Arctic Freezer II 280... Loud

Damian227 · 29 Apr 2024 at 10:09

Hey guys,

So I recently upgraded from a Ryzen 3600 w/Stock cooler, as my new 7800XT was bringing it to tears. I moved to the 5800X3D and grabbed the Arctic Freezer II 280 A-RGB, as it seemed to be recommended as the best way to tame its temps. I'd seen lots of reports of 30 idles and 60's at max gaming, 70's in cinebench so went with it.

First impressions... wow this is loud. I was expecting a much quieter cooler than my old stock lol.

Idles: 48c-50c
Web Browsing/Doc work: 49c-59c
Gaming: 60-65c
Cinebench: 79c

Is this idle normal? My gaming/cinebench seem fine under extreme loads and I expect fan noise then, but idle seems a bit noisy and quite distracting.

HWMonitor shows:
CPU Fans (I assume pump): 1380-1558 rpm
CPU Package Temp: 48.3 - 59.1c (nothing but document work and 2 browser tabs open)
Cores: (Highest core hit 52c today, but generally they all average 27-37c)

I've tweaked my core settings which helped the original idles of 55-60c to drop to current ones, while boosting FPS also:
-30 on all cores
PPT Limit: 100
TDC Limit: 70
EDC Limit: 100

If this is all normal then so be it, I guess AIO fans aren't as quiet as I expected (and i'm freezing with this exhaust working it's way back to me lol)

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Apr 2024 at 13:24

Yeah idle may be higher than expected
It's very hard to make these newer cpus totally idle
Try in safe mode
Though load temperature is the important one

As for noise
Really need to know What rpm the fans are at
Pump speed should be higher than 1500rpm
So not sure if that's your fan rpm or pump
Usually AIO pump I would expect 3000rpm or maybe more is max rpm

Damian227 · 29 Apr 2024 at 13:28

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Yeah idle may be higher than expected
It's very hard to make these newer cpus totally idle
Try in safe mode
Though load temperature is the important one

As for noise
Really need to know What rpm the fans are at
Pump speed should be higher than 1500rpm
So not sure if that's your fan rpm or pump
Usually AIO pump I would expect 3000rpm or maybe more is max rpm

Having a hard time getting readings, nothing shows whether I plug into CPU_Fan_Header of CPU_OPT. I just get one fan reading, no controls of anything in all the Gigabyte stuff, it's all greyed out.

Mcnumpty2323 · 29 Apr 2024 at 13:50

Damian227 said:
Having a hard time getting readings, nothing shows whether I plug into CPU_Fan_Header of CPU_OPT. I just get one fan reading, no controls of anything in all the Gigabyte stuff, it's all greyed out.

Actually thinking about it
With artic the fans and pump may be wired together
I think it's possible to separate them though
If you only plugged in 1 cable from it
Not including rgb if there's any
Then they're wired together

Edit
And think you can set fan curve In
Gigabyte SIV
Though personally I would want fans and pump separately
YouTube should show you how to do that
I would want pump approximately 80%
Though if its quiet could just shove it at 100%
Usually after approximately 80% pump speed
There's very little gain temp wise

ltron · 4 May 2024 at 17:09

The Freezer II 280 should be a very quiet cooler even at 100% pump and fan speed according to Gamers Nexus. That it's so loud doesn't sound right to me, although your temps (other than perhaps idle) look fine.

tamzzy · 4 May 2024 at 17:33

Did you remove the plastic protector from the bottom of the cooler? :cry:

Damian227 · 5 May 2024 at 16:47

tamzzy said:
Did you remove the plastic protector from the bottom of the cooler?

Haha yes I did, I saw a lot of videos of people forgetting so made sure that was done

Damian227 · 5 May 2024 at 16:50

ltron said:
The Freezer II 280 should be a very quiet cooler even at 100% pump and fan speed according to Gamers Nexus. That it's so loud doesn't sound right to me, although your temps (other than perhaps idle) look fine.

Yeah it's odd how my temps are all fine, yet it seems to run hotter than it should on idle.

All I can think is the cooler is worker harder than it should need to, because all the bloody caps around the CPU area are preventing a perfect seating or something? The X570 Aorus Elite has rows of them to the left and top of the CPU, so the left bracket sits right on them.

I can't be certain but I can think of any other reason except it can't be quite as tight as it could be

tamzzy · 5 May 2024 at 17:52

take a few pics of the pc innards and let us have a look?

freddie64 · 5 May 2024 at 20:54

Is the AIO mounting kit the offset one and did you install it the correct way?

You could try PBO2 Tuner to see if it can get better temps.

Try setting a custom fan curve.

As tamzzy said, post a few pics

Damian227 · 9 May 2024 at 19:40

tamzzy said:
take a few pics of the pc innards and let us have a look?

Sorry for the delay guys;

As you can see it sits right on top of the caps on both left and right

Mcnumpty2323 · 9 May 2024 at 20:14

Is it literally touching the caps?
Or just very close?
Can you fit a bit of paper in between?

Damian227 · 9 May 2024 at 20:39

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Is it literally touching the caps?
Or just very close?
Can you fit a bit of paper in between?

Just checked, paper goes in easily, there goes that theory.

I'm at a total loss, it's idling 52.8c right now with the side panel off and the room at 23c

Mcnumpty2323 · 9 May 2024 at 20:48

Was worth checking
Wouldn't want it pushing any caps downwards
And risk breaking a leg on a cap

Back to something I mentioned earlier
Is it just one cable?
Excluding any rgb cables
If so I would look at separating them
And increase pump speed
But hopefully be able to reduce fan speed

freddie64 · 9 May 2024 at 22:22

Not sure how much this will help, but i don't think you have the mounting plates in the offset position. This is supposed to give better cooling.

free upload site no registration

Damian227 · 10 May 2024 at 12:37

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Was worth checking
Wouldn't want it pushing any caps downwards
And risk breaking a leg on a cap

Back to something I mentioned earlier
Is it just one cable?
Excluding any rgb cables
If so I would look at separating them
And increase pump speed
But hopefully be able to reduce fan speed

Yeah sadly a single cable for fans and pump, then a single cable for the rgb element.

freddie64 said:
Not sure how much this will help, but i don't think you have the mounting plates in the offset position. This is supposed to give better cooling.

free upload site no registration

Well... damn lol. I followed their AM4 installation video on a 3000 series and they screwed in #1. I just double checked it and they ignore their own advice on the mounting lol.

Ok i'll reseat this mounting today and see how it improves things, thanks!

Mcnumpty2323 · 10 May 2024 at 15:15

See if using the other mounting holes help

Pretty sure as I mentioned earlier
There's a way to separate fans and pump
So you have independent control

edGfaCTor · Saturday at 07:44

Mcnumpty2323 said:
See if using the other mounting holes help

Pretty sure as I mentioned earlier
There's a way to separate fans and pump
So you have independent control

The other mounting doesn't make that much difference and some boards it blocks nvme slot.

I don't pay attention to like of gaming nexus you cant get near the numbers they have I have gone through a few of these units.

The fans have very short cables which go into a splitter located at the rad you can use own splinter and plug them into mboard header if you want separate control.

freddie64 · Saturday at 10:59

@Damian227 What is you core voltage at idle and full load?

I just checked mine cooled by a AFIII 360mm (this does have the option to use split cables but i used the single cable).

Core voltage 0.881v/1.144v
Fan speed 356 rpm/683 rpm
All cores at maxed out 4.45 GHz and 3.60 GHz at idle

This was just using CPUZ built in stress test.

Also i found this thread on reddit about splitting the cables.

I ended up not doing anything, since the response I got from ARCTIC made it seem that it probably wasn't worth the hassle. Here's what they told me. Hopefully you'll find it helpful

Please use the CPU_Fan Header. The AIO Pump header will run on most boards on full speed. The single cable is to control the whole AIO. A seperate control is possible. You can unplug the fans from the integrated splitter hidden in between the fans.
Important details:

Please note that the cables from the fans are only 5cm long, either you use extensions or completely different fans if the cables are too short to reach the fan header.

Also the pump will never report any rpm values, this is intended and normal. Only the 1st Main fan will report the rpms but any rpm changes will take affect to the Pump/VRM.

The pump will run on full speed @40%pwm.

Damian227 · Saturday at 17:59

freddie64 said:
@Damian227 What is you core voltage at idle and full load?

I just checked mine cooled by a AFIII 360mm (this does have the option to use split cables but i used the single cable).

Core voltage 0.881v/1.144v
Fan speed 356 rpm/683 rpm
All cores at maxed out 4.45 GHz and 3.60 GHz at idle

This was just using CPUZ built in stress test.

Also i found this thread on reddit about splitting the cables.

Core Voltage: 0.888v - 1.156v (1.181v peak during Cinebench)
Fan Speed: No way of knowing, it won't show in bios, Gigabytes fan sensor app or HWMonitor, regardless if I plug into CPU_FAN or CPU_OPT (The one it suggests for watercooling, though Arctic say to use 'fan' anyway). What I can see is a 1366 RPM CPU (I assume the tiny one on the pump? That revs up to 1753 RPM during cinebench). I'm going to need some extenders to unplug the radiator fans and attach to my fan controller, as the cables on the radiator fans are like an inch long at best lol.
All Cores max at 4.5 Ghz or 3.6 Ghz idle.

I've now re-seated onto the 5000 series holes, also noticed I had the brackets on the wrong ends and a good 5mm of the right hand side of the processor (bottom when fit to the socket) had ZERO contact. No paste on cpu or cooler at all in that area, so I used the spread method and a little extra dot in the middle this time, instead of the big pea method.

Here is a temp comparison:
Before (taken today in ambient temp of 26c)
Idles: 53c-55c
Web Browsing/Doc work: 55c-64c
Gaming: 63-68c
Cinebench: 84c

After (allowed to cool, re-seated correctly about 4 hours later)
Idles: 47c-49c
Web Browsing/Doc work: 48c-53c
Gaming: 59c-64c
Cinebench: 77c

So definitely some improvement and marginally quieter.