There seems to be a trend lately with more and more companies releasing smaller and smaller CPU coolers that are aimed at the media center or HTPC crowd. These coolers must be small as space is very limited inside of most HTPC style cases, and since it's a media system noise levels are a large factor as well in their design.

Today for review I've got the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 LP CPU cooler, it's very small, and virtually silent. The Freezer 7 LP is aimed at the media center or HTPC crowd with silence and compact size as it's main features, but how does it perform? Read on to see how it compares to other CPU coolers when tested on C2D and C2Q processors...

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 LP Review

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: Arctic Cooling

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 LP

Low Profile Intel CPU Cooler optimized for Slim Cases

Most small chassis users find it difficult to buy a suitable cooler replacement that fits the size of their PC case. Freezer 7 LP, a cutting edge Intel CPU cooler especially designed for media center users to fulfill their needs.

Main Features:

-Dual Heatpipes Design

-Optimized Heatsink Design for Low Profile Intel Systems

-80 mm PWM Fan

-Patented Fan Holder eliminates the Humming Noise

-Pre-applied High Performance Thermal Compound

-Easy Installation via Push Pins

-Light Weight, Transport Save

-6 Years Warranty

Application:

Intel socket 775 CPUs up to 90 Watt

MSRP (excl. VAT):

17,95 € / US$ 27.95

Slim Beauty

The revolutionary heatsink design of the Freezer 7 LP reduces the size of the cooler dramatically, leaving it only 40mm slim (to the air intake level) and 263g light, almost half the weight of usual CPU coolers. With this ultra thin dimension, the Freezer 7 LP easily fits into any small chassis with limited space.

Freeze and Breeze

Apart from its lightweight and low profile design, the Freezer 7 LP also performs excellent cooling execution. Two heatpipes, 40 fins and an 80mm PWM fan dissipate heat from the CPU core efficiently and rapidly. Together with the highly thermal conductive pre-applied MX-2 thermal paste and voltage regulator cooling, the Freezer 7 LP is 20% cooler (thermal resistance) than the generic E8500 low profile cooler, giving media center users an unexpected cooling experience.

The Art of Silence

Like other ARCTIC COOLING products, low noise impellers and patented fan holder are used to minimize the noise level. Even though spinning at full load, the Freezer 7 LP generates only 0.5 Sone of noise – 71% quieter than the Intel low profile cooler.

Specs:

Dimension: 109 L x 108 W x 42 H (to air intake level) / 53 H (with fan holder) mm

Weight : 263 g

Fan: 80 mm x 1

Fan Speed: 600 ?V 2000 RPM (controlled by PWM)

Air Flow: 28 CFM / 47.6 m3/h

Maximum Cooling Capacity: 90 Watt

Additional Information:

Cooling Performance

All Pentium 4 and Core 2 CPUs have an integrated "Thermal Throttling" i.e. in case of overheating risk, the number of working cycles is reduced, thus lowering performance however preventing the CPU from overheating. Therefore to reduce the noise level, a CPU cooler can work at its limit and this way drop the noise level significantly. The Thermal Throttling gets usually activated at 85°C core temperature.

Good system ventilation is crucial for the CPU cooling. The temperature inside the PC case should never exceed 38°C. Therefore we recommend to use a controlled case fan, like the ARCTIC Fan PWM series.

Thermal Compound

We ship our coolers with our latest ARCTIC MX-2 thermal compound pre-applied. MX-2 is a high thermal conductivity and low thermal resistance compound that optimizes thermal dissipation. It is ideally suited for use in CPU and GPU cooling where thermal conductivity is a major factor.