Arctic Freezer i30 Review

1. Introduction2. Arctic Freezer i303. Arctic Freezer i30 (Installation)4. Arctic Freezer i30 (Super High Res Gallery)5. Testing Methodology and Performance Results6. Acoustics Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Arctic Cooling supply a little sheet of paper which details the installation instructions for both Socket 2011, 1155 and 1156 platforms. For the purposes of the installation page today, we are using a Sapphire Z68 motherboard.

The backplate has a surface in the middle which needs removed before installing. This means the backplate will stick to the motherboard. This backplate is not needed for socket 2011 installation.

The backplate then adheres to the motherboard and can be pushed through the holes to the front.

Socket 1156 and 1155 use the plastic spacers as shown above. Arctic supply a little pad with four adhesive tape sections which stick to the plastic spacer. This means when they are pressed against the motherboard, they won't drop out of position. Sadly they can only be used once and won't work on subsequent rebuilds. Socket 2011 uses the metal spacers, also supplied in the box.

Two metal mounting clips are screwed into the plastic spacers as shown above (pointing in). Screws are inserted through the inner holes on each clip arm for Socket 1155, and the outer holes for Socket 1156.

The image above highlights that the processor must be installed in the motherboard before this stage, otherwise you will need to remove the clips again. After removing the plastic protective cover on the heatsink, the supplied thermal paste should then be applied carefully, directly to the four direct contact heatpipes.

With the plastic shroud removed the cooler simply screws into both mounting clips from above.

When the heatsink is held firmly in place, then the fan and shroud can be replaced. The 4 pin fan header should then be attached to the motherboard.

While we focused on a Socket 1155 installation today, Socket 2011 is the same procedure, without the need for a motherboard backplate (or adhesive tape) in the first step.

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