Worth replacing Star Ice with Artic Freezer Pro?

phresh · 27 Feb 2006 at 19:33

I'm installing my PC in a new case at some point over the next fortnight and just wondered if anybody had any idea how the two of these perform head to head? I'm going to re-seat the heatsink anyway so it wouldn't be anymore hassle replacing it.

The main reason for replacing would be because the Artic Freezer is (I assume) quieter, although I could quite hapily bodge the star ice into something a little more noise friendly if required....

Cheers

ACPCUP · 27 Feb 2006 at 19:40

Have you thought about the Thermalright Si-120 or XP-120 with a decent fan on it?

phresh · 27 Feb 2006 at 23:27

I thought about it when I originally purchased the Star Ice, but to be honest I just prefer the idea of it directing air towards the rear vents than straight into the top of the case (will be using a HTPC case...). Plus from what i've read the Artic Freezer is pretty much the best air cooling you can get that isn't overly noisy, and lets be honest, is a steal at less than £20.

The one thing that does appeal to me about the Thermalrght is that I could use a rather silent 120mm fan, but not entirley sure if it's worth al the money purely for that...

pinkaardvark · 27 Feb 2006 at 23:33

Depends if your overclocking or not I guess, on my 4400x2 the arctic sits at just 859 rpm and the cpu is at 32c most of the time so the cooler is nigh on silent. I have the Qfan motherboard fan control on on my mobo.

UOcUK Poopscoop · 28 Feb 2006 at 00:32

I used the Star Ice on my old P4 setup and grew to hate it.

Fitting it was a pig, it was noisy and then developed this odd howling noise that only shut up whenever I touched its casing.

The Arctic is dead easy to fit, quite and cools really well for an aluminium solution.

The Star Ice may cool *slightly* better but I am willing to sacrifice that.

matt100 · 28 Feb 2006 at 01:15

it was my brief period with so called "performance" heatsinks like the piece of **** asus star ice that pushed me to watercooling much quicker than I expected.

Granted I had the full list of issues with it, namely I was using socket 775 so it really was a gargantuan pain in the ass to fit (eg mobo out) it was noisy, it had a weird whistling noise and it was utter trousers at cooling my heavily clocked P4.

The freezer pro HAS to be better, I appreciate the star ice is better than stock cooling but the freezer just gets too many accolades to not be a massive improvement.

Just goes to show you should always take what you read in magazines with a pinch of salt eh?

Chris19 · 28 Feb 2006 at 17:23

I just fitted the freezer pro about an hour ago and its amazing performance for the price. I ran OCCT before and after i fitted it to compare here are the graphs

Stock heat sink fan + stock goop

Freezer 64 pro + AS5

Raikiri · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:38

Chris19 said:
I just fitted the freezer pro about an hour ago and its amazing performance for the price. I ran OCCT before and after i fitted it to compare here are the graphs

Stock heat sink fan + stock goop

Freezer 64 pro + AS5

No way those temps are right, a dual core @ 2.6ghz (nearly FX60 all but cache) doing 16c idle just wouldnt happen on air. Probably not on water.

harris1986 · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:40

i went from a star ice to a freezer 64 pro, and was amazed by both the quietness of it and also the cooling performance, i have changed to a TT Big typhoon now though as i changed my motherboard and the Freezer 64 won't sit the way i want it to on it

sagaboy2 · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:44

Raikiri said:
No way those temps are right, a dual core @ 2.6ghz (nearly FX60 all but cache) doing 16c idle just wouldnt happen on air. Probably not on water.

Iv seen my X2 4400 @ 2.6 hit 20C idle before, dont see why it cant hit 16C its rather cold atm isnt it.

Raikiri · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:46

sagaboy2 said:
Iv seen my X2 4400 @ 2.6 hit 20C idle before, dont see why it cant hit 16C its rather cold atm isnt it.

Yes, it is rather cold outside.
But then we have a thing called central heating

sagaboy2 · 28 Feb 2006 at 18:48

Raikiri said:
Yes, it is rather cold outside.
But then we have a thing called central heating

Why heat up your computer

Im sat in a loft bedroom and its rather cold to say the least and im fine with it.

*edit*

Quote (agreed with by friend) heating is for the weak

matt100 · 28 Feb 2006 at 19:09

for 16 you'd need to be sat in a room of 10 degrees or probably less, thats seriously uncomfortable unless you've got a coat on in your house?

Raikiri · 28 Feb 2006 at 19:12

sagaboy2 said:
Why heat up your computer

Im sat in a loft bedroom and its rather cold to say the least and im fine with it.

*edit*

Quote (agreed with by friend) heating is for the weak

No, heating is for the sane and the non eskimos among us

So showing temperatures that were only gained from having a very low room temp isnt really a fair comparison to other coolers belonging to normal people.

Chris19 · 28 Feb 2006 at 21:05

Raikiri said:
No way those temps are right, a dual core @ 2.6ghz (nearly FX60 all but cache) doing 16c idle just wouldnt happen on air. Probably not on water.

Well i ran the OCCT while i was out with the dog and it is bloody freezing in my room also thats only one core loaded.

sagaboy2 · 28 Feb 2006 at 21:45

Raikiri said:
No, heating is for the sane and the non eskimos among us

So showing temperatures that were only gained from having a very low room temp isnt really a fair comparison to other coolers belonging to normal people.

When I do post idle and load temps I do play fair and turn on heating so people can judge it against theres

Chris19 · 28 Feb 2006 at 21:58

I only done those test so i can see how much better the freezer was as both were done in the same cold room its an fair comparison really.

lay-z-boy · 1 Mar 2006 at 00:27

harris1986 said:
i went from a star ice to a freezer 64 pro, and was amazed by both the quietness of it and also the cooling performance, i have changed to a TT Big typhoon now though as i changed my motherboard and the Freezer 64 won't sit the way i want it to on it

You did know you can re-orientate it didnt you?

My x2 4400 hits 2.65ghz, 1.5v stable on the freezer 64, thats without putting effort into getting the oc' right.
Temps are worryingly good too, 29 idle and 34 load :eek:

System is dual sp2004 stable for the 2 days i kept it going.

Tbh i think the freezer 64 pro is a very good buy, cheap, quiet and cools very well.

Still, the Tuniq tower is the best aircooler around so try to get hold of one of those.

Dreadi · 1 Mar 2006 at 00:33

Raikiri said:
Yes, it is rather cold outside.
But then we have a thing called central heating

no point in having that turned on when the windows are open and your pc is under 20 degrees, i like having hte windows when its snowing

MatzeR · 1 Mar 2006 at 13:05

Theres nothing better than a cold day outside, Open the window, Move the curtains away so the cold air is forced in one route only.

3500+ was at 17idle 19load