FAN
The cooler comes with a custom made 120mm fan. It consists of a round impeller inside of which the propeller is placed. The entire fan is black in color. The fan bears no air direction arrows, thus novices might insert the fan in the wrong direction within the cooler. As a general rule the labeled side always points towards the side where the air exits the fan.
The fan has a lock-on clip mechanism on the top. The holder, as has been mentioned before, has a large “X” logo.
As this is a custom made 120mm fan, it is not possible to slide in a traditional 120mm, without adding some form of support on the sides. The clip mechanism is molded onto the bundled fan. This is a pity as the cooling performance can easily be improved by adding a more powerful (albeit noisier) fan.
Rather than specifying the noise generated by the fan and the subsequent airflow in the traditional dBA units, Arctic cooling chose to use the lesser known “sone” unit. At its maximal rotational speed of 1500rpm the fan generates about 0.5 sone according to Arctic cooling. The stock Intel fan generates about 1.8 sone at 2850 rpm. .8 sone correspond to about 37 dBA.
The fan has 4 wire PWM speed control. It is rated for 37.5 cfm flow at its maximum rpm of 1500. It is rated for 800-1500 rpm operation.
For some odd reason Arctic Cooling decided not to sleeve the fan cable as they did on the Freezer 7 Pro. As the fan cable passes through the heat sink it is more liable to get damaged. I am not sure why AC took this decision.
COOLER IMPRESSIONS
The fan has a very basic construction like its main competitor the Cooler Master Hyper 212plus. No Nickel plating, visible solder joints. Unlike the hyper 212plus this is not a heat pipe direct touch cooler. Also unlike the hyper 212plus there are heat plate surface modifications to reduce noise and improve air flow. The construction quality is what you would expect for a budget product. The heat plates have “soft” edges, so one doesn’t get abraded fingers during installation.
ACCESSORIES
The cooler ships with a standard accessory package, which allows installation onto virtually all available Intel and AMD processors.
For Intel processors a mounting plate is included. For AMD processors, pair of lugs is provided which help latch the cooler on the standard AMD mounting mechanism. Simple yet effective.
The mounting plate for Intel processors is installed onto the motherboard from the front rather the usual back of the board. This is definitely welcome as it is not necessary to remove the board from the case to install the fan.
The plate fixes to the board by using a system of push pins. A push pin is inserted first which is then supported by a plastic unit.
The fan needs to be removed to mount the cooler on the base. A set of screws is used to fix the cooler onto the base. Once that is done the fan can be reattached to the heat sink.
As the unit comes pre-applied with thermal paste, one is not included in the accessories bundle.
There is also a nifty Arctic Cooling sticker in the package.
The accessories bundle is “sparse”, but that does not take anything away from the cooler. It gets the job done and gets it done well. The mounting system is definitely a welcome change from the usual remove the board before installation that is common place for most after market coolers.
INSTRUCTIONS
The unit ships with an instruction leaflet with diagrams and text. The diagrams are self explanatory. Most users, even novices will find that the cooler can installed by following the visual instructions provided by the diagram.
ONLINE RESOURCES
The web pages for this cooler follows the traditional Arctic Cooling website design lay out. There are 5 pages dedicated to this cooler. They are for the main features, specs, support, picture gallery and reviews/ rewards.
I can’t fault the web pages for their content, layout, grammar or comprehension. They are properly written and get the message across. Since the cooler will have minimal issues during installation I do not see many turning to online resource for help regarding installation. The support tab does list a series of spare parts including the fan and the entire accessory package. These can be bought from Arctic Cooling’s web-shop. This is a very good addition. Not only is Arctic Cooling cutting the middle man out thus increasing their margins, they are also providing a one stop shop for their customers.
OFFICIAL SPECS AND FEATURES
These are taken from Arctic Cooling’s Website
- • Unmatched cooling performance – 160 Watts
• Unique twin tower 102-fin heat sink design
• Effective heat dissipation via 4 double-sided heatpipes
• 1 ultra quiet 120mm PWM fan
• Patented fan holder eliminates the buzzing sounds
• Voltage regulators and north bridge cooling
• Pre-applied MX-2
• 6 Years Warranty
Heatsink 130L x 100W x 131H mm
Fan 120mm x 1
Fan speed 800 -1500 RPM (Controlled by PWM)
Air flow 35.7CFM / 60.7 m3/h
Maximum Cooling Capacity 160 Watts
Weight 608g
INSTALLATION
The cooler will be installed in a LGA 1156 based board and will be tested using an Intel Core i7-860 and a Core i3-530 processor.
*The images taken are from an installation on a Core i3-530 processor. Since the motherboard used in both the test systems the same, the installation process is similar as well.
THE MOUNTING MECHANISM
It is very easy to fix the mounting plate on the motherboard. After installing the processor, the mounting plate is placed over the mounting holes.
The mounting plate has pre-cut holes for all 3 contemporary Intel platforms: LGA 775, 1156 and 1366.
Once that is done the cavitated pushpins are inserted in the holes. Finally the plastic pushpins are used to fix the mounting plate to the motherboard.
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