12.8.2020

Before getting in to this, I will preface this review by saying I actually ordered an Arctic Freezer 13. This was because I'd recently switched from an R5-2600X to an i5-10600K and wanted something that could handle the higher TDP of the chip at 125W. While the Freezer 13 has a rated TDP of 200+ watt, the i13X only has a TDP of 120 watt. I actually bought this as an intermediary while I'm waiting for the Lian Li Galahad to be released in the UK, and didn't actually notice I had received the wrong cooler from Amazon until I popped on to write this review - just in case you're wondering why this isn't an Amazon verified purchase review.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Good----------So,as a cooler i had bought as a cheap holdover for a 10600k until a new AIO I've preordered gets released, I'm actually very impressed by this. For the money I would recommend a Freezer eSports 34 however I went for the 13/i13X due to case clearance - with a total height of 157mm the eSports 34 ends up pushing the side panel of a Lian li O11D.Performance wise, the i13x, despite being 5w under the recommended TDP for a 10600K is actually performing very well - with default clocks @4.1GHz (4.5GHz boost), in an ambient environment of 27°, with 3 120mm intake and one exhaust on the chassis running at about 40%, the cooler is able to maintain idle temps of 37° at 20% fan load. Even better, the fan on the i13x has very little noise difference between 20% and 100% load, so running the fan at a constant 100% does not create (IMO) any obtrusive noise, but runs idle temps at 34° with a 27° ambient.Using Prime95, the CPU recorded a temperature peak of 83° with a stable load of 77°. Once stable load temps had been recorded I shut off the test, and the temp dropped immediately to 48°, then slowly dropped back down to 34° over the space of around 3 minutes. For a cooler rated for a TDP of 120, I'm actually quite impressed.----------The Bad----------Now, my main issue with the cooler is the mounting bracket. I mounted this on a Z490 Steel Legend motherboard. This motherboard features m.2 heat shields for thermal dissipation, one of which is under the socket and about level with the bottom of the IO shield. Because the mounting bracket for this cooler is to accommodate older intel sockets too, the brackets are longer than they need to be for a 1200 socket. This means that to get this to fit, I actually had to remove the m.2 heat shield in the middle of the board, and run one of my m.2 drives bare. This doesn't cause any issues where the drives will get too hot in normal use, but looking at HWMonitor as I write this, I can see that the m.2 drive (an identical Sabrent Rocket to the one under the heatshield further down the board) is running 2° warmer to the one under the shield. Obviously being able to mount the shield would be preferred, but not performance-threatening, at worst, it ruins some of the look of the board.Finally, my other concern with the cooler is the sheer difficulty involved in mounting. I've never built an intel system before this one, and I was worried for how much pressure the cooler wants you to apply to get it to mount. At multiple stages I had to keep reminding myself that this was compatible for the socket, due to the sheer amount of brute force needed to get both screws on the coldplate to mount to the bracket. I am no stranger to mounting coolers, not even Arctic coolers, but this had me sweating for a POST in the hopes I hadn't just crushed or cracked the IHS or the die. I'm not sure if there are height differences between LGA115X and 1200, but at least be prepared to call for a second pair of hands to get this mounted on a 1200 socket.----------Summary----------For a basic cooler, this is pretty good for the money. If your case can accommodate the height of the cooler, I would recommend the Freezer eSports Duo for a tenner more. For the price, I wasn't particularly expecting much and that kind of exemplified a little with the difficulty involved in mounting the damn thing and the size of the mounting brackets but the performance, especially in the middle of summer where the idle temps are only around 7° above ambient, has impressed to no end. For comparison, on my 2600X before swapping over to an Intel chip I was running a Deepcool Castle 360 AIO which got exponentially worse the higher the ambient temps got, would idle at around 40° in an ambient of 26°. Hell, if the ambient hit 30° then the CPU would idle at 50° - which I can only attribute to the radiators inability to shift heat from the liquid once ambient reaches a certain temperature.If you're looking for a budget air cooler for intel CPU's, I couldn't not recommend it. Decent performance, in a compact and quiet package at an affordable price point. Once my Galahad arrives, I'll be retiring this, but rather than flogging on I'll be keeping it as a backup for if I ever have need of it.

15.5.2010

I bought this cooler for my AMD Phenom IIX4 965 BE 3.4ghz mainly because the stock cooler at full load is very loud. I had to use headphones when gaming to block out the high speed whirring of the fan. Installation was a little tricky but not difficult. Like it has been previously said when attaching the two metal plates to the heatsink attach them loosely before you put the heatsink onto the cpu. Attaching them loosely means you have to put less pressure onto them when attaching them to the cpu plastic surround and with a few turns of a screwdriver they fix the heatsink solidly to the plastic surround. As also said in a review about this cooler you may find it a little tricky to clip the fan onto the heatsink this is down to motherboard and memory type.I can't comment for all motherboards but the tricky ones are Gigabyte's MA770x xxxx and the MA790x xxxx models. Memory slot 1 is very close to the cpu on these boards. If you only have 2 sticks of memory you can move them to slots 3 & 4 and this problem can be avoided. If you have 3 or 4 sticks, like myself, then you'll find that depending on your memory the fan will either be touching the memory stick in slot 1 or worst case won't go on. I am using Corsair 13333 memory which only has a sticker covering the memory chips so in my case the fan is smack up to the memory stick. If your memory has plastic covers then you'll find the fan won't fit onto the heatsink because the plastic cover will block it. Like I said this is only if you have to use memory slot 1. Somebody asked me "I have 3 sticks of memory so can I use slots 2, 3 and 4?" No you can't. Memory slots are divided into 2 banks. Bank 1 are slots 1&2, bank 2 are slots 3&4. If you only have 1 stick to put into a bank then it has to go in either bank 1 slot 1 or bank 2 slot 1 (which is slot 3).So how are my temps now? Using the stock cooler I was getting 35-37c idle and 54-57 at full load. With this cooler I am getting the exact same temp. at idle and full load has gone up to 54-60c. I used `Core Temp' to monitor the temps. So an increase in temp. at full load. I can handle the small temp. increase even though this doesn't look good for the cooler's reputation but what is important for me is that it's quiet, very quiet at full load. Doesn't mean you can't hear it, you can, but the larger fan spins slower to achieve almost the same temp. results as the stock cooler without the high speed whirring. Another advantage is the air flow direction. This cooler can only be fitted in a down > up air flow direction (the original version of this cooler, not this Rev.2, can be fitted in a up > down or front > back air flow direction), meaning the exhaust air will blow onto your psu. This effectively cools your psu in the process and if like me you have a psu that has its fan on the bottom then this is doubly effective as the exhaust air flows directly into the psu casing and then out of the back of the psu. The fan is also close to the graphics card this means that it draws air over the circuitry of the card, another cooling affect.I haven't over-clocked my cpu so I can't comment on performance above stock speed.One modification I had to make to my case was to remove the plastic funnelling that directed air flow out of the side of the case from the side panel otherwise the panel would not go on and besides it is obsolete with this cooler.All in all a good cooler. Don't expect a massive heat drop unless you're having huge temp. readings with your existing cooler. Expect a quieter system which was all I wanted. Time to put the headphones away.

27.1.2013

First impressions were that it was quite large and the heat sink had a weight to it. As I only has a small motherboard AsRock 760GM-GS3, I had to remove one of the RAM cards so my system is still 64 bit but not 8 GB but 4 GB. Then I put the stock cooler back in to test if it will work, and it did work with 4GB RAM.It is interesting to note that if you start a computer with no heatsink, leaving the processor naked - the temperature of the processor will increase so much that the CPU will not boot.First time I have done this and a I have an AMD 3 Socket. I put the screws in the flaps first, then tried without being able to fit it in - kept hitting the processor with this 500 gram thing thinking I had broken something,so then I bent the heatsink panels and it was too loose, then I took it off and bent the heatsink panels again - put some new thermal paste Arctic Silver 5, which means I do not have to do all this again in 6 months as with the MK II default paste which I wiped off, then it worked when I heard that click, not too loud or too quiet. It is a weighty thing for 2 plastic clips - no wonder stock coolers are used, it is less of a risk when delivering the box to hell knows where.I also have 2 other exhaust fans 120mm one at the back and one which is loose and unscrewed sitting on the floor below the motherboard, or fatherboard as they call it in Germany.For a 3.2 Processor running at about 3.18, with PCI Express frequency over-clocked to 104 (this will turn your CPU into a high-end Blu-Ray player or a PCI express 2.0 Nvidia card run like 3.0 card putting it bluntly).I was really amazed by the transparency of colours of the Blu-Ray which would expect from a more high end graphics card than a GeForce GTS 450 1GB.Conclude:The temperature of the motherboard was mid twenties because of a chasis fan so that was not a problem. The temperature of the CPU would sometimes go over 50C at idle with the stock cooler. Especially because the heating had been fixed and the room was always too hot, so I opened the windows as it is an air cooler - it can only work if the air in the room is cool. Then I tried it with fingers crossed: the CPU temperature started falling gradually to 35C at idle.Last thoughts:Cuda may actually work now without the CPU over-heating and switching off at above 65C. I have also updated my ASROCK motherboard to 1.2. I would be a bit worried about moving the desktop because of the size and weight of the cooler with a loose 120mm fan in the case. Arctic Cooling 5 does thin out on the initial use and then it takes 50 to 200 hours to thicken. Time will tell....UPDATEThe thermal paste is starting to work after 2 days. Also the fan is running at 5650 revolutions which it was not before so CPU temp is 25 C MB temp 24 C. Cannot control speed of fan - but I have over-clocked to 3.6 with a 3.2 CPU with lowered voltages.UPDATE 2Voltages have been set to default because of stability issues. 2 120mm fans will consume voltage. The super increase in fan speed led to 25 C even with load - but it appears to be a random event (an anomaly) maybe a power surge but the asROCK can deal with it. Re-positioned 1 fan towards the front so it will blow sorry suck air in. Though the case has nothing designed for a frontal fan, instead of buying another case I tied it sideways with wires where the screws go in. Looks much better too inside, and it will be easier to move.

19.1.2012

I bought this to replace the stock cooler on my Intel E5800 DC CPU which only had a 3 pin connector on the fan but I needed a 4 pin cooler to be able to utilise the PWM facility on my motherboard. The old stock cooler was therefore running at max (2800rpm) which made it very loud.I ordered this through Amazon and it arrived well packaged a day earlier than scheduled which was a pleasant surprise. I opened the jiffy bag and then realised this was a MONSTER! 'I hope this bad boy fits' I thought to myself! Before I go on with the review, I found the video from 'Mr Reviewer' exceptionally useful and played it through my laptop as I went through the installation process.The only thing slightly different from the video were the locking pins for the mobo connector; mine were the same ones as shown in the photographs and to be honest they were easier to fit than the video versions by the looks of things. Be sure to also take the fan off when installing as this helps alot. It clicks off easy enough and goes back without a snag.I got this cooler fitted in about 30 minutes which included cleaning the previous thermal paste from my CPU (this cooler comes with pre-applied paste). Once I had the PC closed and wired up I pressed the power on button on my PC and then proceeded to BIOS. I was somewhat alarmed to find that the BIOS was showing the CPU at zero! I initially looked into the case and saw the fan blades fluttering and stuttering but not really turning. I thought it may have something to do with the PWM settings on my mobo so I disabled it (all the time I was conscious of the CPU temp creeping up). Still showing at zero!!! Pressed the power off button and reopened the case (earthing myself prior to that I hasten to add). I disconnected the fan connector from the mobo and unclipped the fan from the heatsink just to check that the blades could turn which they could do freely. It must have been a poorly fitted fan connector as when I reconnected and pressed power on the fan kicked into life and the BIOS told me it was spinning. I reactivated the PWM facility and set it up accordingly. The fan runs quiet even at full speed which is what I wanted as I play online games with this PC. My CPU temps are steady idle at 35C whilst pushing to 45C under load; impressive. They will probably drop further as the thermal paste beds in.In summary, be patient with the setup of this beast and definitely use the video to help you if you are uncertain. Take the time to remove the old thermal paste from your CPU as it is not recommended to have too much paste plus you dont want a mixture. The Cooler does the job and cools well and so it should for it's size! Works well with the PWM tool as it has a 4 pin fan connector. Only time will tell if this continues to do the same job but for under £15 delivered you cannot go wrong in my opinion. I still give it 5 stars as I think the shaky start was down to my sausage fingers as opposed to a fault with the fan!

9.7.2012

Compared to the stock cooler it replaced, this thing is a beast. It comprises a large heatsink, which appears to be an aluminium alloy and, unlike the stock one, is not in direct contact with the processor. Instead, copper heat pipes channel heat from the CPU into the heatsink. A fan is attached to the side of the heatsink by vibration absorbing rubber pins.The first thing to mention is that the instructions are not great. It's an annoying 21st century trend to provide pictures but no text. The first picture, marked "preparation", appears to indicate removing the fan from the heatsink. You have to remove the whole black plastic assembly here. It's quite simple,but if you misunderstand and think it's saying to remove the fan *from* the assembly, you'll find that's quite difficult to do. If you then manage to break one of the mounting pins after realising your mistake, good luck with your creative solutions to the problem.After that, the pictures continue with the method for fitting to an Intel CPU. There's a black mounting bracket and a bag of plastic bits which you have to assemble. If (like me) you have an AMD system, you need to turn over the paper. It looks like a simple enough procedure, but it involves a couple of fiddly brackets with little screws. The guide suggests you have to leave them loose, fit the thing to the processor, and then tighten once it's in place. I was completely unable to get it fitted that way. I thought I'd managed it, but it turns out the computer's not very happy running at 115°C. Eventually I resorted to pre-tightening the screws and using a pair of pliers to flex the brackets into position.Now came the next problem: space. In my case there is barely enough headroom for a side fan. It does fit, but we're talking a couple of millimetres clearance from the fan blades, and no clearance from its housing. To complicate matters, I have one of those cases where you slide a side off to get in, and the fan is mounted on that side. The side fan and the top of the heat pipes interlock when closed. The case can be closed/opened if I get it at just the right angle, and once closed the fan spins just fine. It was cutting it very close though! If you don't have a huge case, remember to take into account the protruding heat pipes.As for efficiency? I gave the thermal paste some time to do its thing, and then stress tested the Athlon X2 by running both cores at 100% for about 18 hours (Handbrake is wonderful for that). The temperature never got above 49°C. I'd call that a success. Running at full speed the fan is audible, but it's still less noisy than the one it replaced. And as it's PWM controlled, a more typical usage pattern should be much quieter.So I'd give 5 stars for performance and price, but the installation difficulty lets it down.

5.11.2011

damn good fan. keeps my quad core phenom iix4 975 idle between 30 and 37 degrees. stress tested on low power consumption for thirty minutes with prime 95: all cores 100% full load 30-37 degrees. have not yet tested on full power consumption but it keeps it low between 40 and 50 degrees when using multiple applications same time lol.one thing bothers me as i am a total noob at cpu upgrading etc etc. the PWM controls, i cannot find because even though it keeps temps low at maximum 1700RPM... i still want some 2500RPM coz damn this lil guy is quiet. i got HDD fan that makes more noise than whole computer!pros:quiet, keeps it cool, fits into my ANKERMANN atx midi case. (dont ask what the hell it is,

13.9.2011

There are many reviews currently in circulation which all say different things (either this is really difficult/really easy to install, or it doesnt work/works great etc) so I thought I would give a detailed review of my setup and fan performance to help out anyone who was like me and thought buying this product is a 50/50 gamble.First of all my original setup: A Phenom II X4 955 BE with stock cooler, a front bottom 120mm intake fan, a 120mm rear top exhaust fa, and a PSU with 2x80mm fans drawing hot air out the case at the top. I overclocked my CPU to 4GHz, 1.4V and idle temps were about 40C in ambient temp 23C. Under load they reached 64C in the same ambient temp after 20mins of Prime95.

19.12.2012

i must kick start this review by stating a possible issue with this cooler for AMD users; because of the bracket and the housing options you can only install this cooler facing up towards the top of the case or facing the bottom towards the graphics card, no side mounting is supported.this cooler does do a good job for the money, but PLEASE do not think this is OC friendly, my temps lowered about 4-6C from the stock cooler.This infact is a very very quiet cooler. my phenom II stock heatsink use to hit 5000rpm when gaming, very loud indeed whereas this cooler is very quiet at max fan speeds 2200 ish rpm im hitting.side note: when gaming the fan seemed to only hit 1900rpm and my cpu hit 54C,

18.10.2020

I have been in the market for a cooler to replace the stock one that came with my AMD R5 3600 CPU gaming wise using the stock I was getting temps of around 60 to 75c, even with my fan set-up 3 at the front as intake and 1 rear extractor with a holed mesh top that lets out air naturally.(I could fit some fans to help with top exhaust but I don't find I need it)I wanted a tower cooler again as my experience with them I get good results I used to have a Thermal take Tower cooler on my old Intel 2600k Sandy Bridge and it helped a lot even if it didn't have any cooper pipes or base. This Arctic Freezer 13X cooler has 3 copper pipes that have direct CPU contact well with paste (pre applied MX2 by the way)

3.7.2013

I replaced a stock Acer cooler. The Acer one did a fair job, and it had a cone that pulled in air from side vent. Therefor it had cooler air rather than recycling the hot air in the case. Unfortunately at every frequency of its variable rotational speed, it made a different pitched whinge and it was quite loud.Anyway this Arctic Cooling unit has taken a few of degrees off the (gaming) load temps. Idle temps are the same. The real beauty is that it makes no noise. I mean if I get down on the floor, and have the case side off I can hear the airflow. That's acoustic dynamics though, and is exactly what I would expect. It must have good bearings, which I think is why it's rotational operation is quiet/silent.

9.9.2012

As my standard cooling fan on my Intel i5 was beginning to get a bit too noisy, plus the fact that it wasn't really up to the job it had to do - more powerful software was putting pressure on the CPU - the time had come to upgrade the cooler. This cooler, the "Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler" looked to be a good deal and after reading several reviews and checking out the fitting of it on youtube, I ordered it. It came quickly and very well packaged.Let me say at this point that this cooler is quite big, far bigger than the cooler I removed. At first I was a bit concerned it wouldn't fit in my full sized case, but it fits well, just. It really is a bit of a monster.Fitting the cooler was far easier than I thought it would be.

20.11.2010

Moderately easy to install, comes with installation step by step diagrams. It took me about 7 minutes to install. The thermal paste ispreapplied to the contact base. I am running AMD 955 quad core with this cooler. This cooler is slightly worse in cooling as compared to the cooler(stock) which came with my processor. My CPU's idle temperature was 50C with the stock cooler and now is 53C with this cooler. And my CPU's under load temperature was 70C with stock cooler and with this cooler is 74C. i used Prime 95 to measure the load temperature. The reason i like this cooler is that its very quite as compared to the AMD stock cooler, which as noisy as a Jet engine LOL. This cooler runs at a nice 1700 to 1900 rpm,

3.5.2011

I bought this for an AMD Athlon II x4 640 that did come with a stock cooler but because I was unable to find details on it, such as noise level. I did some checks on this cooler due to the price and compatibility.This is a revised model (Rev.2). If you Google for Review checks you can find out the full information, the changes to this address some clearance and mounting issues with some Motherboards from what I read.This Cooler is extremely quite, the fan unit is suspended via silicone pins onto a matching black bracket that clips onto the heat sink fins, in the pictures it just looks like a black mount with a white fan clipped to the heat sink.

26.7.2009

Very good, very quiet, is a bit hard to fit the first time around, then you read the instructions and realise 1: You put it on facing the wrong way, and 2: you can detach the fan from the heat sink to actually get to the connectors.HOWEVER, In my gigabyte motherboard, when facing the CORRECT way, the fan hits on some of the motherboard cooling parts, and you actually have to bend some fins on the motherboard heatsink to fit the fan on.That's how it lost a star.Now, for the cooling thing.Here are some real, honest stats for those who really want to know.Please note, I ran tests with my computer doing nothing, then ran something that would use some of the CPU (sims 3 on the highest graphics setting,

15.2.2012

Done the video showing what you get and how to install on a AMD cpu. I didn't use the pre-applied Arctic Silver MX2, I prefer the Arctic Silver 5, also I wanted a better comparison between my stock cooler and this using the same compound. You can see when I attached the cooler I had a small amount of thermal paste located in the centre on the CPU. I've had it installed for 4 weeks now.To start with the temps I'm getting compared to the stock cooler are not bad, about 8c cooler on full load over 30min, On idle a drop of about 10c which I'm pleased with. The fan is a lot quieter than the AMD stock cooler fan, but is not silent, It's a gentle hmmmm in the background on idle. As you've seen in the video,

Arctic Freezer i13 X CO - Reviews

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