Arctic Freezer Xtreme Rev 2 Heatsink Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, May 28, 2012
Conclusion
In this review we looked at a new cooler from Arctic called the Freezer Xtreme Rev2. The cooler appears to be designed to provide a good cooling base over a stock cooler and yet remain relatively silent under full load operation. This saves on fan noise, and to a lesser degree power.
We did observe a higher than expected C/W rating during our overclocking tests despite the average rating at stock speeds. This simply tells us that to support the heat load we will likely need a more powerful fan to keep things cool. The twin tower design and wider radiator surface area does increase the cooling capacity however the small contact patch and four heatpipe design is a limiting factor.
Installation wasn't the best with this cooler we had difficulty getting the cooler installed and once installed the locking pins wouldn't release causing the tabs to break. We don't normally comment on removing a cooler since in the real world most people don't do that however in this case, and considering the destruction, we felt it was worth a mention. Of course had Arctic choose to use the Intel locking pins many of the issues we had installing the cooler would have been eliminated with the same ease of installation.
All things considered the Arctic Freezer Xtreme is a great cooler that both remains silent and offers a certain degree of ambient cooling for the motherboard. The cooler doesn't offer a level of cooling we would consider good for overclocking but does an excellent job keeping our 2600K cool under normal operation.
We did observe a higher than expected C/W rating during our overclocking tests despite the average rating at stock speeds. This simply tells us that to support the heat load we will likely need a more powerful fan to keep things cool. The twin tower design and wider radiator surface area does increase the cooling capacity however the small contact patch and four heatpipe design is a limiting factor.
Installation wasn't the best with this cooler we had difficulty getting the cooler installed and once installed the locking pins wouldn't release causing the tabs to break. We don't normally comment on removing a cooler since in the real world most people don't do that however in this case, and considering the destruction, we felt it was worth a mention. Of course had Arctic choose to use the Intel locking pins many of the issues we had installing the cooler would have been eliminated with the same ease of installation.
All things considered the Arctic Freezer Xtreme is a great cooler that both remains silent and offers a certain degree of ambient cooling for the motherboard. The cooler doesn't offer a level of cooling we would consider good for overclocking but does an excellent job keeping our 2600K cool under normal operation.
Good Things
Hidden 120mm Cooling Fan
Twin Tower Design
PWM Cooling Fan
Twin Tower Design
PWM Cooling Fan
Bad Things
Could benefit from a more powerful fan
Mounting hardware too complex for what it does (Intel hardware)
Limited to a single fan
Fan cannot be upgraded or replaced
Mounting hardware too complex for what it does (Intel hardware)
Limited to a single fan
Fan cannot be upgraded or replaced
