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FPSLabs Home: CoolIT Freezone TEC Cooler Review

By: Christian Koebel - Published August 17, 2006 at 3:12 AM EDT - Writer Archive
CoolIT Systems' Freezone CPU cooler offers TEC cooling in a tidy, small package. That is just dandy, but does it perform?
Artwork by Rory Schwartz

CoolIT systems is a small internet start-up with a goal of bringing innovation to the everyday computing experience. Their first major product is the Freezone, a unique take on an internal water cooling kit. After meeting up with the guys from CoolIT at E3, we arranged to have one of these devices sent to ZeGermans for review. As with any cooling setup, the rating criteria is based on how well the system cools. Other things considered will be the bulkiness of the setup, its ease of installation, how loud it is, and just general aesthetics.

The Freezone is an interesting product. It’s designed as an all-in-one internal water cooling kit, but different from others. Most water cooling kits take heat from the CPU to a radiator that the water travels through in order to release its heat. The Freezone’s design streamlines this process by implementing 6 thermal electric coolers (TECs, otherwise known as Peltiers). Before we continue, we should look into the science behind the TEC cooler.

Temperature, as we know it, is governed by the random movements of particles in space. Every electron and proton in space is constantly in motion. The faster they move, the more kinetic energy they have, and the higher the temperature appears to be. The slower such a particle moves the less kinetic energy it has and the lower the temperature will be. It’s a ground principal in physics, and it’s the idea behind TECs. Protons, like anything else, are in motion, but their motion can’t easily be controlled. This is not true of electrons.

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User Comments

1
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Awesome review. If this thing is cheap enough, I'll take it over almost any fan
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double

This comment was edited at 08/17/2006 4:06 AM
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9.6/10, but it I'll stick to my fans for now -.-
Go Read a Book =)
5
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It does suck a bit of power, but other than that it seems pretty sweet )
If you dont like it. Kill it.
6
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Wow, might be worth looking at for the next build. My crazy air cooling ducted monstrosity now is insanely efficient, but the 48dB is a bit loud. Excellent review, keep up the good work. <3 hardware

It actually surprises me the way they do this, I had been under the impression peltiers were on their way out, simply due to efficiency (power needs) coupled with costs (heatpipes being often favored). Its nice to see a reasonably efficient solution using the technology.

And I hit zero C on air with my ridiculous duct last winter, so it may not beat all air cooling systems ;-)

This comment was edited at 08/17/2006 12:22 PM
7
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I know a guy that transformed a cardboard box into a duct that went outside where it was snowing and really cold. His load temp was 2C Ithink. Crazy.. I would be afraid of condensation.
FPSLabs - Managing Editor - http://www.fpslabs.com - #fpslabs @ gamesurge
8
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#6 I'm sure a closed headphone/headset would fix that fan problem :D
Go Read a Book =)
9
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I bet it would really help out my 1.1 ghz 512mb ram amd athlon i'm running...
10
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"This kind of performance can’t be achieved by even the most expensive, bulky water cooler on the market."

bullshi*t no water cooling can do that. I have an Opteron 148 at 2860MHz @ 1.50 volts and it runs at full load 24/7 and never gets over 41 degrees celcius. I would like to see this thing do that. Oh and my water cooling was less expensive than this thing.

This comment was edited at 08/18/2006 2:08 AM
xfire username: werdwerdus
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#10, he was implying that no water cooling kit can keep temperatures below ambient conditions.
FPSLabs - Managing Editor - http://www.fpslabs.com - #fpslabs @ gamesurge
12
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#7 I'm no moisture expert but if people can use like plastic saran wrap kinda stuff to capture moisture to drink in survival situations, what if you like put a sheet of saran wrap in the lil duct or something like that.

Actually, I'm not going to lie, I don't have a clue what I'm talking about.
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Sounds interesting.
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nice dude
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wow it looks nice...
- #extraordinary @ irc.us.gamesurge.net -
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im not gonna lie, it looks nice alright...
17
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I fail to see how this is a 9.6/10 cooler. When looking at the overclocked CPU, under full load, it has a delta C of 18. That's HUGE for a chilled watercooling setup, and for the price it would be more cost effective to purchase a higher watt TEC and make your own chilled watercooling setup. Thus this is a bad review, and a failure to interpret data. for that kind of money, i wouldn't buy this.

This comment was edited at 08/24/2006 5:12 AM
I'm oldschool
18
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the other thing is why would you buy this when you can have a Zalman CNPS9500 and with a decent setup of fans can have 25C idle 34C load with an opty 144 @ 2.8ghz (1ghz oc)
#advantage
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yeah i have a 9500at on my pentium D 820, keeps it at realtively the same temperatures running at 3.7GHz under load it's like 50C. i'll take that over this crappy chilled water cooler any day.
I'm oldschool
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17, it has a reletively high temp change because there isn't that huge of a reservoir. That's really the only thing we knocked off for. A hardcore TEC setup runs a good $150-200 more expensive and is quite a bit more intrusive. Size was a major factor in our review, as well as ease of use. If you're a hardcore overclocker, then naturally you'd build your own setup. This isn't designed for that. And we can interpret data just fine. I don't think you're realizing the high ambient temps we were stuck with, as well as the complete silence of the thing.

18/19, the 9500 can't do these temps at the same ambient temperature. Compare apples to apples. It's physically impossible for a normal air cooler to go sub-ambient.
21
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Good points number 20. However, for that kind of money you have to look at the raw ability too cool for price. and for that cost, why would you ever consider purchasing it when it runs you 299+? I can understand that the ease of install and the whole compact thing is amazing, but for 299 dollars?? i don't see the logic here. Instead of spending an extra 100 dollars buying this get a regular water cooling setup and save the 100 bucks for a future upgrade or take your girlfriend out for a nice dinner. My point is that you can't give this a 9.6 out of 10 if it has such a high cost and relatively low performance comapred to the average water cooling setup. Further, the fact that it's subambient at idle is pointless. Who cares if you're computer can run subambient while it's doing next to nothing? All in all i think the reviewer failed to put these into perspective. At the very least they should have mentioned this stuff that's all sorry if it came off as a flame or something.
I'm oldschool
22
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It's not just that it's subambient when idle. It's sub ambient in almost every every-day task, unless you run prime95 for entertainment :)

Besides, 7C above ambient at full load and oc'd is friggen nuts. And at stock it stays sub-ambient on load.

Cost has always been something I factor into my reviews, as is evident with my not-so-great scoring of the corsair low latency ram. Unfortunatly, I coudln't compare it to an air cooler, I had to compare it to a water cooling setup, and I think the extra 100 is worth it for better performance and discreteness. Then again I'm a bit of a neatfreak on the outside of cases. Not so mucn on the inside.
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I agree with previous post about condensation issues. The biggest problem besides power consumption for TEC has been condensation. If the TEC is not managed, and the water is cooled below dew point, the air around the tubes will get too cold and condensed into water. I have puchased a system from Vigor Gaming that uses a managed TEC system that works great for me. Here is a link on ther review PC Perspectives had done on the cooler:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=273

Besides, this is much cheaper. Enjoy your reading...

This comment was edited at 08/27/2006 4:17 AM
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe - AMD Athlon 64 AM2 4800+ Overclocket to 2.95G - Vigor Monsoon II TEC Cooler

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