Page 3 - Test Results
Out test configuration is as follows:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk
RAM: Thermaltake TOUGHRAM XG RGB DDR4-4000 2x8GB
Graphics: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Chassis: Corsair 5000D
Power: SilverStone Decathlon DA850 Gold 850W
Storage: Samsung EVO 970 1TB, Patriot P400 1TB, Lexar NQ100 480GB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared hardware:
- ARCTIC Freezer A35 A-RGB
- ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB
- SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB
- Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux
All tests were run in our custom-built computer to best reflect real-life performance. The computer remained in the same place and room for all tests. The ambient temperature of the room was roughly 21 degrees Celsius. The thermal paste applied to each cooler was stock respective to their manufacturers to rate its performance. Sufficient time between testing was applied for the paste to settle. The fans on all heatsinks were connected to the same motherboard's 4-pin connector. The test computer was turned on and idling for at least one hour for the idling tests. High CPU load results were obtained using the Prime95 in place large FFTs test with twelve worker threads for a minimum of 15 minutes and recorded when the temperature was deemed stable.
For the first test, I let my computer sit idle for a while. After about an hour, I shook my mouse to wake my computer up. We can see the ARCTIC Freezer A35 A-RGB sat around 39 degrees Celsius, which was the same as the idle temperature as the SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB. The Hydrogon D120 ARGB was proven to be a very capable cooler, so the fact the Freezer A35 A-RGB can match its idle thermals is a good start. The idle temperature of the Freezer A35 A-RGB was also only a few degrees above the compared liquid coolers, which is fair given an AIO liquid cooler will typically have better cooling performance than an air cooler. While this is a good start, idle tests do not give a full representation of their cooling capabilities, thus leading us into our load tests.
Starting Prime95 and giving the processor time to load all the cores and threads, we can see how the cooler performs when the processor is under heavy stress. The ARCTIC Freezer A35 A-RGB still performed quite well here, peaking at 63 degrees Celsius. This was only a degree warmer than the SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB, showing the Freezer A35 A-RGB can consistently compete with it. The maximum temperature was also only 5 degrees above the Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux and 7 degrees warmer than ARCTIC's own Liquid Freezer II 280 RGB, which is not a massive difference in either case. We observed the boost frequency throughout the test, which was 3.7 GHz across all cores. The results here prove the ARCTIC Freezer A35 A-RGB is a more than capable cooler with my AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.
Sound is often perceived differently by people, but we try to make our subjective audio tests as objective as possible. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is silence and 10 is a grenade explosion, I would rate the Freezer A35 A-RGB around 1.5/10 when idle and 3.0/10 when under full load. The ARCTIC fan was mostly true to its claims, being very quiet. However, I would say at its maximum, it was definitely not 12 dB quiet. I have no idea where the 12 dB claim came from, but it definitely was not rated at maximum speed. Under day-to-day use, the noise was barely audible.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware, Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
