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For testing today we are using an Intel Core i7 920 D0 stepping with an ASROCK X58 Extreme 6 motherboard (review forthcoming). While we tend to clean and reapply with Noctua NT H1 thermal paste, today we are using the preapplied MX4 compound which was a recent award winner on KitGuru.
We normally compare against a wide variety of coolers supporting a 970 or 980X Core i7 but this time we wanted to focus on a more mainstream, yet capable enthusiast configuration.
There is no point comparing this against a Noctua NH D14, we know the Freezer 13 will get destroyed, but it also costs over three times the price.
Test System:
Coolers
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Thermaltake Contac 29
Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme (Rev.2)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (Rev.2)
Chassis: Xigmatek UtGard (review coming soon)
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 (D0)
Motherboard: AsRock X58 Extreme 6
Memory: Crucial Ballistic Tracer 6GB (3x2GB)
Storage: GSkill 60GB SSD
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W
Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
At reference clocks and voltages, the AC Freezer 13 is delivering the same performance levels as the larger Freezer Extreme Rev 2 which is impressive.
At our maximum stable overclock of 4.1ghz, the Freezer 13 performed slightly better than the Freezer Xtreme Rev 2 – if only by a single degree. The fact it is smaller, lighter and is using a 92mm fan however makes this achievement all the more impressive.
We now want to measure the return to idle state. This is an often missed aspect of a coolers performance. For instance the Noctua NH D14 takes much less time to return a fully loaded overclocked processor to idle resting temperatures than a reference cooler.
When overclocked the Arctic Cooler Freezer 13 was able to return the CPU temperature to the idle state in around eight seconds. This was repeated many times to gain an average. The Xtreme Rev 2 was often around a full second faster to achieve the same results, although this would not really be that noticeable under real world conditions.
That push pin idea is not going to be liked by the enthusiast high end users, but for a guy moving up to his first 3rd party product it makes a lot of sense. its easy to fit and performance is really good. £15? fuck me.
What a great little product that is. I can see a lot of people picking this up for a good first move into the more serious market. Thermaltake Contact29 is a good one also.
That is an impressive cooler, cant get over the 20 euros price point. my lunch cost me more today. they seem to deliver good mainstream, but affordable products.
Great value for money, even if it has a few faults imo.
It is hard to fault this product. there are a few things I would change, such as the 92mm fan for instance, and I dont think you can mount two fans looking at the other side of the design, but for the price, what the hell.
I like this, I used the older 7 cooler for a long time and it did the job, very well too I might add.
People slag arctic cooling off for no backplates, and its the reason I buy them. I assume a lot of other people who cant be bothered with backplates also like it. im not into getting every mhz out of my processor, but I got great overclocks with the last cooler of theirs I used. this looks like a win-win.
I have been buying arctic cooling for years. I still want that accelero but can find it nowhere over here.
These are great coolers so people can bin their reference cooler without having to learn a whole bunch of mounting crap. After all, if you bought a system, didnt now much about building a PC, imagine getting home and realising you had to remove the motherboard and rebuild the computer? Its all well and fine being a kitguru – guru, but most people dont want this hassle. seriously.
Thumbs up from me. its not a high end peformance cooler, but it also doesnt cost £65 quid. you could get almost 4 of these for the price of a noctua NH D14. nevermind the coolit vantage at £100 !
I wanted to thank you for this excellent review. I bought a system from dell and it has an intel reference cooler. I have been learning a lot by reading this site, but im not confident enough yet to mount a watercooler or something high end which means I have to rebuild the pc. its working fine, but my CPU is hitting 85c when i overclock it, and I dont want that. £15 well spent I think. when is this available ?
Comparing price of this fairly low budget cooler with Noctua D14 is completely bonkers. Both products are – pretty much – at the opposing ends of the scale. Used twice AC coolers on very low budget builds, and both while delivered (when compared to stock Intel heatsinks) satisfying results were incredibly loud when at full tilt. Since then used only high end coolers and never looked back. Worth every penny/cent/[put here whatever currency you like].
36.4CFM airflow is far too little for even medium OC. Pretty much any decent 120mm fan will beat that easily delivering 50+CFM at much lower rpm/noise ratio. And almost 40dB is out of the question, unless you enjoying work in “industrial zone” environment. Honestly, if you want to do some OC and don’t want to spend fortune on cooling I understand, but look only at models with min. 120mm fan(s). There is plenty of choice there with some really good stuff for little money. I’m frankly amazed that 80/92mm fans didn’t died altogether. Simply not good enough for anything but low budget/office/home media builds.
Hakuren, it is like you selectively read parts of the reviews then focus on something you aren’t even actually reading right.
The reason the noctua price was mentioned was because the reviewer didn’t want to compare them, head to head. due to this fact. Also I think your comments about simply not good enough for low budget office builds is ludicrous. The testing showed otherwise. I suggest you start your own tech site and see how it goes. 40db is not loud at all by the way. If you want to spend 65 quid on a Noctua NH D14, thats great, but this review is not for those people. There is a NOctua NH D14 review here, and I think it was compared against H70 also later on.