- Joined
- Sep 7, 2003
- Location
- Warsaw, Poland
I wasn't fully satisfied with my all-copper Zalman clone and was looking for another cooler for my Barton. Most of cooling products are insanely expensive here, except for Arctic Cooling which are cheap and TT which are in acceptable price.
Shopping:
So I bought myself Freezer7 - for LGA775 CPUs. Fan on it is claimed to be 2500RPM, but Speedfan reports around 2600RPM. It's got that new 4pin connector, but it fits 3pin - rotates at full speed then.
Modding:
LGA775 isn't too similiar to Socket A, so I removed screws holding bracket and removed it. It's also glued to base - for additional stability I think. Initially I considered using 3 metal plates to form H shaped bracket that would hold cooler using 4 mobo holes around socket. Finally I grabbed piece of aluminum around 2-3mm thick, drilled holes to match mobo holes. Then I cut it to fit on mobo and using file I cut off a bit on sides to make room for pipes.
Base of cooler looked not that bad, but I never put heatsink on without lapping it. I started with 800 to see how flat it is and problems started... Base was pretty flat, but it turned out that there are a few scratches that weren't visible earlier. They were around 1-2mm wide, probably effects of manufacturer using tools that weren't sharp enough. I had to go down with grit to 150 to remove them. Then after removing scratches, I went up to grit 2500 for nice mirror finish. Edges lost flatness, but that's outside CPU core area, so I didn't care.
Installation:
I grabbed 4 screws, some nuts and insulating washers. New mounting bracket was glued to heatsink. And then
- no AS5 around. I used bundled MX-1 paste by Arctic Cooling. It's very dense, doesn't like to stick to CPU too much and is a lot harder to apply comparing than AS5. Anyway heatsink was installed. It's huge but it's noticably lighter than my old all-copper heatsink.
Performance:
Yay! It works. Lapped Freezer7 with custom bracket and MX-1 paste just after installation was better than all-copper Zalman clone (with fan replaced for better airflow-to-noise ratio), lapped with AS5 used for around a month by around 5°C - Barton 2500+ 1833@2400, 1.8v, Folding at Home. P95 difference was around 6°C.
Performance and noise:
First attempt on 2500MHz wasn't successful, after rising voltage to 1.85v it could prime for around a minute, then BSOD. It was pretty hot here yeasterday, so I think that after it chills a bit or using higher voltage, 2500 should be in range.
So is it a failture? No way! At full speed it isn't very quiet. There's no way that 2600RPM fan can be silent. There comes Speedfan to resque. After decreasing speed to around 2000RPM, it's very nice. Due to unique fan construction, noise is pretty acceptable even for me. For night I "declocked" my CPU to 2000MHz and set fan <1000RPM - full success. I think it would be possible to run it at 2200MHz around 1000RPM.
Conclusions:
I'm fully satisfied with Freezer7 @ Socket A. At lower noise it's better than my previous cooler, which wasn't that bad after all. It allows running in very wide speeds range - around 500-2600RPM. Bundled fan is very good an it comes with thermal paste and case sticker. Heatsink is easy to clean and fins are very smooth, what reduces air restriction and noise. Considering, that I bought this brand new cooler for around $16.80 converting to USD, I can see nothing offering similiar performance in this price range. Now it has voided 6-year guarantee
To compare, TT Typhoon is around $46 here and Sonic Tower - $43.
I can recommend this cooler for everyone who has Barton, driller, metal plate and set of screws, washers and nuts - both for people who like performance and silence freaks.
Pics... ehhmm... No digital camera around... However on friday evening, my bro should come and he has camera so you may expect some pics. Cooler itself isn't modded, so you can just visit AC site, remove standard mounting and add aluminum plate and that's what I have on CPU right now.
Shopping:
So I bought myself Freezer7 - for LGA775 CPUs. Fan on it is claimed to be 2500RPM, but Speedfan reports around 2600RPM. It's got that new 4pin connector, but it fits 3pin - rotates at full speed then.
Modding:
LGA775 isn't too similiar to Socket A, so I removed screws holding bracket and removed it. It's also glued to base - for additional stability I think. Initially I considered using 3 metal plates to form H shaped bracket that would hold cooler using 4 mobo holes around socket. Finally I grabbed piece of aluminum around 2-3mm thick, drilled holes to match mobo holes. Then I cut it to fit on mobo and using file I cut off a bit on sides to make room for pipes.
Base of cooler looked not that bad, but I never put heatsink on without lapping it. I started with 800 to see how flat it is and problems started... Base was pretty flat, but it turned out that there are a few scratches that weren't visible earlier. They were around 1-2mm wide, probably effects of manufacturer using tools that weren't sharp enough. I had to go down with grit to 150 to remove them. Then after removing scratches, I went up to grit 2500 for nice mirror finish. Edges lost flatness, but that's outside CPU core area, so I didn't care.
Installation:
I grabbed 4 screws, some nuts and insulating washers. New mounting bracket was glued to heatsink. And then
- no AS5 around. I used bundled MX-1 paste by Arctic Cooling. It's very dense, doesn't like to stick to CPU too much and is a lot harder to apply comparing than AS5. Anyway heatsink was installed. It's huge but it's noticably lighter than my old all-copper heatsink.Performance:
Yay! It works. Lapped Freezer7 with custom bracket and MX-1 paste just after installation was better than all-copper Zalman clone (with fan replaced for better airflow-to-noise ratio), lapped with AS5 used for around a month by around 5°C - Barton 2500+ 1833@2400, 1.8v, Folding at Home. P95 difference was around 6°C.
Performance and noise:
First attempt on 2500MHz wasn't successful, after rising voltage to 1.85v it could prime for around a minute, then BSOD. It was pretty hot here yeasterday, so I think that after it chills a bit or using higher voltage, 2500 should be in range.
So is it a failture? No way! At full speed it isn't very quiet. There's no way that 2600RPM fan can be silent. There comes Speedfan to resque. After decreasing speed to around 2000RPM, it's very nice. Due to unique fan construction, noise is pretty acceptable even for me. For night I "declocked" my CPU to 2000MHz and set fan <1000RPM - full success. I think it would be possible to run it at 2200MHz around 1000RPM.
Conclusions:
I'm fully satisfied with Freezer7 @ Socket A. At lower noise it's better than my previous cooler, which wasn't that bad after all. It allows running in very wide speeds range - around 500-2600RPM. Bundled fan is very good an it comes with thermal paste and case sticker. Heatsink is easy to clean and fins are very smooth, what reduces air restriction and noise. Considering, that I bought this brand new cooler for around $16.80 converting to USD, I can see nothing offering similiar performance in this price range. Now it has voided 6-year guarantee
To compare, TT Typhoon is around $46 here and Sonic Tower - $43.I can recommend this cooler for everyone who has Barton, driller, metal plate and set of screws, washers and nuts - both for people who like performance and silence freaks.
Pics... ehhmm... No digital camera around... However on friday evening, my bro should come and he has camera so you may expect some pics. Cooler itself isn't modded, so you can just visit AC site, remove standard mounting and add aluminum plate and that's what I have on CPU right now.
