Standing 130mm tall, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 heatsink is equipped with a single 92mm PWM fan that rotates at 2000-1500RPM. The spec sheet indicates a minimum fan speed of 600RPM, however the unit Frostytech received for testing would not operate at speeds lower than 1500RPM, even when commanded to with a PWM fan speed controller... In either case the Freezer 13 heatsink ranges from moderately audible to nearly whisper quiet.

The raw heatsink itself is built around a familiar combination of four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes and densely stacked aluminum fins. It weighs about 695 grams in total, making it a relatively compact and light weight, lower noise heatsink. The Freezer 13 ships with a pre-applied patch of Arctic MX-4 thermal compound applied to the copper base plate and installs onto Intel socket 775/1155/1156/1366 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3 processors.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Heatsink

heatsink specsheet manufacturer: arctic cooling model no.: freezer 13 materials: aluminum fins, copper heatpipes, copper base plate fan mfg: n/a fan spec: 2000-1500rpm, 12v, 0.19a fan airflow: 36.4cfm, fan dim: 25x92x92mm heatsink & fan dim: 130x123x95mm weight: 695 grams includes: multi-socket socket mounting hardware, pre-applied thermal compound, instructions Compatible with Sockets: AMD - 754/939/940/AM2/AM3 Intel - LGA775/1155/1156/1366 Pricing: $33USD ($33CDN)

Construction Details

Aluminum fins are generally stamped from long rolls in one or two steps to the final fin shape, then pressed over the heatpipes tightly to form a solid interference joint. The little collar of metal around the heatpipe aids in thermal conduction from the heatpipes to the aluminum, essentially by increasing contact surface area. The key is to make the aluminum-copper joint right, or the whole thermal circuit can break down. This is why some heatsink manufacturers have taken to lightly nickel plating aluminum fins and soldering the heatpipe-aluminum fin joints.

Copper base plates are also known as heatspreaders, and fulfill similar roles. On the Freezer 13 heatsink the copper heatspreader-copper heatpipe joints are soldered together - for mechanical rigidity and for low thermal joint resistance. In years past makers used to use thermal compound in this critical space, relying instead on mechanical clamps to hold heatpipes in position and assure the integrity of the thermal joint. We're glad those days are long gone!

What's the Thermal Conductivity of the Solder in Your Heatsink?

Since it is not feasible to form a copper base plate with integral heatpipes, and vapour chambers while impressive do not lend themselves to this geometry of heatsink, we can only hope that companies are properly soldering joints and using high thermal conductivity solder for that purpose. Without access to the formula of solder used on the Freezer 13 we can't say either way... but just like thermal interface materials, different alloys solder offer improved thermal conductivity.

(image credit Electronics-Cooling.com)

There's a good article on electronics-cooling.com that goes into detail on the subject of thermal conductivity of different solder alloys that we recommend for further reading. The chart above breaks it down clearly. The most common solder used in heatsink manufacture in pre-RoHS days was Tin-Lead (SnPb), it has a thermal conductivity of 50 W/mk. For comparison's sake Aluminum and Copper have thermal conductivities of 247 W/mK and 398 W/mK respectively. Good quality thermal compound generally has a thermal conductivity of between ~1-4 W/mK, which is why it's so important to apply it sparingly!

In these post-RoHS manufacturing days Lead is most definitely out, so it's quite possible heatsinks are being made with low melting temperature Bismuth-Tin (BiSn) solder that has a relatively poor thermal conductivity of 19 W/mK... that's something to consider.

Heatsink Mounting Hardware

Arctic Cooling's Freezer 13 heatsink ships with brackets for Intel LGA775/1156/1366 and AMD 754/939/940/AM2/AM3 processors. The heatsink mounts to both Intel and AMD motherboards using the permanently affixed metal bracket that is integral with the base.