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The push-pin mounting mechanism that Arctic Cooling have used makes the installation process very simple indeed. But we do feel that a cooler of this size should probably have a more substantial mechanism which includes a backplate to prevent too much strain on the motherboard.
The first step requires us to remove the fan from between the towers by squeezing the clips on either side. Next we fixed the mounting bracket to the motherboard using the four push-pins. The push-pins are supplied separately from the mounting bracket so they can be used for socket 775, 1156 or 1366.
Then it is a simple matter of screwing the tower down to the mounting bracket using the two provided screws on each side. The final step of the process is to reinstall the fan and plug it into the motherboard header. Overall the installation process takes no more than a few minutes.
As the cooler doesn't require a backplate, it is perfect for use with cases which don't have cutouts in the motherboard. It also saves us from removing the right side panel during installation, saving precious time. Despite having two towers and a fan sandwiched inbetween, we experienced no compatibility issues with tall ram heat spreaders like we did with the Freezer 7 Pro.
These coolers are such good value, how would it compare to the 38 quid Thermaltake Frio you reckon? any ideas?
very good pricing as always from arctic cooling. I still cant over that extreme solution KitGuru tested for the 5870 last week. serious performance.
I would say this might be quite close in performance to the frio, slightly weaker, but close enough to warrant the 10-12 price difference 🙂
wonder why they didn’t go for the direct touch heatpipe design.
I have always bought arctic cooling products, they are so competitive priced and last a long time. this is great.
I like this design, their quality is very high for the price points they achieve. very good value product this. 28 quid now is cheap for a high end cooler.
the only problem I have with arctic cooling is their cheap packaging. our postmen here wreck everything. they need to get stronger boxes.
Hmmmmm
Push pins for a cooler branded “Xtreme”
*FAIL*
Point is well made Fisshy, only thing I will say is that many people actually like this as they dont have to mess around with backplates. its always been an arctic cooling design decision.
I have to agree with Fisshy. for an extreme cooler you just cant get the same mounting pressure as a dedicated backplate design.
What is the sound “quality” for this cooler?
I know that their fans are very quiet but not that good @ air flow not to mention static pressure…
The fan isn’t as quiet as a noctua and doesn’t seem to shift a lot of air. But it isn’t intrusive, especially if you use PWM.
Hmmm…
and I thought that arctic cooling fans were quieter than the noctua…
Its an interesting point Jordan. I know a lot of people find Noctua fans irritating – MKK for instance on the forums pointed out that the specific tone that noctua fans produce, annoy him. I find noctua fans very quiet myself but perhaps everyone has a different view on this. We will look at getting Henry a noise meter shortly for more analysis on these reviews. The arctic cooling freezer (not the extreme) I have here is reasonably quiet, their fans are normally quite good.
Indeed, fans noise is very subjective
I have only one noctua on my system – NF-P12. though very good fan I find its sound just OK… not pleasant but not too irritating too. I use it as front intake on my case.
I have 2 akasa apache and I find those bit better – air flow wise and noise wise. they are strapped on my IFX-14 (since they are PWM).
I also have scythe slip stream (exhaust) and 2 scythe s-flex (top exhaust) so all in all, system is cooling nice and it is not that noisy (for 8 fans in total – didn’t mentioned bottom intake slip stream and side panel scythe kaze mary).
I had my own fan research some time ago and those fans were the result out of it… 😀
Conning the advertisers with the impression of more hits than you really get?
You force me to look at 5 small pages rather than let me see one page.