Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB

[testman78]

Introduction

The PC cooler experts from ARCTIC have introduced two new air coolers with the Freezer i35 A-RGB and Freezer A35 A-RGB. Equipped with a powerful 120mm P-Fan, it continues the tradition of strong cooling performance and durability of the Freezer portfolio and sets impressive light accents. The new Freezer is available now in two configurations, supporting high performance on the latest AMD or Intel processors, including Intel’s brand new LGA1700 socket CPUs. Thanks to its compact dimensions of 133 x 91 mm, the Freezer i35 A-RGB / Freezer A35 A-RGB guarantees virtually unrestricted RAM compatibility. The adapted mounting system with two spring-loaded screws is easy to handle and allows perfectly even mounting pressure. Four Direct-Touch heatpipes and an improved fin-stack design provide excellent heat transfer from the CPU into the heatsink. It is combined with the award-winning P-fan and included MX-5 ultimate performance paste.



There are no technical differences between the variants. The Freezer A35 A-RGB is designed for AMD’s AM4 socket, while the Freezer i35 A-RGB is suitable for Intel’s 2066, 2011(-3), 1155, 1151, 1150, 1200 and 1700 sockets.




Packaging & Contents

The cooler is packaged in a cardboard box. The mix of flat black with the blue accents is a nice touchThe front side is occupied by an overview image of the cooler, a reference to the 6-year warranty, while on the upper left corner there is the manufacturer's logo. On the lower side there is the name of the cooler.



The back side of the box presents the main features of the cooler and the included fan.



In seven languages, ARCTIC displays a comprehensive list of features. The bottom right corner addresses that the manual is online-only, and also available in as many languages.



The right side of the packaging contains a QR code leading to company's support and feedback page.



There is nothing in the form of protection inside of the box, other than a layer of cardboard dropped into the bottom of the box for the cooler to rest on. Even so, our cooler is in better than fair shape with little indications of the cardboard rubbing against the thermal coated fins, but was easily removed with a damp rag. The hardware is found in the box on bottom of the cooler, and there is some literature included.



Included accessories are sparse but everything that you actually need, is included. Many manufacturers opt to bundle items that many users just don't need or want and this simply adds to costs. The Freezer i35 A-RGB comes with a 0.8 g syringe of the new MX-5.



As you will see below, Arctic supplies a Intel bottom metal plate, mounting bracket plus screws, spacers, washers and thumb screws for all of the supported Intel sockets.





A Closer Look

Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB is a tower cooler made mostly in black. Only the matte white fan impeller and small logo on the top contrast with the overall design of the cooling system. The cooler looks stylish and modern. A curly plastic casing with a built-in fan gives it some aggressiveness. The cooler has a dimension of 91x133x158.5mm (LxWxH) where 158.5mm is the overall height of the cooler. The weight of the cooler is 746gm with the fan. The cooler has a P12 A-RGB PWM fan.



The calculated area of ​​the radiator is about 7145 cm 2 , which is pretty good for a single-tower cooler. The cooler shows a stack of 54 fins (with a thickness of 0.4 mm, pressed onto heat pipes with an intercostal distance of 1.8 mm) with their edges bent to capture all of the air flowing through the tower. In turn, at the outlet of the air flow, the ribs are somewhat reminiscent of a trapezoid with a groove in the middle, and this shape does not allow placing a second fan on the radiator.




The black shroud uses a set of clips on both sides of the cooler to get its grip on the aluminum. The shroud is form fitted and can only go on the cooler in one way, so if you do have the need to clean the fan - it's really easy to do. Inside the frame there is the the ARCTIC 120mm fan nestled. The impeller is five-bladed and translucent, and the ends of the blades are connected by a ring to give some vivid lighting effect. The lighting on the cooler is compatible with all leading motherboard manufacturers. The impeller rotation speed is regulated by pulse width modulation (PWM) in the range from 200 to 1700 rpm. The fan has a maximum airflow of 48.8 CFM (very low for this speed), a static pressure of 1.85 mm H 2 O and a noise level of 0.35 sone. The fan bearing is hydrodynamic, but its standard service life is not specified in the specifications. The impeller starts at a voltage of 5.2 V, and the fan consumes no more than 1.3 W.



There are two cables leaving the fan: a power cable with monitoring and a backlight cable. This backlight cable can be connected to a connector on the motherboard and synchronize the fan backlight with other components of the system unit.



The upper part of it is closed by the shroud. At the center of it we can see an Arctic logo.



From the top of the Arctic i35 A-RGB, 8 heat pipes can be seen with an even distribution. They continue down the heatsink plates until they meet together through 4 externally visible pipes, forming the cold plate in conjunction with the aluminum filling.



The Freezer i35 A-RGB uses four 6mm direct touch heatpipes. This ensures that the heat to be dissipated is transferred directly to the heatpipes without an additional material layer, and transported into the heatsink via the pipes. As the pipes make gentle sweeping bends from the bottom fin into the base, ARCTIC did it without deforming the pipes.



Mounting brackets are secured directly to the integrated mounting block using machine screws, while the spring clip mounts swivel to snap and secure over the mounting holes.



The base is direct-contact, with dimensions 43 × 31 mm. The contact surface is mediocre. It seems that it was simply cut off with a cutter and not even sanded. True, tactilely these grooves are felt in the most minimal degree.




Installation Process

When installing the Freezer i35 A-RGB, users will need to first prepare the backplate. Since the Freezer i35 A-RGB is Intel specific, there isn't any other back plate provided. Slide the screws into the right slot on the backplate to then use the rubber o-rings to secure them. At this point, you can position the backplate on the motherboard.



Next, use the standoffs to secure the backplate to the motherboard.



Then secure the mounting arms to the standoffs.



Now we just have to place the metal parts inwards, and screw them with the supplied thumbscrews.



Two centrally threaded holes are provided for spring-loaded screws on the cooler mounting bridge. With this, the heatsink itself is now properly secured.




That's all. All that remains is to fasten the plastic casing with the fan to the radiator and connect the cables to the board.




Memory clearance is exceptional.



It turns out there is plenty of room behind the memory. No matter which kit you use, no matter how tall the spreaders are, the Freezer i35 A-RGB is accommodating, enough that the fan can easily be removed for cleaning purposes without much hassle at all.



The Freezer i35 A-RGB is really attractive in the dark with the fan on.




In our case, the backlight color was synchronized with the backlighting of the memory modules and the interface panel casing.




Test System & Methology

Test System:

Cpu:Intel Core i7-6700K@4.6 GHz.
Motherboard:Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z170
Memory:16Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNova 1200 P2
Storage Drive: 3TB Seagate Barracuda
Boot Drive: SSD 850 PRO 2.5" SATA III 2TB
Chassis: Dimastech Bench Table Easy V2.5
Windows 10 64-bit




Software:

Speedfan
CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime 95

I am testing the Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB performance as follows:

Ambient temperatures are kept at 23C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime 95′s for 30 minutes.



Performance

The cooling was above expectations in the tests. What is surprising is that the Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB finished as high as the middle of the pack.



One would expect that it would not be able to keep up. Instead, this one tower heatsink surpassed all our expectations and beat out three very good heatsinks (including Dual tower Raijintek Tisis). How does it do its magic? Who knows?



The Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB delivers great results proving that it is well suited to those users who are looking to built a very quiet system.




Final Thoughts

The Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB combines really useful innovations and clever ideas in a overall package. There is nothing to complain about in the processing, the manufacturer has done a good job here. The same applies to the long warranty period of six years, which puts you right at the front. We were also positively surprised by the thermal paste, which was neither too thick nor thin nor too small. Competitors can still learn something from this, provided they do not include syringes with enough content for several assembly processes. The simple (dis) assembly of the fan was appealing, even if the frame, which does not correspond to the current standard, makes it much more difficult to replace in the event of a defect. In addition, with the Freezer 35 A-RGB you have to decide in advance for the AMD or the Intel variant, whereas other coolers usually bring mounting material for the usual sockets of both manufacturers. The cooler was put to cool the Intel i7 6700k. The thermals on the Skylake chips are on high side resultantly many users are forced to delid their chips to achieve better thermals. My chip is not delidded but still, this cooler has performed exceptionally well to keep the temps low and done that with good acoustic level. The A-RGB 120 comes with a very good airflow, and relatively low noise execution. You have clearance for any kind of RAM, and graphics cards.



The Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB is a very quiet cooler with a performance that gives heavyweight competitors a run for their money. If you are in the market for a CPU cooler, and it has to perform well while being quiet, the Freezer i35 A-RGB is a great option. The quality of the product, along with its features, make it a solid choice. The Freezer i35 A-RGB / Freezer A35 A-RGB is available now with Arctic suggesting a price in the region of €42,99. The price to performance ratio of the Arctic Freezer i35 A-RGB CPU Cooler makes it a highly recommended CPU cooler.