1. Introduction
Most users are satisfied with the cooler that arrived with their system. However, there are circumstances where the stock cooling system is not sufficient and users need to upgrade to something more powerfull which will provide better heat dissipation or in the case of extreme users, will give them room for overclocking. Arctic Cooling, a company with great experience on the subject, offers an attractive solution for the Intel platform, with their "Freezer 7 Pro". This cooler supports all Intel Celeron, Pentium 4, Pentium D, Core2Duo and
Core 2 Extreme Quad for processors for Socket 775.
- Features
Extremely Quiet
The low speed 92 mm fan reduces the noise level to a minimum.
The patented fan holder is able to practically eliminate the typical buzzing sound of 92 mm fans.
Powerful cooling
6 Heat Pipes (three used double sided) are able to transfer heat up to 200 Watt. The heat exchanger is constructed with 42 fins and consists of a surface area of over 4700 cm2 and allows for resistance free energy transfer to air.
Integrated Cooling of Voltage Converters
Air is drawn in from the side of the fan to cool the components around the CPU.
Some air is blown out towards the voltage converters on the mainboard through the bent fins at the bottom.
Patented Vibration Absorption
The four rubber connectors on the fan case act as a vibration damper to absorb the vibration of the running fan. This can reduce significant vibration between plastic fan case and heatsink.
Easy Installation
The cooler is easy to install, without the use of any tools, within seconds.
Long Lifetime / 6 Years Warranty
The ARCTIC Ceramic Bearing provides an unmatched Life Time of 137'000h (L10@40°C) resp. an MTBF@70°C of 163'000h and thus a 6 year warranty.
- Specifications
| Heat Sink: |
104 x 58 x 126.5 mm |
| Fan: |
107 x 43.5 x 96 mm |
| Overall Dimensions: |
107 x 96.5 x 126.5 mm |
| Rated Fan Speed: |
900 - 2500 RPM (PWM) |
| Power Consumption: |
0.16 Amp. |
| Air Flow: |
45 CFM / 77 m3/h |
| Weight: |
520 g |
| Noise Level: |
0.9 Sone |
| Thermal Resistance: |
0.17°C/Watt |
| Thermal Interface Material: |
Pre-applied MX-1 Paste |
| Warranty: |
6 Years |
2. Installation/Package
Arctic Cooling provided us with a sample unit of the Freezer 7 Pro. The cost is around €28 according to the AC website.
The box includes the Freezer 7 Pro cooler, a printed installation guide and an AC logo sticker.
Let's now examine the Freezer 7 Pro. Reading from the specs, you should have already realized that this a... big cooler. Its overall height is 12.5cm, making it almost double than of Intel's stock cooler:
The cooler has a rather unique design, patented by AC internationally. The base is made of copper and comes with ARCTIC MX-1 thermal compound attached.
The time has come to install the cooler in our system. At first, I was rather skeptical about how easy it would be to install such a big cooler. However, once you get cracking, it really is simple. Freezer 7 Pro will fit perfectly in your Socket 775 base. Just plug in and rotate the four base-plate plastic screws. The only thing that may give you some trouble is the two "front" screws, which need special attention, since the rotating fan is just above them, so you'll have to angle the screwdriver to get at them. After installation, you can see how it looks in your system:
Orientation of the rotating fan is towards the memory modules. However, its level is higher than the memory modules so it should have unobstructed airflow. Since the air flow is from left to right, the hot air rising above the memory modules will also be drawn away and exhausted out, providing better cooling for your memory!
3. Performance
We saw that the installation was indeed very easy. How about its performance? Don't forget that this cooler costs €28! Our fan was installed on the following test system:
- Asus P5N32-E SLI + Intel C2D E6600
- OCZ GameXStream GXS600 SLI-Ready
- 2x1GB OCZ DDR2-6400 SLI Ready
- WD 800JB 7200RPM
We had already measured temperature levels with the stock Intel cooler, and now we were ready to do the sam with the AC Freezer 7 Pro. For the tests, we ran 3D Mark 06, which stress tests the CPU/GPU and produces maximum heat. Note, that both coolers were running in automatic rotation mode, controlled by the Asus motherboard.
The results are rather impressive. The AC Freezer 7 Pro, provided a significant drop in temperature, with an average of 43° C (vs 50° C for the Intel stock cooler). The most impressive difference comes at full load with 10° C.
4. Conclusion
At first, I had my doubts about this "new" cooler and how effective it would be. It looks and it is big, it weights 520gr and it appears as though it would take some work to install. But was I wrong!
The AC Freezer 7 Pro showed impressive performance, compared with Intel's stock cooler. With my CPU running full bore on all cylinders, the difference was 10° C, while the average difference was 7° C.
Installation is very easy, the product looks and is solid, and comes with a 6 year warranty, and the best part is the retail price, around €28.
| Performance |
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| Value for money |
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