CoolIT Freezone – Installation

Installation of the Freezone is pretty much identical to that of the Eliminator, also requiring motherboard removal, and installing the stand offs, we ended up orientating the water block different on the CPU as this was better to prevent the tubes from bending in extremes:



We could rest the Freezone on the 5.25” bay during installation to easily access the CPU area to use the thumb screws to secure the water block;



Like the Eliminator the Freezone expels hot air outside the case:



After you have found a place for the MTEC unit you hook up all the power and sensor cables, last but not least, CoolIT advices you to hook up the Pump to the CPU fan header on the motherboard for both Freezone and Eliminator models.



When we asked if the 12v was build to be undervolted we received this answer:

The pump draws about 8W (12V). You are correct that the connection to the motherboard is made to indicate a failed pump. The pump is NOT designed to run at less than full power.

We understand that connecting the pump to the CPU fan header will indeed help to detect pump failure, however what happens if you enable dynamic fan speed control, a feature present on many of today’s motherboards, if a fan was connected it would slow down the fan if the CPU was running cool (idle), this will essentially also undervolt the pump; something to think about. We did not test undervolting the pump as CoolIT advices against it to prevent damage to the pump.

As with the Eliminator, if your case side panel features a fan or handle you need to improvise to make it all fit as the Freezone sits right next to the side panel. Unlike the cheaper Eliminator though there is no *bling* LED here to be seen when powered on:



CoolIT Freezone – Performance

We stressed the system for several hours and logged the CPU temperatures while turning the rheobus on the MTEC unit of the Freezone, we tested at default “medium”, max “High” and min “low” setting. Resulting in this little bit more crowded chart:



(1) At High performance setting the Freezone delivers impressive numbers, the CPU is at only 42.5°C under full load, the system is drawing more power from the wall outlet too compared to the Eliminator @ High, we’re now at 188W.
(2) At default “Medium” setting the CPU temperature crept up close to 60°C and then the MTEC temperature sensor kicked in, noticing the higher temperature, thereby increasing the power to the fan and TECs, at the (2) point the full system usage was 143W.
(3) With the extra cooling power which was auto-activated the CPU temperature settled at 55.5°C and power usage was up to 160W.
(4) We set the MTEC’s rheobus to the minimum setting and observed as the CPU temperature rose past the 60°C mark and going well on its way to 70°C.
(5) Again the MTEC unit kicked in and the temperature dropped to a maximum of 64.5°C at full system usage of 149W.
(6) We let the system idle until it reached the minimum CPU temperature with the Freezone running at maximum performance setting, with a room temperature of 22°C, the idle CPU temp was a mere 23°C, 1°C more. However…


The system ran for close to an hour at idle with the case closed, opening the cases did not reveal much, so let the system running, without side panel. About 1 hour later we checked up on the status and noticed on the cold side of the TEC this phenomenon:



Exposed to the ambient air at the cold side of the TEC hooked up the water block we can see condensation forming, our colleague reviewer at Overclex experienced the same thing, as he tested the products outside a case. However inside a case (with closed side panel) there was no sign of condensation… something to remember.

Let’s compare the performance and noise levels of the CoolIT products to some popular air cooling solutions ->