We are here to review the PWM fans from Arctic Cooling. First of all i would like to say thanks to Arctic Cooling for providing us with the test equipment. They have been more than generous and they are responsible for the following review. We were looking forward to review the PWM technology from Arctic Cooling and finally the time has come. The purpose of this review is to test and assemble the efficient cooling and air flow in the average pc case. Please note that the pc in the review was donated to us by Ultra Products.

 

 

About the Product

Our review will be on three particular items that provide airflow and cooling with in the case. We have 2 120 mm PWM fans and 1 Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro cpu cooler. Also Arctic Cooling provided us with all of the technical data and a small tube of Arctic Cooling thermal paste MX-1. If you don't know what PWM technology is, we will provide a small explanation of that it is and what it does.

Product Features and Specifications

Following information is taken from the Arctic Cooling web site.

Freezer 7 Pro

Extremely Quiet
The low speed 92 mm fan reduces the noise level to a minimum.
The patented fan holder is able to practically eliminate the typical buzzing sound of 92 mm fans.
Patent No 203 07 981 U1 (Germany)
Patent No 10/834 232 (USA)
The PWM chip in the motor allows an exact fan speed control via BIOS. (4 wire)

Powerful cooling
6 Heat Pipes (three used double sided) are able to transfer heat up to 200 Watt. The heat exchanger is built of 42 fins and consists of a surface area of over 4700 cm2 and allows for resistance free energy transfer to air.

Integrated Cooling of Voltage Converters
Air is drawn in from the side of the fan to cool the components around the CPU.
Some air is blown out towards the voltage converters o­n the mainboard with the bent fins at the bottom.


Patented Vibration Absorption
The four rubber connectors o­n the fan case act as a vibration damper to absorb the vibration of the running fan and prevent vibration transfer to the heatsink and the case.

The ARCTIC Ceramic Bearing provides an unmatched Life Time of 137'000h (L10@40°C) resp. an MTBF@70°C of 163'000h and thus a 6 year warranty. Arctic Fan 12 PWM

Patented PST (PWM Sharing Technology)

• Regulate RPM speed of up to 5 fans by the o­nboard CPU fan controller
  
  
• Lowest noise level for a given system load
  
  
• Control the entire cooling for your needs (silent / quiet / overclocking) via BIOS settings

   

  Lowest Noise Level at its Air Flow Rate
  
  Patented Case Design
  
  Patented Vibration Absorption
  
  Circulation Optimized Fan Blades
  
  High Airflow
  
  High Static Pressure
  
  Compatible with toolless Mounting Mechanisms for Standard 25 mm deep fans
  
  Long Lifetime
  
  6 Years Warranty
  The Fluid Dynamic Bearing offers a unique 400'000 h MTTF at 40°C. Therefore we grant a unique 6 years warranty.

 

Ok now that we got the spect out of the way, lets take a look at some close up shots of the test products:)

 

Closer look

Side Shot		Out of the box

The box came in not a bad shape. There were no major bends or rips. When i have opened the box i could see the top of the boxes. They were not damaged in any ways and looked brand new.

Freezer Pro 7		Arctic Fan 12 PWM

As i always say, picture is worth a thousand words, that is why i try to take as many pictures as i can. The presentation of the Freezer Pro and Arctic Fans was flawless. The box has this slick feeling to it when you feel it in your hands, makes you think that you are holding 30$ fans. hehe.

Arctic Fan 12 PWN		Contents of the box

When i opened the box of the 120 mm PWM Arctic Fans, everything came out without any force at all. By the pictures you can see that the fan comes with an instructional guide, mounting screws and two stickers. Please not that if you do not know what you are doing PLEASE READ THE MANUAL! The PWM is "Pulse Width Modulation". Let me explain this little more before we get in to the rest of the review.

Lets say that we have a 9 volt battery. And you would like to utilize 100% of that battery. Once you connect a device to a battery you can use up all of the 9 right a way however, what if we didn't really need the 9 volts and only need 5 volts at specific times? This is where the PWM technology comes in to play.

As we all know, most of the recent motherboard have the PWM feature enabled but how does it actually work and what does it do? The PWM fans use 3 wires in their configuration (Ground, Positive and a Signal). The signal is being send from the motherboard right to the fan. Then the flow control in the fan controls the speed accordantly. So the only the right amount of power is gets distributed to the fan. This results in the power saving and quiet operation of the fan. Now if you combine them all together you get one efficient cooling system. Lets look further...

Close up		Comparison of the size		Freezer Pro 7

When comparing the size of the fans, it doesn't surprise me that it is bigger than my blackberry. What i was looking forward to is the performance and the temperature drop in the case. Unpacking the Freezer 7 was quick.

Freezer Pro 7 out of the box		Close up shot		Side close up

When i ve opened the box i was amazed of the size of this thing! WOAH! However it didn't feel as heavy as it looked. In the following pictures i ve tried to show the exact size of the Freezer Pro 7.

Reverse side		Another side close up		Heat pipe technology

What i thought was really cool is the heat pipe technology for this particular CPU cooler. The pipes go all the way around the aluminum heatink causing proper heat disbursement from the CPU cooler block.

CPU heatsink block		Close up of the heatpipes		Solid mounting

On the bottom of the CPU block was stock spread of the contact paste. The actual paste on the botom of the heatsink is MX-1 so there is no acctual need to remove it. I just want to address the heat pipes. Gorgeous! :)

Mount screws close up		Mirror finish on the heatsink		P4800Pro-M V2.0

I have striped the original paste from the CPU block to show you just how polished the block is. Our test motherboard is ECS P4800Pro-M v2.0 and out cpu is the dual core 2.8 Ghz Pentium.

Close up of the motherboard		CPU 2.8 dual core		Arctic Paste

It is crucial that you use a good silicon solution before sitting the CPU block on top of the CPU. I have used the MX 1 High Performance Terminal Paste from Arctic Cooling. The rule of thumb is that you heat the paste up for about 24 hours before actually taking readings or seeing the performance.

Mounting the CPU cooler		Close up of the mount		Just enough room

Freezer Pro 7 fit the motherboard perfectly. The chipset cooler was just the right height for the CPU.

Cleared from capacitors		Over the top shot		Mounted fan

The capacitor clearence is great! I was worried that the heat pipes or heatsink would be too tall and i would have to resoder the capacitors. Thankfully i didn't had to do that. One of the important aspects of this CPU cooler is the fan and the vibrating reduction technology which is utilized by Arctic Cooling.

Clear shot of the attached fan		PWM connector

 

Patriot 1 gig PC3200 DDR		Perfect clearence		12 PWM fan installation

 

The ram that is used in this review is Patriot ram. 1 gig pc3200 DDR. The clearance space between the Freezer Pro 7 and the ram was not a problem. The whole installation of the Freezer Pro 7 was easy and fast!

Size comparison		Mounting screws		Nice and neat mounting

Installation of 12 PWM fans was easy too. Arctic Cooling has included 5 screw per fan.(1 extra).

Second fan installed		Overview		2 250 gig Western Digital SATA

I have used 2 Western Digital SATA Hard drives in this review. They are both 7200 rpm drives and would do the job just fine. I have also used Ultra X2 550W PSU.

Overview		Close up overview

Testing

Testing was performed over the time of 1 day. As i mentioned previously i have ran the PC on for about 3 days without powering it off. The reason being, is the melting of terminal paste, which would cause better conduction between the CPU and the CPU heatsink block. The first test was just to leave the system on and see how the PWM will work with normal environment. The cpu load was minimal so there were little heat. I have used Motherboard Monitor 5.3.7.0 to monitor and take reading of this review. Following is the overall temperature readings over 1 day.

Total number of readouts: 9088 CPU Speed: 2792 MHz
Running from: 3/11/2007 12:11:27 PM until: 3/13/2007 12:11:43 AM
Sensor		Current	Low	High	Average
Case		25° C	21° C	30° C	26° C
CPU		36° C	18° C	43° C	36° C
Core 0		2.37 V	2.35 V	2.37 V	2.37 V
Core 1		2.96 V	2.94 V	2.98 V	2.95 V
3.3		3.33 V	3.31 V	3.38 V	3.33 V
5		4.97 V	4.97 V	5.00 V	4.97 V
12		12.03 V	11.97 V	12.10 V	12.03 V
-12		0.00 V	0.00 V	0.00 V	0.00 V
-5		0.00 V	0.00 V	0.00 V	0.00 V
Fan 1		1383 RPM	0 RPM	1721 RPM	1395 RPM
Fan 2		4821 RPM	0 RPM	25961 RPM	4595 RPM

From this chart you can clearly see that the range of temperatures of the CPU is between 18 and 43 C. The average temperature of the CPU was 36c. This is excellent temperature for a normal operation of the CPU. Ok so what about 100% load on the cpu?

Next test was to take 50 readings under 100% CPU utilization. What i did was, i ran Folding At Home. For those who are not familiar with folding at home, folding is a client for a windows or linux os. What it does is utilizes your pc idle cpu time to compute difficult formulas which help scientists in findings of cure for many deceases. We at UMLan are port of it and very proud to be folding for cure!

The following table of data explains the readings every 30 minutes. You can clearly see that the temperature is being held at approximate 37C.

Date

Time

Frequency

Case

CPU

Core 0

Core 1

+3.3

+5.00

+12.00

-12.00

-5.00

Fan 1

Fan 2

3/14/2007

11:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

28° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.34 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

4687 RPM

3/14/2007

11:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

5818 RPM

3/14/2007

11:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1412 RPM

6490 RPM

3/14/2007

10:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

4821 RPM

3/14/2007

10:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

26° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

5443 RPM

3/14/2007

9:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

26° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

5625 RPM

3/14/2007

9:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

26° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1394 RPM

5273 RPM

3/14/2007

8:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

27° C

38° C

2.35 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1424 RPM

8437 RPM

3/14/2007

8:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

26° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

4687 RPM

3/14/2007

7:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

27° C

38° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1424 RPM

5921 RPM

3/14/2007

7:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3552 RPM

3/14/2007

6:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

24° C

35° C

2.35 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3479 RPM

3/14/2007

6:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

24° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3341 RPM

3/14/2007

5:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

24° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3552 RPM

3/14/2007

5:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

34° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3409 RPM

3/14/2007

4:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3409 RPM

3/14/2007

4:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1366 RPM

3214 RPM

3/14/2007

3:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3154 RPM

3/14/2007

3:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3040 RPM

3/14/2007

2:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3214 RPM

3/14/2007

2:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

24° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3341 RPM

3/14/2007

1:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

24° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3276 RPM

3/14/2007

1:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3479 RPM

3/14/2007

12:36:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1371 RPM

3341 RPM

3/14/2007

12:06:02 PM

2792 MHz

25° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3341 RPM

3/14/2007

11:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

25° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3409 RPM

3/14/2007

11:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1377 RPM

3479 RPM

3/14/2007

10:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

25° C

34° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

3552 RPM

3/14/2007

10:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

3629 RPM

3/14/2007

9:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

26° C

35° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

3668 RPM

3/14/2007

9:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

26° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

3970 RPM

3/14/2007

8:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

26° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1400 RPM

4272 RPM

3/14/2007

8:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

26° C

38° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1424 RPM

6490 RPM

3/14/2007

7:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

37° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1383 RPM

4687 RPM

3/14/2007

7:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1394 RPM

5113 RPM

3/14/2007

6:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

29° C

40° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1412 RPM

7031 RPM

3/14/2007

6:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1430 RPM

6617 RPM

3/14/2007

5:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

29° C

41° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1412 RPM

5818 RPM

3/14/2007

5:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

28° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1406 RPM

5273 RPM

3/14/2007

4:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

40° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1406 RPM

5625 RPM

3/14/2007

4:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

28° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1412 RPM

5443 RPM

3/14/2007

3:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

38° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.34 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1394 RPM

4440 RPM

3/14/2007

3:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

30° C

42° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1412 RPM

5818 RPM

3/14/2007

2:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

4326 RPM

3/14/2007

2:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

30° C

41° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1406 RPM

5625 RPM

3/14/2007

1:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

39° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1406 RPM

5113 RPM

3/14/2007

1:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

28° C

38° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1394 RPM

4891 RPM

3/14/2007

12:36:02 AM

2792 MHz

29° C

41° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1412 RPM

5720 RPM

3/14/2007

12:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

27° C

38° C

2.37 V

2.96 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1388 RPM

4687 RPM

3/15/2007

12:06:02 AM

2792 MHz

25° C

36° C

2.37 V

2.94 V

3.33 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1394 RPM

5113 RPM

AVG

2792 MHz

25.14° C

37.06° C

2.3692 V

2.9496 V

3.3304 V

4.97 V

12.03 V

0.00 V

0.00 V

1392.62 RPM

4623.06 RPM

 

Conclusion

I would have to say Arctic Cooling is one of the best cooling companies i have ever came across! This review proves me right. As you look at these pictures you can clearly see the performance and professionalism in their products. The set up was a breeze and overall experience of this review was pleasant. The performance of the PWM technology was reflected in exceptional cooling of the cpu and the whole case overall. By the table of data above we can see that the temperature of the cpu in idle state was 36C and under 100% idle load it was 37C. 1 degree of increase is an excellent reading! The noise dumper technology also was a great success with this particular setup. This technology minimized the vibrations from the fans to be transferred to the case, resulting smoother and quieter operation of he whole cooling unit. Over all i would have to give 10/10 to Arctic Cooling for designing the PWM cooling system with dumper technology on the fans. The price range you should expect to see for these components are Freezer 7 Pro 34$ USD and Arctic Fan 12 PWM are 10.99 each.

Some pros we found:

Highly efficient and proficient looking.

PWM at its best.

Noise level is to the minimum.

Fair price.

Heat pipe technology.

 

Some Cons we found:

None that i could find.