Gelid Icy Vision GPU Cooler

[Trotter]

Gelid Icy Vision Rev. 2
By: Lamar Trotter

Introduction

Today I am reviewing the Icy Vision Rev.2 GPU cooler from Gelid Solutions, Ltd.

GELID Solutions
The English word "gelid" is derived from the Latin word “gelidus” (extremely cold, icy).

GELID Solutions Ltd. is a Hong Kong based company with Swiss Management and founded in 2008 by Gebhard SCHERRER and VC TRAN. Both have worked in the PC Cooling industry for a number of years and successfully built up an IT company with their expertise.

GELID designs and manufactures packaging, thermal solutions, CPU coolers, fans, and other computer hardware for both gamers and silent enthusiasts and for international OEM and ODM customers. We provide computer hardware distributors, retailers and system integrators with innovative, virtually silent, high- performance and top quality thermal solutions with unique design and packaging.

Design, quality and innovation are key. And, being Swiss, we leave nothing to chance. That's why we provide a total solution – from bearings to thermal compound, from design to shipping, from the molding of the fan to the print on the box – with state-of-the-art machines and experienced staff.

Our Vision:

Combine quality and ingenuity to set the standard in creating best- in- class products for global computer enthusiasts

As their latest venture, GELID Solutions Ltd. is a privately owned limited liability company with a registered share capital of HKD 1'000'000. Strategically based in Hong Kong, “Asia's World City”, it enjoys an unrivalled location at the geographical and economic centre of Asia. For our customers, this means easy and quick access to our vast manufacturing base in mainland China.

Source

Design Concept:

The “Rev. 2 ICY VISION” cooler contains 5 power heatpipes in a unique heatpipe constellation. The
heatpipes are interlaced into 85 optimized high-quality Aluminium fins. Together with a flat stack fin
soldered Copper base, they enable the most efficient heat transmission and dissipation from GPU
core in its class. Besides the heatsink, two 92mm UV-reactive fans with 11 blades in S-shape generate 20% additonal air flow than traditional fans. The fan contains a high-quality ball bearing to ensure a longer lifetime in high temperature environments.

Both VGA fans blow cold air directly to the card while case fans draw hot air from the PC case.

INCLUDING:

- More Heatsinks for Ram & VRM
- High Quality GC-2 Thermal Compound
- Case Fan cable to power supply or motherboard

This cooler is RoHS, WEEE compatible and has a warranty of 5 years.

Source

Features

• 5 High Performance Power Heatpipes
• Premium Aluminum Fins & Pure Copper Base
• 2 x 92mm S-Shape Fans for 20% additional Air Flow
• Ball Bearing for Long Life Time
• CrossFire & SLI Compatible

Specifications

• Air Flow (CFM / CMH): 67.14 / 114.13
• Bearing: 1 Ball & 1 Sleeve
• Cable Length (mm): 200
• Current (A): 0.5 (0.25 / fan)
• DC Voltage (V): 12
• Fan Speed (RPM): 2000 (+/- 10%)
• Fan: 2 x 9215 S-Shape UV Blue Fan
• Heatsink Dimensions (mm): 216 L x 95 W x 52 H
• Life Time MTTF at 40C (h): 50'000
• Noise Level (dBA): max. 26
• Static Pressure (mmAq): 1.3
• Warranty (years): 5
• Weight (g): 465

Image Gallery





Installation

For those who have never installed an after-market cooler on a graphics card, the installation process can be rather daunting. One must remove the entirety of the original heatsink assembly, clean the GPU and various memory chips and cooling points, mount the chipsinks using the supplied thermal tape, and then finally install the cooler itself. This is not a 30 minute endeavor to say the least.

My installation adventure was a good one, even though I messed up. Removing the cooling shroud and heatsink from my GTX260 was simple enough once I made sure to remove ALL the screws holding it. Once this was out of the way I proceeded to clean the various chips but missed one little line in the instructions that said, "Clean the surface of the RAM chips and vRAMs by eraser." This caused the thermal tape to not stick very well to the chips themselves, again totally my fault. I have already ordered some new thermal tape to correct my error.

The packaging states that the Icy Vision Rev.2 is compatible with the following graphic cards:

ATI/AMD

• HD4850
• HD4870
• HD4890
• HD5830
• HD5850
• HD5870

Nvidia

• 9800GT
• 9800GTX
• GTS250
• GTX260
• GTX275
• GTX280
• GTX285
• GTX460
• GTX470
• GTX480

In addition to being compatible with the cooler, the Gelid website also has images showing the installation steps for the following cards:

AMD

• HD6850
• HD6870

Nvidia

• GTX580

The Icy Vision is not compatible with non-reference cards that have video ports that are located in the second slot area, i.e. located elsewhere than along the PCB.

Testing

Test System

• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
• Asus M4A785TD-V EVO
• 8GB DDR3 1600 (2x2GB Corsair Ballistix Tracers, 2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws
• EVGA GTX 260 Core 216
• Antec EarthWatts EA650 PSU
• 250GB Seagate ST3250310AS
• 750GB Western Digital Black AD7501AALS-00J7B1
• Lite-On DVD burner
• Antec 300 Illusion w/120mm side fan
• Gelid Tranquillo

Testing Software and Procedure

• FurMark 1.9.
• HWMonitor 1.1.7

I used Furmark to bring my GPU to 100% load. I ran a series of four Furmark runs on the stock cooler at base configuration, four with the fan at 100%, and a final four runs with the Icy Vision installed. Each run was set for 30 minutes, with a 30 minute cool down period between each run.

I recorded the temps for the stock cooler at both base fan speed and at 100% fan speed. The Icy Vision Rev.2 runs at a single speed so it only has one reading.

Results



Not only did the Icy Vision Rev.2 perform much better than the stock cooler at 100%, it was also virtually silent while doing do - quite unlike the mini jet engine sound that the stock fan was making at that speed.

Conclusion

Pros

• Five heatpipes, plenty of fin area
• Virtually silent
• Great performance
• No need to ramp up fan speeds when gaming

Cons

• Instructions are basic and can be confusing to some
• Thermal tape pads are hard to remove from their backings
• Fans are not PWM, run at one speed only
• Installation is tedious and time consuing

After a couple of weeks of use I can say that I will not be going back to the stock cooler. I just cannot see myself giving up not only the superior cooling of the Icy Vision but also the lack of fan noise. The only noise coming from my computer is my five case fans (and that may turn into another review somewhere down the line if I get the chance). The time and effort that was required to install this cooler was well worth the end result.

Most of the images used were taken from Gelid's site due to the poor quality of the pictures that I took for the review. The cooler and hardware used for this review is identical to the images Gelid supplied.

This review has taken much longer to complete than was warranted due to many different circumstances, which I will not enumerate here; for this I apologize to Gelid Solution, Ltd.

If you are looking for an after-market GPU cooling solution that can handle the heat and do so silently, then this is you cooler. The Gelid Icy Vision Rev.2 is a fine addition to any gamer's computer. I award the Gelid Icy Vision Rev.2 with a score of four stars.

I would like to thank Gelid Solutions, Ltd., both for their patience in the forthcoming of this review and for allowing Tech-Forums to conduct this review. We are looking forward to future Gelid cooling products.

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[C0RR0SIVE]

Wonder if it may fit a 3850 with some mods :\

It appears to be a great heatsink though.

 

[Trotter]

Check the image with all the heatsinks. As long as there are enough to cover all the chips you would be covered there. The main concern would be the bolt pattern. I looked at the only cooler NewEgg lists as compatible with the 3850 (and one I had on mine) and saw that it also would fit several of the cards listed for the Icy Vision (9800GT and GTX, 4850, 4870, GTS250). The odds are in your favor. If you could measure the distance between the mounting holes on your card (mm, of course) then I can check it against Gelid's list of sizes on my instruction sheet.