14 DAY TRIAL // Most of the coolers we cover have been universally compatible in recent months, meaning that they support both Intel and AMD chips. But there are still many that only work with the chips of one or the other, like the IS-VC45 from ID-Cooling.
IS-VC45 is a Vapor Chamber CPU Cooler for Mini-ITX systems, hence why it measures only 94 x 92 x 45 mm / 3.7 x 3.6 x 1.77 inches.
Any taller and it would have been incompatible with many of the HTPC and nettop cases that exist in the whole, wide world. And yet despite the size, the cooler can handle chips with a TDP (thermal design power) of as high as 130W.
This means that you can create a really powerful computer as long as you find a PC case with enough space for a decent graphics card.
The specs of the ID-Cooling IS-VC45
The newcomer completely lacks heatpipes, since the size restrictions made it impossible to include any. That means that the base pushes heat directly into the heatsink.
It's a pretty simple-looking heatsink really, all things considered, with nothing odd about the fins, which is probably the whole point. If it works (and it has worked for decades), no need to change anything.
Especially when you have a nice 92-mm fan there to disperse the heat. It uses a fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) and can spin from 600 to 2,500 RPM (rotations per minute).
A PWM function (pulse width modulation) controls how fast the cooler works at any given time, as has come to be expected of such products.
It means that the fan will spin slowly when nothing too demanding is being done on the PC (ergo, the chip doesn't have any strain to grow hot under). When multitasking or gaming happens, however, the fan will pick up speed as needed.
Finally, the IS-VC45 cooler has metal screws and a back plate which keep it affixed to a motherboard. Only Intel LGA processors are supported, and even then from LGA 1150 onwards only, not LGA 775 or previous. The full list of supported chip types is this: LGA 1150, LGA 1155, LGA 1156 and LGA 2011.
Availability
The ID-Cooling IS-VC45 Vapor Chamber CPU Cooler for Mini-ITX systems bears a price of $45 / €39 and should be up for sale already.
