IceQ *VS* IceQ X [HIS Cooler]

kyleamos12

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Dec 4, 2011
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Which is a better cooler and why. My case airflow is maxed out, I have around 300CFM intake and 400CFM Exhaust with my fans.

It is between these two card. I just need the over all better cooler I don't care if it Direct Exhaust out or not, and they are both the same price so it doesn't matter.

IceQ

IceQ X
 

striker410

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Hmm, hard to say. First impressions say the IceQ is obviously meant to exhause out the back and intake from the front while the X also pulls air from the side. This is personal opinion but I think the IceQ (non X) would do a better job at cooling the card for 2 reasons.
-Larger overall heatsink size
-Copper heatpipes vs aluminum

This is purely speculation. I'll do some more research and get back to you.
 

tekiotaku

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Jul 27, 2011
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I have a different opinion, though. If you have a side fan on your case to suck air into the casing, then I think the ICEQ is better than the ICEQ-X.

The main difference between those two cards is the direction of the exhaust air from the cooler fan. ICEQ employs centrifugal fan (usually has lower air flow than axial fan); it sucks air from the center of the fan, then the fan pushes the air radially, and the hot air that passes through the heat sink's fin exits outside of the casing. So the air blown by the side case fan will not interfere with the airflow from the GPU cooler.

The ICEQ-X employs axial fan (which typically has larger airflow than centrifugal fan, so its rpm is usually lower and quieter than the centrifugal fan --> to yields the same airflow). The exhaust of this type of cooler is inside of the casing, to the side of the graphics card, so the air blown by the side case fan will interfere the airflow from the GPU cooler.

I have a Sapphire HD 5770 1GB that employs axial fan. I did a little experiment by playing Street Fighter 4 while the side case fan is turned on and off, then I monitored the GPU temperature. The result is that, the highest GPU temperature is 2 degree Celsius lower when the side case fan is off. I played the same scene on the games for both cases.

Conclusion:
Centrifugal fan cooler GPU's airflow (usually is the reference card cooler) has no interference with the side case fan airflow, so it can use its cooler potential to the max. BUT, it is louder, and sometimes has lower airflow (lower cfm), and resulting in higher GPU temperature.

Axial fan cooler GPU's airflow (usually is the card with aftermarket cooler) has interference with the side case fan airflow. The cooler potential cannot be used at max. It is quieter than reference card cooler, but its GPU temperature is affected by the airflow of the side case fan.