Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - Micro Review

I bought this cooler a couple weeks ago when it was only $21 at the egg. I bought it based on reviews that extol its virtues as a high performance CPU cooler at a bargain basement price. I finally got around to installing it last week and now have let it go through a few on/off cycles to seat the TIM.

This is the third cooler I have had on this processor. First I was using the stock intel cooler. Under orthos load conditions, with the stock cooler, OC'd to 3GHz I was getting around 70C. Thats pretty hot for my tastes, but well under the recommended max of 85C and way under the thermal cut-off of 100C.

Not being comfortable with 70C I went to PC Club and purchased their cheapest heat-pipe based cooler (which seems to be all the rage these days). It cost me $30 and was this Thermaltake. It was better than stock, but only slightly. My temps OC'd and full Orthos seemed to max out at around 65-67C. Fat lot of good that cooler did for me. I chalked that up ot a waste of money.

So thats how my computer has been running for the last 5 months. A few weeks ago, I saw this cooler on a hot deal website, and decided I would go for it. I've read great things about it from review sites that I trust not to be swayed by shiny flashy objects or by the paycheck of certain manufacturers. I got it in the mail a couple weeks ago, but have been too lazy to install it up until late last week.

Installation was a snap, since its aluminum design makes it light enough to use the retail mounting hardware. The base of the cooler comes with a very thin coating of TIM already applied evenly over the surface contact area. So no need to whip out the AS5. Some argue that AS (Arctic Silver) 5 vastly improves thermal transfer, and in my past experience, it has improved it, but not vastly. There are others out there that have time and again proven that they out perform AS5, yet because of its popularity, AS5 still seems to be what "enthusiasts" are falling all over themselves to proclaim is under the hood. However, that being said, choosing AS5 is usually better than what comes pre-applied to HSF's. I'm just lazy.

Having installed it, and let it settle, I ran Orthos on it for a while last night. Long enough for the temp to stop creeping upwards and then to sit and burn for a while. Interestingly enough, My temps maxed out at 57C. A full 10C lower than the previous Tt cooler, and 13C lower than stock. While not the purported 40's that some claim to achieve with this thing (could be the TIM), its a lot better than retail. And a nice bonus is that its totally inaudible. That Tt cooler, when it span up, was verging on annoying, much louder than a stock cooler. This thing is "whisper quiet". I like the fan design, its an open fan, mounted on rubber "posts" that isolate it from the resonating fins of the cooler. Thats a pretty high-end sound dampening trick on such a cheap product. Its also the new 4-pin fan connection that allows the MB to monitor and control the speed of the fan based on heat. Even at full tilt, while running Orthos, the fan is inaudible. Pretty snazzy. Given that I used the TIM that came pre-applied, theres probably performance left in this thing. I'm happy where its at.

All in all, I give this product the coveted "Golden Emu" cheapass award for above par performance on a cheapass budget.

Pics for an idea of the size of it (excuse the crappy cellphone pics plez):




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Last edited by Shinare on Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

it hurts when i twist my nipples

Thanks Shinare!
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good job, I read this riding down to Ardmore.
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TehDanMan wrote: good job, I read this riding down to Ardmore.

Heres a newegg clone of an Akasa which is itself a close look-a-like of the Freezer 7 pro.

Don't know anything about it's performance, but its only 17 bux.
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Got mine installed today.

Construction looks fine, directions are crappy, installation went off without a hitch. I also took the opportunity to go frickin batshit crazy OCD on my cables.

Verdict? It seems to run cooler. My stock fan was letting the CPU get so hot under load that it was powering off from thermal shutdown. Looks like this idles about 5-8*C cooler, and I have no idea about load temps. I'll do some F@H tonight, if it's powered off in the morning, I'll know what happened.

You're hitting thermal shutdown?? Ouch! thats "liquid hot magma" hot. Thermal shutdown on a C2D is like 100*C. Throttling starts at 80*C so if you are hitting 100*C you got some serious problems, and a slow ass computer. (because of the throttling)
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It would regularly report 90*C with the stock cooler under load. I scraped off the TIM and came back with some Arctic Silver and it still reported 90*C under load.

135W TDP chips suck balls. I can't wait to get a C2Q @ 90W TDP, hopefully they can get them down to 65W sometime soon, as well.

you still running the 950d? that's crazy high temps. my 930d ran at about 60*C under load, and i thought that was insanely high. all the benches and reviews i read for the pentium d series had them maxing out at about 45*C under load.
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your board was also a different revision from mine, somewhere along the production line they changed the way the 975xbx's reported the diode temps.

and the 930D is 95W versus the 950D @ 135W

oic... i didn't realize the 950d required that much more power.
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oh and from one of the reviews shinare linked:
"A core reading of 70c is quite acceptable"

and from dicking with the Freezer 7 today, those mounting clips suck balls.

No wonder AC switched to something less shitty.

lol Mine's still "hangin' in there" course I haven't removed it since installation. Still runnin my 2.1GHz processor at 3GHz! Love this old Conroe.
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Is this dead thread day?
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Failure is just success rounded down.

As much as I hate being a fanboy I have to say that Zalman has always been my choice for air cooling.

Plus there is something sexy about that nice round "flower" of copper
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