ARCTIC COOLING “Freezer 4”

Socket 478 Pentium 4 CPU Cooler
With such a huge range of different CPU coolers to choose between, many people are quite baffled where to start. For many people cost will be the deciding factor, whereas others will choose a cooler based on fan size/speed, size, colour, copper base, thermal resistance etc.

I have personally chosen this Arctic Cooling “Freezer 4” due solely to its performance and ultra quietness. Having recently upgraded my CPU to a 3GHz Prescott, the old Akasa 670CU cooler was simply not up to the job of shifting the vast amounts of heat produced by the new processor.

Love at First Sight
The Freezer4 arrived in a very nice looking black cardboard box, with a picture on the front and specs/instructions on the sides. This oozes high quality before I even see the cooler as many other coolers are packaged in much cheaper looking vacuum formed plastic. Upon opening the box I am quite surprised to see the size of the Freezer4 (92x114x120mm) occupies most of the box apart from some plastic inserts to hold and protect the cooler, a ‘AC’ case sticker, and a small tube of thermal paste (yes, this is supplied in the box!).

The Freezer4 is a strange looking device compared with conventional coolers. It is impressively sized yet weighs in at just 488g. There is a copper base sandwiching the 4 copper heatpipes, which extend upwards into the stack of no less than 40 aluminium cooling fins. Attached to the top of the cooler is a very bizarre looking 77mm fan which blows air through the entire fin stack. This is all topped off with an attached mounting clip, black sheathed wire leading to a motherboard header plug, and Arctic Cooling logo on the top.

Installation
Installation is very quick and simple, although a little fiddly. After giving the processor and base of the Freezer4 a quick wipe with a lint-free cloth to ensure there’s no dust or dirt, I applied a liberal coating of the supplied thermal paste to the processor. Then I hooked in the first side of the mounting clip onto the stock bracket, held the Freezer 4 in position, and then clipped the other side of the mounting clip onto the bracket. (While this process is relatively easy, it can be tricky to either reach or see what you are doing when trying to secure the final side of the mounting clip). Once the Freezer4 is secure, a small twist of the whole unit ensures it is seated properly on the CPU (due to the mounting mechanism, the Freezer4 will twist just a few degrees on the CPU. This does give a good opportunity to ensure, the Freezer4 is seated properly, and that the thermal paste is spread evenly. This twisting however is not recommended once installation is complete and the thermal paste has had chance to set.) And finally, just plug in the fan header to the motherboard, and you’re all set.

A point worth noting is that on this particular motherboard (Gigabyte 8IK1100rev2), the Freezer4 fan only just clears the Northbridge’s Zalman heatsink, but might not allow enough room on some boards with taller northbridge heatsinks/coolers. This isn’t a bad point in this particular scenario, as it does draw a good flow of air through the fins to help cool the northbridge.

Test Computer
The computer in use comprises of the following:
· Alpine EZ Cool (Mac G5 copy) case, with Tagan 480w PSU
· Gigabyte 8IK1100 rev2 motherboard, with Zalman northbridge cooler
· Intel P4 ‘Prescott’ 3.0GHz CPU
· 2 x 256Mb DDR400 memory, run in dual-channel
· GeForce FX5200 128Mb 8xAGP
· 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 80Gb SATA hard drives
· Pioneer DVR108 DVD Writer
· Lite-On DVD drive
· Mitsumi Floppy drive/ combined card reader
· 56k PCI Modem

Testing
First of all, to get the computers CPU up to an ambient temperature, I left it booted up for 60mins in Windows XP, with Winamp 5 playing my music in the background. This give the computer a chance to reach its normal operating temperature so that appropriate temperature readings can be taken. An idle temperature is taken at this time.

Next I stress the PC, using SiS Sandra 2005’s burn in wizard, set to repeat continuously for 30mins. This is not necessarily the best way to put a computer under load, but nonetheless it provides a half hour long gruelling exercise that puts all areas of the computer under pressure for testing, and is bound to cause the ‘Prescott’ CPU to throw out more heat. During the 30th minute (while Sandra is still working) a load temperature is taken.

The entire idle and load process is monitored three times, just to make sure I don’t record any fluke readings. The results are shown in the table below, compared with my old Akasa 670CU cooler (which wasn’t Prescott rated anyway).
Cooler Idle Temp Load Temp
Freezer 4 (av) 32.7 C 42.7 C
Akasa AK-670CU 37 C 56 C

Figure 1 – Comparison of CPU idle and load temperatures.

The table shows the impressive ability of the Freezer 4 to keep the ‘Prescott’ CPU cool, even under a continuous load. A difference of only 10˚C between idle and load states is considered very acceptable. Bearing in mind that without a cooler (which is not recommended) a ‘Prescott’ CPU can obtain temperatures of 90˚C upwards, which means the Freezer 4 cuts temperatures by around 2/3s.

Conclusion
In conclusion to this review, the Arctic Cooling “Freezer 4” is simply one of the best socket 478 air coolers out there at the moment. Its operation is nearly silent, installation is extremely easily and although it can be fiddly it doesn’t require motherboard removal like some other heavier coolers, and its cooling power is awesome. Oh, and it looks great too – An LED-lit version could improve looks for the modder though.

Despite its impressive ability to cool CPU’s, this performance cooler is very reasonably priced at just £20.56 (inc. VAT, available from www.overclockers.co.uk), so it needn’t break the bank.

The ‘Freezer 4’ is the must-have performance cooler for today’s and tomorrows processors.
(Also available in LGA775, and Athlon64 compatible models)

Definatly the best review i think i've seen on here! I would like to see some more of your work sir .

bravo, bravo

Thanks for the comments, they're very much appreciated.
Not many views yet or interest in the poll, it has only been there for a day though, but 4 peeps wanting me to do another review is certainly encouraging.

Not bad at all Cache-Man

Hosted pix within the article would have been nice, kinda breaks things up a little.

Myself, I'd see no led's as a 'pro' rather than a 'con' but we all got different tastes

If you really want to stress your CPU try Prime 95

Another thumbs up from me Very nice!

I currently don't have any webspace to host the pics on so I had no other choice but to attach them - There were originally pics in it but I had to remove and attach them so i could submit the review in the thread.
Next time I'll make sure I sort my webspace to host pics from

With regards to the LED's, I do like it without, but a LED version of the same unit could have been another section of the market for Arctic Cooling....In fact, that's just given me an idea for a Mod - somehow mount some LED's between the fins. It would emit quite a subtle glow that way...I'll do some thinking about that one.

I will also give Prime 95 a try as I have some PSU's to test anyway.

I am still using the Freezer 4, although recently it has started to rattle occasionally, causing a annoying reonance in my case.
It has been running pretty much 24/7 for the past 4 months though.

I've got one meself on my AMD64 3700+ and it keeps it below 45c all the time, even when heavy gaming i havent seen it go anywhere near 50c. Im very pleased and wouldnt of got it if I didnt see your review .

Apparently the Arctic Silencer 64 (new AMD version) is also very good