Arctic Cooling Duo: Alpine 7 & Freezer 7 Pro Attack Value
by Wesley Fink on January 29, 2008 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
No one really should expect the Alpine 7 (with PWM)/Alpine 7 Pro to challenge a Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme for top air-cooling performance. That would require suspending all notions of performance for the money. It's a bit more realistic to have higher expectations for the Freezer 7 Pro since it is a side-fan heatpipe tower similar in design to the top performers tested so far. However, the 92mm fan is not likely to give the big 120mm fan coolers a real run for their money. Still, the mid-sized fans sometimes can come close. Results did not upset our expectations, as neither the Alpine 7 nor the Freezer 7 Pro came close to dethroning our top coolers. However, that should definitely not be considered a negative for either of these value priced coolers.
For the money the performance of the Alpine 7 and Freezer 7 Pro are both simply outstanding. The Alpine 7 sells for less than $15 and it handily outperforms the excellent stock Intel cooler that comes with kit CPUs. Many higher-priced coolers barely outperform the Intel, and the Alpine 7 turns in a significantly better performance than the benchmark Intel retail design. The Freezer 7 Pro fares even better. This sub-$25 cooler exhibits performance scaling that is much better than we had any right to expect at this price point. It also pushes overclocking to a very good 3.85GHz, which is a record for this price point.
Both coolers are also superb in cooling at stock CPU speeds, under both idle and load conditions. In fact, they are so good at stock performance that it is easy to recommend one of these coolers as a way to extend your CPU life even if you have no intention of overclocking. That is particularly true when you consider how quiet both coolers are. Either cooler is near silent in most situations.
Arctic Cooling obviously used quite a few tricks with these coolers to keep noise low, and they succeeded very well in reaching that goal. Low-priced coolers are supposed to sacrifice noise and longevity to keep the price down, but neither of these coolers gives up anything on either count. They both use low noise, longer-life fan bearings and elastomeric fan mounts. This is expensive engineering, and this attention to sound engineering succeeds in making the Arctic Coolers amazingly quiet.
It is true the Arctic Cooling duo did not break through the top of our cooler performance charts, but they do something too few products do today. Both the Alpine 7 and Freezer 7 Pro meet or exceed their specifications. Both also deliver competent and silent performance with simple but effective engineering while delivering exceptional value for their price. Exceptional value is always a good thing and you will never regret the small amount you spend on either of these coolers. They are not the best performing coolers you can buy today, but both are the top performing cooler you can buy at their respective price points. There's nothing wrong with earning the distinction of "Best Buy for the Money".
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
48 Comments
View All Comments
yacoub - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
It's a shame it took this long for you guys to review the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, which is a staple of the cheap-but-effective heatsink setups for overclockers. Glad to see it performed rather well. =)Archon29 - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
I just built a new PC with 2 front intake fans, one rear exhaust fan, and the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. My E4500 hits 40c at idle, 59c at load, and 63c with a 600 Mhz overclock. Not sure if my CPU reports the temp high (I've heard of this), I got a dud with the Freezer 7, or I applied my thermal paste wrong, but it sucks seeing other people get these kinds of results. I'm almost tempted to see what I would get with the stock fan but that would be a lot of trouble.orenlevy - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
is closed by dust.the alpine 7 resist and keep working long after many other stop dissapating heat.
i will be glad that when you benching somthing you will chek it for the long run. as im living in israel (dusty) i have lot of experience. oren
swaaye - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
I had a Freezer 64 Pro on an Opteron Dual Core about 2 years ago. It was pretty good and cheap, but the fan gets loud when it's at full speed. When I got my Core 2 Duo, I switched to Scythe Ninja Plus because it cools a lot better while being basically silent and only a bit more expensive.I'm all about effective + quiet these days and I wouldn't go back to that Freezer unless it was a CPU that didn't need much cooling power.
9nails - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
I've had a Freezer-7 on a Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz E6850. I bought it based on good feedback at NewEgg in November. I wanted a cooler that was quiet, better at cooling than stock, and one that could extend the life of my CPU. I'm glad to say that the Freezer-7 has met all my expectations. It's been rock solid and something which I could easily recommend.limo wreck - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
What did you use to control the speed of the fan during the tests? Asus' QFan? Speedfan?Would you know what the speed was during idle and under load? The reason I ask is because I have an AC Freezer 7 Pro and although it is somewhat quiet, I definitely wouldn't call it "near silent" like you did in the article.
gorobei - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
while the fan may not be equivalent to the AC, the design is roughly the same. Given the new testbed and temp monitor, the hyperTX2 should be worth a second look.poohbear - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
gotta give credit to arctic cooling. Their vga coolers are top notch: reasonably priced (compared to the $50 option from Thermalright and zalman) and virtually silent. seems they replicated this for their cpu coolers. hope to see more products from these guys in the future.Etern205 - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
Is there by any chance in a future article that you guys do a test to see how well are the new Intel stock coolers?And excellent review.
Etern205 - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
I mean the stock cooler for the Extreme edition cpus.Like this one