Computermesh
06-21-2008, 10:24 AM
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
My First Impressions
At first glance the packaging seemed to be traditional for any stock Intel cooler you would purchase. The cooler was housed inside a plastic casing that was very easy to open which is great because your not going to damage any of the fins from ripping the box open in your sheer excitement. The materials this cooler is made of are copper and aluminum and the block that actually seats to the processed are a finely polished copper. There are 3 double sided heat pipes for a total of 6 across the cooler surrounded by 42 fins. (Ohh, and the top of those fins btw, are polished so nice I am able to see a reflection in them) The next thing I noticed was that the fan is nicely mounted onto the heats sink by rubber pins/connectors. I really liked this idea because it would help reduce the noise from the fan spinning at full speed, which Isn't that loud all.
Installation
Not much to say about the installation other than it was very easy. It comes with the traditional 4 pin push through design just like the Intel coolers. I personally installed mine with the mother board still in the case, but if you have a small case/motherboard, you may want to remove it from the case. One thing that made it even easier to install was the fact you could remove the fan from the heat sink by simply pulling back on the rubber tabs at the corners. Which if you have big fingers or a small case will make it extremely easy to reach the 4 pins at the bottom to push through.
AirFlow
Here is a diagram of the actual airflow of the cooler.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=80743&stc=1&d=1213997749
Now as you can see from looking at the picture the fan is a side mount and sucks air in mainly from the side of the fan and only partially from the top and bottom. Air is blown directly over the fins and primarily ejected over the opposite site of the unit and partially blown down. This set-up does have its advantages, but depending on your case and situation, may have some disadvantages as well, and force you to choose the lesser of the evils. You have 4 options to choose when aligning your cooler. In my case (Antec 900) my rear fan is an exhaust fan so if I place it with the units fan facing that way, its trying to suck air on top of the exhaust fan trying to remove the air, and also the hot air will directly exhaust directly onto the memory. Next, my top fan is a 200mm exhaust fan and I will suffer the same problem, the air that is being pushed over the cooler (what it will be able to get) will be hot as it is trying to be expelled from the case by the fan. The exhaust in this case, will be blown directly over your video card, and directly onto my north bridge, also, not a good idea. Next, you could orient it to suck air from above your memory, which also has the potential to be quite warm giving your situation. But in my case, the hot air will be directly exhausted by the rear case fan. And finally, I could align the fan to suck air from the top(back side) of the video card (which is usually warm) and be directly exhausted to the top of the case. all of these points should be considered prior to installation as some people as I said before will be forced to choose from the lesser of the evils.
Price
Very Affordable and well worth it. Here's some link's to the product on various sites.
http://www.element-tech.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=632
http://www.xoxide.com/arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro.html?productid=arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro&channelid=FROOG
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203266273&listingid=22045183&dcaid=17902
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
All ranging anywhere from SRP of $16.99 up to $32.99US.
Temps
Yesterday, the temperature was about 70F in my bedroom where my computer is, and I was idling in the range of 33-36c. Today however it is much warmer in here at about 80-85F and I am idling at an average anywhere between 37-40c. All of these numbers are very impressive to me as with the stock cooler On days like yesterday and today I was idling anywhere between 49c-59c. Currently I do not have my system over clocked, I have kept it at its stock 2.4GHz and it is not throttling back any. Using prime95 and putting a full load on it after roughly 4 hours of testing at 2.4GHz the highest temperature I reached according to HWmonitor and Speed Fan, was 46c.
Overview/Opinion
Overall with the price of the cooler and how well it works and easy installation I am extremely impressed, and very happy I made this purchase. The only downside is air flow management. Everyone should take a couple minutes and figure out the direction of their airflow and attempt at a best guess as to the direction to get the air from and where to get rid of it.
Hopefully this will be a helpful and informative review. It is the first one I have written and hopefully a couple people will be able to make good use of it. Good Luck All, and Have Fun.
My First Impressions
At first glance the packaging seemed to be traditional for any stock Intel cooler you would purchase. The cooler was housed inside a plastic casing that was very easy to open which is great because your not going to damage any of the fins from ripping the box open in your sheer excitement. The materials this cooler is made of are copper and aluminum and the block that actually seats to the processed are a finely polished copper. There are 3 double sided heat pipes for a total of 6 across the cooler surrounded by 42 fins. (Ohh, and the top of those fins btw, are polished so nice I am able to see a reflection in them) The next thing I noticed was that the fan is nicely mounted onto the heats sink by rubber pins/connectors. I really liked this idea because it would help reduce the noise from the fan spinning at full speed, which Isn't that loud all.
Installation
Not much to say about the installation other than it was very easy. It comes with the traditional 4 pin push through design just like the Intel coolers. I personally installed mine with the mother board still in the case, but if you have a small case/motherboard, you may want to remove it from the case. One thing that made it even easier to install was the fact you could remove the fan from the heat sink by simply pulling back on the rubber tabs at the corners. Which if you have big fingers or a small case will make it extremely easy to reach the 4 pins at the bottom to push through.
AirFlow
Here is a diagram of the actual airflow of the cooler.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=80743&stc=1&d=1213997749
Now as you can see from looking at the picture the fan is a side mount and sucks air in mainly from the side of the fan and only partially from the top and bottom. Air is blown directly over the fins and primarily ejected over the opposite site of the unit and partially blown down. This set-up does have its advantages, but depending on your case and situation, may have some disadvantages as well, and force you to choose the lesser of the evils. You have 4 options to choose when aligning your cooler. In my case (Antec 900) my rear fan is an exhaust fan so if I place it with the units fan facing that way, its trying to suck air on top of the exhaust fan trying to remove the air, and also the hot air will directly exhaust directly onto the memory. Next, my top fan is a 200mm exhaust fan and I will suffer the same problem, the air that is being pushed over the cooler (what it will be able to get) will be hot as it is trying to be expelled from the case by the fan. The exhaust in this case, will be blown directly over your video card, and directly onto my north bridge, also, not a good idea. Next, you could orient it to suck air from above your memory, which also has the potential to be quite warm giving your situation. But in my case, the hot air will be directly exhausted by the rear case fan. And finally, I could align the fan to suck air from the top(back side) of the video card (which is usually warm) and be directly exhausted to the top of the case. all of these points should be considered prior to installation as some people as I said before will be forced to choose from the lesser of the evils.
Price
Very Affordable and well worth it. Here's some link's to the product on various sites.
http://www.element-tech.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=632
http://www.xoxide.com/arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro.html?productid=arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro&channelid=FROOG
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203266273&listingid=22045183&dcaid=17902
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
All ranging anywhere from SRP of $16.99 up to $32.99US.
Temps
Yesterday, the temperature was about 70F in my bedroom where my computer is, and I was idling in the range of 33-36c. Today however it is much warmer in here at about 80-85F and I am idling at an average anywhere between 37-40c. All of these numbers are very impressive to me as with the stock cooler On days like yesterday and today I was idling anywhere between 49c-59c. Currently I do not have my system over clocked, I have kept it at its stock 2.4GHz and it is not throttling back any. Using prime95 and putting a full load on it after roughly 4 hours of testing at 2.4GHz the highest temperature I reached according to HWmonitor and Speed Fan, was 46c.
Overview/Opinion
Overall with the price of the cooler and how well it works and easy installation I am extremely impressed, and very happy I made this purchase. The only downside is air flow management. Everyone should take a couple minutes and figure out the direction of their airflow and attempt at a best guess as to the direction to get the air from and where to get rid of it.
Hopefully this will be a helpful and informative review. It is the first one I have written and hopefully a couple people will be able to make good use of it. Good Luck All, and Have Fun.