A nice improvement to the original Glaciator. — Joe
SUMMARY: A good upgrade to the original Millennium.
Millennium Thermal Solutions was nice enough to send over a sample of their latest version, the Glaciator II. Millennium has taken a whack at lightening the Glaciator and improving airflow by carving out the base:
This allows cooling air to flow down onto the CPU, which does some additional cooling of both the CPU and in-socket thermistor.
The base is well finished and smooth to the touch. It is shipped with a protective plastic cover – make sure you remove it before use!
The clip is one of the best I have used – very easy to engage the socket’s lugs, no screwdriver required.
The Glaciator has 21 fins:
The fins in the bottom piece are cut from a solid copper block, so there is no solder joint. The top half is a separate assembly soldered onto the bottom. The annular rings in the top are soldered to the top cover. Note that there is a fair amount of space between the fins – airflow through the sink is important to its effectiveness.
The fan is mounted in a well – it is possible to remove it (not easily – it is glued in) and replace it with a Delta 38 if you’re so inclined, but don’t expect radical performance gains – maybe 2-3 C at best¹. You have to remove the Delta 38 from its case and fit it into the Glaciator body. Then you’ll have another noisy heatsink.
I prepared the Glaciator II by boring a hole completely through the base so I could epoxy a thermocouple above the CPU. The thermocouple is attached to an Omega HH23 Digital Thermometer. Ambient temps were measured with a thermocouple placed about 1 inch from the fan’s intake. I used Prime 95 to stress the CPU on an Iwill KK266+ and Iwill BD133/u (MBM temps are on-die). Arctic Silver grease was used in all tests. CPU Case Temp is the temp at that point where the CPU contacts the heatsink, CPU Back Temps are measured by a thermocouple on the center back of the CPU.
Fan noise was moderate – I measured it at 62 dBA 8″ from the fan intake with a Radio Shack sound meter – about the same as a 26 cfm YS Tech.
The Glaciator II was also tested on the CPU Die Simulator which gives results that are unaffected by motherboard influences.
| Heatsink |
Die Temp
|
Ambient Temp
|
Delta
|
C/W
|
| Glaciator II @ 78 watts |
46.1 C
|
20.0 C
|
26.1 C
|
0.34
|
| CPU/Motherboard |
CPU Case Temp
|
Ambient Temp
|
Delta
|
C/W
|
MBM Temp
|
CPU Back Temp
|
| T-Bird @ 1400/Iwill KK266+ |
41.5 C
|
24.1 C
|
17.4
|
0.24
|
34 C
|
42.7 C
|
| XP 1600 @ 1400, ASUS A7V266E |
39.7 C
|
22.3 C
|
17.4
|
0.26
|
NA
|
NA
|
| Celeron 1.2 @ 1600/Iwill BD133u |
31.2 C
|
21.8 C
|
9.4
|
0.22
|
41 C
|
NA
|
| PIII @ 933/Iwill BD133u |
30.3 C
|
23.0 C
|
7.3
|
0.29
|
33 C
|
NA
|
C/W = Delta / CPU Watts
Interpreting C/W: For every watt the CPU radiates, the heatsink will cool the core by the (C/W x watts) plus ambient temp. For example, at an ambient temp of 25 C, a C/W of 0.25 with a CPU radiating 50 watts means that the CPU temp will be 50 x 0.25 = 12.5 C over ambient temp, or 37.5 C. The lower the C/W, the better.
I was particularly interested in the Celeron 1200 results; if you calculate C/Ws from the on-die temps, you get 0.40 for the PIII and 0.45 for the Celeron. It looks like the thermal interface between the cap and the heatsink cost about 2 C in performance².
Finally, I did a head-to-head test with an original Glaciator on the CPU Simulator with these results:
| Heatsink |
Die Temp
|
Ambient Temp
|
Delta
|
C/W
|
| Glaciator II, 137.5 watts |
69.5 C
|
21.9 C
|
47.6
|
0.35
|
| Glaciator, 137.7 watts |
73.3 C
|
22.3 C
|
51.0
|
0.37
|
Looks like Millenium did their homework – there is a noticeable improvement over the original design; depending on the motherboard and case airflow, you may see improvements in the low single-digits.
The Glaciator II looks like a nice upgrade to the original Glaciator – lighter and improved performance. For those seeking good performance at reasonable noise levels, the Glaciator II is worth a serious look.
¹The latest batch of performance heatsinks are all banging up against a performance barrier – you can only go so far with current technology. The difference among the top performers is not more than 3-4 C.
²If you calculate the Celeron’s on-die C/W at 0.40, the delta temp would be 17 vs 19.2 observed. If you add 2 C onto the PIII results, you get a C/W of 0.46, which is about bang-on to the Celeron’s observed on-die C/W of 0.45. Loose the cap and get an additional 2 C in cooling.
Thanks again to Millennium Thermal Solutions for sending us the Glaciator II.
Related posts:
- Millennium Thermal Solutions Glaciator versus Glaciator II
- MILLENNIUM GLACIATOR VS. ALPHA PEP66T
- Glaciator 3X Prototype
- Glaciator II Low Noise Heatsinks
- Millenium Glaciator
Tags: Cooling
