Arctic Freezer 50 TR CPU cooler review

1. Introduction2. Unboxing and First Look3. Installation Process4. Testing Methodology5. Performance and Comparisons: AIDA646. Performance and Comparisons: Blender7. Performance and Comparisons: Cinebench + Noise8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

Initial impressions of the Arctic Freezer 50 TR are very good – the company has implemented a completely new design in the Freezer 50 TR compared to its previous CPU air cooling products. This new design approach is aesthetically pleasing with its neutral black and silver colour scheme, so it should fit in well with most Threadripper system builds.

Arctic has chosen to add some RGB lighting in the Freezer 50 TR – something which it has avoided in its previous CPU air coolers. For a first attempt, we think the RGB lighting has been implemented well. We quite like Its rather subtle approach to RGB lighting, with just the top shroud of the cooler lit up in RGB, it feels like just the right amount in this situation.

Another design feature of the Arctic Freezer 50 TR is the continuous plastic shroud which covers a large portion of the heatsink. Again, this adds to the aesthetics and provides a seamless appearance with the integrated fans.

However, these two new features Arctic has provided also contributes to the Freezer 50 TR’s downfall. The way Arctic have implemented the RBG lighting into the plastic shrouds means the cooler offers poor RAM clearance. Providing only 37.5mm space for the memory DIMMs these days just isn’t enough, especially for HEDT systems such as socket TR4 where DIMM slots on both sides of the CPU are likely to be populated.

The reason for this poor RAM clearance is due to the design of both the RGB lighting and the fans that are integrated into the shrouds. If Arctic had chosen a simpler design where the fans were independent, it would have provided the option to raise or lower the fans to suit the clearance needed for the installed RAM. If RGB lighting is 100% necessary, then this could have been implemented in the fans alone.

Due to the fact the shrouds, which contain the RGB lighting and the integrated fans, were designed to provide a seamless appearance, it is impossible to either remove the front fan completely or reposition it to gain extra space for RAM clearance, without it being detrimental to the overall aesthetics.

Not only that, the rear plastic shroud, which doesn’t contain a fan and its only purpose is for aesthetics, does not provide enough RAM clearance either. So it is impossible with RAM taller than 37.5mm installed to fit either the front fan/shroud and rear plastic shroud in place correctly.

In spite of these flawed design choices, the Arctic Freezer 50 TR is actually very good at the job it was designed for, which is cooling the HEDT Threadripper CPU. In all of our thermal testing, the Freezer 50 TR performed admirably. In fact, as far as thermal performance is concerned it is the best cooler we have tested so far on socket TR4.

Therefore, even though Arctic made some rather odd design choices, we would recommend anyone with low profile RAM to buy the Arctic Freezer 50 TR. Not only does it perform excellent, it is very cost-effective too, compared to other high-end air coolers specifically for socket TR4 AMD Ryzen Threadripper.

The Arctic Freezer 50 TR is available to purchase for £59.99 from Amazon UK

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Pros:

• Excellent thermal performance.
• Neutral aesthetics.
• RGB lighting.

Cons:

• Poor RAM clearance.
• Slightly louder than other high-end air coolers.

KitGuru says: The Arctic Freezer 50 TR performed very well during our thermal testing. However, the performance was seriously let down by the fact the cooler would not clear the G.SKILL Trident Z RGB RAM which isn't that tall by any means. Make sure to check RAM compatibility if you are considering purchasing the Arctic Freezer 50 TR.

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