Question Will an Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo be enough for a 13600K?

scandrews

Honorable
Jan 30, 2018
84
6
10,535
I'm building a system, and the CPU is going to be a 13600k. I wanted to go with a white tower cooler, in a NZXT H7 Flow, and was looking at the Arctic Freezer 34 Esports duo.

Will that cooler be enough for the 13600k if I'm not planning on doing any overclocking?
 

scandrews

Honorable
Jan 30, 2018
84
6
10,535
H7 flow case, 3 140mm fans in the front as intake, 3 120mm on top as exhaust and a 140mm in the rear as exhaust.

Not overclocking CPU or GPU. Boosts are more than enough.

I've always used an AIO, but want to use an air cooler this time
 

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
Will that cooler be enough for the 13600k if I'm not planning on doing any overclocking?
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i5-13600k/22.html
Please specify the applications, and the gpu.


H7 flow case, 3 140mm fans in the front as intake, 3 120mm on top as exhaust and a 140mm in the rear as exhaust.
Yes, lets send some of the cooler room air up and out of the case before it can get to the cpu air cooler. It doesn't need it anyway. /S
 
If what you're doing is mostly gaming, then the Arctic Freezer 34 should be okay since if I were to use https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i5-13600k/22.html for data, 74W on average is within what the cooler can handle. Though approaching 100W for BF5 and Civ6 is likely to test its limits.

If you're doing any CPU heavy applications like Blender rendering or something, you should get something beefier.
 

My PC Hates Me

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2014
140
8
18,585
Yes, lets send some of the cooler room air up and out of the case before it can get to the cpu air cooler. It doesn't need it anyway. /S

I have always wondered about that.

I am new to building, so pardon my ignorance, but you are pretty sure then that putting exhaust fans in the top of a case will reduce airflow over the CPU and VRMs?

(Sorry to doubt you, just trying to get an idea if this is a universal phenomenom or limited to just particular cases or particular fan layouts).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Exploding PSU
I am new to building, so pardon my ignorance, but you are pretty sure then that putting exhaust fans in the top of a case will reduce airflow over the CPU and VRMs?
Unless you have a radiator there, it's not a good idea to put a fan on the top towards the front of the case, because this just sucks the air from the front intake fans before the cold air has a chance to do something. Leaving a top fan towards the rear of the case is fine.

A goal of air cooling, at least from my point of view, is to keep the airflow as 1 dimensional, in a straight line from front to back as possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: My PC Hates Me

My PC Hates Me

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2014
140
8
18,585
Unless you have a radiator there, it's not a good idea to put a fan on the top towards the front of the case, because this just sucks the air from the front intake fans before the cold air has a chance to do something. Leaving a top fan towards the rear of the case is fine.

A goal of air cooling, at least from my point of view, is to keep the airflow as 1 dimensional, in a straight line from front to back as possible.

Thank you for the reply.

On a similar note, then having fans on top (but not a radiator) sucking air IN to the case would be a bad idea too then, right?
 
Thank you for the reply.

On a similar note, then having fans on top (but not a radiator) sucking air IN to the case would be a bad idea too then, right?
While I would say this breaks the goal of airflow being 1-dimensional as possible, it doesn't really cause a problem:

I guess I should also say the other goal is to make sure you can just replace the air around the hot spots as efficiently as possible. The above video can help with this by mixing in cool air in what will be a hot spot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: My PC Hates Me

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
I have always wondered about that.

I am new to building, so pardon my ignorance, but you are pretty sure then that putting exhaust fans in the top of a case will reduce airflow over the CPU and VRMs?

(Sorry to doubt you, just trying to get an idea if this is a universal phenomenom or limited to just particular cases or particular fan layouts).
You want to help the cpu cooler do its job, yes? Then don't install case fans up there in front of the cpu cooler's fan.
It's a catch 22 though: better for the cpu cooler, worse for the gpu cooler. Keep the fans in front of the cpu cooler though, it's the other way around. Pick your poison.
The only way to avoid this is cpu tower air cooler + gpu blower cooler, as they don't interact with each other.
 
  • Like
Reactions: My PC Hates Me

My PC Hates Me

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2014
140
8
18,585
While I would say this breaks the goal of airflow being 1-dimensional as possible, it doesn't really cause a problem:

I guess I should also say the other goal is to make sure you can just replace the air around the hot spots as efficiently as possible. The above video can help with this by mixing in cool air in what will be a hot spot.

Thank you for the video and sharing your thoughts on this.
 

My PC Hates Me

Distinguished
Jun 29, 2014
140
8
18,585
You want to help the cpu cooler do its job, yes? Then don't install case fans up there in front of the cpu cooler's fan.
It's a catch 22 though: better for the cpu cooler, worse for the gpu cooler. Keep the fans in front of the cpu cooler though, it's the other way around. Pick your poison.
The only way to avoid this is cpu tower air cooler + gpu blower cooler, as they don't interact with each other.

Thanks for the elaboration.

So I guess that is the main purpose of the blower style of video cards then? Since I understand that the traditional design is supposed to cool the GPU more, but doesn't force hot air outside the case.
 
Thanks for the elaboration.

So I guess that is the main purpose of the blower style of video cards then? Since I understand that the traditional design is supposed to cool the GPU more, but doesn't force hot air outside the case.
The blower cards are mostly for small form factor pcs or cases where there is not enough airflow. They can vent directly out of the rear end of the pc, but that venting is sometimes not enough for high load.
Also if you are using multiple cards like in mining scenario, they are beneficial.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phaaze88
I have always wondered about that.

I am new to building, so pardon my ignorance, but you are pretty sure then that putting exhaust fans in the top of a case will reduce airflow over the CPU and VRMs?

(Sorry to doubt you, just trying to get an idea if this is a universal phenomenom or limited to just particular cases or particular fan layouts).
I have not experimented with this, but logic tells us it is so.
I would first try the heavy front intake approach first.
One can always buy more fans later if it seems advisable.
There is another reasons for front intake only.
When you put a filter on the only air intake, your parts will stay cleaner.
Adding strong fans elsewhere tends to draw in unfiltered air from other case openings.
Lastly, extra fans cost$ and they add to the noise in your pc.

As to blower graphics cards, I really like them.
A GTX1080ti blower I once had was quiet and did the job..
Getting hot air out of the pc directly is a good thing.

The blower type of fan is not sufficient for current high end graphics cards so double and triple radial fans are now commonly used. Plus, they look good for marketing.
Not so good in that they put pressure on case cooling.
 
Last edited:

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
So I guess that is the main purpose of the blower style of video cards then? Since I understand that the traditional design is supposed to cool the GPU more, but doesn't force hot air outside the case.
The advantage of blower is small form factor, cooler case ambient, and multi gpu applications - have you noticed how all the professional cards(Radeon Pro and Nvidia A-series) are all blower?
They can stack several of those without choking them. Doesn't work so well with these axial fan coolers.

The blower design has its flaws too. You pretty much have to max out the fan speed - or close to it - for the cooler to actually do its thing. For many, that means loud.
Put another way, the performance penalty from running the blower fan at lower rpms is greater compared to axial models.
 
  • Like
Reactions: My PC Hates Me

scandrews

Honorable
Jan 30, 2018
84
6
10,535
If what you're doing is mostly gaming, then the Arctic Freezer 34 should be okay since if I were to use https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i5-13600k/22.html for data, 74W on average is within what the cooler can handle. Though approaching 100W for BF5 and Civ6 is likely to test its limits.

If you're doing any CPU heavy applications like Blender rendering or something, you should get something beefier.
No, just some work/research (attorney), gaming, etc.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Research for work, (attorney), gaming, basic personal PC. No productivity, video editing.

7900 XT.
No. I'd shy away from amd at the moment, they are having serious issues with high temps due to faulty vapor chambers. If you thought melting connectors on the 4090's was a really bad thing, amds issues are 100 times worse since there's no way to blame the user not fully connecting the card. It's all manufacturer issue.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
The Arctic duo is actually pretty decent, it'll handle upto @ 200w, is pretty quiet. It'll do just fine for a stock 13600k, getting equitable temps to a Noctua NH-D15.
View: https://youtu.be/bJaJeP7bylE

You'd have to push that cpu to its 180w limits to have any sort of thermal issues, but even then it shouldn't throttle in a decent airflow case.

It's really hard to actually beat that cooler for $50ish. The DeepCool AK620 would be a better choice for rendering/blender type loads but that would also be north of $70.
 

scandrews

Honorable
Jan 30, 2018
84
6
10,535
The Arctic duo is actually pretty decent, it'll handle upto @ 200w, is pretty quiet. It'll do just fine for a stock 13600k, getting equitable temps to a Noctua NH-D15.
View: https://youtu.be/bJaJeP7bylE

You'd have to push that cpu to its 180w limits to have any sort of thermal issues, but even then it shouldn't throttle in a decent airflow case.

It's really hard to actually beat that cooler for $50ish. The CM AK620 would be a better choice for rendering/blender type loads but that would also be north of $70.
Oh, the money is no big deal. I just didn't want to go with an AIO. I wanted a white cooler. If Noctua made a white cooler, I'd get it
 

scandrews

Honorable
Jan 30, 2018
84
6
10,535
No. I'd shy away from amd at the moment, they are having serious issues with high temps due to faulty vapor chambers. If you thought melting connectors on the 4090's was a really bad thing, amds issues are 100 times worse since there's no way to blame the user not fully connecting the card. It's all manufacturer issue.
Only with the reference cards made by AMD.