Arctic Freezer II is okey, but which one?

lIrenicuSl · Aug 26, 2020

Hello there,

Greetings EarthDog, Woomack and others - a long time no see.

I am about to upgrade my CPU cooler and I decided to go with Arctic II AIO, but I am struggling with a choice.

Is it really worth to go for 280/240 one, if there is 120 version of it?
I am asking because the price difference is huge, but I can not find a performance difference going with this price.

The difference between 240 and 280 is around 5-8$, so obviously I would go for the 280 one.

But I can not find any valuable reviews with the 120mm, and I am wondering, is it worth to safe 25$, if performance would be worse like 10%. It is just my shoot, but I am open to your opinions here.

Could you advise me?

EarthDog · Aug 26, 2020

To be clear, this is going to cool your 7700K system, right? What cooler do you have now? If it is a decent one, the water cooler won't likely be much better in the first place.

Regardless, unless you plan on pushing that 7700K to cooling limits, a 240/280 is fine.

lIrenicuSl · Aug 26, 2020

ATM I am using: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo,

On the tests CPU is getting 82-85oC, When I am playing games with high CPU usage I Am always around 70-75oC.

Maybe not the cooler is a problem just my case or the fact that I never did CPU delidding?

Here is me playing Horizon Zero Dawn at PC, you can see the temps:

I had to make underclocking for this game, my CPU is now at 4700 Mhz, because with 4800 and above I was getting the throttling.

I highly believe that my case can be a problem, because of 2 things [which I have marked red around].
I think because of those 2 little boxes inside my PC, the air is not able to flow correctly?

Case: Sharkoon BW9000- White
Below a picture of this setup:

EarthDog · Aug 26, 2020

Temperature throttling? Then yes, you would want a better cooler.

BugFreak · Aug 27, 2020

I would say the difference between the 240 and 280 will be minimal. I would go with what fits best. I'm actually quite surprised that cooler isn't doing well. That looks like a copy of the Cooler Master Hyper which cools plenty good. Maybe it just needs a clean or remount or new fans?

Both of those boxes can be removed in all cases I've worked with. They are usually held in with rivets that can drilled out easy enough. In some cases I just cut off the bottom of the top box to give me enough room. That way I still could mount drives but had the space needed for the radiator. Also the pic doesn't show your top, does it have a spot for fans? My Cooler Master case fits a 2x120 radiator up there without removing the drive mounts.

lIrenicuSl · Aug 27, 2020

BugFreak said:
I would say the difference between the 240 and 280 will be minimal. I would go with what fits best. I'm actually quite surprised that cooler isn't doing well. That looks like a copy of the Cooler Master Hyper which cools plenty good. Maybe it just needs a clean or remount or new fans?

Both of those boxes can be removed in all cases I've worked with. They are usually held in with rivets that can drilled out easy enough. In some cases I just cut off the bottom of the top box to give me enough room. That way I still could mount drives but had the space needed for the radiator. Also the pic doesn't show your top, does it have a spot for fans? My Cooler Master case fits a 2x120 radiator up there without removing the drive mounts.

Yes, it supports even AIO coolers with 360mm, problematic thing is: the AIO thickness.
I am not sure if 65mm AIO will fit, because this is how FAT the Arctic II freezer 280 is, Fans+ radiator. The 240 One is 63mm "fat"

Here is the picture of the TOP side:

EarthDog · Aug 27, 2020

Measure it.

lIrenicuSl · Aug 27, 2020

Today my CPU was cooking himself, watch this picture below.

I did tests with 4,7GhZ + 1.28 Vcore voltage.

BugFreak · Aug 27, 2020

Did you move the computer or something else that could move the cooler? I would try to remount the existing cooler before buying anything. That is a pretty big jump and usually when I have jumps like that I have poor contact with my CPU. A remount is free and could save you some cash.

lIrenicuSl · Aug 27, 2020

BugFreak said:
Did you move the computer or something else that could move the cooler? I would try to remount the existing cooler before buying anything. That is a pretty big jump and usually when I have jumps like that I have poor contact with my CPU. A remount is free and could save you some cash.

No, I did not.
I will try to remount everything at the Satruday. I will check new chassis, and new AIO, if they wont change anything, I give up.

ehume · Aug 27, 2020

BugFreak said:
I would say the difference between the 240 and 280 will be minimal. I would go with what fits best. I'm actually quite surprised that cooler isn't doing well. That looks like a copy of the Cooler Master Hyper which cools plenty good. Maybe it just needs a clean or remount or new fans?

Both of those boxes can be removed in all cases I've worked with. They are usually held in with rivets that can drilled out easy enough. In some cases I just cut off the bottom of the top box to give me enough room. That way I still could mount drives but had the space needed for the radiator. Also the pic doesn't show your top, does it have a spot for fans? My Cooler Master case fits a 2x120 radiator up there without removing the drive mounts.

I agree about the AIO, but the heatsink [the present cooling solution] sucks.

Zerileous · Aug 27, 2020

Notice how cores #1 and #3 are 10C hotter than #2 and #4? Deliding I believe will help with that. It is possible the TIM under the IHS has aged and is failing. Also in the summer time ambient temps often increase. There is generally a 1:1 ratio of ambient to component temps (roughly) so if your room is 5c hotter, so will your CPU be.

All of this said, the AIO should be a marked improvement, but the factors mentioned could explain the change.

lIrenicuSl · Aug 27, 2020

ehume said:
I agree about the AIO, but the heatsink [the present cooling solution] sucks.

Could you expand this sentention? I don't understand what do You mean

Zerileous said:
Notice how cores #1 and #3 are 10C hotter than #2 and #4? Deliding I believe will help with that. It is possible the TIM under the IHS has aged and is failing. Also in the summer time ambient temps often increase. There is generally a 1:1 ratio of ambient to component temps (roughly) so if your room is 5c hotter, so will your CPU be.

All of this said, the AIO should be a marked improvement, but the factors mentioned could explain the change.

I think there may be issue with Voltage too, in the second test, which I did not present it here, the Tomahawk Mobo in "Auto" voltage settings, gives 1.28 to 2 cores, and 1.26 to 2 others, I don't know if its healthy, so I went back to 1.28 for ALL, but it is just a hint.

maxfly · Aug 28, 2020

Is it possible to mount a 120mm fan inside the top 5.25 bay blowing towards your cpu cooler? Or better yet mount 120mm fans blowing down onto the heatsink from the top?

ehume · Aug 28, 2020

lIrenicuSl said:
Could you expand this sentention? I don't understand what do You mean

I type one-handed these days, so my msgs are brief. Generally, 240 and 280 AIO's do a fine job at cooling. I reviewed the 1-fan version of that heatsink. While I had it, I experimented w/ 2 fans.

In the review I put the best face on it, but the heatsink sucks.

MaddMutt · Aug 28, 2020

I did a quick look at this - https://www.tech-critter.com/unboxing-review-sharkoon-bw9000-w/ . If this is your case - You can do a AIO 240mm up top. There are many options with this case if you are going to do a custom water loop :thup:

In that review, the TOP 3x120 = 360mm is just for a radiator w/out fans

. The front does not look like it can hold a 240mm AIO w/out removing the drive tray. There are several -240mm AIO's that we have reviewed over the yrs. <- I'm a big fan of Corsair's H-100 - 240mm AIO's Series. If you don't care about noise :rofl:

-> I'm also a HUGE fan of Delta's fans - ~150 & 200+ CFM will cool almost anything :comp:

^ Remember - If you are going with a AIO/Custom Water - you still need a fan in the rear to help cool the VRM section :plus1:

^ To get the best AIO OC on that 7700k - you will need to De-lid it. You should be able to hit ~ 5.2GHz with a AIO after you have De-lidded it of course

lIrenicuSl · Aug 28, 2020

Hello Guys,

Thanks for assitance, I would like to share some update with you:

I have clneaed my entire PC, and bought a new Thermal Paste - GC Gelid Extreme, to my old build, it did not help at all...

But today I went to a "random" pc store and saw this guy:

Right now I am testing It and will give you an update at the weekend.
If the results wont make me happy, I will go for an AIO.

I forgot to say; I have in my stock I think a decent fan:
Cryorig QF140 Performance - this guy has 128 CFM at his max speed, he's laud, but he does the job.

This case has 3 fans x140mm on the front. I will make few combinations with 3 or 4 fans, and will give you know in two days.
I am thinking about 2 front + 1 back, eventually +1 top [intake]

In my opinion, fan at the bottom loses 50% of his performance, because half of it, pushes air to the cables.

lIrenicuSl · Sep 1, 2020

Hello Guys, I did delid to the CPU today, I will let you know soon, the differences between delid/no delid. AIO and no AIO, atm waiting for AIO delivery.

Arctic Freezer II is okey, but which one?

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