Packaging and Accessories

Just as the box which the CoolIT PURE came in was big and black so too is the Freezone Elite’s box. As anyone who read that review knows we really liked the PURE’s box and raved about it over and over again. Quite honestly, this box is even better. Unlike the PURE’s, this box not only has the extremely well done ghostly outline on both sides but it also has a very subtle snowflake pattern which reinforces that this is cooler means business. When one sees snowflakes and cold black and white colour scheme one instantly draws subliminal connection between ultra cold temperatures and this CPU cooler. It may only be in the back of your head where you make this connection, but after seeing this box in person and from then then on, whenever you think about the Freezone Elite you can’t help but make the connection that this cooler makes your hot running CPU as cold as ice. Its very effective marketing and it does work.


Of course, marketing and colour schemes, no matter how effective, should always be a secondary concern when compared to protecting the actual unit inside. Once again CoolIT shows that they know a thing or two about protecting delicate items. When you open up the outside cardboard box you will also have to remove a second layer of protection before evening be able to catch a peak at the Freezone Elite. In many ways this heightens the sense of expectation, and brings back happy childhood memories of Christmas and clawing through one layer of wrapping to encounter another standing in your way between you and your favorite toy. Is the Freezone Elite a toy? Hardly, as this is one serious cooler; but then again if you consider the old adage “big toys for big boys” to be true then maybe the Elite should be classified as a toy…right along side the Rolls-Royce Phantom you have been coveting!

Just as with the PURE, the level of protection which they engineered into the packaging is downright beautiful. Sure it’s a cold, hard “German Engineering” kind of beauty but just like the protective glacis of a M1 tank protects it occupants against any and all comers, so too does the Freeze Elite’s Styrofoam box protect its precious cargo from all but the most extreme of accidents.


The accessories which come with the Freezone elite are not only thorough and complete they are all of the utmost quality. As with the PURE, you get an well done instruction pamphlet with lots of easy to understand instructions backed up by photographs, the necessary mounting hardware for both AMD and Intel 775 systems, the MTEC controller (with its USB cable and 4 pin connector adapter) and a software CD which contains the controller software which is required for interacting with the MTEC controller unit.

We were very impressed with the PURE’s manual and in some ways the Elite's is even better. It is written in easy to understand language which will have you almost up and running in no time and it has even more pictures than the PURE’s. Unfortunately, the manual does fall short in a one key area, namely the setup of the MTEC controller. It appears when the Freezone was upgraded to the Elite model, CoolIT did not update the manual; rather they tacked in a section on plugging in the MTEC. For the most part this tacked on section works, but it does feel like an afterthought. This would be acceptable as CoolIT obviously spent a lot of time and money doing the Freezone manual so you can’t blame them for not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. What is not acceptable is the fact they do not include any diagrams or pictures on the proper way to install the USB cable.

The included USB cable is a single block USB connector and while it only takes about 3 seconds to figure out where it goes in a normal double row connector found on most motherboards, the absence of said diagram/picture/pictogram was conspicuous in its abscence. It is certainly not a big deal and certainly not a deal breaker, but if you mess it up you will have to fix it before the software (or even your computer for that matter) will recognize it. This in now way will endanger your CPU as the Elite Freezone has defaults which it uses even when the MTEC controller is not present.

Except for a minor hiccup with the manual the Freezone Elite leaves one with a great first impression. It comes in a package that is darn near bomb proof and the accessories are all made of high quality components which we have come to expect from CoolIT. If this bad boy performs as well as it is packaged we are in for one fun ride!