CoolIT Freezone

Author:  Tyler Curry Date:  2007.07.05 Topic:  Cooling Provider:  CoolIT Systems Manufacturer:  CoolIT Systems

Installation

The manual included with the Freezone is very well layed out with color pictures and great instructions.  Even if you're a novice installing this cooling system you shouldn't come across any problems following the instructions provided.

However if you still end up having some problems they even have a webpage dedicated to the Freezone install at http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=40

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures besides the cooler fully installed in the system already.  Though we can say the installation procedure went rather smoothly and isn't much harder than installing a regular heatsink and fan.  However it is quite a lot easier than installing a custom water cooling system.

As you can see the fit of the system is quite tight, this is an area that we have been assured that will be worked on on upcoming revisions and later systems by Cool IT Systems. Although a tight fit we did not have any issues with our installation and the system did perform fine.

On the downside we still find it odd that it was decided to use a 92mm fan rather than a 120mm fan which a majority of cases utilize these days.  So I'm sure for most of you out there you will end up using the fan bracket included in order to mount the 92mm fan to the back of your case with a 120mm opening.

Update: The guys at Cool IT systems have informed us that there will be an update to the freezone made with a 120mm solution. This will make the Freezone ideal for most cases that utilize 120mm fans in the rear exhaust.

Software:

The Freezone comes with special software developed by the guys at Cool IT Systems specifically for use with their products. The software interacts with the cpu and detects demands for cpu time in advance and will send more cooling power to the Freezone in advance of cpu needs to adaptively keep the CPU cool. The software can be set for a specific temperature you wish to keep the CPU at or it can be set into a mode to keep the fluid or CPU temperature at a certain level. We were shown an update to this software that will be available soon while we were at Computex that extends the abilities of this software even further.

Testing & Conclusion

Testing this cooler was definitely a pleasure.  We used a socket 939 3000+ processor at stock and overclocked speeds under idle and load.  Under stock idle conditions we were stunned to see the temperatures drop as low as 14C at times and no higher than 30C under load.

We couldn't wait to see what kind of overclocking we could accomplish with this cooler and again we were not disappointed hitting 2.4GHz stable from the stock 1.8GHz.  For comparison we were only able to get about 2.2GHz stable on this CPU with a Zalman 9700 heatsink.  We were even more impressed when with this type of overclock we were getting idle temperatures of 20C and load temperatures not pushing past 37C.

It has been a pleasure to be able to test this cooler.  We believe this cooler is in a league of its own, being that it is maintenance free and extremely easy to install it beats out every watercooling kit out there, and seeing the temperatures it easily comes out on top of every heatsink/fan combo out there.  However just like most products out there, it isn't perfect.  We would like to see a couple things different with the CoolIT Freezone.  First, the 92mm fan seems just plain odd in world where almost every case has 120mm holes in the rear, so it would be nice to see an optional 120mm fan included rather than a bracket.  Second, we think an included 5 inch bay thermal control module would be much more user friendly than a PCB board with a small dial, seeing as in order to adjust the Freezone's cooling performance you must open your case first to get at the PCB module.

 Overall though, we are very impressed with this cooler and would go as far to say it is the best one to pass through our labs as of yet, especially in the cooling department.  And at the same time we can't wait to see what kind of improvements will come out of the next Freezone cooler.