Conroe heatsink group test

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Price: £15.08 inc VAT
Supplier: KustomPCs
Manufacturer: Arctic Cooling

Although it’s not the cheapest cooler in the group test, Arctic Cooling’s Freezer 7 Pro isn’t far off the mark. Like the cheaper Akasa heat sink it has a copper base and three heat pipes carry heat from the base to the aluminium fins.

While its constituent parts may be similar, it’s a considerably more efficient design. Instead of blowing air through its fins and down onto the motherboard, the Freezer 7 Pro blows air through the fins and straight into the mouth of the case’s exhaust fan and out of the case. This helps to keep the temperature inside the case considerably lower. In fact the motherboard, or system, sensor reported two degrees cooler than it did when using the Intel stock cooler.



Base: The Freezer uses Intel’s pin system to clamp the heat sink down on the motherboard. This makes it a reasonably simple task to secure the unit in place on the chip. Unfortunately, due to the size of the aluminium fins, the pins are quite difficult to reach. However, while fiddly it’s not a difficult install.

Noise: The Freezer’s 92mm fan is caseless, which helps to reduce the whooshing sound normally produced by fans. In an effort to further reduce fan noise, the fan is attatched to the heat sink by rubber taps – this isolates the fan and stops it from rattling against the fins.

The fan also uses a four-pin connector, so its speed is properly controlled by the motherboard. When the CPU’s idling, the fan is near inaudible. When it spins up under load the noise increases and some whooshing is heard from the fan, but there is no mechanical noise.

Performance: At a whopping 20°C below the Intel reference temperature, when the CPU was running at load, the Freezer managed to beat all the other coolers but the Cooltek Auras, which is almost identical to it in design.

Conclusion: It’s easy to recommend the Freezer 7 Pro. It’s both the best performance and cheapest cooler we tested. On top of that it’s impressively quiet, only breaking above a whisper when the fan spins up to maximum RPM. It didn’t manage to keep the case as cool as the Auras 775, but the four-pin connector and three pounds in the pocket steal the deal.

Score:

Price 4
Performance 4
Noise level 4
Assembly and mounting difficulty 3
Quality and aesthetic 4

Overall 4