CoolIT Freezone Chilled Liquid CPU Cooler

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FrgMstr

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CoolIT Freezone Chilled Liquid CPU Cooler - Is CoolIT’s hybrid, TEC chilled, water cooler up to the task of cooling your CPU? We find out how water cooling with no radiator works. Turns out to be user-friendly as well.

Until I saw it for myself, I didn’t truly believe a unit the size of a power supply could best a triple 120mm radiator based watercooling setup. Not only did it beat every system we have tested so far, the Freezone maintained moderate noise levels while doing so. To top it all off, this thing had more in it! I left the potentiometer on the control board in the stock position for all of my testing.
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Im really pondering the idea of buying this instead of a triple 120mm rad setup.... Anyone disagree? Could this keep load temps below 50c for a E6600 with 1.5+Vcore?
 
Re: newls1 - I've read at least half a dozen reviews on this product in the past couple days and the answer is an unequivacable YES, so long as you don't run it on low power (in which case it can't even outperform an aircooler.) Move it up to mid-max however and this system really blows everything away (at least, that is what I have read.)

There is also their new Eliminator, which is even easier to install, has greater case compatibility, runs cpu load within a couple degrees of the Freezone, and at only half the cost.

Seems the biggest issue is you need to run the fan at mid-max speed to reap the benefits, which puts you acoustically back in the air cooling range. Might be able to swap out the fan though for a quieter one like a pabst or noctua, but I'd wait a month to make sure it is all still working great before voiding your warranty.

Still, definately worth strong consideration for anyone who does not want/need to cool their graphics cards as well as their CPU. Otherwise you'd be spending money on two totally seperate systems and trying to find space for it all.

I must admit, I was sold on a Swiftech system just a couple days ago, but am seriously considering their Eliminator. My other option is just waiting a few more months to OC my system because CoolIT is supposed to come out with another unit more directly suitable for the quad core.
 
Until I saw it for myself, I didn’t truly believe a unit the size of a power supply could best a triple 120mm radiator based watercooling setup. Not only did it beat every system we have tested so far, the Freezone maintained moderate noise levels while doing so. To top it all off, this thing had more in it! I left the potentiometer on the control board in the stock position for all of my testing.
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Wow :eek: , but its about time someone got it (easy bolt on that doesnt suck) right.

Bet I could plumb a GPU block into that loop in about 3 minutes ;)

Really want to see the cheaper unit reviewed - come on Freezone you cant beat this kind of advertising for the cost of a demo unit.
 
While I appreciate the review, I think it may be time for Justin to start using die simulators rather than a typical CPU. Although they may not accurately represent a modern CPU, they allow for much more stable (and more accurate) measurements than a CPU's on-board diodes. The accuracy and relative accuracy of both Intel and AMD user-readable diodes is questionable.

Well, just a thought, anyway.
 
I've been running a Freezone for the better part of 9 months now. While it does a great job of keeping temperatures down at stock voltages (and relatively modest overclocks ... say, an Opteron 170 @ 1.55v, or a E6400 @ 1.55v), the unit can get noisy when you start pushing your overclocks. The heat dissipation capabilities of the pelts and their heatsink really become apparent on high overclocks. Also, after 9 months of operation I do notice that a wee bit of air has gotten into the loop, without a reservoir or fillport you can't do anything about this.

newls1 said:
Im really pondering the idea of buying this instead of a triple 120mm rad setup.... Anyone disagree? Could this keep load temps below 50c for a E6600 with 1.5+Vcore?
Click to expand...

The typical temperature delta on my C2D E6400 @ 1.55v is 34c idle, 62c load on the highest cooling setting (ambient room temperature is around 22c). That's a pretty big delta when compared to the best watercooling gear available (8-10c under load).

You can improve the performance of the unit by "modding" it to add a 120mm fan (voids warranty of course):

remove the stock 92mm fan
build a 92mm shroud from another 92mm fan by removing the fan motor assembly (scalpel plz nurse!)
attach 92mm-to-120mm (included) mount converter to shroud
screw 120mm fan to 92mm-to-120mm mount converter
attach 120mm fan to case

In my experience this improved the temperatures under load by 1-4 degrees, depending on your tolerance of fan noise. You need the shroud because a 120mm fan is bigger then the heatsink for the pelts.

Coincidentally, I just removed the Freezone in lieu of a watercooling setup that I'm in the process of building. Thermochill 120.3, Storm, DDC+ with Petra Top. Once everything is up and running I'll try and post my findings.
 
vinylkid said:
I've been running a Freezone for the better part of 9 months now. While it does a great job of keeping temperatures down at stock voltages (and relatively modest overclocks ... say, an Opteron 170 @ 1.55v, or a E6400 @ 1.55v), the unit can get noisy when you start pushing your overclocks. The heat dissipation capabilities of the pelts and their heatsink really become apparent on high overclocks. Also, after 9 months of operation I do notice that a wee bit of air has gotten into the loop, without a reservoir or fillport you can't do anything about this.



The typical temperature delta on my C2D E6400 @ 1.55v is 34c idle, 62c load on the highest cooling setting (ambient room temperature is around 22c). That's a pretty big delta when compared to the best watercooling gear available (8-10c under load).

You can improve the performance of the unit by "modding" it to add a 120mm fan (voids warranty of course):

remove the stock 92mm fan
build a 92mm shroud from another 92mm fan by removing the fan motor assembly (scalpel plz nurse!)
attach 92mm-to-120mm (included) mount converter to shroud
screw 120mm fan to 92mm-to-120mm mount converter
attach 120mm fan to case

In my experience this improved the temperatures under load by 1-4 degrees, depending on your tolerance of fan noise. You need the shroud because a 120mm fan is bigger then the heatsink for the pelts.

Coincidentally, I just removed the Freezone in lieu of a watercooling setup that I'm in the process of building. Thermochill 120.3, Storm, DDC+ with Petra Top. Once everything is up and running I'll try and post my findings.
Click to expand...

Thats the answer i've been looking for. Thanks brotha, you just saved me a $300 mistake.
 
vinylkid said:
I've been running a Freezone for the better part of 9 months now. While it does a great job of keeping temperatures down at stock voltages (and relatively modest overclocks ... say, an Opteron 170 @ 1.55v, or a E6400 @ 1.55v), the unit can get noisy when you start pushing your overclocks. The heat dissipation capabilities of the pelts and their heatsink really become apparent on high overclocks.
Click to expand...

Just a clarification here: the pump itself is pretty quiet (no matter what the load is like), the 92mm fan included with the unit doesn't really cut it when you start overclocking heavy since the heatsink is saturated with heat from the peltiers. You need to use a significantly more powerful fan and a bigger heatsink to dissispate the heat dump from the pelts... I used a Panaflo 120mm (tried both Ultra and High models) connected to a rheobus controller. But even at the highest fan speeds (meaning loud fans with heaps of airflow) the temperature delta was more then +20c's.
 
As someone said above, I dont see how it could be too hard to snip in to this at some point and add on a gpu block to the loop..

.. but then again, I've always bought kits before for exactly this reason: I've never seriously 'modded' anything, and dont want to bother starting.. But this doesn't seem any harder than modifying, say, an already assembled watercooling kit a new part.

I've already got a spare 12cm panaflow, not sure how much this rheobus controller of which you speak would cost.

What about the rest of the job though? Maybe a seperate resevoir to allow refilling?
 
I wonder what would happen if you put one of these things between a std rad and the waterblock?:


The rad should bring temps down to 'ambiant' while this drops them sub ambiant!
Should make a nice room cooler at idle! :D

Wonder how they do it though; attempts to use ice caps to cool water have generally been unsucessfull with DIY rigs. Must slow the water down a lot through the blocks? Multipass Perhaps?
 
CaptRingold said:
As someone said above, I dont see how it could be too hard to snip in to this at some point and add on a gpu block to the loop..
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I think adding a GPU block to this would be pointless. Most GPU's run much hotter then CPU's and given my experience with the unit, the added heat dump into the coolant fluid from an additional GPU would saturate the heatsink/pelts even faster.

You'd be better off building a full blown watercooling loop if you ask me.

I've already got a spare 12cm panaflow, not sure how much this rheobus controller of which you speak would cost.
Click to expand...

A Sunbeam rheobus is cheap, maybe $15 -- it's a fan controller. Or you can volt-mod the fan down to 7V operation with a resistor. (Zalman makes one, Noctua includes one with their fans too)
 
Hmm, thanks.

Appears that much-cheaper (Nautilus 500) watercooling loops with a proven ability to soak up the heat from hotter cpu's and gpu's would be a better bet.

Or, alternatively, something like a Koolance pc3 720 case that I think [H] reviewed

But this is definitely something appealing for someone interested in only a processor I suppose. Apparently not worth the trouble to mod though.
 
Rock&Roll said:
Check out the Cool IT web site. The Eliminator is the baby brother to the Freezone, not a replacement, and is available for half the price.
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It's actually both. It is the "baby" brother (they are actually almost the same size,) however it is quite new and includes several improvements over the original Freezone including easier installation and a sturdier mounting for cases with a 120mm fan. The main difference is that the Eliminator has half the pelts. Their sales claims it has 80% efficiency/results of the Freezone, however I read one review that tested both and noticed only a couple degrees difference under load.

As people have posted, this system can do an excellent job, but to do so requires the fan at higher RPM, which can be loud. Again, this is all just based on a number of reviews I've read.

The post I find most interesting is by vinylkid who actually has owned one of these for awhile. Regardless of how great it performs for reviewers, nine months is not a great timeframe to start showing reduced performance in my opinion, and it's just such a new product very few people have tested it for longevity, which brings us to possibly the biggest draw back of all-in-one sealed systems like this. When they break, you pretty much have to replace the whole thing unless you are a confident modder.
 
Non upgradable? Whats stopping someone from attaching a splitter in the line and running it to their own gpu block? Nothing really.
Can we get some c2d temps next time?
 
Bottom line is I am really tempted to get this, but I would like to wait to see if a 2nd edition would come out with expandability.

For 300$ I an on-par custom kit would be able to handle 1-2 graphics cards too. Agree?
 
Actually, from what I've read here and there in other discussions, there is definately a limit as to how much peltier systems can handle. They sort of each have a threshhold and if you get above a certain point, the system not just under-performs, but completely bombs out (this is not first hand experience, just what I've read.) But what that point is for this specific system, I don't know. However, since it isn't expandable and comes only with a CPU block, I'd be very hesitant to experiment with how well it can handle a GPU (let alone 2 in SLI) added two the loop when it's not designed for it in the first place.

The third revision is supposed to come out in Q2 and will built to handle the Kentsfield line, which might mean that system would be more capable of splicing a GPU cooler into the system.
 
If your going to mod it, might also consider reversing the airflow so you can give it fresh outside air. All the testers are listing "ambient" temps when they test the freezone, but it's sucking out case air, meaning case temps. Give that thing 120mm flow and cool fresh air and things get more interesting.

If you visit the Coolit site there is mention of the upgrade, something called Boreas, which gives 12 pelts, 2 cpu blocks and a gpu block. That's in addition to a dual 120mm fan push/pull config and I'd bet their is some serious cooling power. That's something I want for my own :)
 
I am also interested in this item, I bought one but had to return it because something was wrong with it, now I find myself questioning if I should get this or a 3 rad set up, what I liked about this was the fact that was eazy to install, no maintanance, and already set up. any advice would be greatly appreciate it.
 
I think since most of us here are all 'mod-inclinded' by nature, It shouldn't be that hard to make a similar setup out of readily available watercooling setup out there. I mean the only thing from stopping me from say getting some Aqua-Computer/Alphacool CPU/GPU Blocks with some pelts from Melcor for a similar 'water chiller' setup is their nice Thermal Control Module (TCM).

If anyone who has an idea of where to get one of these TCM or a similar one, please do share. I wouldn't mind having a setup like this to cool my 2 Opty 285s in my ZMAXd2! Now that's a MOD! :cool:

- KrulL
 
Nice product but I would have liked to seen some more Overclocking results (something like an Intel P4 805 @ 4GHz temps). Was looking to get one for my next build but was waiting for the price to come down. There seems to be a new version which will be at CES. Hopefully it will be able to cool a GPU and CPU with sufficient head room to push a quad core up to 3.6GHz.
 
Dunno said:
I wonder what would happen if you put one of these things between a std rad and the waterblock?:


The rad should bring temps down to 'ambiant' while this drops them sub ambiant!
Should make a nice room cooler at idle! :D

Wonder how they do it though; attempts to use ice caps to cool water have generally been unsucessfull with DIY rigs. Must slow the water down a lot through the blocks? Multipass Perhaps?
Click to expand...

I had the exact same thoughts -- since pelts suffer when the CPU hits load and feeds a lot of heat back -- why not add a normal radiator with a fan into the loop between the CPU and the COOLIT. Or to word it differently, add the COOLIT to any existing water cooling setup right after the radiator.

That should take this from "good in most scenarios" to downright wicked. If condensation is an issue, just turn it wayyyy down.

Seems this only uses 1/2" tubing - that might be an inconvenience to many existing systems.
 
Torsten said:
I had the exact same thoughts -- since pelts suffer when the CPU hits load and feeds a lot of heat back -- why not add a normal radiator with a fan into the loop between the CPU and the COOLIT. Or to word it differently, add the COOLIT to any existing water cooling setup right after the radiator.

That should take this from "good in most scenarios" to downright wicked. If condensation is an issue, just turn it wayyyy down.

Seems this only uses 1/2" tubing - that might be an inconvenience to many existing systems.
Click to expand...

Thank goodnes theres someone else with brains/imagination in this thread! JK guys :D

I think this is brobably a very low flow system with specifically designed waterblocks (all 3)
It should work well in one of those old Koolance cases...which I just happen to have!...;)

To clarify my thinking:
From the review its obvious that at idle the coolant leaving the CPU block is below ambient.
As soon as a load is but on the CPU this changes and the water leaving the block is hotter than ambient air.
Now a radiator in the loop could cool that down to 'ambient'.
Then the pelt system would be able to provide lower than ambient temps at any load.
At idle the lower than ambient water from the CPU would actually be heated up in the radiator; cooling the room! This would negate condensation concerns at idle; give more constant temps, and allow one to crank the pelts up!

Another thought:
If you have a case that takes a 120mm fan at the back: An adaptor attached to the back of the unit - 120mm fan - case vent. May improve this things performance.
 
Ok, so last night I read the article, but there were no pictures where they were referenced to be. Due to my reading HardOCP more than posting in the forums (or in forums in general anymore) I was unable to post after having forgotten the password. Now that I received the password and can post, the pictures are back. Was there a problem with the server with the pictures last night?

Anyways, looks like a solid system. Eventually I may get one :)
 
Dunno said:
Thank goodnes theres someone else with brains/imagination in this thread! JK guys :D

To clarify my thinking:
From the review its obvious that at idle the coolant leaving the CPU block is below ambient.
As soon as a load is put on the CPU this changes and the water leaving the block is hotter than ambient air.
Now a radiator in the loop could cool that down to 'ambient'.
Then the pelt system would be able to provide lower than ambient temps at any load.
Click to expand...

Well it seems we spoke to soon, because someone has already done this... and it was... DELL?!

... the XPS 710 "H2Ceramic" (H2C) Edition houses a unique, two-stage cooling system. According to Dell, a liquid-to-air heat exchanger that works like a car's radiator removes most of the heat from the processor. Then, a fluid chiller removes more heat with ceramic-based thermoelectric cooling (TEC) modules ...
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http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/09/ces2007_dell_xps710_h2c_com/

DELL beat us to our 2 stage rad/TEC chilled water idea - I feel so *not* leet right now.
 
Torsten said:
Well it seems we spoke to soon, because someone has already done this... and it was... DELL?!...DELL beat us to our 2 stage rad/TEC chilled water idea - I feel so *not* leet right now.
Click to expand...

Damn! And it has to be a Dell! :mad:
Am looking for more details now.

EDIT: Dells Page. Click: Technology - H2C - how H2C works.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_710h2c?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=esg&~lt=popup#tn2]

That has to be the biggest cooler ever bolted to a CPU! :p
 
How does having this cooler on the back of the case effect case temperature? It may not be a problem if you have a top mounted fan to blow out some of the heat but what about if you have a case with (2) 120mm fans (one intake the other outake)?

Kmat
 
Torsten said:
Well to shed some light on the dell 2 - stager, it was actually COOLIT that supplied the cooling solution:

http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=141&itemid=86

So they make a 2-stager for DELL, but sell only the 1-stager to us enthusiasts? humbug :)
Click to expand...

:)
Good thing too: Now I can put one in my old, low flow, Koolance case.
Where the hot air from the radiator wont blow through the Ice-Cap heatsink!
:D
Just occured to me that I could remove the pump in front of the heatsink and put on another fan for extra coolness!

Patent Pending!
:p
 
ive searched and searched for a review of this thing after finding it on xoxide a few months ago. Those are some amazing temps from that system.
 
ThatsAgood1jay said:
ive searched and searched for a review of this thing after finding it on xoxide a few months ago. Those are some amazing temps from that system.
Click to expand...

I just finished installing mine, I am getting 33 degrees on a C2D E6600 overclocked to 3.89. I was getting about 50 degrees on my HSF overclocked at 3.7.
 
Have had mine installed for a few weeks. Installed it (Freezone) in the front of my machine to pull the air flow thru and reversed the back fan to pull air in. The watercooler on the Tai-Chi got in the way and wouldn't allow the standard installation in the back! Am running about 19C and about 37C under load @ 2950. GPU & Chipset are running about 27C to 28C with the Tai-Chi water cooling. I'm happy so far and still working toward that allusive 3GZ on my 185.
 
skasol said:
I just finished installing mine, I am getting 33 degrees on a C2D E6600 overclocked to 3.89. I was getting about 50 degrees on my HSF overclocked at 3.7.
Click to expand...

The 33 is a idle temp right? Ambient temps? Voltage?

That with coretemp?

Screenshots!

haha, I find it hard to believe your loading at a temperature about 10'c lower than my idle... I'm also on water at 3.5ghz.
 
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