Test setup and results …
Testsetup …
For the practical test, we have mounted the Arctic Freezer 12 on our new AM4 test system, which consists of the following components:
ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4
AMD A8-9600 @ 3.8 GHz with 1.4 Volt
4GB DDR4-2400
Cooler Master Testbench v1.0
The following programs were used for the measurement.: Prime95 and SpeedFan
Thermal Compounds: Arctic MX-4 (included)
The room temperature during the test was about 21°C.
The Arctic Freezer 12 competes against the AMD Boxed cooler, which weighs just 175g.
We then used the CPU for 30 minutes with Prime95 and recorded the temperatures.
The values can be quite impressive!
The Arctic Freezer 12 clearly beats the AMD Boxed cooler in both temperature and noise levels.
We also tried to run the AMD boxed cooler at 20% to reduce the noise level to 30.5dB. However, the boxed cooler did not manage to adequately cool the CPU, so the AMD AM4 Bristol Ridge CPU with the boxed cooler (at 20%) started to clock down at about 70°C.
The fan volume is measured with a dB meter from 100cm distance. In addition, we determine the respective rotation speed.
| Arctic Freezer 12 | ||
| 20% | 0dB | 0rpm |
| 40% | 0dB | 0rpm |
| 60% | 30dB | 705rpm |
| 61% | 32dB | 968rpm |
| 62% | 32,5dB | 979rpm |
| 63% | 33dB | 1129rpm |
| 64% | 33,5dB | 1311rpm |
| 65% | 34,5dB | 1508rpm |
| 70% | 35,5dB | 1781rpm |
| 80% | 37dB | 1808rpm |
| 90% | 37dB | 1880rpm |
| 100% | 37dB | 1896rpm |
The fan behaves slightly differently than usual due to the semi-passive operation. For this reason, we documented the measurement results this time in smaller steps. At this point, it becomes clear how the semi-passive operation is achieved, because up to 59% the fan does not turn. Controlled by the motherboard, the fan would start from the temperature set for 60°C and remain deactivated beforehand.
It could be problematic that the fan reports 0 rotations until it is switched on, which could be recognized by some fan controllers or motherboards as a defective fan. You should pay attention to this when setting the fan control.
Otherwise, we see that the fan is accelerating very fast and a silent fan profile needs to be configured with a lot of flair in the 60% to 70% range. Above it, the fan will quickly hit in regions near the maximum values.
The fan is silent even in this area and gets louder at 70% and upwards. The sound is free of noise.
We captured the sprint from 0 to 100 and back to video again:
Arctic Freezer 12 result and general impression …