Arctic Freezer 13 Heatsink Review
Posted on August 3rd, 2011 in Radio Control Cars, Airplanes and Boats | Comments Off
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SpecificationsFan (mm)92Rated Fan Speed600 – 2000 RPM, (PWM Controlled)Airflow36,4 CFM / 61.8 m³/hCooling Capacity (Watts)200Noise Level (Sone)0.5Dimensions (Packaging)126 L x 103 W x 140 H mmDimensions (Product)123 L x 96 W x 130 H mmLimited Warranty6 YearsWeight0.8 kg Looking at the features and specifications listed by Arctic, I am having some doubts whether this heatsink will be capable to handle my overclocked i7 930 right off the bat. They are claiming a greatest or most complete or best possible cooling capacity of only 200 watts which this overclocked test system is pushing (and more). They likewise chose a 92 mm fan rather of the now more mutual 120 mm fans that the majority of the contest has gone to in tower style heatsinks. The basic layout of this heatsink is much like the earlier Freezer 7 Pro and is fundamentally a somewhat enlarged and bettered version of it and uses a shrouded 92 mm fan rather of the open frame fan of the Freezer 7 Pro. The Arctic Freezer 13 is another “out of the box” solution, with a proprietary 92 mm fan built into the intake shroud and mounting instrumentation for any innovative Intel or AMD system. The bare heatsink had a measured mass of 578 grams and the fan assemblage came in at 101.4 grams. The proprietary fan/shroud assemblage means that you won’t be upgrading to a high cfm fan to improve cooling down the road, but does simplify fan mounting. This heatsink is also asymmetric in design and the fan/shroud assemblage only fits on the heatsink one way. The Freezer 13 ships in plastic packaging that closely fits around the assembled heatsink/fan assemblage with the mounting hardware at the bottom by the heatsink base. The plastic packaging is a resealable clamshell and provides a good deal of shelter versus shipping damage, but isn’t almost as secure as a proper box would be, like the Havik 140 or Zalman CNPS9900 Max used. The back side of the clamshell has the the retail data comparing it to a stock Intel heatsink and likewise has galore specifications of this heatsink. The sides of the packaging are clear giving a good side view of the heatsink inside the clamshell. Arctic didn’t spend a fortune on packaging this heatsink, but I guess the packaging protects it sufficient for the duration of shipment since it arrived undamaged from overseas. After removing the heatsink and mounting hardware from the plastic clamshell, we are looking at a compact and rather conventionally designed tower heatsink. The heatsink fin area gets larger from front (fan) to the rear. This is why the heatsink is directional and may only flow air in one direction. It has four 6 mm heatpipes coming up from a copper base plate and into the fan body. The Intel mounting hardware comprises of a cross-platform retention module (RM) frame that has three dissimilar sets of mounting holes for LGA775, LGA1155/1156, and LGA1366 platforms. You merely pick the sameness holes for your platform and then insert the bottom half of a type of pushpin assemblage into the hole. You then set the frame onto the motherboard and insert the pushpin assemblage through the mounting holes in the motherboard inserting a lot of locking pins into the pushpin assemblage to lock the RM to the motherboard. Their mounting system doesn’t require you to remove the motherboard from the case and mounting the retention module to the motherboard is painless and quick. After the RM is secured to the motherboard, you have a bracket on the bottom of the heatsink that has holes in it that correspond to holes in the RM frame to merely screw the heatsink down to the motherboard. Note: unless you are taking the heatsink out of service permanently, the RM frame may stay mounted on the motherboard since you just have to unscrew two screws in the mounting plate to remove the heatsink for cleaning. A very nice solution for Intel mounting. It doesn’t use a backplate, which I rather have for heatsink mounting, but their mount seems to disseminate the load a little better around the socket area than the Transformer 3 mounting hardware does. For mounting on AMD systems the routine is a bit different. Instead of using a habit RM like with Intel boards, Arctic Cooling decisive to use the stock AMD RM and adjust the mounting hardware instead. They included two angled metal pieces that secure to the hard mounted tension plate on the heatsink with a screw for each. These two metal brackets have holes cut in them that engage the hooks on the sides of the stock AMD RM. You plainly set the heatsink in place on top of the processor, fit the angled plates to the hooks and tension plate, then screw the angled plates to the tension plate. The bad portion when it comes to this mounting scheme is that it will only mount the heatsink in a north-south orientation. So you have the heatsink blowing at either the top of the case or at the video card. To me, the AMD mounting system that Arctic came up with for this heatsink isn’t almost as nice as the one they came up with for Intel systems. It’s more of an afterthought to me and the lack of being competent to orient it to blow from the front to the back of the case hinders it’s use on AMD systems. Since this heatsink seems more directed towards better cooling than the stock Intel or AMD heatsink than attempting to meet or beat the other high performance coolers on the market, I decisive to test two OEM Intel LGA1366 coolers I have to compare the divergences among them and the Freezer 13. The initial is the stock round heatsink that Intel throws in their non-extreme series merchandising model LGA1366 processors. Total installed mass of this heatsink is 502.4 grams. It has a copper core, but no heatpipes and besides the size of it, it’s for the most part like the models that Intel equipped their Core 2 Quad processors with. The second OEM heatsink I will test is the one that came with my i7 980X Extreme processor which looks somewhat similar to the Freezer 13. The Extreme series heatsink is normally not sold in retail but now and again you may find them for sale on eBay and I even found them for sale at Scan.co.uk for a very good price (when in stock). Also, this is the basi Intel OEM heatsink I’ve seen that genuinely uses a backplate and screw setup rather of those damned pushpins; thank you Intel. This heatsink uses four 6.0 mm heatpipes bent in a U and soldered to the base. It has an unshrouded 92 mm proprietary fan that is mounted with special mounting hardware within the heatsink. The fan on this unit is a two speed model, with a high speed setting for greatest or most complete or best possible cooling and a lower speed setting for quiet (PWM controlled) and has blue LED lights. This heatsink has a total installed mass of 652.0 grams. In testing, I found the high speed setting to be pretty noisy and a bit buzzy/rattling, but effective. Since the Arctic Freezer 13 uses a proprietary fan designed to fit the heatsink itself, there is no way to test it with any other fans. So what you see is what you get performance-wise. The specifications that Arctic gives on the fan are listed above in the specifications. The testbed system is set up as follows: The testing methodology employed is the same as my former reviews. All energy saving features of the motherboard and processor were turned off to keep it from down clocking the processor speed and vcore. All fan control functions were turned off in bios to keep the fans at greatest or most complete or best possible speed. For processor temperature monitoring purposes, I am using Real Temp 3.46, with logging enabled at 2 second intervals. For room temperature monitoring, I am using a Fluke Model 52-2 and using a “K” type thermocouple that is inserted into the case front where the front intake fan is mounted. The Fluke records the maximum, minimum and intermediate temps for the duration of the run at 1 second intervals. Temperatures in my computer room were maintained as close as possible to around an 18° C intermediate for the duration of the run, as measured at the lower front intake fan by the Fluke. At the end of the test run, I logged the maximum, minimum and intermediate temperature. The greatest or most complete or best possible and minimum temps are given as recorded by Real Temp, but the intermediate temperatures have been adjusted to a ceaseless 18° C as derived from the Fluke intermediate temps. For loading the CPU, I employed Prime95 version 25.8 using in-place big FFT’s and ran it for 30 minutes to stabilize temps. After 30 minutes I would exit Prime95 and let the CPU idle for at least 10 minutes. The most eminent recorded temperature from the hottest core for each run was then recorded off of the Real Temp log, the lowest temperature on any core was recorded and the intermediate temperature on the hottest core was calculated for the duration of the load share of each run. The following chart gives the results I received with the Arctic Freezer 13, the OEM i7 930 heatsink and the OEM i7 980X heatsink at the secondary run settings. The OEM i7 930 heatsink passed 100° C within 30 seconds and the system went into safety shutdown within 2 minutes when attempting to test at 4 GHz: As you may see from the above chart, the stock OEM i7 930 heatsink is being pushed pretty much to it’s limits even at this comparatively mild overclock. Both the Freezer 13 and the 980X heatsinks fare much better and at this level of overclock they are running neck and neck for cooling performance. Next, we will chart the Freezer 13 versus the 980X heatsink at 4 GHz, which is my normal testing overclock and loads the heatsinks to a bit over 200 watts of heatload. At this level of overclock we are now seeing a divergence in performance among the Freezer 13 and the 980X heatsink and sadly, the Freezer 13 is coming up on the short end of the stick. At this level of overclock, the Freezer 13 is just in regards to as far as it may go with cooling whereas the 980X heatsink is handling this heatload a lot better. I personally wouldn’t want to run my processor at the temps that the Freezer 13 is keeping at this level of overclock for day to day usage, but would consider the 980X to be adequate for day to day usage at it’s recorded temps. The Freezer 13 is rather a bit quieter heatsink with it’s fan as equated to the 980X heatsink, but there is no easy way to install a higher performance fan on it either, if noise doesn’t bother you. Next, we have a chart that compares the Freezer 13 and the OEM 980X heatsink to various other heatsinks I have tested with my test scheme in it’s present configuration. The results are as follows: As you may see, the Freezer 13 is trailing the pack and is being bested significantly by it’s direct pricing competition, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. The Hyper 212 Plus may normally be found selling for around $30 or less. It is likewise being beaten by the Evercool Transformer 3 and significantly beaten by the Evercool Transformer 4 and both of these heatsinks are also marketing in the usual price range of the Freezer 13. All three of those heatsinks have gone with using a 120 mm sized fan(s) rather of the 92 mm sized fan of the Freezer 13. The only way I would choose the Freezer 13 over the others would be if I had a space-constrained case that couldn’t fit a taller heatsink inside of it. Looking around the net, you may in general find the Arctic Freezer 13 selling for around $33-$36 shipped. And you may still find the Hyper 212 Plus marketing for less than $30 new from various stores and the Transformer 3 and Transformer 4 may be had for around $40 and $45 shipped respectively. With contest like that, it is hard to commend the Freezer 13 unless you have a space-constrained case that won’t fit a more effective heatsink. And so, I find the Arctic Freezer 13 only earns itself an Overclockers Meh rating. In closing, I would like to thank Arctic for providing me with the Freezer 13 review sample as well a new tube of MX-2 thermal compound which I use for my heatsink testing. Your Intel mounting system for the heatsink is nice and the fan is quiet enough, but you are getting beaten in the price/performance realm by other coolers in the same market segment . It is adequate for mild to moderate overclocking, but you may get better performance for the price from the competition. - Jim Gautreaux (muddocktor)
Tags: arctic freezer 13, heatsink |
