Iceberg Thermal IceGALE Silent PWM

Introduction

Iceberg Thermal is best known for incredibly over-performing PC gear. But what about PC hardware for "normal" people?  The IceGALE Silent PWM seems to be the best that Iceberg Thermal offers for the "normal" among us. Spinning at up to 1600RPM, these Case-fan-oriented 120mm fans may turn out to be amazing air pushers with that extra silence! Let's take a closer look!

What's in the Box?

In a very Iceberg Thermal fashion, their IceGALE Silent set of fan come inside an iconic Iceberg Thermal packaging. A simple carton box with some imagery and specs. Simple, but good-looking.

Inside we will find the following items:

• 3x Iceberg Thermal IceGALE Silent PWM Fans
• 3x Fan Screws

Down below we summarized the spec sheet:

Installation

Installing a set or single IceGale fan is nothing out of the ordinary. Position the fan where its supposed to stay, screw it down using a set of provided fan screws, and connect it to either your motherboard or an external controller using the 400mm long and braided PWM cable.

Appearance

Unlike most Iceberg Thermal products, this time they went particularly light on their design.

The IceGALE comes in an all black design with solely the rubber around the corners and the center of the fan featuring some of that iconic turquoise color scheme.

Quality-wise, the IceGale is very comparable to an Arctic P12. The fan does flex slightly, however, thanks to the fan reinforcements, it's not too much creating an overall acceptable build quality.

Benchmark

We benchmarked the IceGale Silent set on both test setups. Once focused on pure radiator performance using an 80mm thick radiator. To determine the performance of a fan, the above ambient temperature of the water exiting the radiator is measured.

The second scenario is a raw case benchmark. For this, we measure the CPU temperature of a system using a Noctua NH-P1 passive cooler. In this case, the fans are responsible for recycling the air within the case.

Case

Using the IceGale Silent as a case fan returned a solid result. At 45.7°C above ambient, the Iceberg Thermal "normal" fans ended up in the center of our benchmark list, right in between a Noctua NF-F12 and NF-P12.

Slowly lowering the fan speed showed that the Noise-To-Performance ratio all across the board was solid as well. Although the fan isn't even close to the ratio of a Noctua NF-A12x25, it is significantly better than a fan like a Chiefronic Nova or Montech AX120.

Radiator

In the Radiator benchmark, the IceGale Silent wasn't particularly shining. Keeping the water at 16.7°C above ambient, they landed on the very end of our list.

On the Noise-to-Performance graph, we saw something interesting. Even if the IceGale couldn't score any points as a "burst" performer, the little performance that did exist, was spectacularly silent. Actually, for the little that they were able to keep the temperature underneath thermal throttle, they were actually very close to the noise-to-performance ratio of a Noctua NF-A12x25.

Conclusion

Performance-wise, it is very clear that Iceberg Thermals IceGALE Silent PWM set is aimed to be used as a case fan set. The radiator performance definitely proved this.

As a raw case fan, they do perform quite solid. They aren't max-performance burst machines, but at 1600RPM, they shouldn't be. These types of fans are supposed to be spinning quite slowly, and while doing so, recycle the air within a case without creating a lot of noise.

Doing so, the IceGale Silent kept a relatively good noise-to-performance ratio. Not quite on the level of a Noctua NF-A12x25, or Arctic P12, but quite good given the price tag.

Design-wise, we are huge fans of what Iceberg Thermal came up with. The outer frame and 7-fan blade design look solid and modest in its matt-black finish. The outer rubber corners not only absorb unnecessary vibrations but also provide the PC with a little accent color.

All in all, it's a modest design with a touch of colorfulness, exactly what we appreciate. But that's up to you to decide.

As mentioned above, we would never advise you to use the IceGale Silent as a radiator fan, but neither does Iceberg Thermal. They advertise the IceGale Silent PWM as silent case fans, and as far as this use case is concerned, we can agree. Given the sub 10€/Fan price tag, we believe it's a suitable case fan to push the hot air out of your next case. It's not necessarily the best option out there, but a solid one if you're interested in its design!