Unfortunately, the Elite fails short when the heat load goes beyond 200W, as it cannot cope with the tremendous heat output of a very highly overclocked CPU and it beyond its capabilities. However, there is something to be said about the overall setup here, as the MTEC controller and software is very impressive.  It’s extremely easy to use and totally under your control to achieve just about whatever you want and how the cooler should perform. Furthermore, the MTEC unit is compatible with two CoolIT coolers which means you can use CoolIT'sdual bays graphic card cooler in conjunction with the Freezone Elite.

The included temperature monitoring software is also quite accurate except the CPU core sensor exhibited approximately 2°C discrepancy from the Real Temp, Everest and CoreTemp readings. The test results might not be a shocker for a TEC-liquid chilled cooler as you were hopping for but you have to look at the other side of the coin here.  The Freezone Elite isn’t aiming to shoot for sub-ambient load temperature; it's designed to offer enthusiast performance while also aiming at the mainstream market.  It’s a hassle-free cooler that doesn't have condensation problems or the extreme power requirements that TEC nomally brings to the game. Essentially, this is an great cooler if you plan on having a moderately high overclock on a quad core processor. However, if you really want to push your CPU to the max, then you will have problems with heat dissipation as the Elite will reach its limit and get beat by traditional water cooling.

The CoolIT Freezone Elite might come out the ring with a black eye after the final round, but its overall performance is excellent and efficient. Yet we can't help but wish for the Elite to jump up a weight class or perhaps bring a protege to the ring that will feature even more powerful TECs that will knock out a highly overclocked Core i7 processor. We'd certainly want ringside seats for that matchup.

Our thanks go to Xoxide for providing the CoolIT Freezone Elite for this review.