I'm really impressed with that CoolIT systems did here. CoolIT Systems took a different road and instead of the normal method of cooling water with a radiator, they decided to chill the water with six small TEC's. For that the Freezone is a really amazing product that combines two of the best cooling methods available to the consumer and merge them into one kickass product.

The product however does come with a couple of quirks. Let me get these out of the way first then:

You can run the fan on the cooler at 7000 RPM (everybody will) and that thing makes noise. I took our DBa meter, was 75 CM away from the PC and did a measurement .. the entire PC made a noise level of 53 DBa and that's just too much. By adjusting the potentiometer that RPM and noise level will go down yet then the effect is pretty average cooling. Since you buy this product for it's high performance I'm convinced everyone will use the highest setting. With that said; the fan solution is something CoolIT needs to focus on as it is really noisy.

The second issue is the sheer size of the unit. In some cases you might run into the issue that you will not be able to close the side-panel without doing some serious Houdini moves. In most cases though, it'll not be a problem. The last negative is simple .. pricing. At 399 USD this product is targeted at the uber enthusiast community that has money to spare. So really, it's very expensive. Also keep in mind that at full utilization the unit alone can consume 50 Watts.

These are the three negatives I found. On the bright side, this is a seriously kickass cooling unit. We boosted another 1400 MHz out of a E6600 processor, which actually is a new model (stepping) and more difficult to overclock. The combo of water-cooling and TEC seems to be golden as it will bring you really extremely good performance. If you'd leave your CPU at default clocks .. really you are looking at a temperature delta of 12 to 25 degrees C, that's just flabbergasting.

So if you are on the lookout for some very decent cooling ..  then I can highly recommend the unit. You'll need to take the noise level for granted though yet this is one of the best and coolest consumer solutions available to date.

What CoolIT needs to focus on are options .. I want to chill down chipset-coolers and GPU's as well. But hey .. you know what .. they're working on it.

Let's see what else can we say .. although the unit is relatively scary and intimidating to look at trust me .. it's easy to install. It comes with a well written manual guided with pictures so that's a plus as well.

Concluding

At a retail price of $399.99, the Freezone is not at all cheap but this really is all about innovation, performance wise it sits in-between water-cooling and phase-change cooling. So that's a pretty good spot to be in. So overall I'm really impressed with what they delivered here, for innovation, easy-to-install and use yet high-performance kit .. we grant this product our editor's choice award for ease of use, performance and obviously innovation.

FreeZone CPU cooler
Info: coolitsystems.com
Price 399 USD