Verdict: Cooler than Frosty The Snowman's refrigerator

Arctic Cooling has a tradition of producing excellent HSFs and the Freezer 64 Pro is no exception.

The heatsink is actually similar to the Freezer 64, but it has a higher number of more tightly packed aluminium fins. This increases the weight of the Freezer 64 Pro by almost 15 per cent, so Arctic Cooling has updated its mounting mechanism. It still attaches to the CPU mounting bracket, but the clip pressure has been increased to make sure that the heavier Freezer 64 Pro doesn't wobble about on top of the CPU. Unfortunately, the Freezer 64 Pro's clip pressure is so high that you really need to remove the motherboard in order to install it.

The 92mm fan spins at 2,000rpm, yet barely makes any noise at all. Best of all, the Freezer 64 Pro is an even better HSF than its predecessor, cooling the Athlon 64 test CPU to 18ûC below the reference AMD HSF.

Although the Gigabyte G-Cooler Power Pro and Cooler Master Hyper 6+ are more powerful HSFs, the Freezer 64 Pro is quieter and cheaper. Unless you want the passively cooled Scythe Ninja, you'd be a fool to buy any other HSF for your Athlon 64.

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