For the price/performance! Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB (White)

Details of the Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB (White)

Even with two fans, this cooler is a very good option. Compared to similar and typically cheaper designs with four heatpipes, it can handle significantly higher loads. This is true on both the latest Intel platform (LGA 1851) and AMD Ryzen 9000 processors (AMD AM5). There is also a certain benefit to these things around cooling performance in mounting via a custom retention bracket (ILM) around the processor socket.

* This dimension specifies the width of the heatsink along with the fan typically towards the DIMM slots. That is, assuming the cooler is installed vertically.
** The distance between the shorter sides of the fins of the cooler. The larger it is, the closer the cooler is to the first PCIe ×16 slot in the case of symmetrical heatsinks. Or in a horizontal position, possibly to memory slots already covered by the cooler.

Details of the Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB (White) cooler

Arctic has been working on the Freezer 3x series of CPU coolers for quite a long time. Their design has long been based on a heatsink with a single, slimmer tower, within which a bundle of fins is intersected by a quartet of heatpipes. The same foundation was used for the Freezer 33, for example, which you may also remember from our early tests. Back then, as it will be today, the Freezer 33 cooler was pitted against the Fera 3 v2 cooler (from SilentiumPC Endorfy). Except we are already on higher-end models, Freezer 36 (A-RGB/White) and Fera 5 (Black).

Unlike the past models, this new one – the Freezer 36 – always has two fans. There is no variant with one (fan). This applies to all of the available variants, of which there are several – Freezer 36, Freezer 36 CO, Freezer 36 (Black), Freezer 36 A-RGB (Black) and Freezer 36 A-RGB (White). We have the last mentioned variant for testing.

The cooler is almost completely white, whether it’s the heatsink or the frames of the fans. The impeller is translucent for maximum light conductivity, and the other non-white elements are the rubber pads in the corners of the fans.

The fans are, by the way, the P12 PWM PT A-RGB models. For more details about the fans, you can take a look at our detailed analysis of them. For now, we’ll just note for the sake of completeness that they are of the 120-millimeter format with a traditional, 25 mm thickness. Meanwhile, the operating range is 200–2000 rpm and the bearings are the fluid type.

The cooler is in contact with the processor IHS via a DHT base. The heatpipes are therefore in direct contact with the processor and are very tightly packed side by side – without gaps or fills, which are the source of hotspots in some other coolers.

For the best possible contact with the processor, a mounting bracket is supplied for the Intel LGA 1851 and Intel LGA 1700 platforms, which replaces the motherboard’s original ILM. You remove this retention bracket and the one from Arctic comes in its place. However, you must be careful to tighten the bracket evenly and with adequate force when mounting it. If you overtighten it, the motherboard may stop working.

The purpose of the ILM from Arctic is to prevent unwanted flexing of the motherboard in places that could have a negative effect on the cooler’s contact with the processor. Arctic’s solution is more rigid than the one that originally comes with the motherboard. Additionally, Arctic’s ILM has mounting holes on the sides that are optimized for the pre-installed clip of the Freezer 36 cooler. The downside to this solution is that you lose support for older Intel LGA 1200/115x platforms. Well, not completely. It exists, but as an optional accessory. This means you have to buy this kit separately, the cooler package does not include it.

The Freezer 36, although it has two fans, is still a slim enough cooler not to protrude above DIMM slots on the motherboard, ensuring 100% compatibility even with memory with tall heatsinks. This is an advantage over dual-tower coolers, which usually can interfere with memory.

Compared to the Endorfy Fera 5, the Arctic Freezer 36 is a heavier cooler. Not only because of the presence of one extra fan (two instead of one), but also because of the weight difference of the heatsinks. The latter is approximately 145 grams. The fins of the Freezer 36 are not only a bit wider, but more importantly, they are thicker (about 0.48 mm), by about 37%. Of course, some thickness is also created by the white coating that is applied to the otherwise aluminum fins. To be fair, these comparisons are based on the situation on the Endorfy Fera Black, which also has a coating. The Freezer 36 has three extra fins (59+1 on the top, decorative) and is 4mm taller. This possibly indicates worse compatibility with cases, but the latter is still fine, as the cooler (Freezer 36) is 159 mm tall, and the vast majority of tower cases allow for such dimensions.

And one more thing – fan mounting. It’s very atypical, but clever. It doesn’t use the traditional steel clips snapping onto fins, but a push-pin system. That is, there are screw heads sticking out of the mounting holes of the fans, which snap into the counter-pieces pre-installed between the fins of the heatsink.

The mounting system for the fans is fairly original, but still such that you can buy standard fans in case of failure and screw the mounts into them. It will be worse if by some accident the plastic sleeve between the fins of the heatsink cracks and the fan doesn’t hold well in that location. You can’t just buy this sleeve separately, but you can always send the cooler back for a warranty claim.

• Contents
• Details of the Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB (White)
• Testing methodology
• Results: Maximum cooling performance
• Results: Higher performance (45 dBA)
• Results: Medium performance (42 dBA)
• Results: Lower noise level (39 dBA)
• Results: Low noise level (36 dBA)
• Results: Very low noise level (33 dBA)
• Results: Threshold of audibility (31 dBA)
• Conclusion