Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB review for AMD AM4 socket

by

You can also be interested in these:

The Arctic CPU cooling products will be always top of mind in the list of recommendations and the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB is no different. Although this version is exclusive for AMD’s AM4 sockets, there is also available the Intel’s counterpart for the same price.



Strong constitution, adding a 159 mm thick heatsink with 4 cooper heat pipes to dissipate the heat evenly and efficiently at a high velocity. The fan features a 120 mm A-RGB propeller with a very good airflow, and relatively low noise execution.

Block structure and design

The Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB has a rather thick heatsink block conformed by only one piece. The measurements on this element are 133 mm x 159 mm, for the width and height respectively with 91 mm depth. The fan has a plastic case taking a considerable amount of space where the lights are projected. This model is exclusive for AMD CPUs; Using the model name “i35” there is another one dedicated for Intel CPUs.

The heatsink is, on its entirety made of aluminum. It has dense fins put together in layers with cooper tubes in between for a simple and yet roughed design. In total, there are 54 fins with a 0.4 mm thickness each. The block itself has a shiny black finish on it.

Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB

The design of the whole unit is pretty similar to the one we find in modern CPU cooling systems, with sawtooth-like indentations to allow a better penetration of the air a lot more silently. However, you need to be careful while handling the unit: You might get punctured or cut if not having enough precaution.

The heatsink block get installed in the fan case through tabs. This design will prevent another type of fan to be used. The fan and heatsink combo were designed to be exclusively together.

From the top of the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB, 8 heat pipes can be seen with an even distribution. They continue down the heatsink plates until they meet together through 4 externally visible pipes, forming the cold plate in conjunction with the aluminum filling. There is an elevation with respect to the level of the socket. This gap is present to avoid touching other components like the VRM heatsinks, etc. The system is held on in place by two aluminum braces bringing the cooling media in contact with the CPU socket.

Fan A-RGB lighting

One of the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB most representative characteristics is the lighting. It is integrated into the axis of rotation distributing the light throughout the unit’s translucent white blades. The system has a 5VDG to connect to any motherboard and synchronize it, being compatible with ASRock, Asus, MSI and Gigabyte.

The fan also has 5 large helical blades with a range of functionality of 120 mm. Besides the center support of the blades there is also an outer ring that prevents the propeller from warping and providing a lot more stability and airflow. As we already mentioned, the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB only admits its own fan, using the same plastic case for the whole structure. This can be critical if it fails or breaks since we will have to replace the whole unit. However, the manufacturer gives us a 6-year guarantee, hence we have the assurance of durability.

Going into more technical details, the propeller of the fan has a dynamic fluid bearing with a rotation speed of 1700 RPM maximum, also compatible with PWM control. The noise generation of the fan goes around the 0.35 Sone, equivalent to 15 dBA.

Installation system

The Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB uses the brand’s famous fasteners with the exception that it is only compatible with AMD AM4 sockets. In this case, a kid with 4 extensions will be added to compensate the IHS of the CPU to the height of the heatsink with the corresponding adapter where the heatsink is located.

In the box with the fan, also comes a small tube of 0.8 g Arctic MX-5 thermal paste compound. We strongly advice to use this one included, even if you have spare paste laying around. This paste is the best you can use in your CPU in terms of performance.

In order to install it you need first to disassemble the fan from the cradle as there is one of the screws that sits right below it. Additionally, don’t forget to use a long screwdriver because of how deep it is for the removal.

This product is super easy to install. Just match the PWM connector with one of the “CPU_FAN” sockets, and the 5VDG connector directly with one of the controller inputs on the motherboard.

The enormous footprint of the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB shouldn’t be a problem by interfering with the airflow inside the computer case, although its high profile might give us an interesting challenge during the installation, especially with the RAM memory placement.

Closing remarks about the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB review

We finalize the analysis of the Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB, an exclusive version for AMD AM4 processors with measurements and performance quite similar to the Freezer 34 eSports, but with a fan integrated in a plastic casing and with RGB lighting.

Performance wise, this fan is a great cooling option for a 105W TDP CPU, this means that you won’t have any problem with a 5800X or 5700G APU. At the construction level we have no drawbacks, good finishes and an improved aesthetics with the casing that integrates the fan. On the downside, it doesn’t admit generic fans, but for that we already have other variants for sale.

This Arctic Freezer A35 A-RGB is available for a price of $48.99 USD, with a second variant dedicated to Intel processors, also available for the same price. Ideal for assemblies with a tight budget, good performance, RGB aesthetics and the best thermal paste of the brand included.

More stories like this