ID-Cooling IS 50 & IS 40 Low-Profile CPU Cooler Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

I found it quite difficult to find stock of these products from our preferred retailers, but they are steadily becoming more available in European and US markets, so it’s certainly best to check with your local retail of choice. I did find the IS-50 and the IS-40 from resellers on Amazon for $41 and $32 respectively, which is fairly good value for money overall.

Overview

Both of these coolers are actually quite good at what they do, sure they fell flat on their face when we put them on an overclocked CPU, but that’s pretty much what you would have expected given their compact size! They’re obviously designed for stock clocks on lower powered CPUs, or at least that’s what they’re best suited to. If you’re building a modest office rig, compact gaming system or a HTPC, you’re likely going to require a low-profile air cooler and the IS-40 and IS-50 are well suited to the job.

The low profile design is practical and means that chassis compatibility should be near 100%. The sides of the coolers have been designed to make way for standard ram modules without conflicts, although it’s unlikely you’ll be using a system with large ram heat sinks if you need a low-profile cooler, so you’re unlikely to run into any issues.

Both coolers are relatively easy to fit, only taking a few minutes each to attach the appropriate mounting kit to the motherboard and screw them into place. I also really like that you get a tube of thermal paste, as this allows you extra for re-installations and maintenance at a later date, without having to incur the cost of buying more thermal paste than you may actually need.

Build quality is pretty good overall, nothing fancy, but there’s certainly no issues. The fans are of a good quality and run very quiet under normal usage scenarios. I’m not keep on the brown fan of the IS-40, but as I said before, it’s unlikely you’ll ever see it in the kind of build it is intended to be used it.

Pros

Good build quality
Ram compatibility
PWM fans
Low-profile design
Easy to install
Extra thermal paste included

Cons

Difficult to find stock in the UK

Neutral

Not suitable for overclocked processors, but that’s not particularly surprising

“The IS-40 and the IS-50 are great little coolers, with a low-profile design and a super quiet fan that’s going to be a perfect partner to a lower powered system such as a HTPC, so long as you can find stock, they’re great value for money.”