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Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro versus Stock Intel heatsink/fan on a C2D E6400

C

Conky

Lifer
I've been building my own systems(and building systems for others) for several years and here is my review of a new Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro used on my personal E6400. Take it for whatever you think it's worth. 😛

I recently did the "poor man's Conroe upgrade" and got an ASRock 775-DualVSTA and an E6400. A week 24 cpu if this makes any difference. Text (this is a fantastic cheap upgrade BTW).

Preliminary info:

I installed the stock Intel heatsink/fan using some Arctic Silver 3 after scraping off the factory TIM(thermal interface material) with a wooden stick and cleaning it properly with alcohol. I then used the absolute minimum AS3 to make 100% contact with the HS/F.

For the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro I used it as it came stock with pre-applied MX-1 TIM. I scrubbed the cpu with alcohol to remove all traces of the AS3 before installing this HS/F. It was a bit tricky to get fastened right but I eventually got it locked down properly.

The testing methodology is as follows... in all tests I used MBM5 and Intel's TAT(Thermal Analysis Tool) to measure the results. I will present them as they were represented to me and I have screenshots for all of these results. The two programs used to stress the CPU were Orthos and Intel's own TAT 100% workload test feature. Both HS/F's were tested in the same fairly warm case 95-100F(lots of hard drives and fans, etc). Additionally, both HS/F's were subjected to at least 12 hours of real world use including video encoding and FPS videogame action.

And all of these results are at stock speeds... the ASRock 775-DualVSTA mobo, although very good at what it does, is not worth poop for overclocking and so results of this nature were left out.

IDLE temps:

Stock Intel HS/F with AS3 thermal paste:
47c/45c (cpu0/cpu1) according to Intel's TAT
104F according to MBM5

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with factory applied MX-1 themal paste:
42c/40c (cpu0/cpu1) according to Intel's TAT
96F according to MBM5

LOAD temps:

This gets a bit tricky as I used both Orthos and TAT to "torture test" the cpu. TAT is obviously much harder on the cpu as the following results should illustrate but I am including both because it might be useful to someone.

Stock Intel HS/F with AS3 thermal paste:
Under Orthos the peak temp results were:
60c/59c (cpu0/cpu1) according to Intel's TAT
120F according to MBM5

Under TAT's "100% load program" the peak temp results were:
67c/65c (cpu0/cpu1) according to Intel's TAT
125F according to MBM5

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro with factory applied MX-1 themal paste:
Under Orthos the peak temp results were:
50c/48c (cpu0/cpu1) according to Intel's TAT
105F according to MBM5

Under TAT's "100% load program" the peak temp results were:
56c/54c (cpu0/cpu1) according to Intel's TAT
113F according to MBM5

-------------

So my results say that that the Freezer 7 Pro reduces the IDLE temp by 5c or 8F depending on which measurement software is used.

And the Freezer 7 Pro reduces the temps under full load anywhere from 10/11c or 12F depending on the software again.

-------------

According to Arctic Cooling's site, this MX-1 thermal goop is supposed to "cure" and get better over time. I will be the judge of this and will add back to this post if I think a substantial difference has occured as a result of this "curing process".

And if you are still reading at this point, thanks for letting me express my inner geek with these results. 😛

As my tests show, the Freezer 7 Pro is worth checking out if you are in the market for a non-stock Heatsink/Fan. I got it cheap too, $21 and change delivered when SVC and Newegg get over $35 delivered for the same unit. I don't work for Arctic Cooling or the company who sold it to me but it's not a big secret and can be found easily enough on this forum without much trouble. 😉

Bottom line, I think it was worth the upgrade.

BB

 
Nice review, BB. :thumbsup:

I hope to duplicate your good results with my E6400/AC F7 setup. The stock HSF is total garbage.
 
I wonder if the Freezer 7 would give me similiar results on my smokin hot, Cedar Mill 651.

When I start gaming, I can hear the stock Intel fan wind up like a 747 taking off from Dulles airport
 
Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
BWAHAHAHA!

Yesterday you hated the Pro 7 😛


...Galvanized
Click to expand...
Yes, I hated it at first when it wouldn't bolt down correctly. :|

After taking apart my system for the second time :roll: and fixing the cheap connecter that came with this "freezer 7 pro" I was able to finally get decent results from it.

I'm not saying it's the best because I'm sure it's not but it's definitely better than the stock Intel heatsink/fan. 😛
 
What "cheap connector?" I'm looking at mine (I'll be installing it all into the P180 tomorrow morning...too late now) and the thing I find cheap is the entire retention mechanism! It just seems flimsy to me for such a large cooler. But, it obviously works (insert "thousands sold!" tagline here) else they'd have changed it. *shrug*
 
Originally posted by: MichaelD
What "cheap connector?" I'm looking at mine (I'll be installing it all into the P180 tomorrow morning...too late now) and the thing I find cheap is the entire retention mechanism! It just seems flimsy to me for such a large cooler. But, it obviously works (insert "thousands sold!" tagline here) else they'd have changed it. *shrug*
Click to expand...
The part of the connector I had an issue with was the very end part that is sorta clear and is split. There are four of these. Both sides of the split need to go through the motherboard and one side of one of them decided to bend the wrong way and didn't go through the motherboard. I couldn't see this until I took the mobo out of the system and this is why I initially had problems. It was easy enough to fix when I figured out what was going on.

 
Originally posted by: Beachboy
Originally posted by: MichaelD
What "cheap connector?" I'm looking at mine (I'll be installing it all into the P180 tomorrow morning...too late now) and the thing I find cheap is the entire retention mechanism! It just seems flimsy to me for such a large cooler. But, it obviously works (insert "thousands sold!" tagline here) else they'd have changed it. *shrug*
Click to expand...
The part of the connector I had an issue with was the very end part that is sorta clear and is split. There are four of these. Both sides of the split need to go through the motherboard and one side of one of them decided to bend the wrong way and didn't go through the motherboard. I couldn't see this until I took the mobo out of the system and this is why I initially had problems. It was easy enough to fix when I figured out what was going on.
Click to expand...


Buddy, I had the same *@&#^!!! problem! :| The EXACT SAME problem happened with one of the connectors on my setup. Can you believe that crap? I had to pull the thing off twice to "re-smush-together" the little white legs. :| I'm sure that wasn't good for the AS5 on there, but it was late and I was really tired and wanted it done.

So far, it's better than the stock Intel HSF, but the AS5 hasn't been thermal cycled yet. It'll take a couple of days for that. So far, so good, though.
 
installed the stock Intel heatsink/fan using some Arctic Silver 3 after scraping off the factory TIM(thermal interface material) with a wooden stick and cleaning it properly with alcohol. I then used the absolute minimum AS3 to make 100% contact with the HS/F.

Unneeded step!! Would not have made a difference at all in the temps!!!
 
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