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 Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
- Not everyone can afford or even wants a giant heatsink with incredible overclocking prowess. The Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 is a simple, compact cooler that's easy on the wallet and installation.
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Everybody loves to read reviews on high cost, top of the range, PC components so it's often easy to forget that most people who read those reviews can't actually afford those items. In fact, many of us are on a budget, either self imposed or simply because of lack of funds. That doesn't mean that we don't require certain items for our PC's. And just because we are not spending top dollar for a component, doesn't mean we have to settle for below par items.
One of the more common items you'll likely want to buy for your PC is an uprated heatsink to replace the standard cooler you get with a CPU. The past three reviews on heatsinks we've done here have been high cost monsters. Don't get me wrong, they've been great, but they don't exactly cater to the lesser budget.
The does though. It's a tower style cooler, using the now almost obligatory heat-pipe set up, and a fan to cool the fins. So does it's cheap price mean it's not up to much or is it a bit of a bargain? Let's find out.
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Main features
• Unmatched cooling performance – 200 Watts
• Ultra quiet 92mm PWM fan
• Quick installation without mainboard disassembly
• Transport-proof due to fibre reinforced retention module
• Fluid dynamic bearing extends service life
• Pre-applied MX-4 |
The box for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 is tight fitting little number that's shaped to near enough the contours of the heatsink itself. It's completely clear, so you get a very good look at what you're buying. Turning the package around we can see on the rear all the pertinent information you might require.
Opening the box is a very simple affair; there are three clips on the sides and bottom that hold the two halves of the package together. Inside, you find the heatsink itself, a small instruction manual and the mounting components.
The Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 sports a 92mm fan in white, with a black surround that can pop off the front to aid in cleaning and installation.
Turning the heatsink around we can see numerous fins that provide the aluminium surface area for cooling the four heat-pipes.
The three pin fan cable is pre-sleeved nicely and easy to handle/hide during installation.
Speaking of which, the pipes themselves are staggered within the fins to help in making sure each pipe receives some of the air flow from the fan. The pipes go right down into the base, as close to the CPU as possible. The pipes, like the base, are made from copper.
The base comes pre-applied with some of Arctic Cooling's MX-4 paste. As you can see, in the picture, the base is covered by a clear plastic protective mould, which I foolishly removed and forgot to put back on. Yep, I covered my hands in the MX-4, and then put the base back on until I was ready to install.
Moving to the top of the heatsink, we can clearly see the staggered formation of the pipes, and a sticker with the Freezer 13 logo on the black surround.
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Installation is pretty simple, but in both AMD and Intel set ups, you will first be required to remove the fan. After that, you loosely screw the mounting lugs (which fit on the existing AMD socket), with the screws provided, on to the heatsink, put the heatsink and lugs in place and tighten the screws. For Intel, you attach the supplied mounting bracket using push pins, and then screw the heatsink on to the mounting bracket. Then you re-attach the fan. In both cases, if you've already installed the original heatsink that came with your CPU, you'll easily be able to install the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13. The Intel installation can of course be orientated as you see fit, but the AMD installation, like many AMD heatsinks that use the existing mounting bracket and lugs will be at the mercy of the socket orientation on the motherboard itself.
AMD Above, Intel Below
You can check out the full installation manual .
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