One
of the most critical components which require
cooling in a gamers’ PC is the VGA card(s).
While most stock cooling solutions are quite efficient
for the card itself, they tend to overlook things
like efficiency and noise. Most of them will simply
release the heat of the card inside the PC case,
which can be a problem if even one, let alone
two powerful VGA cards are installed. Couple this
with two whirring fans and you can understand
why there are many aftermarket VGA coolers available.
Today we will take a look at an offering from
Vantec, the Iceberq 6.
Manufacturer
specifications:
• Model: CCB-A6C
• Dimension: 203.5 x 90.2 x 33.4 mm
• Heatsink Material: Full Copper
• Fan Dimension: 45 x 15 mm
• Bearing Type: Ball Bearing
• Fan Speed: 2700 RPM
• Rated Current: 0.13 A
• Rated Voltage: DC 12V
• Power Consumption: 1.56 W
• Noise: 20.9dBA
• Weight: 456 g
Features:
• Compatible with virtually all VGA cards
• Long life Silent Ball Bearing fans
• Excellent heat dissipating copper heat
sink
• Special designed wind tunnel for efficient
airflow
• Easy installation
Packaging
and Bundle
The
Iceberq 6 comes in a sealed, transparent plastic
package. The design of the package is minimalistic,
with the specifications of the cooler being mentioned
at the rear. There is not much to discuss about
the package, however a good bundle is present
inside it. Along with the Iceberq 6 you will receive
all of the necessary mounting material, a Molex
power adapter, a tube of thermal grease and a
small but well written user’s guide. There
are also eight large aluminum memory heatsinks.
Bonus points to Vantec for including eight heatsinks
instead of four since the majority of the video
cards have eight or more RAM chips nowadays.
The
cooler
The
design of the Vantec Iceberq 6 is similar to many
other high end coolers. A large copper body which
is engulfed by a blue transparent wind tunnel
makes contact with the core and absorbs the heat.
Then, the fan creates forced airflow through the
wind tunnel and transfers the heat from the copper
body to the rear of the case. This design is very
efficient for VGA coolers, both for the card itself
but also for the thermal efficiency of the whole
system, since a lot of heat is transferred directly
outside the case. The only thing that we found
disappointing was the fan on the Iceberq 6. It
is not silent and the 45mm fan seems to be a rather
small option for a high quality cooler. The proof
is obviously in the testing which we will look
at shortly.
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Vantec claims that the
Iceberq 6 can be mounted on every VGA card available
today. In order to make this true, the copper
base of the cooler expands over 1cm away from
the main body, giving the cooler more than enough
clearance between it and the card components.
Also, the PCI bracket of the cooler allows the
wind tunnel to be adjusted in terms of length
and vertical position. Since every VGA card has
its core placed elsewhere on the PCB, this makes
sure that the Iceberq 6 won’t ever be too
long or short, neither too high or too low. The
only side effect of this design is that the size
of the cooler will render the adjacent motherboard
slot below the VGA card unusable. The base of
the Vantec Iceberq 6 was surprisingly smooth for
a cooler of this class, so there should be good
contact with any GPU core.
Installation
The
installation of the Vantec Iceberq 6 is very easy.
Matter of fact, it probably is a lot harder to
remove the stock cooler of your VGA card. First,
you have to place the stand-offs in the correct
holes for your specific VGA card. The instructions
found inside the package name the correct holes
for all current VGA cards. Then, you merely have
to place the cooler on the card and use the included
screws to secure it in place. Just make sure that
the core makes good contact with the cooler and
that there is not too much thermal grease between
the core and the cooler. Finally, place the PCI
bracket on the cooler and adjust it to be in line
with the PCI bracket of the card itself. Now you
are ready to re-install the VGA card inside your
PC case.
