Review: arctic freezer 13 pro co

Arctic Cooling is the world's largest specialist for CPU and GPU coolers. At the end of June, it presented its new series of processor coolers “Freezer 13 PRO CO” and “Freezer 13 CO”. Both heatsinks are designed for continuous work 24 hours a day. We have brought the powerful Arctic Freezer 13 PRO CO to our laboratory.

Product courtesy of Arctic Cooling:

ARCTIC FREEZER 13 PRO CO FEATURES
Measurements	134mm x 96mm x 159mm
No. of fins	47 aluminum (8mm thick)
No. of heatpipes	Copper eight
Fan	120 mm: 300 - 1350 RPM 50 mm: 700 - 2700 RPM
Weight:	893gr
Dissipation Capacity:	300W
Airflow:	49.7 CFM / 96.8 m3 / h
Bearing	Dual Ball Bearing
Supported platforms:	Intel LGA 775/1556/1555/1366 AMD 754/939/940 / F / AM2 / AM2 + / AM3 / AM3 +

Designed to meet the needs of the most demanding users thanks to its great dissipation power (300W). Arctic innovates in its design with Cross Blow technology. This system consists of a small 50mm fan that automatically rotates on the heatsink base, allowing us to cool, for example, the phases of our motherboard. This fan is capable of reaching 500 rpm at 2700 rpm, so it can give off a lot of noise at high revolutions.

The heatsink is located inside a blister. Front and back.

The blister includes:

• Heatsink Arctic Freezer 13 PRO CO. Instruction Manual. Installation Base. Intel and AMD Kit.

The base is copper and Arctic MX-4 thermal paste is pre-applied and a total of 8 hetpipes of copper.

More detailed view of the heatpipes:

Includes a small 50mm fan. At full load it is capable of reaching 2700 RPM.

Back of the heatsink. It is impossible to install a second fan.

Heatsink Top:

Under the fan. The company logo and heatsink model are printed.

Fan detail:

Before starting the explanation we present the accessories. Heatsink Base:

Intel Kit:

AMD Kit:

We are going to install on an Intel 2600k processor from socket 1555. The first thing we do is place the plastic base on top of our socket. Next we take the Intel Kit and tighten the four black upper parts.

Now we place the heatsink on top of the base. For its installation we must tighten the two attached screws. The screw that is located on the fan side can be somewhat complicated to install. We recommend removing the fan by applying light pressure with a flat screwdriver (see image).

The heatsink does not have any kind of incompatibility with high profile memories. As we can see in the following image, we have no problem installing the 4 memory banks of our motherboard.

This is the end result of mounting the heatsink:

TEST BENCH:
Box:	Silverstone FT-02 Red Edition
Source feed:	Antec HCG620W
Base plate	Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
Processor:	Intel i7 2600k @ 4.8ghz ~ 1.34-1.36v
Graphic card:	Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti SOC
RAM:	G.Skills Ripjaws X Cl8
HDD:	Samsung HD103SJ 1TB

To check the actual performance of the heatsink we are going to stress the CPU with full memory floating point calculation programs (Linx) and prime numbers (Prime95). Both programs are well known in the overclocking sector and serve to detect failures when the processor works 100% for long hours.

How are we going to measure the processor temperature?

We will use the internal sensors of the processor. For this test on Intel processors we will use the “Core Temp” application in its version: 0.99.8. It is not the most reliable test, but it will be our reference in all our analyzes. The test bench will be around 29º ambient temperature.

We have compared the Arctic Freezer vs the Noctua NHC14 Dual FAN mode. These are the results obtained:

The Freezer 13 PRO CO heatsink is without a doubt the jewel in the crown of Arctic Cooling. It consists of 47 sheets of aluminum with a thickness of 8mm, a base and 8 copper heatpipes and the best pre-applied thermal paste on the market: the "Arctic MX-4". It incorporates a silent 120mm fan that rotates from 300 RPM to 1350 RPM. And an optional 50mm fan (Cross Blow Technology, 700-2700 RPM) that helps cool the heatsink base and phase area.

In our test bench we have used our Intel i7 2600k processor with an overclocking of 4800 mhz and 1.36v. We have compared it with the Noctua NH-C14 in its Dual FAN version. In our tests the Noctua has won at 4ºC in FULL. In idle there has been no difference between them. The temperatures obtained are very good with overclocking at full load (Full); 74ºC with Linx and in Prime95 of 77º.

We would like to talk about your mounting system. It is by far the best thing that has happened in our hands. In less than two minutes !! We have installed our heatsink without removing the motherboard from the box.

In short, the Arctic Freezer 13 PRO CO is a multipurpose heatsink. Able to satisfy users who seek maximum silence on their computer. Or to the most demanding offering good temperatures with medium / high overclocking on their PCs. As always, Arctic Cooling offers us confidence both for the quality of its components and for its excellent guarantee. The recommended price is € 48 and we are sure it will be a TOP sales.

ADVANTAGE		DISADVANTAGES
+ INNOVATIVE DESIGN.	- IT WOULD NOT BE WRONG TO ADD A TUBE OF THERMAL PASTE FOR FUTURE APPLICATIONS.
+ EXCELLENT COMPONENTS.
+ SILENT FANS.
+ THE FASTEST AND MOST COMFORTABLE ASSEMBLY SYSTEM THAT WE HAVE USED UP TO THE MOMENT.
+ EXCELLENT MANUAL.
+ VERY GOOD TEMPERATURES WITH OVERCLOCKING.
+ ARCTIC MX-4 PRE-APPLIED THERMAL PASTE.
+ DISSIPATES UP TO 300W.
+ 6 YEARS WARRANTY.

The Professional Review team awarded him the silver and quality / price medal: