hardware.

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Figure 2: Accessories

In Figure 3, you can see the GlacialTech Siberia.

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Figure 3: The GlacialTech Siberia

This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

The GlacialTech Siberia

In Figure 4, you have a front view of the cooler. Here you can see the two fans that come with the cooler. Note also the small heatsink at the base.

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Figure 4: Front view

Figure 5 shows the side of the cooler. The heatpipes are all at the same side, and the lower fan (a 92 mm one) does not touch the small heatsink over the base.

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Figure 5: Side view

Figure 6 reveals the rear side of the cooler, where the six heatpipes are visible.

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Figure 6: Rear view

In Figure 7 you see the top of the cooler, which reveals the upper 140 mm fan.

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Figure 7: Top view

The GlacialTech Siberia (Cont’d)

Figure 8 shows the base of the cooler, which is not polished enough to have a mirror-like look.

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Figure 8: Base

In Figure 9 you see the fans. They are connected to the same cable, and there is no way to disconnect them from each other. The bigger fan has red, green, and blue LEDs. The connector is that of a four-pin.

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Figure 9: Fans

Figure 10 shows the heatsink without the fans. They are easy to remove, thanks to the metal wire holders.

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Figure 10: Heatsink

Installation

Figure 11 shows the base of the Siberia with the metal clips needed to install the cooler on Intel processors. After screwing the clips, put the backplate on the solder side of the motherboard and attach four screws (with springs) from the component side.

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Figure 11: Clips

In Figure 12 you see the cooler installed on our motherboard. Because of the shape of the cooler, there is no way to fasten the four screws without removing the motherboard from the case. Actually, the GlacialTech Siberia was probably the trickiest cooler to install from all the models we tested using this methodology. It could be far easier if the clips on the cooler base had the screws attached to it, so you just needed to screw the nuts from the solder side.

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Figure 12: Installed on our motherboard

Figure 13 presents the GlacialTech Siberia installed in our case.

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Figure 13: Installed in our system

How We Tested

We tested the cooler with a Core i7-860 CPU (quad-core, 2.8 GHz), which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), keeping the standard core voltage (Vcore), which was the maximum stable overclock we could make with the stock cooler. Keep in mind that we could have raised the CPU clock more, but to include the stock cooler in our comparison, we needed to use this moderate overclock.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option. (In this version, the software uses all available threads.)

We compared the tested cooler to the Intel stock cooler with a copper base (included with the CPU), as well as with other coolers. Note that in the past, we tested coolers with a socket LGA775 CPU, and we retested some "old" coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read in the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that accompanies it.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

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 case and video board cooler fans so they wouldn't interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which isn't the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i7-860
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD6
• Memory: 2 GB Markvision (DDR3-1333/PC3-10700 with 9-9-9-22 timings), configured at 1,200 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Zotac GeForce GTS 250
• Video resolution: 1680x1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX Cool

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

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

Our Tests

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at idle and at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the minimum speed on the idle test and at full speed on the full load test.

		Idle Processor			Processor at Full Load
Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.
Intel stock (socket LGA1156)	14 °C	44 dBA	1700 rpm	46 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	90 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G1	14 °C	47 dBA	2050 rpm	33 °C	56 dBA	2900 rpm	62 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme	14 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	27 °C	53 dBA	1950 rpm	51 °C
Thermaltake Silent 1156	14 °C	44 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	49 dBA	1750 rpm	69 °C
Noctua NH-D14	14 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	27 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	53 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Performa	14 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	28 °C	52 dBA	1950 rpm	54 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	50 °C
Thermaltake Frio	14 °C	46 dBA	1450 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	50 °C
Prolimatech Samuel 17	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	40 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	63 °C
Zalman CNPS8000A	18 °C	43 dBA	1400 rpm	39 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	70 °C
Spire TherMax Eclipse II	14 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	28 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	53 °C
Scythe Ninja3	17 °C	39 dBA	700 rpm	32 °C	55 dBA	1800 rpm	57 °C
Corsair A50	18 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	33 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	60 °C
Thermaltake Jing	18 °C	44 dBA	850 rpm	34 °C	49 dBA	1300 rpm	60 °C
GlacialTech Alaska	18 °C	43 dBA	1150 rpm	36 °C	51 dBA	1600 rpm	60 °C
Deepcool Gamer Storm	18 °C	43 dBA	1100 rpm	35 °C	48 dBA	1600 rpm	62 °C
Corsair A70	26 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	40 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	65 °C
Deepcool Ice Blade Pro	23 °C	45 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	52 dBA	1500 rpm	64 °C
AC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2	23 °C	47 dBA	1750 rpm	44 °C	51 dBA	2100 rpm	77 °C
Corsair H70	27 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	61 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max	27 °C	55 dBA	1600 rpm	38 °C	58 dBA	1750 rpm	63 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP	25 °C	45 dBA	1700 rpm	51 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	91 °C
CoolIT Vantage	26 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	62 °C
Deepcool Ice Matrix 600	25 °C	46 dBA	1100 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	1300 rpm	69 °C
Titan Hati	26 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	40 °C	57 dBA	2450 rpm	68 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13	27 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	2300 rpm	70 °C
Noctua NH-C14	26 °C	52 dBA	1300 rpm	37 °C	52 dBA	1300 rpm	61 °C
Intel XTS100H	26 °C	49 dBA	1200 rpm	42 °C	64 dBA	2600 rpm	68 °C
Zalman CNPS5X SZ	23 °C	52 dBA	2250 rpm	38 °C	57 dBA	2950 rpm	69 °C
Thermaltake SlimX3	21 °C	50 dBA	2700 rpm	46 °C	50 dBA	2750 rpm	99 °C
Cooler Master Hyper 101	21 °C	50 dBA	2600 rpm	38 °C	57 dBA	3300 rpm	71 °C
Antec Kühler H2O 620	19 °C	52 dBA	1400 rpm	34 °C	55 dBA	1400 rpm	58 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro	20 °C	46 dBA	1100 rpm	36 °C	49 dBA	1300 rpm	62 °C
GlacialTech Siberia	22 °C	49 dBA	1400 rpm	34 °C	49 dBA	1400 rpm	61 °C

In the graph below, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

 

Main Specifications

The main specifications for the GlacialTech Siberia CPU cooler include:

• Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 939, and 754 processors
• Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.9 x 4.7 inches (146 x 150 x 120 mm) (W x L x H)
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Copper
• Heat-pipes: Six copper heatpipes
• Fan: one 140 mm and one 92 mm fans
• Nominal fan speed: 1,400 rpm / 1,300 rpm
• Fan air flow: 72 cfm / 19 cfm
• Maximum power consumption: 4.92 W
• Nominal noise level: 33 dBA / 18 dBA
• Weight: 1.37 lbs (620 g)
• More information: http://www.glacialtech.com
• Average price in the US: We couldn't find this product being sold in the US

Conclusions

The GlacialTech Siberia is an eye-catching CPU cooler. It has excellent performance, too. The unique design, with a 140 mm top fan and a 92 mm bottom fan, seems to work very well. Furthermore, it helps cool the parts around the CPU, like the motherboard chipset, voltage regulator transistors, and memory modules.

The great drawback we found in this cooler is its mounting system. It seems as if the engineers who designed this system never had to actually mount it. There were two simple solutions, one opening holes on the heatsink in order to pass a screwdriver through it, and another allowing the user to screw it from the solder side of the motherboard. The way it is, this cooler has the most laborious mounting system we've seen so far.

The GlacialTech Siberia is a good cooler, with excellent performance and nice looks, receiving the Hardware Secrets Bronze Award just because of its awful mounting mechanism.