Iceberg Thermal IceFLOE T65 and T95 Review: Small System Cooling

Heat

Immediately, we see that comparisons with the IceFLOE T95 and T65 lag a bit behind other low profile and small system build cooling solutions like the Scythe Choten TUF and NZXT Kraken M22, both wielding 120mm cooling fans.

Speed

The smaller fans used by the IceFLOE T95 (92mm) and T65 (80mm) spin at much higher rates than the 120mm fans used by the Choten and Kraken.  Airflow is all about volume moved per minute of time, so in order for smaller fans to do as much work as their larger counterparts, an increase of RPM is used to close the gap.

Noise

Faster fan speeds typically means an increase in noise levels as a result of the blades interrupting air surrounding the heatsink at a blistering pace. Much like a boat propeller on a placid lake, the faster they spin, the more of a wake is produced, creating waves – in this case, audible noise.

Effeciency

As a result of higher load temps and elevated noise levels, both the IceFLoe T95 and T65 struggle behind the 120mm solutions in our low-profile and compact systems coolers.

We see an interesting finish in the final chart. Both of the IceBerg Thermal solutions benefit from lower unit pricing than the Choten TUF and Kraken M22. The IceFLOE T95 is available at $26.99, while the T65 has an asking price of $31.99, making them the lowest-priced coolers in our comparison chart. 

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Thermal imaging from our FLIR ONE Pro camera shows minimal differences in both the IceFLOE T95 at 50% and 100% PWM as well as for the IceFLOE T65 at 50%/100%.  This is likely due to the overall smaller cooler size and the inability of each to effectively dissipate enough thermal load between the different fan speeds. This shows that even lower-power CPUs can easily push these smaller cooling solutions under full loads, as we noted with our load temperature graph.

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Conclusion

IceBerg Thermal has created a pair of well-crafted, small heatsink coolers in the IceFLOE T95 and T65 for the small system builder requiring an OEM boxed cooler replacement that doesn’t feature an AMD or Intel logo. The pair of small, budget coolers aren’t designed to be world-record beaters, but what they lack in size they make up for as excellent space-saving alternatives for compact mITX or mATX machines. 

System builders scrambling for every extra millimeter of room in small cases for hardware placement like taller memory heat spreaders and full-size GPUs, now have smaller alternatives for ultra-compact PCs in a world dominated by much more massive cooling options.