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The i30 arrives in an attractively designed box, with the name of the product along with a high resolution image on the front. Arctic include some internal test results on the side of the box, but we take all of these with a pinch of salt.
Inside, we have an installation kit for Intel 1155, 1156 and the latest Socket 2011. Arctic also include some high grade thermal paste.
The cooler is protected inside the main box and is an attractively designed product with removable plastic shroud, containing a white ‘Arctic Cooling' 120mm fan. It measures 139mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 161mm (H) and weighs 905g. It is a substantial, heavy design.
The reverse side of the cooler has no fan or shroud, Arctic Cooling only supply a single fan.
The i30 is constructed from 48 aluminum fins, which are 0.5mm thick. At the bottom of the cooler are four thick 8mm direct touch double sided heatpipes to make direct contact with the processor.
The shroud can be removed easily enough, by pulling on the sides, which clip into the fins on either side of the cooler. The fan isn't locked into the shroud either like some of the ThermalTake designs, so it can be replaced with another model if desired. Arctic are using 8 rubber shock absorbers to help reduce noise emissions which can be caused by high rotating fans.
The supplied fan is 120mm and is PWM controlled, ending in a four pin header. It spins between 300 and 1,350 rpm and is rated at 0.3 sone. We will test this later in the review.
The Arctic i30 isn't a mirror design, with the ‘flat' side fitting the plastic shroud. This means the shroud can only fit on one side of the heatsink itself, rather than both, which might be a slight negative for some system builds.
We have certainly no issues or concerns regarding the engineering quality of the i30. The heatpipes are perfectly smooth at the contact points, and all of the fins are well constructed. The i30 ships with a protective plastic cover on the head, which needs removed before installation.
The 4x 8mm thick heatpipes are connected directly to a mounting bracket which doesn't need installed by the user. Arctic's choice of making the i30 solely for modern Intel platforms means that they have been able to take away a few of the installation steps from the user. The A30 cooler, also available, is specifically designed for AMD motherboards.
32 quid is a good deal, most of those are 45 quid in UK, at this performance level. shame about the single fan, I think adding another would help it a lot.
I like the fact you can easily replace the fan but aren’t pissing around with those friggin metal clips anymore.
No thanks! Not buying anything from a company making money by sueing AMD!