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Home » Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 CPU Cooler Review

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 CPU Cooler Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

We are testing today the Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2, a CPU cooler with two tower heatsinks, four heatpipes and a 120 mm fan. Check it out!

As well as most products from Arctic Cooling, the Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 comes in a plastic blister wrap rather than a cardboard box. 

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 shows what comes with the cooler: just a manual and installation hardware.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 2: Accessories

Figure 3 displays the Freezer XTREME. The fan comes in between the heatsinks.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 3: The Freezer XTREME Rev. 2

This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

[nextpage title=”The Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2″]

Figure 4 reveals the cooler from the front, where you see the heatpipes through the heatsink. The four heatpipes are connected to both heatsinks.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 4: Front view

The side of the cooler shows a big plastic “X” shaped panel.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 5: Side view

Figure 6 shows the rear of the cooler.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 6: Rear view

Figure 7 presents the top of the cooler.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 7: Top view

[nextpage title=”The Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 (Cont’d)”]In Figure 8, you see the base of the cooler, made of copper. You can also observe the four heatpipes. The thermal compound comes preapplied on the base surface.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 8: Base

Figure 9 reveals the 120 mm fan, which is easily removed from the heatsink. It uses a four-pin connector, thus supporting PWM speed control.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 9: Fan

Figure 10 presents the heatsink without the fan, and here you can see the shape of the fins.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 10: Fan removed

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

Figure 11 shows the clips used to install the XTREME Rev. 2 on AMD systems. In Figure 12, you see the frame that holds the cooler over Intel CPUs.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 11: Clips for AMD processors

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 12: Frame for Intel processors

Figure 13 illustrates the frame installed on our motherboard. After this step, all you need to do is put the cooler in place and attach two screws that secure it.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 13: Holding system installed

Figure 14 reveals the Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 heatsink installed on our computer. Now you can reinsert the fan.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 14: Heatsink installed

In Figure 15, you can see the cooler installed into our case.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2Figure 15: Installed in our system

[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 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option. (In this version, the s
oftware uses all available threads.)

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. This 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 isn’t 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
Noctua NH-C14 26 °C 52 dBA 1300 rpm 37 °C 52 dBA 1300 rpm 61 °C
Intel XTS100H 26 °C 49 dBA 1200 rpm 42 °C 64 dBA 2600 rpm 68 °C
Zalman CNPS5X SZ 23 °C 52 dBA 2250 rpm 38 °C 57 dBA 2950 rpm 69 °C
Thermaltake SlimX3 21 °C 50 dBA 2700 rpm 46 °C 50 dBA 2750 rpm 99 °C
Cooler Master Hyper 101 21 °C 50 dBA 2600 rpm 38 °C 57 dBA 3300 rpm 71 °C
Antec Kühler H2O 620 19 °C 52 dBA 1400 rpm 34 °C 55 dBA 1400 rpm 58 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro 20 °C 46 dBA 1100 rpm 36 °C 49 dBA 1300 rpm 62 °C
GlacialTech Siberia 22 °C 49 dBA 1400 rpm 34 °C 49 dBA 1400 rpm 61 °C
Evercool Transformer 3 18 °C 46 dBA 1800 rpm 33 °C 51 dBA 2250 rpm 65 °C
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme 20 °C 51 dBA 1850 rpm 34 °C 56 dBA 2050 rpm 61 °C
Thermaltake Frio OCK 15 °C 44 dBA 1000 rpm 27 °C 64 dBA 2200 rpm 51 °C
Prolimatech Genesis 18 °C 49 dBA 1050 rpm 30 °C 49 dBA 1050 rpm 54 °C
Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 15 °C 41 dBA 1050 rpm 32 °C 44 dBA 1400 rpm 60 °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.

Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 CPU cooler include:

  • Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 939, and 754 processors
  • Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.4 x 6.1 inches (170 x 113 x 155 mm) (W x L x H)
  • Fins: Aluminum
  • Base: Copper
  • Heat-pipes: Four copper heatpipes
  • Fan: 120 mm
  • Nominal fan speed: 1500 rpm
  • Fan air flow: 35.7 cfm
  • Maximum power consumption: 1.8 W
  • Nominal noise level: Not informed
  • Weight: 1.7 lbs (790 g)
  • More information: https://www.arctic.ac
  • Average price in the US*: USD 47.50

* Researched at Amazon.com on the day we published this review.[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

You can say the Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 is a weak cooler for its size and design, because most coolers with twin heatsinks and a 120 mm fan perform better than it. On the other hand, its cooling performance is good, and it is simply the quietest cooler we tested so far.

Its bigger problem is the fact that you cannot change its fan for a stronger one, because the fan uses a proprietary shape that allows you to easily install and remove it. If you could install one (or two) higher-cfm fan(s) on the XTREME, you could probably get a much higher cooling performance.

The Arctic Cooling Freezer XTREME Rev. 2 is a good cooler, with good performance and a terrific low noise level. If you are looking for extreme silence on a cooler, this is a good choice.

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