Today we’re looking at the IceSLEET G4 Silent from Iceberg Thermal. This is budget air cooler ($30-$40 USD) with a focus on silent operation and low noise levels.
Iceberg Thermal is a US company based out of Tempe, Arizona. While on the books they were only founded 3 years ago, their team of experts have over 15 years experience designing cooling products. Their lineup currently includes fans, air coolers, thermal pastes, and more.
Iceberg Thermal’s expertise doesn’t stop with consumer products – they produce industrial cooling solutions for companies including BMW, Panasonic, ASUS, and many other well known brand names! I briefly spoke with IceBerg Thermal’s CEO at CES 2023, you can read more about that at our previous article: A new player enters the cooling game: chatting with Iceberg Thermal at CES 2023
In the past I have focused my testing of coolers to Intel CPUs because they were the most challenging to cool and consumed the most power. While Intel’s CPUs can still consumer higher amounts of power, it is no longer the “gold standard” for a cooling challenge – Intel’s 13th generation Raptor Lake and AMD’s 7000 series Raphael CPUs both push cooling difficulty to the point I haven’t found a cooler capable of keeping either CPU under TJMax while running Cinebench.
With today’s review, I’ll be expanding my coverage of cooling – covering not just Intel’s i9-13900K, but also AMD’s Ryzen 7700X.
Packaging
While it’s not something that would change my mind in a purchase, I the efficiency of the packaging used for Iceberg Thermal’s G4 Silent. The G4 Silent is packed in a small cardboard box. Opening the box first reveals another box – the accessories. Below it is a box which protects the heatsink and fan, which is removed by pulling on the two inserts in the middle.
The G4 Silent comes with pre-applied cooling paste, a single fan with a unique way of attaching it to the cooler which simplifies fan installation and removal, a quick start guide, and mounting brackets for modern Intel and AMD platforms.
Cooler Installation
The installation of Iceberg Thermal’s IceSLEET G4 Silent was extremely simple, and I’ve detailed the steps using an AMD AM4 or AM5 motherboard below. The installation on an Intel system isn’t much different, the main difference being the use of a separate backplate.
- Step One: Remove the default retention module
- Step Two: Install the standoffs and mounting brackets
Step Three: Secure the heatsink
- Step Four: Slide on the fan
Features of Iceberg Thermal’s IceSLEET G4 Silent
| RAM Clearance | 35 – 56mm |
| Heatpipe | Direct Touch Ø 6 mm x 4 |
| Heatsink | Aluminum Fins x 48, 0.4 mm Thickness |
| Surface Finishing | Nickel-plated Heatpipes |
| Thermal Compound | Pre-applied Iceberg Thermal FUZEIce® |
| Dimensions | 81 (L) x 139 (W) x 156 (H) mm |
| Weight | 720 g |
| Compatible Socket | Intel LGA 1700, 1200, 115X, 1366, 775 AMD AM5, AM4, AM3(+), AM2(+), FM2(+), FM1 |
| Manufacturer Warranty | 6-Year |
IceGale 120 Series fans with Slide Lock Technology
One of the first things you might notice on the G4 Silent is the lack of traditional fan clips. The IceSLEET G4 Silent has a unique method of securing the fan utilizing slide locking technology which makes removing (and installing) simpler. Slide on, Slide off.
This change not only makes it easier install, but also improves its potential RAM clearance
The fans paired with a cooler have a huge impact both total cooling potential and noise levels, included is a 120mm IceGALE series fan with a focus on silent performance.
| Model | IceGALE® 120 series |
| Size | 120 x 120 x 25 mm |
| Speed | 600 – 1200 RPM |
| Airflow | 50 CFM |
| Static Pressure | 1.1 mm H2O |
| Voltage / Current | 12 V / 0.1 A |
| Bearing | Fluid Dynamic Bearing |
| Noise Level | 20.5 dBA |
| Connector | 4-pin PWM |
| Rated Lifespan | Over 150,000 hours |
Test Platform Configurations
Intel 13th Generation Raptor Lake Platform
| CPU | Intel i9-13900K (sampled by Intel) |
| Motherboard | ASUS Z690 PLUS WIFI D5 |
| Computer Case | Cooler Master HAF 700 Berserker, system fans set to 35% (sampled by Cooler Master) |
| Storage | 1TB Micron P3 Plus, 1TB Micron P3 |
| GPU | Intel ARC A770 LE |
| RAM | 32GB (16gb x2) Crucial DDR5-4800 |
| Coolers Tested (See Tom’s Hardware for more comparison data) | (Click the links for previous reviews) BeQuiet! Pure Loop 2 FX (280mm) CoolerMaster PL360 Flux (360mm) DeepCool LT520 (240mm) Enermax AquaFusion ADV (240mm) Thermalright Frozen Notte 360 (360mm) |
AMD Ryzen 7000 Raphael Platform:
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X |
| Motherboard | ASRock B650E Taichi (sampled by ASRock) |
| Computer Case | DeepCool CK560WH (sampled by DeepCool) |
| Storage | 1TB Kingston Fury Renegade |
| GPU | Intel ARC A770 LE |
| RAM | 32GB (16gb x2) Crucial DDR5-4800 (Sampled by Micron) |
| Coolers Tested | Iceberg Thermal IceSLEET G4 Silent Fractal Celsius+ S28 |
AMD Ryzen 7700X Results
I’ve had a limited amount of time to test the Ryzen 7700X system, as such there will be limited comparative data for the Ryzen testing. I am starting the review with the Ryzen results because my Intel system has a higher noise floor – meaning that I can’t show you just how quiet this cooler performs using that system.
Default (105W) PPT
At default (stock) settings with a PPT of 105W, the 7700X can be difficult to cool (reaching TJMax) during heat intensive loads like Cinebench. As such, we’ll be looking at two primary metric in this situation: Noise levels and total CPU package power.
Looking at noise levels here, the results here are superb – the loudest this cooler runs at it 39.6 dBA (quieter than my other system while it’s idling). Most coolers on the market will run louder than this, even with less intensive workloads.
Looking at the total power consumption, the G4 Silent is able to cool about 116W of power when paired with AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X. This indicates that higher end cooling solutions will have limited returns when paired with this CPU. Fractal’s Celsius+ S28, which is one of the best liquid coolers on the market, was only able to cool 14.7% more watts than IceBerg Thermal’s entry-level IceSLEET G4 Silent in this scenario.
How well does that 14.7% higher power consumption while using stronger cooling translate into improved performance? Not very much at all. At 19298 vs 18774 points, we’re looking at 2.7% total increase in benchmark performance overall. This is a much smaller gap than I would have expected from Intel’s i9-13900K, where I’ve seen a 6% drop in benchmark performance using basic air cooling.
95W PPT
Imposing even a minor power consumption limit on AMD’s Ryzen 7700X reduces cooling difficulty dramatically, resulting in lower temperatures – so in this scenario we’ll test both CPU temperature and noise levels.
Looking at actual CPU temperatures, the G4 Silent is performing exactly in between the PWM and Silent modes of Fractal’s S28 AIO. Noise levels don’t change from the default PPT in this scenario due to the fan curve, (by default) ASRock’s Taichi does not drop a cooler’s PWM speeds until the CPU drops below 80c
75W PPT
The last test for Ryzen is set with a 75W PPT, which is extremely easy to cool no matter the cooler you have it paired with. While I’ll show traditional delta over ambient results, noise levels are more important at this power level.
Looking at the thermal results, there’s nothing out of the ordinary here. IceBerg Thermal’s G4 Silent and the Fractal S28 (while running in its silent mode) keep the CPU at similar temperatures.
The loudness results are virtually silent here, running at 37.3 dBA for total system noise output. This is almost at the measurement floor of my noise meter, which is unable to record below 36dBA.
Intel i9-13900K Testing Results
No Power Limits
Moving over to Intel’s i9-13900K, let’s look at the maximum wattage results – these results only have a limited amount of information, but I’ve published more comparative information on Tom’s Hardware, which is shown below.
The potential cooling capacity of the IceSLEET G4 Silent is decent, at 234.1W it’s better than many entry level coolers and just behind Thermalright’s Assassin 120 and DeepCool’s AG400. Those who pay attention to the graphs may notice that the IceSLEET G4’s results are actually better than my results with Iceberg Thermal’s IceSLEET G6 Stealth.
This boggles my mind – but I tested both coolers multiple times to eliminate the possibility of user error. My best guess is that the G4 is better optimized for newer platforms.
Now, let’s take a look at acoustic results
Looking at the combined results above, you can see that IceBerg Thermal’s IceSLEET G4 Silent is true to its namesake – it is the quietest of 19 coolers that I have tested with Intel’s i9-13900K.
200W & 125W Results
Looking at thermal results alone you’d be inclined to think that this cooler is worse than the competition – but that’s the wrong way of looking at it because the IceSLEET G4 Silent runs quieter than any competing cooler I’ve tested.
You’re probably wondering – Alright, then where’s the acoustic results? Well, I had a problem. When running 200W & 125W loads on the i9-13900K, the noise output from IceBerg Thermal’s IceSLEET G4 Silent drops below that made by the system fans in the HAF 700 Berserker case I’m using (even when limited to 35% speed).
Just know that it’s quieter than all of the competition in these scenarios. Look at the Ryzen 7000 acoustic results posted above to get an idea of it’s noise levels in these less demanding scenarios.
Conclusion
IceBerg Thermal’s IceSLEET G4 Silent truly is a great cooler which lives up to it’s name. It’s total cooling capacity is similar to other, louder, air coolers of it’s class – but it does so while running whisper quiet. In fact, it’s the quietest cooler that I have tested thus far.
Those two factors alone would cause me to recommend this cooler. It’s budget price tag (it can be found for $30-$40 USD) seals the deal. The IceSleet G4 Silent recieves my Gold Award for it’s whisper silent performance, decent cooling capacity, and budget price tag.
