This, as the name suggests, is the second coming of the freezer xtreme. This is a dual tower design cooler, though you can not really tell this from the size of the cooler. Between the two towers sits a 120mm fan –which is a departure from the 92mm fan seen on the freezer pro series. The cooler weighs an almost anorexic 608 grams with a fan and measures 130x100x131mm (LxWxH). It will fit into almost any mid tower casing with a clearance of about ~135mm from the motherboard. The cooler has 4 “double sided” heat pipes and is rated for processors with a thermal profile of up to 160 Watts.

PACKAGING

The cooler comes in an all plastic case. This is something that has been seen before (e.g. Xigmatek’s Achilles’ cooler). There is little or no protection provided to the cooler in the plastic shell. Though unlike the Freezer 7 Pro, the fan is protected by the cooler itself, it is possible for the Aluminum heat plates to get bent or damaged during shipping.

The plastic case has a paper inlay that lists the features (cooling performance and noise generated) and the specs of the cooler at the back of the packing.

The base lists the features in languages other than English.

As I have already mentioned, the packing is mostly to prevent the contents from falling out. It serves little or no protective function. Even though this is cooler is not exactly a bank breaker, a little protection will probably result in fewer RMAs.

THE COOLER IN PERSPECTIVE

The Freezer xtreme rev 2 is a dual tower design cooler that is compatible with almost all Intel and AMD processor that currently exist. This includes all Intel LGA 775, 1156 and 1366 and AMD S754, S939, AM2, AM2+ and AM3 socket based processor. This means that this cooler can be used with processors as old as the original Athlon64 and the Intel Pentium 4 (beyond Northwood). That is certainly an exhaustive list. An even greater achievement is that the cooler supports all these processors this with a single mounting frame (for Intel processors; for AMD processors it uses the default mounting mechanism already installed on the motherboard) which can be installed on the motherboard without removing it from the case. This is due to the cooler being extremely light weight and hence does not require installation of a back plate to support its weight.

The dual towers are pierced by 8 heat pipes (arranged in pairs of 4). The fan is in center, just like the Noctua NH-D14 and Tuniq Tower. The heat sink base, made of pure copper comes pre-applied with Arctic Cooling’s own MX-2 thermal paste.

Two large “X” logos adorn the sides of the cooler. The fan holder also has large “X” logo on the top. You can say the fan is “X” rated!

THE COOLING TOWER

The cooling towers are each made of up 46 large and 5 small Aluminum plates. Thus there are a total of 102 plates. The smaller plates at the bottom of the cooling tower allow air to pass over voltage regulation circuitry and other components around the motherboard processor socket. The large plates have an area of 40.3cm2, while the smaller plates have an area of 29.5cm2. Each tower thus has a heat dissipation area of 4555cm2. Thus the two towers have a combined area of about 9019cm2. This is nearly double the heat dissipation area offered by the Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2.

The sides of the plates facing the fan cavity have serrated edges. This is a common feature among many modern coolers and is designed to minimize air turbulence as it passes through the heat plates. This reduces noise and improves cooling efficiency of the heat sink.

The sides of the cooling tower have a large “X” logo. This is mostly ornamental and probably serves no thermal function. There is a small cavity for the fan to lock onto at top of each of these plastic plates on the inside. It does look nice though!

THE HEAT PIPES

The unit has 8 heat pipes arranged in pair of 4s. Strictly speaking there are thus only 4 heat pipes. Each heat pipe has a diameter of 4mm. They are made of Copper and are not Nickel plated. They are soldered to the heat sink base and run in line through the heat sink. Each tower gets one set of 4 heat pipes.

They are not staggered as they pass through the heat plates, which might have improved heat dissipation.

HEAT SINK BASE

The base is comes pre-applied with Arctic Cooling’s MX-2 thermal compound. The base is made of pure copper and again is not Nickel plated.

Removing the compound reveals a super flat, “sanded” base. Though it doesn’t have a mirror finish it is relatively shiny. At the top of the base are the clips for installing the cooler to the mounting mechanism.