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[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

This time we tested the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 CPU cooler, which has four U-shape heatpipes and a 92 mm fan. Let’s see if it is a good performer.

Like most Arctic Cooling products, the Freezer 13 box is a plastic blister, as you can check in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Package

In Figure 2, you can see what comes inside the box: the cooler, installation parts, and a manual.

Figure 2: Accessories

In Figure 3, you can see the Freezer 13.

Figure 3: The Freezer 13 CPU cooler

In the next pages, you will see this cooler in detail.

[nextpage title=”The Freezer 13″]

In Figure 4, you see the front of the cooler. The white fan is mounted inside a black frame.

Figure 4: Front View

In Figure 5, you can see the side of the cooler. The borders of the fins are folded, creating a closed surface.

Figure 5: Side view

In Figure 6, you check the cooler rear side. Note that the lower fins are smaller, in order to not interfere with the heatsinks and other components of the motherboard.

Figure 6: Rear view

In Figure 7, you can see the cooler from the top. The fins have a "V" cut at the rear side, giving access to the screw that holds the cooler in place.

Figure 7: Top view

[nextpage title=”The Freezer 13 (Cont’d)”]The fan can be easily removed. In Figure 8, you can see the heatsink without it. The fins are plain in their front side.

Figure 8: The Freezer 13 without its fan

In Figure 9, you can see the 92 mm fan. It uses a four-pin connector, which means it is compatible with PWM automatic speed control.

Figure 9: Fan

In Figure 10, you can check the base of the Freezer 13. Is is made of copper and the thermal compound comes preapplied.

Figure 10: Base

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

For use with AMD CPUs, you need to attach the pieces shown in Figure 11 to the cooler, which is held by the motherboard frame.

Figure 11: AMD clips

For Intel CPUs, you must attach the frame shown in Figure 12 to the motherboard, as you can see in Figure 13. This frame is compatible with sockets 775, 1155/1156, and 1366.

Figure 12: Intel frame

Figure 13: Frame installed on the motherboard

The cooler is screwed to the frame, using two screws. You have to remove the fan in order to have access to the front screw.

Figure 14: The Freezer 13 instaled in our case

Finally, attach the fan to the heatsink.

Figure 15: The Freezer 13 instaled in our case

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We tested the cooler with a Core i7-860 CPU (quad-core, 2.8 GHz), which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), keeping the standard core voltage (Vcore), which was the maximum stable overclock we could make with the stock cooler. Keep in mind that we could have raised the CPU clock more, but to include the stock cooler in our comparison, we needed to use this moderate overclock.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 (in this version, the software uses all available threads) with the "In-place Large FFTs" option.

We compared the tested cooler to the Intel stock cooler with a copper base (included with the CPU), as well as with other coolers. Note that in the past, we tested coolers with a socket LGA775 CPU, and we retested some "old" coolers with this new methodology. T
his means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read in the next page. Every cooler was tested with the thermal compound that accompanies it.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the case and video board cooler fans so they wouldn’t interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i7-860
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD6
• Memory: 2 GB Markvision (DDR3-1333/PC3-10700 with 9-9-9-22 timings), configured at 1,200 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Zotac GeForce GTS 250
• Video resolution: 1680×1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX Cool

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 °C error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 °C are considered irrelevant.

[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at idle and at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, the fan was set at the minimum speed on the idle test and at full speed on the full load test.

		Idle Processor			Processor at Full Load
Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.
Intel stock (socket LGA1156)	14 °C	44 dBA	1700 rpm	46 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	90 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G1	14 °C	47 dBA	2050 rpm	33 °C	56 dBA	2900 rpm	62 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme	14 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	27 °C	53 dBA	1950 rpm	51 °C
Thermaltake Silent 1156	14 °C	44 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	49 dBA	1750 rpm	69 °C
Noctua NH-D14	14 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	27 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	53 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Performa	14 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	28 °C	52 dBA	1950 rpm	54 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	50 °C
Thermaltake Frio	14 °C	46 dBA	1450 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	50 °C
Prolimatech Samuel 17	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	40 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	63 °C
Zalman CNPS8000A	18 °C	43 dBA	1400 rpm	39 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	70 °C
Spire TherMax Eclipse II	14 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	28 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	53 °C
Scythe Ninja3	17 °C	39 dBA	700 rpm	32 °C	55 dBA	1800 rpm	57 °C
Corsair A50	18 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	33 °C	52 dBA	1900 rpm	60 °C
Thermaltake Jing	18 °C	44 dBA	850 rpm	34 °C	49 dBA	1300 rpm	60 °C
GlacialTech Alaska	18 °C	43 dBA	1150 rpm	36 °C	51 dBA	1600 rpm	60 °C
Deepcool Gamer Storm	18 °C	43 dBA	1100 rpm	35 °C	48 dBA	1600 rpm	62 °C
Corsair A70	26 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	40 °C	56 dBA	1900 rpm	65 °C
Deepcool Ice Blade Pro	23 °C	45 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	52 dBA	1500 rpm	64 °C
AC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2	23 °C	47 dBA	1750 rpm	44 °C	51 dBA	2100 rpm	77 °C
Corsair H70	27 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	1900 rpm	61 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 Max	27 °C	55 dBA	1600 rpm	38 °C	58 dBA	1750 rpm	63 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP	25 °C	45 dBA	1700 rpm	51 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	91 °C
CoolIT Vantage	26 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	37 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	62 °C
Deepcool Ice Matrix 600	25 °C	46 dBA	1100 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	1300 rpm	69 °C
Titan Hati	26 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	40 °C	57 dBA	2450 rpm	68 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13	27 °C	49 dBA	1950 rpm	41 °C	53 dBA	2300 rpm	70 °C

In the graph below, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main features of the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 CPU cooler include:

• Application: Socket LGA775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AM2, AM2+, AM3, 939 and 754 processors
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Copper
• Heat-pipes: Four 6-mm copper heatpipes
• Fan: 92 mm
• Nominal fan speed: 2,000 rpm
• Fan air flow: 36.4 cfm
• Maximum power consumption: Not informed
• Nominal noise level: Not informed
• Weight: 1.8 lbs (800 g)
• More information: https://www.arctic.ac
• Average price in the US*: USD 40.00

* Reseached at Newegg.com on the day we publish this review.[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

At first look, we weren’t expecting a good performance from the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13, mostly because all the high-performance CPU coolers we tested so far use one or two 120-mm fans, or even 140-mm ones. With a single 92-mm fan, the Freezer 13 looks more like a value cooler.

To our surprise, the Freezer 13 performed like some good coolers with 120 mm fans, and it was not noiser than them. The price tag was in the same range, too.

In summary, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 is an excellent mainstream cooler, with low noise level and good performance, receiving the Hardware Secrets Silver Award.