X-bit labs

Air-, Liquid- and Thermo-Electrical Cooling Technologies in One: CoolIT Freezone Review (page 4)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 08/24/2007 | 12:54 PM ]

There are heat-exchangers (121x41x12mm, 80g) on each longer side of the radiator. The coolant is driven through them by the pump. Each heat-exchanger is connected to the heatsink via three Peltier elements. Thus, the Freezone features a total of six Peltiers.

Each Peltier is 40x40x3.5mm and weighs 20g. The manufacturer does not declare their performance rating, but it must be low, considering that the total power consumption of the system, with the exception of the pump and fan, is no higher than 56W.

CoolIT doesn’t declare the pump performance rating, either, only mentioning its service life (50,000 hours), weight (360g) and noise level (15dBA).

The fan to cool the radiator is 92x92x38mm and rotates with a variable speed from 2400rpm to 3200rpm, emitting from 26 to 37dBA of noise.

This fan is marked as DFB923812H and manufactured by an obscure Chinese firm Yong Lin Xing Electronic.

The last system component is the CPU water-block.

Its size is 42x42x17mm at 195g. The water-block has a single-channel design and is all made from copper anodized on the exterior.

The bottom of the water-block is protected with a plastic cap. It protects the pre-applied thermal interface rather than the bottom surface.

The thermal grease is thick but not dried up. It resembles Arctic Silver 5 in its consistence, color and adhesion. I performed a day-long check of the native thermal interface and found it to be just as effective as Arctic Silver 5. I only think that the manufacturer should apply a thinner layer of it on the water-block.

The operating principle of the Freezone is simple. The pump is driving the coolant in the closed circuit of the system. So, the heat flows from the water-block to the two heat-exchangers on the sides of the radiator and then it is quickly pumped into the radiator by means of the six Peltier elements. The radiator is cooled by a high-speed fan that exhausts hot air outside the system case. That’s all.