Hardware Bistro

Product: UFO V51
Manufacturer: GlacialTech
Supplied by: GlacialTech
Price: 59USD/RM215
Launch Date: 11 Nov 2008

 

Most of PC enthusiasts may not familiar with GlacialTech's heatsink cooler as most of their cooler are mainly designed for OEM. In Nov 2008 we have received the press release about UFO V51 which is GlacialTech first ever gaming heatsink cooler and today we finally received the sample and will conduct a review on it. Stay with us to examine this stylish gaming cooler further.

 

Company Profile

GlacialTech Inc. was established in June 2001 by a team of 8 world-class researchers (PHDs) and three factory owners. Its technological areas of expertise include specialized thermal theory, soldering and mounting technologies, mechanism design, test and verification environment build-up and advanced conduct material development.

As a total thermal solution provider, GlacialTech is committed to using lighter weight materials, lower noise and lower manufacturing cost to deliver superior cooling solutions. All this has brought about the increased value for our customers with lighter system board loading, quiet working environment and optimal price performance. Price performance, noise performance and weight performance are our three cooling design philosophy. Having acquired ISO 9001 and 14001, GlacialTech commits itself to using green materials for its products designs and to perfecting green manufacturing processes in manufacturing its products.

 

Features
- Dual silent / PWM fans 　
- Battleship design concept
- High quality polish bottom 　
- Glacialtech logo in Silver
- Multi-solution for Intel and AMD 　
- High quality/performance heat pipes
- Pure copper base
- Memory, VRM and chipsets cooling

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

We were shocked when we received GlacialTech UFO V51 as it is packed with a huge box; we thought GlacialTech sent us a PSU rather than UFO V51. The box dimension is around 9.5" x 10" x 6" (W x H x D) which is the biggest CPU cooler box that we have ever seen. On the front packaging, user can feel and touch the top portion of GlacialTech UFO V51 with its 3D packaging design.

 

The whole packaging box of GlacialTech UFO V51 is loaded with features, specifications and diagrams all over the place. Let us highlight some of its features here; high quality heat pipes, dual silent/PWM fans, high quality polish bottom, support multiple sockets including Intel i7 and etc. GlacialTech UFO V51 has two models; Silent and PWM (higher end); our sample is the Silent model.

 

Besides the big packaging box, GlacialTech UFO V51 is protected by an inner molded transparent holder. All the accessories and user's manual are stored inside a small white box which is located at one side of the transparent holder. Due to GlacialTech UFO V51 unique design, white foam is slotted in between the heatsink base and cooler unit to allow them to gain more support between each others.

 

GlacialTech UFO V51 comes with user's manual, a container of thermal compound and five packs of mounting accessories; 1 x AMD Socket AM2/F, 1 x Intel Socket 1366, 1 x AMD Socket 754/939/940, 1 x Intel Socket 755 and 1 x miscellaneous components. Such segregation will give user a clear direction during installation.

 

The user's manual of GlacialTech UFO V51 is a plain black and white user's manual with Multilanguage (2 x A4 size). However we still prefer a better and bigger diagrams color user's manual so that it will be easily for user to understand it without much guessing. A container and an applicator are included for GlacialTech UFO V51 which are something quite unique than other coolers.

 

GlacialTech UFO V51

Most of the CPU heatsink coolers can be categorized into three types; standard heatsink with vertical blowing (Intel stock cooler), tower heatsink with horizontal blowing and the last type will be Mid/Tower heatsink with vertical blowing. GlacialTech UFO V51 is the last type heatsink which is not only able to cool down CPU but also other motherboard components like MOSFET, memory, chipset and etc.

 

GlacialTech UFO V51 can be considered as giant heatsink cooler with overall dimension; 157 x 130 x 138 mm (L x D x H) which almost same with a tower cooler (second type that we have mentioned previously). Besides that its weight is around 780grams which is not light but the weight already included two 92mm fans so it should be alright if user has installed the cooler correctly.

 

The overall design of the GlacialTech UFO V51 does look like UFO right? Basically GlacialTech UFO V51 is made by two colors; black and yellow plus some chromed area which looks fantastic. Both sides of the GlacialTech UFO V51 have air vents where it allows the air flow pass through to cool down motherboard components. There are many aluminum fins which are squeezed tightly inside the cooler's air guide.

 

GlacialTech UFO V51 comes with dual 92mm fans to maximize its cooling performance; top fan is blowing while bottom fan is sucking the air flow. For the silent version of GlacialTech UFO V51, the fan speed, air flow and noise are 1600RPM, 30CFM, and 19dBA per fan (800-2500RPM, 16CFM and 32dBA per fan for PWM version).

Both of the fan cables of GlacialTech UFO V51 are merged into single connector so user doesn't need to connect two connectors in case user has limited 3-pin connector for their motherboard. Integrated fan has its own advantages (no additional cost & installation) and disadvantages (not upgradable or hard to look for replacement) so it just depends on user requirement.

 

Essentially GlacialTech UFO V51 consists of two major components; aluminum fins with fans and aluminum base. Both of these components are connected with four sturdy aluminum heat pipes or else the whole cooler can be broken or bent. These four aluminum heat pipes are used to transfer the heat from the processor to the aluminum to be cooled down more effectively.

 

Here is the aluminum base of GlacialTech UFO V51 and there are plenty of fins to enhance the cooling performance although most of the heat will be transferred to the top aluminum fins. The center of the aluminum base has a cross spacing which is used to place the center clip to fasten the GlacialTech UFO V51 with the motherboard mounting bracket.

 

The finishing of GlacialTech UFO V51 is fabulous as it has very smooth and fine surface; reflecting as a mirror. The heat pipes are not having direct contact with the processor which is one of the latest wasy to enhance the conductivity between processor and the heatsink. Hopefully GlacialTech will include such method for their next upcoming model.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Before start with the installation, the right mounting bracket and accessories are needed to be selected first. We have chosen an Intel socket 775 where the mounting accessories are center clip, LGA 775 clip x 2, clip screws x 2, bracket screws x 4, nuts x 4 and a screw tool. 

 

First of all, the LGA 775 clips are required to be installed on the motherboard with four bracket screws and nuts. Such type of bracket installation is not so user friendly because remove motherboard is necessary which hardly can be avoided especially for those giant heatsink but what we hope GlacialTech to improve is the nut installation; a backplate will be much better.

 

Next the whole GlacialTech UFO V51 heatsink cooler needs to be installed on the mounting bracket with a center clip and two clip screws. Due to giant size of this cooler and limited space, it is advisable to install the GlacialTech UFO V51 on the motherboard outside the casing as it is requires to install the clip screws with the screw tool in horizontal way. Here is another step that is a bit hard for user especially for those are having big northbridge cooler, casing space constraint and etc.

 

The whole installation process for GlacialTech UFO V51 should take around 25-35 minute for an average user. Here is the GlacialTech UFO V51 that is installed on our test setup. Overall we didn't encounter any major problem but it blocks with our casing's rear fan so we have to manually remove out the rear fan. However this can be solved by adjusting GlacialTech UFO V51 orientation; 90° or - 90°. With such flexibility, it should able to reduce the compatibility issue as less as possible.

 

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3
Heatsink: NorthQ Siberian Tiger Water Cooler
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: OEM Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
PSU: In Win Commander 1200W
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW HLDS
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2
Benchmark Software: Prime 95
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the performance comparisons between GlacialTech UFO V51 and other air coolers as well as water cooler. GlacialTech UFO V51 doesn't outperform those tower heatsink cooler as most of them are having more fins and U-type heat pipes to enhance the cooling performance. However GlacialTech UFO V51 does beat the Gelid Silent Spirit which are having same concept with GlacialTech UFO V51 but with extra 1 more heat pipe and fan. Noise of GlacialTech UFO V51 is pretty low where we didn't hear any abnormal loud noise after the casing side panel is closed. Furthermore our GlacialTech UFO V51 is a silent version which supposes to operate without generating any annoying noise; at least lower noise than CCF, Tower 120, 3360A and etc.

 

Conclusion

Overall GlacialTech UFO V51 is not a bad choice when selecting a good performance cooler in term of every aspect besides cooling performance. Other features of GlacialTech UFO V51 like integrated dual 92mm silent or PWM fans, stylish design which suitable for case modding or transparent case, Intel i7 supportable and one more great feature is that this cooler is able to cool down other motherboard components as well. If you don't have much concern on the installation method and its cost; 59USD then you may take a look on this cooler if it is available at your area. Of course we strongly believe that GlacialTech will continue improve and produce other great coolers since GlacialTech UFO V51 is just the first gaming cooler that they ever have.

 

Pros:

* Nice looking & stylish design
* Dual 92mm silent/PWM fans
* Able to cool down other motherboard components
* Four heat pipes
* Great finishing bottom base
* Intel i7 is supported & other sockets as well

Cons:

* Fan is not upgradable
* Method of installation can be further improved

Thanks to GlacialTech for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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