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Arctic Cooling Duo: Alpine 7 & Freezer 7 Pro Attack Value

 by Wesley Fink on January 29, 2008 2:00 AM EST
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Final Words

No one really should expect the Alpine 7 (with PWM)/Alpine 7 Pro to challenge a Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme for top air-cooling performance. That would require suspending all notions of performance for the money.  It's a bit more realistic to have higher expectations for the Freezer 7 Pro since it is a side-fan heatpipe tower similar in design to the top performers tested so far. However, the 92mm fan is not likely to give the big 120mm fan coolers a real run for their money. Still, the mid-sized fans sometimes can come close. Results did not upset our expectations, as neither the Alpine 7 nor the Freezer 7 Pro came close to dethroning our top coolers. However, that should definitely not be considered a negative for either of these value priced coolers.

For the money the performance of the Alpine 7 and Freezer 7 Pro are both simply outstanding. The Alpine 7 sells for less than $15 and it handily outperforms the excellent stock Intel cooler that comes with kit CPUs. Many higher-priced coolers barely outperform the Intel, and the Alpine 7 turns in a significantly better performance than the benchmark Intel retail design. The Freezer 7 Pro fares even better. This sub-$25 cooler exhibits performance scaling that is much better than we had any right to expect at this price point. It also pushes overclocking to a very good 3.85GHz, which is a record for this price point.

Both coolers are also superb in cooling at stock CPU speeds, under both idle and load conditions. In fact, they are so good at stock performance that it is easy to recommend one of these coolers as a way to extend your CPU life even if you have no intention of overclocking. That is particularly true when you consider how quiet both coolers are. Either cooler is near silent in most situations.

Arctic Cooling obviously used quite a few tricks with these coolers to keep noise low, and they succeeded very well in reaching that goal. Low-priced coolers are supposed to sacrifice noise and longevity to keep the price down, but neither of these coolers gives up anything on either count. They both use low noise, longer-life fan bearings and elastomeric fan mounts. This is expensive engineering, and this attention to sound engineering succeeds in making the Arctic Coolers amazingly quiet.

It is true the Arctic Cooling duo did not break through the top of our cooler performance charts, but they do something too few products do today. Both the Alpine 7 and Freezer 7 Pro meet or exceed their specifications. Both also deliver competent and silent performance with simple but effective engineering while delivering exceptional value for their price. Exceptional value is always a good thing and you will never regret the small amount you spend on either of these coolers. They are not the best performing coolers you can buy today, but both are the top performing cooler you can buy at their respective price points. There's nothing wrong with earning the distinction of "Best Buy for the Money".
Overclocking and Performance Scaling
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