Performance Comparison

Since both CoolIT product make use of TECs to improve performance we thought it would be interesting to see how much more your system is using under full load. Do note that the pump and fan are also powered by the system, compared to a system installed with the stock Intel heatsink these are the results:



The Freezone at Low settings consumes only ~10W more compared to air cooling, leading us to believe that the TECs are simply turned off, since the pump uses up 8W and the fan about 2~3W. At Medium power usage is still acceptable at +22W, however at High setting you pay the toll for that extra performance, at 188W total wattage you bump overall usage quite a bit. The differences between the different settings are less stellar on the Eliminator unit, at Low already +24W, at maximum also close to the Freezone with 184W.

What are a few Watts more or less, if the temperature is kept low? Time to compare the CPU temperature results with those obtained by popular air cooled heatsinks. The Coolermaster Hyper TX covers the lower cost compact units, the Intel Alu reference for those who are still using default material, and two high end units, one equipped with a high noise fan, Tuniq Tower 120, the other with a quieter 120mm model, the Ultra-120;

Noise levels were recorded with the side panel removed, anything below <40dba is dead quiet, below <50dba quiet for most people; once you go over 50dba the system will become clearly audible in a room, 60dba can hear it next room. here are results:



Looking at the CPU temperature results only the CoolIT Freezone takes first place, besting the coolest air cooling solutions we tested to date, if only by 0.5°C. The Eliminator has a harder time keeping up with the competition, even at High setting it fails to improve on the Hyper TX from Coolermaster. The Stock Intel heatsink is easily beat; only at Low setting do both CoolIT models trail the default offering.

Noise wise however it’s a completely different story, no matter what the performance setting, nor the Freezone nor the Eliminator are quiet, with the fan at lowest setting the pump is still quiet audible, once the 92x92x38mm fan comes into play the noise level quickly rises and tops out slightly over 60dBA which makes it a very noise solution.


Conclusive Thoughts

While we include prices in almost our reviews to help us come up with a conclusive thought about the product tested, we are not quite encouraged to look for them here. Both CoolIT products cost more than $100 (~$150 and ~$250 to be precise) and that is simply too expensive when a sub $100 air cooled product can easily outperform these products, offering a better performance/noise ratio.

The performance of the Freezone is quite good if you can forget about the noisy fan, the Eliminator is not that different in design and specification but scores noticeably lower, keeping the CPU less cool than its bigger brother.

Both units however feature a fan which was picked for endurance, long life time and performance; neglecting an important piece of the pie: noise. For a 92mm fan to become silent it has to spin quite slowly and is unable to cool down a CPU heatsink, let alone a radiator heated by TECs. In order to drop noise without sacrificing performance you need to increase fan size and fan number, unlike what you would expect, installating two 120mm fans won’t make your system twice as loud compared to installing only one.

The Freezone and Eliminator need to accommodate not one but two 120mm fans running at low speed, the Pump must be able to throttle with more/less voltage provided (such DC fans exist, look at Danger Den’s 12V DC pump), only then will we get a product which will deliver performance and be quiet. To outdo the current crop of high end air cooled heatsinks they’ll have to expand the radiator size and maybe even add more TEC units. In the end you’ll have to ask yourself the question: where does it end, and how much is a few degrees shaved off the CPU under load worth to you?

While we would have loved “to love” these TEC using products from CoolIT we just can’t find any reason at this point in time to recommend them at their current price point and noise level.

We do encourage them to further explore the TEC world and provide us innovative products, all things said, the Freezone and Eliminator are quite unique products in a market filled with dozens of similar looking water and air cooled products.

Novelty


We thank CoolIT for allowing us to test their products and for their patience, thank you for reading.