ARCTIC Freezer 36 - Single-Tower CPU Cooler with Push-Pull, Two Pressure-optimised 120 mm P Fans, Fluid Dynamic Bearing, 200–1800 RPM, 4 Heatpipes, incl. MX-6 Thermal Compound

Quiet Cooling with Strong Performance The ARCTIC Freezer 36 turned out to be a solid CPU cooler that checks most of the important boxes: cooling performance, noise levels, and installation ease. Out of the box, it feels well made and thoughtfully packaged. The included MX-6 thermal paste is a nice touch—saves me from having to buy an extra tube and ensures proper thermal transfer. Installing the cooler wasn’t difficult. The instructions were clear, and the mounting hardware felt secure once in place. It’s a single-tower design with dual fans set up in push-pull, which gave me confidence it could handle a decent load without sounding like a jet engine. And that’s exactly what I experienced: even under heavier CPU use, it kept temps in check while staying surprisingly quiet. The fans spin smoothly thanks to their fluid dynamic bearings, and I barely noticed them ramping up. A few things to keep in mind: it’s a tall unit, so make sure your case has the clearance for it. Also, while the cooling is very good, it’s not meant for extreme overclocking—this is more of a strong, quiet, reliable daily driver cooler than a max-performance monster. Bottom line: A well-balanced CPU cooler that delivers quiet, efficient cooling with minimal fuss. Great for builders who want solid thermals without a lot of noise.

Pretty good cooler, not too many problems on my end and installation is pretty simple. Getting pretty good airflow through my case and temps are nice and cool.

As of July 2025 this is undoubtedly the best budget air cooler for AM5 series CPU’s. The size (compared to a field of what are largely monstrously sized coolers) is pleasantly unobtrusive. The cooling is likewise impressive. A few warnings: At the motherboard the standard ‘base’ gets replaced by what are essentially two ‘bridges’. A two screw ‘bar’, at the base of the cooler, screws into the peak of those two bridges. The effect is that the two base/bar screws and the heat-sink base itself form a three-way force connection to the board & cpu. It’s not as stable as a 4 way connection. If you bump it (even a little) it may twist a little on the cpu. The heat sink has very innovative insets that let you ‘plug-in’ fans using standard fan screws. This means you can work setting-up the other connections/memory etc. without most the cooler (fans) being in the way. HOWEVER, be very careful applying force when pressing those fans into the heat sink … the base can twist around at the CPU connection point fairly easily. The design is good, the price is right, but you need to be gentle & thoughtful putting it together. Which I suppose is true of the other ‘monsters’ out there as well. For what it’s worth the Black Freezer 36 is replacing an older Arctic Freezer Xtreme (On my 10 year old FX 8350) … which since it fits AM4’s … should also work with an AM5 ? The older cooler is ~10.5 years old, so I’m guessing half way to it’s 100,000 MTF hours ? I also used that cooler model on an early Ryzen system I built for my son. Great performance from both. I’m very happy with ‘Arctic’ products in general (Price, performance & innovative design).

Easy to assemble and install, with all the parts and tools necessary to finish the job, including thermal paste. Instructions are also available from the manufacturers website in the form of a short video. The only issue I encountered was self inflicted, as I did not identify the airflow arrows on the fans and had to reconnect them. Since they just click into place with light pressure it was no big deal. So far it is keeping my i7 cpu very cool, but I have not stressed the system yet. I do not anticipate any issues going forward. Very satisfied with this purchase as it seems well built and quiet.

This is one of the best air coolers I’ve ever used in a build. I bought this in a process of replacing an old machine that went kaput on me, and that cooler used was an air cooler as well. No issues with that machine for what it’s worth, although the cooler in that machine was a Hyper 212 EVO back in 2016 which kept an i7-4790 around 40c. That machine now has an i5-4690 since the CPU died and had to be replaced, same temps around 40c. Not too bad. Compared to what this cooler is doing currently for a 12600KF in my current build, it is running as low as 19c and up to 26c, granted I’ve turned off some cores and turned off hyperthreading BUT, the huge difference for what I tend to use this machine for with this cooler, this is very excellent in what I’d want to use for what is essentially a file server/archival PC and as the replacement of the other aforementioned build above. Hands down, one of, if not, the best price/performance ratios for a budget air cooler I’ve seen in a while. After watching some reviews and comparisons on YouTube from GN, this can also fit the bill if your wattage usage for a CPU is pushing 200W. At that range it should be fine for keeping things cool but definitely not anything bad per se. The only thing I can say that may be a warning is if you’re installing on an Intel board you will need to be careful when installing its somewhat custom motherboard CPU bracket mounting system, which should be called the ILM, since there may be, not sure how much, a risk of shifting a portion of the CPU socket on the motherboard. You may want to have something underneath the motherboard to keep it from slipping. Useful information can be found on YouTube channels installing this. I did reference GN for this install, and it was not too bad for me. The reason why this step is needed is to make a better contact of the CPU heatsink contact with the CPU since most motherboards will not fully make contact with the CPU heatsink and CPU based on its ILM. If you have a new build, if you can afford one of these for its introductory price, I’d say it’s a great one to consider. After some time the price may increase but its still not to say its not worth it but depending on what’s available you can check and do comparisons on what else is offered in the market of air coolers. After the 3 months of this being released the price may change but we can only tell once/if this happens. Overall, I really like this CPU cooler for what it has done so far in keeping my CPU cool.

I like the design. Easy to install. Would buy again!

Great air cooler. Cheap but offers amazing performance. Looks lovely on black case. Keeps my 9600x under 40°C while idle and under 55°C while gaming

The little cooler that could. I was skeptical that this would work well, but I think Arctic is on to something by not sealing off the sides of this radiator tower so that air can flow from above and below onto the cooler. I don't think I've ever seen an air cooler with unsealed sides. It was able to take a 5950X and keep temperatures under 70C. Probably not a good solution for overclocking, but what air cooler is? My only complaint is that it uses direct heat pipe contact with the CPU instead of a copper or nickel block, which makes cleaning up a chore. I had to use a toothbrush and soap to get the thermal paste cleaned off the cooler. This is likely to keep costs down, but other than that this is a great cooler if you need something small.