Introduction

Today we are reviewing another CPU cooler from Arctic Cooling, the Freezer 13 Pro. It has a tower heatsink, four 8 mm heatpipes and a 120 mm fan. Check it out!

As well as most Arctic Cooling products, the Freezer 13 Pro comes on a plastic blister instead of a cardpaper box.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: Package

Figure 2 shows what is inside the package: the cooler itself, manual, and installation hardware.

click to enlarge
Figure 2: Accessories

In Figure 3, you can see the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro.

click to enlarge
Figure 3: The Freezer 13 Pro

This cooler is discussed in detail in the following pages.

The Freezer 13 Pro

In Figure 4, you have a front view of the cooler, where the nine-blade fan is visible.

click to enlarge
Figure 4: Front view

Figure 5 shows the side of the cooler. Note that the fins are folded, creating a closed surface.

click to enlarge
Figure 5: Side view

Figure 6 reveals the rear side of the cooler.

click to enlarge
Figure 6: Rear view

In Figure 7 you see the top of the cooler. Note the "V" cut on the fins, which grants access to the screw that holds the cooler in place.

click to enlarge
Figure 7: Top view

The Freezer 13 Pro (Cont'd)

Figure 8 shows the base of the cooler, which comes with preapplied thermal grease. Note the thick U-shaped heatpipes.

click to enlarge
Figure 8: Base

In Figure 9, the heatsink of the Freezer 13 Prois shown without the fan.

click to enlarge
Figure 9: Heatsink

Figure 10 shows the 120- mm fan detached from the heatsink.

click to enlarge
Figure 10: Fan

Figure 11 displays a unique feature of the Freezer 13 Pro: a small centrifugal fan over the cooler base that, according to the manufacturer, helps cool the components surrounding the CPU, such as the motherboard chipset and the transistors on the voltage regulator circuit.

click to enlarge
Figure 11: Auxiliary fan

Installation

Figure 12 shows, at the left, the metal clips needed to install the Freezer 13 Pro on AMD CPUs. At the center and right, are the pins and frame required to install it on Intel processors

click to enlarge
Figure 12: Clips

In Figure 13 you see the Intel frame installed on our motherboard. After that, all you need to do is to put the cooler over the CPU and fasten two screws.

click to enlarge
Figure 13: Frame for Intel CPUs installed

Figure 14 presents the Freezer 13 Pro installed in our case.

click to enlarge
Figure 14: Installed in our system

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 software 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: 1680x1050
• 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 ^oC error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 ^oC are considered irrelevant.

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

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.

 

Main Specifications

The main features of the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro cooler include:

• Application: Sockets 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+, and AM2 processors
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Copper
• Heat-pipes: Four 8 mm copper heatpippes
• Fan: one 120 mm main fan, one 50 mm auxiliary fan
• Nominal fan speed: 1,350 rpm
• Fan air flow: 49.7 cfm
• Maximum power consumption: Not informed
• Nominal noise level: Not informed
• Weight: 2.3 lbs (1.05 kg)
• More information: http://www.arctic.ac
• Average price in the US*: USD 39.00

* Researched at Amazon.com on the day we published this review.

Conclusions

The Freezer 13 Pro draws attention. It has good looks, and also a unique feature that may intrigue most users: the small centrifugal fan over its base. The highlights of the Freezer 13 Pro are the easy installation and the low noise level; it is actually one of the quietest coolers we tested to date. It is also not too expensive.

However, when describing performance, the Freezer 13 Pro is a good cooler, but not a high-end one. It received a technical draw with its "little brother," the Freezer 13.

Being a quiet, easy-to-install, good cooler with a good cost/performance ratio, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro receives the Hardware Secrets Silver Award.