Installation :

The Freezer 64 Pro uses the stock AMD bracket, which makes installation a breeze, removing the fan during installation gives you plenty of working space and you can easily clip it back on afterwards. The drawback of this custom fan bracket is loss of compatibility, as no other fan can be installed onto this heatsink, lucky for us Arctic Cooling’s 100mm fan is of high quality and won’t disappoint.

The clip works the same as with the Stock AMD heatsinks, but you can change the heatsink’s orientation, by removing the small screw you see in the photo below, you can install the heatsink so it blows air towards the top or rear.




The normal Freezer 64 does not offer this possibility and with the DFI board I’m using this heatsink ended up blowing air upwards:



Luckily with the Freezer 64 Pro you have a choice:





Performance and Noise :

Let’s see how it compares to the stock A64 cooling and its predecessor the Freezer 64



In the first test configuration the temperatures run up very high (which you will see will be the trend with this config). At 100% fan speed the Pro is quite noisy but is also able to keep the overclocked CPU under 60°C. Slowing down the fan shows an increase of 7°C, noise drops to a whisper quiet 35dBA, you’ll have to visually check to know if the fan is running, because it’s dead silent. The PWM area is running hot as there is not a lot of air circulation; the downward bend fins on the Freezer 64 Pro prove to be effective, while with the “none-Pro” version PWM reaches a worrying 80°C!

Time to add more case cooling:



Again both coolers are tied at 100% fan speed; only at 50% the Pro version is able to take a small lead. The PSU is drowning out the CPU fan noise completely and at 50dBA the system is clearly audible in a quiet room.

Putting the CPU at stock speeds gives this:



Both Freezer 64 coolers perform identical at 100%, at 50% the Pro has the edge. The Freezer 64 is aligned to blow air upwards to the PSU instead of the rear due to the alignment of the socket on this DFI board. To level the playing field I installed the Pro to also blow towards the top:



Although the difference is not big, it’s recommended to let the heatsink blow heat out towards the rear, which makes sense of course.


The Verdict:

The Pro version performs on par with the Freezer 64 when running at 100% fan speed in my testing, at which point the Pro is louder, but when the fan speed is reduced the larger Pro heatsink shows it muscles, keeping the CPU cooler as well as the surrounding components.

Featuring easy installation, excellent out of the box performance and a very competitive price the new Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro will be very popular with good reason!


PRO
Excellent performance
Quiet operation when fan is slowed down to 50%
Easy Clip-On Installation
No matter the CPU socket orientation you can install the heatsink to blow air towards the rear.
Pre-applied MX-1 high performance thermal paste
Very competitively priced

CON
Does not offer a performance improvement over the original Freezer 64 in some cases
Custom fan bracket does not allow other fans to be installed
Quite noisy with fan at full speed (44dBA @ 50cm)

Where to buy?


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