Arctic Freezer i30 Review

Today we are looking at the latest cooler from Arctic - the Freezer i30, which features an interchangeable 120mm PWM fan, 4 double sided direct touch heatpipes with cooling support up to 320 Watts. The i30 is released to exclusively support Intel motherboards. The i30 will be priced around $50 in America and £32 in the UK, so it is aiming at the performance enthusiast user who wants to overclock their system while keeping the costs down a little. How does it fare against the market leaders? Today we aim to find out! Main features: Unmatched cooling performance - 320 Watts Ultra quiet interchangeable 120 mm PWM fan installed in a fan holder 4 double-sided direct-touch heatpipes for efficient heat dissipation Flexible 4 directions installation to fulfill different air flow preferences Transport-proof due to sturdy mounting mechanism with metal clips and back-plate Rubber shock absorbers minimize vibration and noise level MX-4 thermal compound included (syringe, 0.5 g) 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. 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. We wanted to detail the install on the popular Z68 platform earlier in the review, however to get test results, we moved the cooler over to an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard - this means we can use a hotter running Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition processor to push the cooler to the limit. While we could use an open test bench, we like to try and mirror more ‘realistic’ conditions so today we will use one of my favourite chassis, the Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminum (in stunning red). Rest assured if you use a 2500k or 2600k system then your temperature results will be better than those we achieve today as those 'mainstream enthusiast' processors run cooler than the 3960X EE. Intel System: Processor: Intel i7 3960X EE Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Cooler: Arctic Freezer i30 Memory: 16GB G.Skill 2400mhz memory Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX580 Comparison coolers: Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 Corsair H100 Corsair H50 Corsair H70 Coolit ECO A.L.C. Coolit Vantage A.L.C. Noctua NH D14 Noctua recently supplied us with a fitting kit for Socket 2011. Corsair brackets also have been made available for socket 2011. We used an Intel mounting bracket for the Antec coolers, which we received on X79 launch day. For the Coolit models, we built the system flat, and someone was at hand to apply additional pressure on a custom mount we put together for the review. We use a diode attached to the CPU, as software monitoring is often inaccurate by a couple of degrees Celcius (or more). Room ambient was maintained at 22c throughout testing. We loop Cinebench 11.5 for 30 minutes to mirror real world working conditions under 100% load. Firstly we tested at reference clocks and voltages. The cooler has no problems maintaining good temperatures at reference clock speeds, hovering around 62c under load. Next we overclocked the 3960X EE to 4.6ghz with a voltage increase to 1.435v. When overclocked, the temperatures increase from 62.3c to around 78c under load, which is still perfectly usable 24/7 long term. The Corsair H70 certainly gives better results than the Arctic i30, however it is worth bearing in mind that it is almost twice the price. We have changed our method of measuring noise levels. Ambient noise in the room is around 28 dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation. Our system was left in an overclocked state, running at 4.6ghz. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum The single fan which Arctic cooling supply is relatively quiet, especially under normal circumstances, hovering between 28 dBa and 32 dBa. When pushed hard during overclocked situations, it spins up to full speed, which generates around 35 dBa. Clearly audible, but not too intrusive. We appreciate that this fan can be replaced with a better or more expensive model, thanks to the detachable shroud, which is a very clever idea. The Arctic Freezer i30 is a well designed product which has been created from the ground up to deliver excellent cooling proficiency in an overclocked environment. We didn't take it easy on the cooler today either, pairing it up with the hot running Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition flagship processor, running on an Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. At reference clocks, the cooler coped admirably with the 3960X, and when pushed to 4.6ghz with increased voltage, it maintained temperatures around 78c under load. This is very impressive, especially when considering it was closely matched to the excellent Corsair H70 liquid cooler, at around half the asking price. When Arctic get this product into the channel, they aim to sell it for £32 inc vat in the UK, and around $50 in the US. At these prices we have no hesitation recommending the product to our readers, especially when considering the excellent build quality. The installation procedure on both Socket 1155/1156 and Socket 2011 is very similar and didn't cause us any noticeable problems. The only slightly fiddly part would be getting the adhesive tape attached to the plastic spacers. Arctic have included this during the install phase to ensure that the plastic spacers don't move slightly as you bolt the mounting clips into the holes, but they could only be used once before losing their stickiness. Socket 2011 is actually a slightly easier install as we don't need the backplate, or the adhesive tape, opting for metal spacers during the install phase instead. Arctic are world renowned for releasing some high value for money cooling solutions, and the i30 is a success in this regard. The engineering quality is without reproach and as good as we have seen in this price bracket. For £32 it should certainly be one of your first choices for a new system build. Pros: 120mm fan is a good default option fan can be replaced without a problem. good performance in overclocked situations. engineering quality is great. cost effective solution on a budget. Cons: Only a single fan can be used unless you get creative. fan can get a little noisy when pushed hard. we don't like the plastic spacers with adhesive tape section of the install. Kitguru says: Another winner for Arctic.