Forget the Freezer 7 and turn your attention to the Freezer 8. It’s the successor to the cooler marked with the “legendary” seven. Sure, it’ll take a moment to get used to the new name, but that’s the way it is – Arctic is updating its low-end lineup, and if you’re looking for a budget tower cooler for entry-level CPUs, the Freezer 8 will be one of the options. And one that fits even smaller or narrower cases. These coolers are only 136 mm tall.
The new Freezer 8 coolers arrive as a budget option for lower-power CPUs. Based on the numbering, we can expect them to aim at evolving the capabilities of the Freezer 7 series. Those have been around a long time, since back when Arctic was still Arctic Cooling (remember those days?), so the Freezer 8 has big shoes to fill.
Either way, this is a “basic” cooler intended mainly as a replacement for stock CPU solutions. However, it may often outperform them, as was the case with the Freezer 7 X. Don’t expect miracles though. The heatsink is built on just two heatpipes, meaning the design has relatively lower TDP – but one likely sufficient for CPUs like Ryzen 5, Core Ultra 5, or Core i5, and even higher classes if power limits are capped at their official TDP. For the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, for instance, that’s 125 W.
But again, Arctic primarily envisions the Freezer 8 for budget CPUs, which typically also have lower power consumption even under full load.
From a case compatibility perspective, the advantage of this cooler is its modest height, which maxes out at 136 mm. That allows the Freezer 8 to fit in places where taller coolers would be too big. That’s also thanks to the use of a “mere” 100 mm P10 PWM fan. Its speed range is 200–2300 RPM, and at PWM duty cycles below 5%, the motor is designed to shut off, putting the fan into passive mode – stopping the impeller entirely and relying on the heatsink alone. At low loads, this passive cooling should be enough.
The total weight of the heatsink with the fan is listed at 415 grams. Thermal paste (Arctic MX-6) comes pre-applied to the base. Among key specs, platform support is also worth highlighting. This is also why we refer to Freezer 8 coolers in the plural. There are several. Models with “i” in the name (Freezer 8i) are for Intel CPUs (LGA 1851 and LGA 1700), and those with “a” (Freezer 8A) for AMD platforms (AM5 and AM4). There are also Freezer 8i/A CO (Continuous Operation) versions, which use dual-ball-bearing fans instead of fluid-dynamic ones found in standard Freezer 8i/A models.
So far, four Freezer 8 variants are available, with the lowest suggested price from Arctic being 19 EUR for the 8A (ACFRE00161A), the 8i (ACFRE00190A) is slightly more – 19.50 EUR, and the CO versions carry a 1 EUR premium. That’s 20 EUR for the Freezer 8A CO (ACFRE00162A), or 20.50 EUR for the Freezer 8i CO (ACFRE00191A). All Freezer 8 coolers are available in stores now as you read this article.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
