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You know what? It could be cool if y'all made a trip down to an Arctic laboratory, I feel like their design philosophy and engineering methodology could be fascinating to see into
Concur, Arctic seems to be a decent company and it's be nice to learn more about it. Might also discuss the contact spot/frame issue with them and see if they are working on improving their designs.
I believe they will take Gamers Nexus' critiques and add them to newer revisions of the Liquid Freezer III to make it better, like the contact frame on Intel, or the mounting on AMD, like what they did for the Liquid Freezer II (I recall they refined the Liquid Freezer II mounting for Intel before?). I'm really glad Arctic is still one of the sane few companies around.
Thermalright also seems to try to make sure their things are decent. The Peerless Assasin 120 keeps doing incredibly good in tests, especially if you look at the price. They also have a bunch of AIO's. It would be interesting to see how they compare to Arctic and really cheap actors like Deepcool, Xilence, Mars Gaming, Kolink and NOx. These last five are all real cheap which makes you wonder what they sacrificed to keep the price that low. It looks like Deepcool at least does some of their own designs of the radiator. Real data would require a long term test to see how they age. There's been AIO problems with aging, Arctic had one and fixed it decently, but this is really hard to test effectively. Initial testing being performance and design is really the start. If these areas work decently they might be usable but if they don't then longevity isn't really interesting.
@@blahorgaslisk7763 idk about Deepcool's AIOs, but in my experience their heatsinks are solid. (I've used the AS500 Plus, Assassin III, and Gammaxx 400) Deepcool's 120mm fans tend to resonate around the ~1000RPM or so I like to have my fans at, so I don't really like them acoustically. Their 140mm hasn't given me any issues.
Could also have been made on the 23rd of 2037, you never know, it could be an aio from the future that they shifted trough time. That would also explain the fact that arctic finally figured out pump-block looks which was predicted to happen in 2029
They're done the same on tyres, a tyre marked 1524 was made in the 15th week of 2024. They also only print the date on the side meant to face outwards! @@GamersNexus
@@GamersNexus Most ICs have date codes in a similar format, and this has been the case for a *very* long time. On pre-Y2K chips, you can identify the two halves of the code unambiguously, because the week number is never above 52, while the year digits will be in the 70s upwards.
@@inqizzo Dont count out that it could be made in the year of 2337 and brought back in time to speed up the development of the liquid aio cpu cooler market.
Bought the 360mm variant for 70€ new. That's insane value for a chart topping CPU cooler. I'm glad there are still companies selling quality products without excessive branding, RGB, or a huge markup. Affordable, good products are all we want.
i got this and 8 noctua NF-p/a fans for my case and its running cooler than ever without all the lgbtq lighting fans and branding. like 30-40% cooler overall.
I love how I'm looking to find a way to cool my 13900k, and you keep posting these videos on coolers, and I keep learning more and more stuff in general about coolers out right and just wanted to say thanks to the gamer nexus team for all the info been watching off and on for years between each build every time I come back your videos they allway help when im looking to build / upgrade.
Have you decided on how to cool your 13900k yet? Because I am looking to cool a 14900k and thought maybe the liquid freezer 2 might be a better choice as I can use a 3rd party contact frame. Not sure, tho.
@Hebell basically you have 4-5 solid choices for the 13900K/14900K. in price order: Arctic Liquid Freezer II and III 360 (even better the 420 if you have the right case for it) DeepCool LT720 EK Nucleus CR360 Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360 Corsair H150 (better H170 if you have the case)
@@s.s.7404 I am willing to pay more for better cooling / better temps. Funny how the cheapest cools the best. :D Therfore I'll probably go with the Liquid Freezer III 420 and push/pull with 6 Silent Wings 4. This seems to perform even better than the EK direct die.
@@DanielHebell That's because there are others things to consider, such as the look and the "comfort". For example the Galahad is basically at the same level in cooling but comes with 3 uni fans (less cables and better look). Then, the 420 is a beast (i have the LF II 420 top mounted on Lancool III) but there is the case compatibility to consider.
One thing I haven't seen anyone notice or mention is that the RGB version of this cooler has higher-performance fans. The RGB version uses Arctic's P12 PWM PST A-RGB fans, which have a max speed of 2000RPM and use the same fin shape as Arctic's new P12MAX. The black version of this cooler uses the regular P12s that came on the previous generation, with the original fin shape and a max speed of 1800RPM. Hope to see this mentioned if you ever talk about these again!
In honor of Steve being a little silly, we should declare Fanuary not only as the second month of the year but also a celebration of cool tech and Steve's magnificent hair.
As someone who has built custom loops for 20 years and constantly bashes AIOs for all of their easily solvable design problems (aluminum radiators with leftover flux in them that will always eventually result in buildup, mixed metals, insufficiently cooled pump motors, limited lifespan PG based coolant, undersized impellers and poor flow rates, plastic with poor thermal characteristics, etc. etc.) this is probably the most well designed CLC I've seen, and I especially like the motor and impeller housing, the VRM cooling, and cold plate design. That being said, it still uses an aluminum radiator, it still has mixed metals, and it still uses a limited lifespan PG based coolant. So, despite the excellent design choices, I won't use these in builds and will only offer air cooling or custom water, because I guarantee my builds work maintenance free for 5 years once assembled, and that is not a lifespan I can comfortably promise with any CLC, including this one. Until CLCs have made these changes, I consider them to have planned obsolescence baked in and won't touch them: -Copper radiators. -No more mixed metals. -Ethylene glycol coolant. There's a huge selection of excellent automotive coolants that will work in a CLC for 10 years. Use them. No more PG. -Use glass fiber reinforced plastics for pump/impeller housing. 60C is too easy to reach with pump/impeller failures, it's a liability. -No more sealed fans that make re-lubricating them unnecessarily difficult. Also, provide options to buy fanless to save unnecessary costs.
same here. I bought 2 of them. One for my PC (5600X) and one for my sons (6700K) - further note the one in my sons rig was supposed to go on my daughters BUT her desk couldnt fit the case I got (I forgot to measure)
Same for me, bought the 420 II for my 5950x, overclocked and it sits happily at high 40s for most heavy loads. Artificial stress tests doesnt get above 65. The fan cables hidden is nice and the little fan is a nice bonus for vrm cooling.
While reviewing aio coolers i also think its interesting to have relevant air coolers included in the results, just as a reference point. Its been especially useful for me when trying to figure out whether it makes sense to go from air to water (other than looks of course). Videos going over the differences have been made before but they all feel out of date or they dont include more relevant options. By always including some air cooler results in the comparisons there will always be an up to date reference point.
Corsair looking at this design and wondering why they'd make it that way. Sure it cools better, but how are they going to strap an LCD screen to it and charge 400 dollars?
@@inqizzo only if they have readouts for temps and such. Unless people really want an LED display on their pump for cartoons. I personally think they're dumb, but people seem to think they're worth 400 bucks.
Corsair (and NZXT for that matter) serve completely different markets than Arctic does. One is for kids with rich parents, the other is for enthusiasts.
Corsair probably laughing at that AMD mounting thinking you guys had one job. Why go to two screw mounting from a tried and true 4 screw mounting? Fixing it later shouldn’t be an option either it just shows you guys screwed up.
@@russellbower2557 fanboy detected. I have an H150I. The four posts don't fit snug on the backplate, so you need an extra arm to mount their AIO, and mine is all scratched because of it being such a pain. This may not be perfect, but pretending Corsairs is flawless is hilarious.
Love tear downs video's, I always try to find a good tear down video before spend money on something like to know what i will be buying and if i will be able to fix or service it myself. Thanks for another great video.
After the public recall that came directly from artic cooling, I have bought nothing but artic coolers. Good company, good product, good support. I wish they'd sell a non-fan version where I use my own fans.
Very impressed by the serviceability and ease of disassembly on this one, there are a ton of solid options these days for AIOs and I think that will help them stand out
Was able to pick up the 360 ARGB for $107 on Amazon. Just arrived this morning so going to be installing it later but gamers Nexus was definitely the reason I decided to pick this unit up! You guys provide absolutely phenomenal overviews
Directly from ARCTIC website there is promo price of 80 euros something and 5 euros delivery worldwide, I got LF III ARGB 420 from their website for 95 euros and free delivery. Should always support the manufacturer directly if you can since then they have larger profit cut for themselves that way instead of giving to Amazon . And ARCTIC definitely deserve more support.
I bought the 360 A-RGB in white for only 90 € on Amazon today!! Absolutely amazing price^^ Btw, I just ordered a USED 360 LF II A-RGB for 126 € a few days prior...
thank you for the work you have done, i purchased mine yesterday based on your true practical review. it's almost unbelievable an AIO this good is in such an affordable price and also a discount on top of that. all the best Arctic!
@@GamersNexus Are these the ones with a naked bum as a profile pic and some generic comment? I don't know what they are doing here on a PC hardware video. Are they trying to hide from bot detection tools so they can spam views?
I just replaced the deepcool LT720 with the new arctic 3 280, and it's better both in terms of temperature (higher cinebench score with PBO at 85°c) and quiet. Very good product
This looks like a great cooler. It seems that both here and KitGuru have found the LGA 1700 performance a bit lacking. Hopefully they will improve this with mounting hardware corrections. I'd like to consider one of these for my 13700K. I'd certainly consider one after a few revisions.
@GameBacardi nah man, it's the way the cooler is screwed down to the bracket. Onl6 2 screws means the bracket isn't having equal pressure placed on it.
@@def-po8tu being 2 or 4 doesnt change much. Most if not all high end air coolers for example already use only 2 spring loaded screws to pressure the plate against CPU. What they need to fix is how that pressure with cooling plate + spring load metal ontop is doing against CPU surface + CPU contact frame.
@@XURUPITA4006 it does tho, it's not applying equal pressure. The 2 screws are only applying pressure in the center of the cpu and that is the issue. Thanks have a great day
Something I'd like to see is you guys attempting to rebuild this and seeing if it works and if there's any meaningful difference in performance. This is my first time seeing a repairable CLC like this.
Definitely interested in seeing your pressure testing/thermal testing after making your modifications. I realize you'd probably not take the offer, but I can already see the A.F.III 'Nexus' edition - now with improved thermals and ease of installation!
On the topic of the motor design, this appears to be a 9-pole brushless DC type - the rotor will incorporate a corresponding multipole permanent magnet for the stator coils to interact with. The 9-pole design, which should give nice smooth torque, and it may well be related to the new fan motors which Arctic have recently introduced, which additionally have smooth driving waveforms for each coil (rather than just turning them hard on and off). You might find some interesting similarities if you tear down a P14 MAX to expose the motor. Suffice it to say that Arctic know what they're doing with propeller-law motors, and can implement their ideas effectively, even at the modest end of the price range.
the important parts here are the pump and the fan. as an old pump mechanic, i can tell you both are high quality high volume. the fan may have a narrow diameter, but the vanes are long and have a lot of surface area. the pump impeller is the same, a lot of surface area in the vanes. both will move a lot of water and air respectively.
I recall buying Arctic Liquid Freezer 2 based on your reviews and the price. That was for my Ryzen 3 1200. It has also served well a Ryzen 7 2700 and now I own a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and that cooler still manages it magnificently, at pretty much no noise whatsoever! Only after I became older did I realize how much I appreciate the quietness of the cooler, to the point that the only thing that makes sound within my case is the GPU, which is absolutely awful. Arctic really deserves more love because they seem to really care about their products.
Great review! Thank you. I've used AIO's for years now, and to tell the truth, I just replace them every 3-5 years or if I see a big degrade in cooling performance. It would be great to see a video on maintaining an AIO- how to see a potential failure, how to replace components, and most importantly, how to service or refill the coolant. I know every AIO will be different, but major components should be about the same (fan, pump, hoses, etc).
I hope your at least changing paste? Before replacing. Anyway. As to maintaining. AIOs are definitely in the vien of, you will never get it back together the same as factory. Proper Water loops can be a pain to get the air out of in general. That's with a loop that you personally design. With something that is not really intended to be serviced... good luck.
I put a CPU AIO in a system back in 2017 and noticed over the years the temp kept on getting worse. Think it was 2019 I replace the thermal paste with no improvement and 2020 started to get noise from the pump. Contacted the manufacturer to troubleshoot to which the reply was that the coolent was being absorbed into the hoses and my option was to replace it at my cost. I went back to air cooled and which runs just as cool. NEVER going with a AIO again and to be truthful I knew nothing is maintenance free. Just hoped it would last the system till it was time to upgrade. When I tore it apart I found gunk in the cold plate so either replace the AIO like you said every few years or build a custom loop which you can maintain every few years. In both cases I now only liquid cool when I plan to Over clock the system and with systems being overkill (unless running 4-8K).
hey hope this helps: Ive bought the TT ToughLiquid 360 back in Oct 2020 and were running it since then. Naturally AiO degenerate and youll see why in a brief moment. After ive noticed the degradation ultimately ending in sudden shutdowns and fail-to-boot, i came across the AiO stopped working properly. A few hours in into troubleshooting with external DC supply and whatnot, ive decided to tear it down, from the bottom up. Thats the cold plate, the gasket and the housing. I hadnt to go further. the AiO in question uses a same in style gasket as the product reviewed here, it is sort of some silicone rubber channel mask that sits on top of the microfins of the cold plate. TT somehow made the channels much more narrow than what you can see here and it actually uses a one way in two ways out approach, so in fact a spread from the middle. The gasket was allowing water to only penetrate the microfins at a small section in the middle, and this one got covered in debris. After cleaning up the copper block under flowing water and soft soap, ive went towards flushing the pump and radiator assembly with distilled water until i felt comfortable to reassemble it. The biggest work is actually draining any remaining air left in the circuit, you definitely want to make sure the loop is pure deion, especially because ive observed the pump fails upon air intake.
Another great tear down. Just want to say thanks for all your hard work. It's because of you lot that I chose the LF2 when I built my new system last year. Although my LF2 is great and going strong, I may decide to change to the LF3 purely for aesthetics, especially with the current discount being offered as part of Arctics 23rd birthday celebrations. Thanks Steve! (plus the rest of the gang)
I'm picking up a 5800X3D + Sapphire Nitro+ 7800XT this weekend from MicroCenter. My 240 Liquid Freezer III is already en-route. I think I'm going to do these pads instead of the tube of Kryonaut I have here already...
I remember watching you tear down one of the NZXT AIOs and basically ending up destroying the whole thing, this looks like something you could actually service if needed.
I was shying away from AIOs but Artic always peaked my interest and this newer model is impressive. Hoprefully the prices will be back to introductory prices when I upgrade.
Thanks Steve, I just got the Arctic Freezer III 420 RGB on sale at Amazon only a few days back. Along with a new case I got (also Amazon), the Phanteks (PH-ES614PTG_BK) Enthoo Pro ATX. I still have a need for at minimum a (2) 5.25" drive bays (this can hold THREE 5.25") along with being able to mount at the top the 420 AIO. The price I was charged was just $115 for the AIO and the case I got for $121 which I felt was a great value overall! I see that you are finally getting back to reviewing cases again (took you guys long enough!). While you have not stated yet what cases you are going to actually be reviewing, I'm still curious at to what you have in store for us all! I don't plan on making a change on the case (as it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get a decent full ATX case these days WITH 5.25" bays) unless you buy some HUGE "server size" case at over $300+, yet again, I'm curious what you are going to review. After speaking with a few friends that have needs similar to mine that also need those 5.25" drive bays... All of us just can't understand just WHY the industry as a whole has ABANDONED the 5.25" drive bays! DON'T they realize that many of us STILL USE DVD and BLU-RAY both for watching movies and also have the need to burn quick copies of files aside from the use of just USB thumb drives? There is still a need for archiving data for use as longer rather than shorter term storage... hence the need for the 5.25" drive bays! The plus here as far as the Phanteks case is concerned it that it can have both the 420 AIO option and STILL be able to fit those 2 5.25" drive bays AT THE SAME TIME and STILL be a GREAT VALUE! Sure, for just a gaming rig you really don't need physical media to install a game seeing as places such as Steam and G.O.G. are around where you can install directly the game in question to a SSD. But for other uses (say watching a movie off your own media especially if the internet is off-line!) there is STILL THAT NEED!!! This is something to consider "IF" you have the space available to use a case of the size I've just purchased from Phanteks.
@15:15 you already had me primed to laugh with Fenuary. But when you added "which is not a month" I cracked! If early next year you have a lot of data on fan testing from this year, and you are doing a roundup like you did for GPUs and CPUs (was it this year or December last year?) but for fans, please call it Fanuary.
was going to buy this AIO due to the 10year warranty, but I wouldnt be getting the order for almost 3months.. so I purchased the Redragon HL360 (white) AIO, comes with a 5year warranty. Havent seen any youtube reviews on it, but Amazons reviews are good(taken with a grain of salt) and itll be here Sunday.
I picked up a 280mm the day they came out, which I didn't know they were that new, until the review video popped up in my feed like an hour after I bought it. Sadly, I did not read the motherboard compatibility, and forgot that my AsRock ITX X570 Phantom mobo used LGA 115X mounting points, instead of the traditional AM4 mounting. So, my little ITX server with the 5950X ended up putting the NH-D15S I have on my 5800X3D, then put the Liquid Freezer on the 5800X3D, until I finish designing and printing out my own mounting brackets out of some PA6 carbon nylon, which should be stiff enough. lol Performance wise on the 5800X3D, it's about the same as it was on the NH-D15S in gaming, except maybe a couple of degrees cooler on max temps over long period usage. Like mining randomXmonero for the other 18-20 hours of the day that I'm not using my PC. The "DLC" options is nice, in the since that it can be easily customized. Having 3D printers, and doing 3D modeling design, that gives me the freedom to create and experiment with my own AIO faceplate fin designs. lol As far as anything else, I have loved the GN silicon mod mat I bought months ago, and it has been serving me well doing many different things. Also, if we're talking about ad spots, I put TG's Kryosheet on my Merc 310 7900XTX, and did flashed the 550W AsRock VBIOS to it. The Kryosheet has been amazing! Keeps hotspot temps consistent, as well no longer have to worry about pump out from the thermal cycles. My deltas are 21C at the "stock" high power limit of 465W. At 550W that delta gets up to around 33C, which is still pretty good. Should make note, I'm not using the stock loud fans anymore (loud things got thrown out the day I got the card), but designed and 3d printed custom fan bracket. 3 Lian LI P28's attached to it do the job well. At max speed they are pretty quiet. Dead quiet if comparing to the stock "jet turbine" fans. lol
Thank you so much for giving us such great insight on the inter workings of this AIO and many others. No one else is doing things like this, and I absolutely love a good tear down because I like to see how things take and I like to see the nuances between various models to see which one will suit my needs better. I myself a huge Aio fan. No pun intended, although I’ve had several fail over the years because I do quite often push my computers pretty hard but it’s never deter me from buying another AIO. However, I do learn from every failure and I try to find what possibly caused the failure and which one to buy to avoid it happening again in that particular instance. Yesterday when I saw you review this AIO, I was immediately impressed and I saw several things that I liked to see and I ordered one myself. I do have a question though is there any risk to lapping the cold plate on a AIO versus a water block? I’ve done it a few times and I haven’t had any issues per se, but I’m just wondering if there is a chance of deformation. Also, also, if you use a lapped plate on a non lapped cpu is there any harm or risk there as well? I typically always lap my CPU and Coldplates plates, but from time to time I need to test a different CPU in that particular test bench that has not been lapped and I’m just wondering if that would either impact the temperature is negatively or put too much pressure on the IHS. Thanks for all your hard work. You guys are absolutely amazing and I continue to thank you for all the years of inspiration and education.
what if you replace the leaf spring with flat solid piece of metal, that way when you screw the 2 mounting screws in, it equally applies the pressure without bowing out. Maybe with spring tension screws so it would account for some inaccuracy and have proper pressure so its not to much of it.
That might work, but it would be a rigid mount, not spring tensioned. It should be fine, but you open the possibilities for other pressure issues. Rigid mounts require very even and solid systems, unlike those made entirely of plastic.
I just got the Alphacool Eisbär, mainly due to serviceability, not knowing Arctic would release this. Glad they are going this direction. *would love to see the stats of the Eisbär, but I guess it will be let down by its fans
Sweet! It would be cool if ARTIC sold a custom water loop version of the cold plate/water pump/vrm fan assembly. I would buy one in a couple years when I will be looking at going to a custom water loop in my Fractal Torrent case. I currently have a ARTIC LF2 420mm that is cooling a R9 7900X (works great!), but there was one problem. While the 420mm radiator technically fits in the front, I had to remove the mount for the bottom fans so that it would fit. I had planned to put the 180mm fans in the bottom. Can't put the radiator in the bottom unless I want any air in the system to coalesce in the pump. So future solution is to go with a custom water loop using a radiator for the 180mm fans that came with the case.
German Engineering, made to last 👍. I ordered one a few days ago, White 420 ARGB. Looking forward to its arrival and hoping it will fit the Motherboard. Thanks for the stream , it was good to see the difference and thus evolution of the design. Wondering what will be next. GEN IV ? 👍🤛👀
Would love to see this treatment done to the new Thermalright AIO's, since they dont use Asetec stuff they make their own, and have the pumps in the tubes. They're also very low cost, and nobody really covers them.
I keep all 14900K at room temperature. My working CPU is only +6ºC to +22ºC (at 100% load, with +10% oc cpu and gpu) with cheapest cooler with 1x 12cm fan + 1x 12cm case fan. As far as you don't buy any 12th gen Intel 7 cpu they will keep room temperature at no cost with huge electric bill saving, you can use to actually buy anything with 7nm, 5+6nm, 4nm or 3nm cpus of other Company. It works allways. If you need to buy intel, no need to buy anything above 12600K or even G6900 or N100 (2 pcore 20W or 4 ecore 6W) and 12100 4pcores (40W) or i3- N305 8ecores ecores 15W make wonders also as i7 7700K 95W... pcores are for gaming, and ecores for multithread optmized apps... ecores only cpu may run without need of fan...
Well I'm impressed. Off to check out the review now. Been a few years since I've done anything with my PC, may upgrade my CLC. The big (for the product) fan is a huge selling point for me since I already loosely place a fan near the VRM.
Just on the motors, if you're really curious then there isn't much to write about. Even as a motor winder of 20 years I can only see what you see. Slight size differences don't necessarily mean anything either because turns can be changed to get the same output power. In this case though it looks like a slightly bigger impaler to go with the slightly bigger motor, so it can move slightly more liquid.
Actually, I ordered a 280 unit just now when they have their "birthday sale" on their site. I had some issues with payment and left them a message along with a modest amount of praise for how they handled "Gunk-gate" proactively. Companies aren't your friends and the products need to stand on their own merits. But I think we as enthusiasts can influence companies with both the "whip and the carrot". I also left a suggestion that they might want to look why the Intel results don't match the AMD. Kitguru actually has the Freezer III 360 second to last on the Intel 300W+ test. It might be an issue with mounting pressure or cold plate GN observed.
The impeller is very nice. The height of the veins and the curve of the blades are designed for the best flow to pressure ratio. I work on pumps that use bronze impellers that are basically the same thing but need to me machined for longevity. these pumps need to pump more flow at less pressure. I am sure that arctic did some work finding out the best vein height and curve to make sure that the motor running it would last awhile. My next build is going to use one of these because I would love to see how far they have come. I mean aside from @gamersnexus review.
Respect for artic making both the II and III fairly serviceable. Extra points for the III looking more serviceable than the II. With the pump build quality it gives me confidence that if you top off or change coolant every 4/5yr it will keep it going, save you money, and keep the great cooling performance.
I enjoyed this internal look at why it does as it does. The Extra height on the microfins would increase cooling capacity since they would have a larger area to get cooled. Next week im getting mine since it was really cheap to get one here in Norway and well more cooling with a 6950XT also in the case is good.
Even though I was one of the people who got the V2 420mm for cheap, I'm still super happy with my purchase & when I need to upgrade... Artic is the only choice for AIO from now on.
I have a Corsair H55 (I think) 120mm AIO that has been working pretty much 24 hrs a day for 8 years. It's currently on my sever. I really want to tear it down when I finally dies. All my other AIOs have made it 3 years max.
The other great thing about this hardware being held together with screws rather than glue - if you can find _pieces_ of it or buy a few bum units with different issues, you can _in theory_ be able to piecemeal your own unit together. Its always going to be more economical time-wise to buy _new_ rather than used old stock but provided Arctic is selling their own pieces to go with it, you can piece together your own unit like one would a Framework-branded laptop.
I still await the Noctuas of water cooling. Had 3x AIO's die on me over the years. 1 Coolermaster had the pump die for no apparent reason. 1x Corsair wasn't the cooler's fault but the fan connector on an NZXT case that decided to have poor connection, not realizing none of the fans were going so the water kept going around getting hotter and melted the impeller inside, and then 1x Corsair's pump died after a month. Full custom was tedious and too much maintenance for me personally. At least with air cooling, you still have passive cooling if the fan(s) die. Mostly ran Noctuas, but my fav was a lapped TRUE Copper and lapped IHS. Motherboard breaking awesomeness. The repairability of this Arctic cooler is promising though and I do like their MX paste. I'll wait another 10 years and see where water cooling comes lol
What I've learned about an AIO is on reviews it can perform well while in an actual system it does something totally different because of the configuration of your current build. Pick an AIO that you feel comfortable using and go with it.
Looks extremely well made! I always wondered why companies always use such small fins, when taller fins definitely make performance better. I like the addition of VRM fan. Getting better, but air is still king imo. Only thing to fail is you dropping it, bending it all up, and fan failure. And of course, a lot of liquid coolers forget VRM needs cooling. As for hardware DLC, there's a bad way and a good way. The good way is all cosmetic, and the bad, if they leave out the hardware that makes or breaks it. A better route would be completely modular, like selling an after-market cold-plate with different performance levels, etc. So you could upgrade it later with a thicccc micro-fin design.
The truth is, many (most these days) VRM solutions actually don't need any extra cooling. The heatsink is more than enough in most cases. When you have a VRM rated for 500+ watts on a mobo that runs CPUs with a 90to150W tdp, they never get hot enough. My Crosshair hero 7 X470 runs all day every day with an AIO without a VRM fan (overclocked 5950X). Telling people they need one is false information.
Going by other comments I've seen, it sounds like on failure Arctic would probably ship a new unit to the customer then use that repairablity to refurbish and resell the unit as such. That said, most comments mention getting the new unit but nothing about sending the old one back; perhaps they've deemed that not cost effective, but it's good to see the design still there.
The price for the LFII models are already slashed on Amazon and NewEgg. As an example the 420mm is around $100 USD for both the black and RGB models. The new LFIII 420mm is around $120 USD for the white and black RGB versions. The LFIII black non-RGB version is around $90 USD. Great prices on all of them!
I got myself LF3 420 as an upgrade for LF 2 420, directly from ARCTIC website, they have launch promotion, 95 euros for LF 3 420 ARGB, and it was free delivery in Germany, I've read on their website that is 5 Euro deliver worldwide... Still it's better way to order directly from ARCTIC and support them in that way since more profit margins goes to them instead of Amazon newegg that have large cuts themselves...
Im not sure if they changed the screws on REV 2, but in my case I did not have any issues mounting the cooler. I placed it on the cpu and started screwing, the thread hit on first try and the other screw was the same. Maybe REV2 extende these screws with a mm? But yeah, I did not have ANY issues mounting the pump housing. I might note that I did mount the radiator last, so the stiffness of the tubes did not affect me trying to hold the pump house down, i had the radiator placed in front of me between my legs. Edit (this was on AMD btw, not intel)
As always awesome video. You could have also, maybe an addition/update later, compared the coldplate and gasket from the Freezer II service kit vs the original vs the Freezer III as there were even some updates there improving channel and flow access of the gasket to the fin stack. I would even be curious to see if the Freezer II service kit itself improved its performance.
Quick comment regarding the impeller. I suspect it's injection-molded plasto-NdFeB. The whole part is made out of magnet. It has a density of around 6 and does feel like metal, but in reality it's a PPS or PA12 matrix with infused NdFeB particles.
After yesterdays video I got myself one and it came today from Amazon (240mm one for a 5900x) and it’s a lot better than my 67mm air cooler that I used to use in my fractal ridge. Now the highest temps I get are 70 degrees as opposed to 92
Hey Steve, do a follow-up where you omit the leaf spring for washers, or use a ferrous metal plate in lieu of the leaf spring if it is necessary for the pump cap to affix onto it.
I really think Arctic should consider giving us the option to order these coolers with the option of adding P12 max / P14 max before shipping , at a higher cost ofc .Besides that , only the best from Arctic , my 4 year esports duo is more than sufficient to cool my 13600k for gaming purposes for now .
It seems to me Arctic did such a good job on the LF II that they had very small opportunity for improvement with the LF III. Performance does seem slightly better on the latest model, but it's hardly a revolutionary improvement. Very insightful teardown.
Find the full performance review from yesterday! th-cam.com/video/zfffNRTOZCc/w-d-xo.html
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I have the older 420 and temps never get above 81c in a 75F room for 7800x3d!
@@g0tsp33d A 75c room?
@@mikesteve3039 its winter and I hate being cold and I meant (F) LOL
Now re-assemble it and put the water back in...
now if only this cooler was lga1200 capable so i can attempt direct die cooling my 10600k with it
You know what? It could be cool if y'all made a trip down to an Arctic laboratory, I feel like their design philosophy and engineering methodology could be fascinating to see into
Trying to set that up!
This! Please @gamersnexus make it happen!
Concur, Arctic seems to be a decent company and it's be nice to learn more about it. Might also discuss the contact spot/frame issue with them and see if they are working on improving their designs.
Looking at how they focus on value so much, the tour would probably reveal employee abuse
Will watch that one 😊@@GamersNexus
Arctic is one of those companies that actually cares about their products, it's a somewhat rare sight to see even in ICT
I believe they will take Gamers Nexus' critiques and add them to newer revisions of the Liquid Freezer III to make it better, like the contact frame on Intel, or the mounting on AMD, like what they did for the Liquid Freezer II (I recall they refined the Liquid Freezer II mounting for Intel before?). I'm really glad Arctic is still one of the sane few companies around.
Thermalright also seems to try to make sure their things are decent. The Peerless Assasin 120 keeps doing incredibly good in tests, especially if you look at the price. They also have a bunch of AIO's. It would be interesting to see how they compare to Arctic and really cheap actors like Deepcool, Xilence, Mars Gaming, Kolink and NOx. These last five are all real cheap which makes you wonder what they sacrificed to keep the price that low. It looks like Deepcool at least does some of their own designs of the radiator.
Real data would require a long term test to see how they age. There's been AIO problems with aging, Arctic had one and fixed it decently, but this is really hard to test effectively. Initial testing being performance and design is really the start. If these areas work decently they might be usable but if they don't then longevity isn't really interesting.
Artic is been around for a long time on the pc master race, glad theyt are still around and a reputable brand at that.
@@blahorgaslisk7763 idk about Deepcool's AIOs, but in my experience their heatsinks are solid. (I've used the AS500 Plus, Assassin III, and Gammaxx 400)
Deepcool's 120mm fans tend to resonate around the ~1000RPM or so I like to have my fans at, so I don't really like them acoustically. Their 140mm hasn't given me any issues.
No.
Ah yes, the coolest month of the year: Fanuary
Sure has better weather than Smarch.
wh....why
Fanuary is when it is February, but you still think it's January
@@diloran3700 I'm pretty sure it's actually Jebruary now.
If you where ever curious where the days went in February it's because of Fanuary.
15:28 despite it not being made in Fanuary, the date is on the PCB: "2337" aka the 37th week of 2023, which would be early September.
Ah, cool! Had no idea that's how those date codes are done. Thanks for sharing!
Could also have been made on the 23rd of 2037, you never know, it could be an aio from the future that they shifted trough time. That would also explain the fact that arctic finally figured out pump-block looks which was predicted to happen in 2029
They're done the same on tyres, a tyre marked 1524 was made in the 15th week of 2024. They also only print the date on the side meant to face outwards! @@GamersNexus
@@GamersNexus Most ICs have date codes in a similar format, and this has been the case for a *very* long time. On pre-Y2K chips, you can identify the two halves of the code unambiguously, because the week number is never above 52, while the year digits will be in the 70s upwards.
@@inqizzo Dont count out that it could be made in the year of 2337 and brought back in time to speed up the development of the liquid aio cpu cooler market.
17:49 I guess the DLC could be an optional 5-12v LCD screen.
I'm banking on it being an addon for converting the VRM fan into a mini rotisserie so you can cook hotdogs when 15th gen Intel releases.
Thats pretty much what i'm hoping for lol
I mean shit I hope so. The not a fan thing looks a bit goofy and having cpu temp that I can just glance at would be a nice feature
Please dont
Bought the 360mm variant for 70€ new. That's insane value for a chart topping CPU cooler. I'm glad there are still companies selling quality products without excessive branding, RGB, or a huge markup. Affordable, good products are all we want.
i got this and 8 noctua NF-p/a fans for my case and its running cooler than ever without all the lgbtq lighting fans and branding. like 30-40% cooler overall.
I love how I'm looking to find a way to cool my 13900k, and you keep posting these videos on coolers, and I keep learning more and more stuff in general about coolers out right and just wanted to say thanks to the gamer nexus team for all the info been watching off and on for years between each build every time I come back your videos they allway help when im looking to build / upgrade.
That's awesome! So happy to hear that it's been educational!
Have you decided on how to cool your 13900k yet? Because I am looking to cool a 14900k and thought maybe the liquid freezer 2 might be a better choice as I can use a 3rd party contact frame. Not sure, tho.
@Hebell basically you have 4-5 solid choices for the 13900K/14900K. in price order:
Arctic Liquid Freezer II and III 360 (even better the 420 if you have the right case for it)
DeepCool LT720
EK Nucleus CR360
Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360
Corsair H150 (better H170 if you have the case)
@@s.s.7404 I am willing to pay more for better cooling / better temps. Funny how the cheapest cools the best. :D
Therfore I'll probably go with the Liquid Freezer III 420 and push/pull with 6 Silent Wings 4. This seems to perform even better than the EK direct die.
@@DanielHebell That's because there are others things to consider, such as the look and the "comfort". For example the Galahad is basically at the same level in cooling but comes with 3 uni fans (less cables and better look). Then, the 420 is a beast (i have the LF II 420 top mounted on Lancool III) but there is the case compatibility to consider.
One thing I haven't seen anyone notice or mention is that the RGB version of this cooler has higher-performance fans. The RGB version uses Arctic's P12 PWM PST A-RGB fans, which have a max speed of 2000RPM and use the same fin shape as Arctic's new P12MAX. The black version of this cooler uses the regular P12s that came on the previous generation, with the original fin shape and a max speed of 1800RPM. Hope to see this mentioned if you ever talk about these again!
In honor of Steve being a little silly, we should declare Fanuary not only as the second month of the year but also a celebration of cool tech and Steve's magnificent hair.
February... The month of Love, Black History, Mardi Gras, and Fans... Only fans. 🤔
As someone who has built custom loops for 20 years and constantly bashes AIOs for all of their easily solvable design problems (aluminum radiators with leftover flux in them that will always eventually result in buildup, mixed metals, insufficiently cooled pump motors, limited lifespan PG based coolant, undersized impellers and poor flow rates, plastic with poor thermal characteristics, etc. etc.) this is probably the most well designed CLC I've seen, and I especially like the motor and impeller housing, the VRM cooling, and cold plate design.
That being said, it still uses an aluminum radiator, it still has mixed metals, and it still uses a limited lifespan PG based coolant. So, despite the excellent design choices, I won't use these in builds and will only offer air cooling or custom water, because I guarantee my builds work maintenance free for 5 years once assembled, and that is not a lifespan I can comfortably promise with any CLC, including this one.
Until CLCs have made these changes, I consider them to have planned obsolescence baked in and won't touch them:
-Copper radiators.
-No more mixed metals.
-Ethylene glycol coolant. There's a huge selection of excellent automotive coolants that will work in a CLC for 10 years. Use them. No more PG.
-Use glass fiber reinforced plastics for pump/impeller housing. 60C is too easy to reach with pump/impeller failures, it's a liability.
-No more sealed fans that make re-lubricating them unnecessarily difficult. Also, provide options to buy fanless to save unnecessary costs.
15:23 Fanuary should absolutely become a GN holiday month!
put it on the end of the year shirt
Filled to the brim with fan reviews!
My purchase of the liquid freezer II was based on GN's in depth, no BS review. Keep up the great work.
My friend bought his for the same reason.
same here. I bought 2 of them. One for my PC (5600X) and one for my sons (6700K) - further note the one in my sons rig was supposed to go on my daughters BUT her desk couldnt fit the case I got (I forgot to measure)
Same for me, bought the 420 II for my 5950x, overclocked and it sits happily at high 40s for most heavy loads. Artificial stress tests doesnt get above 65. The fan cables hidden is nice and the little fan is a nice bonus for vrm cooling.
Bought this on "accident" back in 2016 and ever since I've always gone with an Arctic Liquid Freezer. By far the best product on the AIO market.
More AIO reviews please! There’s a bunch out there that never get reviewed.
Any specific requests?
Asus rog ryujin III 360 argb.
Also ask them to make a 420mm version haha
@@GamersNexusthe deep cool mystique
While reviewing aio coolers i also think its interesting to have relevant air coolers included in the results, just as a reference point. Its been especially useful for me when trying to figure out whether it makes sense to go from air to water (other than looks of course). Videos going over the differences have been made before but they all feel out of date or they dont include more relevant options. By always including some air cooler results in the comparisons there will always be an up to date reference point.
Corsair looking at this design and wondering why they'd make it that way. Sure it cools better, but how are they going to strap an LCD screen to it and charge 400 dollars?
Looking at the magnetic top, there might soon be a market for lf3 addons
@@inqizzo only if they have readouts for temps and such. Unless people really want an LED display on their pump for cartoons. I personally think they're dumb, but people seem to think they're worth 400 bucks.
Corsair (and NZXT for that matter) serve completely different markets than Arctic does.
One is for kids with rich parents, the other is for enthusiasts.
Corsair probably laughing at that AMD mounting thinking you guys had one job. Why go to two screw mounting from a tried and true 4 screw mounting? Fixing it later shouldn’t be an option either it just shows you guys screwed up.
@@russellbower2557 fanboy detected. I have an H150I. The four posts don't fit snug on the backplate, so you need an extra arm to mount their AIO, and mine is all scratched because of it being such a pain. This may not be perfect, but pretending Corsairs is flawless is hilarious.
Love tear downs video's, I always try to find a good tear down video before spend money on something like to know what i will be buying and if i will be able to fix or service it myself.
Thanks for another great video.
After the public recall that came directly from artic cooling, I have bought nothing but artic coolers. Good company, good product, good support. I wish they'd sell a non-fan version where I use my own fans.
Amazing how well this performed, given the contact frame being less impressive than the thermalright one. Thanks for the reviews fellas.
hell yeah, my brain is going to serve me fanuary rebranding for at least a decade now, thank you so much
Good job Arctic. Being able to replace individual parts is also better for the environment with less waste. 👍
Very impressed by the serviceability and ease of disassembly on this one, there are a ton of solid options these days for AIOs and I think that will help them stand out
Good to see improvements on an already great product. Thanks Steve
Wow, Arctic is so dedicated to cooling they even manufactured these in Fanuary. Incredible.
Was able to pick up the 360 ARGB for $107 on Amazon. Just arrived this morning so going to be installing it later but gamers Nexus was definitely the reason I decided to pick this unit up! You guys provide absolutely phenomenal overviews
I did the same thing yesterday and scooped it. 110 where I live for the all white 360. Couldn’t let that chance slip
Directly from ARCTIC website there is promo price of 80 euros something and 5 euros delivery worldwide, I got LF III ARGB 420 from their website for 95 euros and free delivery. Should always support the manufacturer directly if you can since then they have larger profit cut for themselves that way instead of giving to Amazon . And ARCTIC definitely deserve more support.
I bought the 360 A-RGB in white for only 90 € on Amazon today!!
Absolutely amazing price^^
Btw, I just ordered a USED 360 LF II A-RGB for 126 € a few days prior...
@@CPha2er lol I did the same thing 🤣 had to start a return before it even arrived
got 280version few days ago
perfomance is insane
and you do not have to pay all money of the world to get it
Man we love to see a company that shows love to quality mechanical techs out there.
thank you for the work you have done, i purchased mine yesterday based on your true practical review. it's almost unbelievable an AIO this good is in such an affordable price and also a discount on top of that. all the best Arctic!
bots are in full force this mornin
Just banned them all. Meanwhile, TH-cam be like "but if we ban the bots the engagement will go down"
@@GamersNexus
Oh no ! The engagement! Let's learn to live with bots..
@@GamersNexusno shot yt thinks that
@@GamersNexus LoL Sooo true! Thanks for the Awesome Videos Young man and Crew (I'm old so I can say that lol)!
@@GamersNexus Are these the ones with a naked bum as a profile pic and some generic comment? I don't know what they are doing here on a PC hardware video. Are they trying to hide from bot detection tools so they can spam views?
"Keeps the Hot side HOT & the Cold side COLD" . . . . . that just gave me a McDLT flashback.
Hello fellow old person. 😀👍🏼
Bring back the McDLT!!!! Styrofoam and all! That thing was awesome!
@@IAMRUSTEDROOT . . McLean Deluxe, mmm, seaweed burger.
@@royconestoga7326 . . well hello to you too 🙂
I just replaced the deepcool LT720 with the new arctic 3 280, and it's better both in terms of temperature (higher cinebench score with PBO at 85°c) and quiet. Very good product
In honor of Steve, Fanuary is now a month.
This looks like a great cooler. It seems that both here and KitGuru have found the LGA 1700 performance a bit lacking. Hopefully they will improve this with mounting hardware corrections. I'd like to consider one of these for my 13700K. I'd certainly consider one after a few revisions.
The mount bracket is good it's the way the cooler attaches to the bracket. It should have had 4 screws instead of 2 holding down the cooler
Intel just run too HOT
@GameBacardi nah man, it's the way the cooler is screwed down to the bracket. Onl6 2 screws means the bracket isn't having equal pressure placed on it.
@@def-po8tu being 2 or 4 doesnt change much. Most if not all high end air coolers for example already use only 2 spring loaded screws to pressure the plate against CPU. What they need to fix is how that pressure with cooling plate + spring load metal ontop is doing against CPU surface + CPU contact frame.
@@XURUPITA4006 it does tho, it's not applying equal pressure. The 2 screws are only applying pressure in the center of the cpu and that is the issue. Thanks have a great day
Something I'd like to see is you guys attempting to rebuild this and seeing if it works and if there's any meaningful difference in performance. This is my first time seeing a repairable CLC like this.
Definitely interested in seeing your pressure testing/thermal testing after making your modifications. I realize you'd probably not take the offer, but I can already see the A.F.III 'Nexus' edition - now with improved thermals and ease of installation!
On the topic of the motor design, this appears to be a 9-pole brushless DC type - the rotor will incorporate a corresponding multipole permanent magnet for the stator coils to interact with. The 9-pole design, which should give nice smooth torque, and it may well be related to the new fan motors which Arctic have recently introduced, which additionally have smooth driving waveforms for each coil (rather than just turning them hard on and off). You might find some interesting similarities if you tear down a P14 MAX to expose the motor. Suffice it to say that Arctic know what they're doing with propeller-law motors, and can implement their ideas effectively, even at the modest end of the price range.
the important parts here are the pump and the fan. as an old pump mechanic, i can tell you both are high quality high volume. the fan may have a narrow diameter, but the vanes are long and have a lot of surface area. the pump impeller is the same, a lot of surface area in the vanes. both will move a lot of water and air respectively.
I recall buying Arctic Liquid Freezer 2 based on your reviews and the price. That was for my Ryzen 3 1200. It has also served well a Ryzen 7 2700 and now I own a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and that cooler still manages it magnificently, at pretty much no noise whatsoever!
Only after I became older did I realize how much I appreciate the quietness of the cooler, to the point that the only thing that makes sound within my case is the GPU, which is absolutely awful.
Arctic really deserves more love because they seem to really care about their products.
Great review! Thank you. I've used AIO's for years now, and to tell the truth, I just replace them every 3-5 years or if I see a big degrade in cooling performance. It would be great to see a video on maintaining an AIO- how to see a potential failure, how to replace components, and most importantly, how to service or refill the coolant. I know every AIO will be different, but major components should be about the same (fan, pump, hoses, etc).
I hope your at least changing paste? Before replacing. Anyway.
As to maintaining. AIOs are definitely in the vien of, you will never get it back together the same as factory. Proper Water loops can be a pain to get the air out of in general. That's with a loop that you personally design. With something that is not really intended to be serviced... good luck.
I put a CPU AIO in a system back in 2017 and noticed over the years the temp kept on getting worse. Think it was 2019 I replace the thermal paste with no improvement and 2020 started to get noise from the pump.
Contacted the manufacturer to troubleshoot to which the reply was that the coolent was being absorbed into the hoses and my option was to replace it at my cost.
I went back to air cooled and which runs just as cool. NEVER going with a AIO again and to be truthful I knew nothing is maintenance free. Just hoped it would last the system till it was time to upgrade.
When I tore it apart I found gunk in the cold plate so either replace the AIO like you said every few years or build a custom loop which you can maintain every few years. In both cases I now only liquid cool when I plan to Over clock the system and with systems being overkill (unless running 4-8K).
hey hope this helps: Ive bought the TT ToughLiquid 360 back in Oct 2020 and were running it since then. Naturally AiO degenerate and youll see why in a brief moment.
After ive noticed the degradation ultimately ending in sudden shutdowns and fail-to-boot, i came across the AiO stopped working properly. A few hours in into troubleshooting with external DC supply and whatnot, ive decided to tear it down, from the bottom up. Thats the cold plate, the gasket and the housing.
I hadnt to go further. the AiO in question uses a same in style gasket as the product reviewed here, it is sort of some silicone rubber channel mask that sits on top of the microfins of the cold plate. TT somehow made the channels much more narrow than what you can see here and it actually uses a one way in two ways out approach, so in fact a spread from the middle. The gasket was allowing water to only penetrate the microfins at a small section in the middle, and this one got covered in debris.
After cleaning up the copper block under flowing water and soft soap, ive went towards flushing the pump and radiator assembly with distilled water until i felt comfortable to reassemble it. The biggest work is actually draining any remaining air left in the circuit, you definitely want to make sure the loop is pure deion, especially because ive observed the pump fails upon air intake.
LOVE my liquid freezer ii. About to upgrade to the III and keep the II as backup. Thank you for the awesome work as always, Steve!
Sold. Was planning on buying a Corsair AIO, then saw Jayz mention and searched for your review and tear down. Clearly the better option.
Another great tear down.
Just want to say thanks for all your hard work. It's because of you lot that I chose the LF2 when I built my new system last year.
Although my LF2 is great and going strong, I may decide to change to the LF3 purely for aesthetics, especially with the current discount being offered as part of Arctics 23rd birthday celebrations.
Thanks Steve! (plus the rest of the gang)
I’ve now fully memorized the fact that these chryo sheets are molecularly stacked in the z-axis
I'm picking up a 5800X3D + Sapphire Nitro+ 7800XT this weekend from MicroCenter. My 240 Liquid Freezer III is already en-route. I think I'm going to do these pads instead of the tube of Kryonaut I have here already...
Great review as always by Steve and the team. Love the teardowns!
I remember watching you tear down one of the NZXT AIOs and basically ending up destroying the whole thing, this looks like something you could actually service if needed.
Thank you! Just ordered 360mm one for my 14900KF, canceled deepcool ls720 order
Me also I ordered one yesterday v3 360mm and it's on the way.
Apparently LGA 1700 mounting is sub optimal for the lf3. Doesn't mean it won't work tho.
I was shying away from AIOs but Artic always peaked my interest and this newer model is impressive. Hoprefully the prices will be back to introductory prices when I upgrade.
Thanks Steve, I just got the Arctic Freezer III 420 RGB on sale at Amazon only a few days back. Along with a new case I got (also Amazon), the Phanteks (PH-ES614PTG_BK) Enthoo Pro ATX. I still have a need for at minimum a (2) 5.25" drive bays (this can hold THREE 5.25") along with being able to mount at the top the 420 AIO. The price I was charged was just $115 for the AIO and the case I got for $121 which I felt was a great value overall! I see that you are finally getting back to reviewing cases again (took you guys long enough!). While you have not stated yet what cases you are going to actually be reviewing, I'm still curious at to what you have in store for us all! I don't plan on making a change on the case (as it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get a decent full ATX case these days WITH 5.25" bays) unless you buy some HUGE "server size" case at over $300+, yet again, I'm curious what you are going to review. After speaking with a few friends that have needs similar to mine that also need those 5.25" drive bays... All of us just can't understand just WHY the industry as a whole has ABANDONED the 5.25" drive bays! DON'T they realize that many of us STILL USE DVD and BLU-RAY both for watching movies and also have the need to burn quick copies of files aside from the use of just USB thumb drives? There is still a need for archiving data for use as longer rather than shorter term storage... hence the need for the 5.25" drive bays! The plus here as far as the Phanteks case is concerned it that it can have both the 420 AIO option and STILL be able to fit those 2 5.25" drive bays AT THE SAME TIME and STILL be a GREAT VALUE! Sure, for just a gaming rig you really don't need physical media to install a game seeing as places such as Steam and G.O.G. are around where you can install directly the game in question to a SSD. But for other uses (say watching a movie off your own media especially if the internet is off-line!) there is STILL THAT NEED!!! This is something to consider "IF" you have the space available to use a case of the size I've just purchased from Phanteks.
@15:15 you already had me primed to laugh with Fenuary. But when you added "which is not a month" I cracked!
If early next year you have a lot of data on fan testing from this year, and you are doing a roundup like you did for GPUs and CPUs (was it this year or December last year?) but for fans, please call it Fanuary.
well damn it - I was just looking for something to help me organize my little projects. Now I want one of those mats...
was going to buy this AIO due to the 10year warranty, but I wouldnt be getting the order for almost 3months.. so I purchased the Redragon HL360 (white) AIO, comes with a 5year warranty. Havent seen any youtube reviews on it, but Amazons reviews are good(taken with a grain of salt) and itll be here Sunday.
When a product is made with screws and removable cables instead of glue and solder, it's generally a good sign for quality and repairability
I picked up a 280mm the day they came out, which I didn't know they were that new, until the review video popped up in my feed like an hour after I bought it. Sadly, I did not read the motherboard compatibility, and forgot that my AsRock ITX X570 Phantom mobo used LGA 115X mounting points, instead of the traditional AM4 mounting. So, my little ITX server with the 5950X ended up putting the NH-D15S I have on my 5800X3D, then put the Liquid Freezer on the 5800X3D, until I finish designing and printing out my own mounting brackets out of some PA6 carbon nylon, which should be stiff enough. lol Performance wise on the 5800X3D, it's about the same as it was on the NH-D15S in gaming, except maybe a couple of degrees cooler on max temps over long period usage. Like mining randomXmonero for the other 18-20 hours of the day that I'm not using my PC.
The "DLC" options is nice, in the since that it can be easily customized. Having 3D printers, and doing 3D modeling design, that gives me the freedom to create and experiment with my own AIO faceplate fin designs. lol
As far as anything else, I have loved the GN silicon mod mat I bought months ago, and it has been serving me well doing many different things. Also, if we're talking about ad spots, I put TG's Kryosheet on my Merc 310 7900XTX, and did flashed the 550W AsRock VBIOS to it. The Kryosheet has been amazing! Keeps hotspot temps consistent, as well no longer have to worry about pump out from the thermal cycles. My deltas are 21C at the "stock" high power limit of 465W. At 550W that delta gets up to around 33C, which is still pretty good. Should make note, I'm not using the stock loud fans anymore (loud things got thrown out the day I got the card), but designed and 3d printed custom fan bracket. 3 Lian LI P28's attached to it do the job well. At max speed they are pretty quiet. Dead quiet if comparing to the stock "jet turbine" fans. lol
How about a video of "how to service your AIO?"
Cleaning, Refilling & make it last longer ?
Thank you so much for giving us such great insight on the inter workings of this AIO and many others. No one else is doing things like this, and I absolutely love a good tear down because I like to see how things take and I like to see the nuances between various models to see which one will suit my needs better. I myself a huge Aio fan. No pun intended, although I’ve had several fail over the years because I do quite often push my computers pretty hard but it’s never deter me from buying another AIO. However, I do learn from every failure and I try to find what possibly caused the failure and which one to buy to avoid it happening again in that particular instance. Yesterday when I saw you review this AIO, I was immediately impressed and I saw several things that I liked to see and I ordered one myself.
I do have a question though is there any risk to lapping the cold plate on a AIO versus a water block? I’ve done it a few times and I haven’t had any issues per se, but I’m just wondering if there is a chance of deformation. Also, also, if you use a lapped plate on a non lapped cpu is there any harm or risk there as well? I typically always lap my CPU and Coldplates plates, but from time to time I need to test a different CPU in that particular test bench that has not been lapped and I’m just wondering if that would either impact the temperature is negatively or put too much pressure on the IHS. Thanks for all your hard work. You guys are absolutely amazing and I continue to thank you for all the years of inspiration and education.
15:24
>Be a subject matter expert listened to by millions
>Fanuary
I love these brain farts, thank you for sharing it with us
what if you replace the leaf spring with flat solid piece of metal, that way when you screw the 2 mounting screws in, it equally applies the pressure without bowing out. Maybe with spring tension screws so it would account for some inaccuracy and have proper pressure so its not to much of it.
That might work, but it would be a rigid mount, not spring tensioned. It should be fine, but you open the possibilities for other pressure issues. Rigid mounts require very even and solid systems, unlike those made entirely of plastic.
They need 2 more screws holding the cooler down.
I just got the Alphacool Eisbär, mainly due to serviceability, not knowing Arctic would release this. Glad they are going this direction.
*would love to see the stats of the Eisbär, but I guess it will be let down by its fans
you can always return it, if its possible in your country
Awesome teardown, thanks Steve!
Artic is such an awesome company. They replaced my faulty aio hassle free. They are top notch.
Glad I went to the bathroom before this video. Those are some crispy water noises lol. Great mics/audio.
Sweet! It would be cool if ARTIC sold a custom water loop version of the cold plate/water pump/vrm fan assembly. I would buy one in a couple years when I will be looking at going to a custom water loop in my Fractal Torrent case. I currently have a ARTIC LF2 420mm that is cooling a R9 7900X (works great!), but there was one problem. While the 420mm radiator technically fits in the front, I had to remove the mount for the bottom fans so that it would fit. I had planned to put the 180mm fans in the bottom. Can't put the radiator in the bottom unless I want any air in the system to coalesce in the pump. So future solution is to go with a custom water loop using a radiator for the 180mm fans that came with the case.
German Engineering, made to last 👍. I ordered one a few days ago, White 420 ARGB. Looking forward to its arrival and hoping it will fit the Motherboard. Thanks for the stream , it was good to see the difference and thus evolution of the design.
Wondering what will be next. GEN IV ? 👍🤛👀
Would love to see this treatment done to the new Thermalright AIO's, since they dont use Asetec stuff they make their own, and have the pumps in the tubes. They're also very low cost, and nobody really covers them.
BUT! Can it cool the 14900K effectively enough? 😅
No, no -- that's not a CPU. That's a space heater. It's working as designed.
I keep all 14900K at room temperature. My working CPU is only +6ºC to +22ºC (at 100% load, with +10% oc cpu and gpu) with cheapest cooler with 1x 12cm fan + 1x 12cm case fan. As far as you don't buy any 12th gen Intel 7 cpu they will keep room temperature at no cost with huge electric bill saving, you can use to actually buy anything with 7nm, 5+6nm, 4nm or 3nm cpus of other Company. It works allways. If you need to buy intel, no need to buy anything above 12600K or even G6900 or N100 (2 pcore 20W or 4 ecore 6W) and 12100 4pcores (40W) or i3- N305 8ecores ecores 15W make wonders also as i7 7700K 95W... pcores are for gaming, and ecores for multithread optmized apps... ecores only cpu may run without need of fan...
@@InternetListener and at that point, you might as well buy a 7800x3d for 350 bux from microcenter like I did if you game!
What's funny is you can air cool a 14900K too.
15:22 And when Steve realised his mistake, he exclaimed "ARGB" in amused frustration.
Well I'm impressed. Off to check out the review now. Been a few years since I've done anything with my PC, may upgrade my CLC. The big (for the product) fan is a huge selling point for me since I already loosely place a fan near the VRM.
Switched from a silent loop 2 to this arctic which only costs the half and have now much better performance. Crazy
Just on the motors, if you're really curious then there isn't much to write about. Even as a motor winder of 20 years I can only see what you see. Slight size differences don't necessarily mean anything either because turns can be changed to get the same output power. In this case though it looks like a slightly bigger impaler to go with the slightly bigger motor, so it can move slightly more liquid.
Actually, I ordered a 280 unit just now when they have their "birthday sale" on their site. I had some issues with payment and left them a message along with a modest amount of praise for how they handled "Gunk-gate" proactively.
Companies aren't your friends and the products need to stand on their own merits. But I think we as enthusiasts can influence companies with both the "whip and the carrot". I also left a suggestion that they might want to look why the Intel results don't match the AMD. Kitguru actually has the Freezer III 360 second to last on the Intel 300W+ test. It might be an issue with mounting pressure or cold plate GN observed.
The impeller is very nice. The height of the veins and the curve of the blades are designed for the best flow to pressure ratio. I work on pumps that use bronze impellers that are basically the same thing but need to me machined for longevity. these pumps need to pump more flow at less pressure. I am sure that arctic did some work finding out the best vein height and curve to make sure that the motor running it would last awhile. My next build is going to use one of these because I would love to see how far they have come. I mean aside from @gamersnexus review.
Respect for artic making both the II and III fairly serviceable. Extra points for the III looking more serviceable than the II. With the pump build quality it gives me confidence that if you top off or change coolant every 4/5yr it will keep it going, save you money, and keep the great cooling performance.
I enjoyed this internal look at why it does as it does. The Extra height on the microfins would increase cooling capacity since they would have a larger area to get cooled. Next week im getting mine since it was really cheap to get one here in Norway and well more cooling with a 6950XT also in the case is good.
Even though I was one of the people who got the V2 420mm for cheap, I'm still super happy with my purchase & when I need to upgrade... Artic is the only choice for AIO from now on.
I am glad that the gasket for the cold plate is silicone instead of rubber so it won't make gunk, I might get the Arctic 3 280
I just ordered the 360mm Black version of Amazon for £66!!! That is a crazy price!!
Thid is the first time I caught a video once it released
I have a Corsair H55 (I think) 120mm AIO that has been working pretty much 24 hrs a day for 8 years. It's currently on my sever. I really want to tear it down when I finally dies. All my other AIOs have made it 3 years max.
Same for me... having a Corsair H80i here, still working since release without issues.
The other great thing about this hardware being held together with screws rather than glue - if you can find _pieces_ of it or buy a few bum units with different issues, you can _in theory_ be able to piecemeal your own unit together. Its always going to be more economical time-wise to buy _new_ rather than used old stock but provided Arctic is selling their own pieces to go with it, you can piece together your own unit like one would a Framework-branded laptop.
Cant wait for this AIO to be available everywhere ❤🤟
I still await the Noctuas of water cooling.
Had 3x AIO's die on me over the years. 1 Coolermaster had the pump die for no apparent reason. 1x Corsair wasn't the cooler's fault but the fan connector on an NZXT case that decided to have poor connection, not realizing none of the fans were going so the water kept going around getting hotter and melted the impeller inside, and then 1x Corsair's pump died after a month. Full custom was tedious and too much maintenance for me personally.
At least with air cooling, you still have passive cooling if the fan(s) die.
Mostly ran Noctuas, but my fav was a lapped TRUE Copper and lapped IHS. Motherboard breaking awesomeness.
The repairability of this Arctic cooler is promising though and I do like their MX paste.
I'll wait another 10 years and see where water cooling comes lol
I feel bad for the cooler... But I also don't, this was satisfying to watch and learn.
A beautiful disassembly!
Lol, unfortunately, my "brief moments of stupidity" seem to be getting longer. Excellent review.
What I've learned about an AIO is on reviews it can perform well while in an actual system it does something totally different because of the configuration of your current build. Pick an AIO that you feel comfortable using and go with it.
Looks extremely well made!
I always wondered why companies always use such small fins, when taller fins definitely make performance better. I like the addition of VRM fan.
Getting better, but air is still king imo. Only thing to fail is you dropping it, bending it all up, and fan failure. And of course, a lot of liquid coolers forget VRM needs cooling.
As for hardware DLC, there's a bad way and a good way. The good way is all cosmetic, and the bad, if they leave out the hardware that makes or breaks it.
A better route would be completely modular, like selling an after-market cold-plate with different performance levels, etc. So you could upgrade it later with a thicccc micro-fin design.
The truth is, many (most these days) VRM solutions actually don't need any extra cooling. The heatsink is more than enough in most cases. When you have a VRM rated for 500+ watts on a mobo that runs CPUs with a 90to150W tdp, they never get hot enough.
My Crosshair hero 7 X470 runs all day every day with an AIO without a VRM fan (overclocked 5950X). Telling people they need one is false information.
Going by other comments I've seen, it sounds like on failure Arctic would probably ship a new unit to the customer then use that repairablity to refurbish and resell the unit as such. That said, most comments mention getting the new unit but nothing about sending the old one back; perhaps they've deemed that not cost effective, but it's good to see the design still there.
I believe the ease of disassembly can lead to better failure analysis and improvement in future R&D by Arctic.
The price for the LFII models are already slashed on Amazon and NewEgg. As an example the 420mm is around $100 USD for both the black and RGB models. The new LFIII 420mm is around $120 USD for the white and black RGB versions. The LFIII black non-RGB version is around $90 USD. Great prices on all of them!
I got myself LF3 420 as an upgrade for LF 2 420, directly from ARCTIC website, they have launch promotion, 95 euros for LF 3 420 ARGB, and it was free delivery in Germany, I've read on their website that is 5 Euro deliver worldwide... Still it's better way to order directly from ARCTIC and support them in that way since more profit margins goes to them instead of Amazon newegg that have large cuts themselves...
please test the cooler master atmos, ek nucleus and the lga1700 direct die version
Im not sure if they changed the screws on REV 2, but in my case I did not have any issues mounting the cooler. I placed it on the cpu and started screwing, the thread hit on first try and the other screw was the same. Maybe REV2 extende these screws with a mm? But yeah, I did not have ANY issues mounting the pump housing. I might note that I did mount the radiator last, so the stiffness of the tubes did not affect me trying to hold the pump house down, i had the radiator placed in front of me between my legs. Edit (this was on AMD btw, not intel)
I love my 240 AF3 that I bought recently, it really does wonders cooling my 5800X3D and is great value!
As always awesome video. You could have also, maybe an addition/update later, compared the coldplate and gasket from the Freezer II service kit vs the original vs the Freezer III as there were even some updates there improving channel and flow access of the gasket to the fin stack. I would even be curious to see if the Freezer II service kit itself improved its performance.
Quick comment regarding the impeller. I suspect it's injection-molded plasto-NdFeB. The whole part is made out of magnet.
It has a density of around 6 and does feel like metal, but in reality it's a PPS or PA12 matrix with infused NdFeB particles.
After yesterdays video I got myself one and it came today from Amazon (240mm one for a 5900x) and it’s a lot better than my 67mm air cooler that I used to use in my fractal ridge. Now the highest temps I get are 70 degrees as opposed to 92
Still pretty high Temps for a 5900x ngl
@@davestrider9838 I assume he's using a case with poor airflow given the last temps were also very high
Hey Steve, do a follow-up where you omit the leaf spring for washers, or use a ferrous metal plate in lieu of the leaf spring if it is necessary for the pump cap to affix onto it.
Most in-depth cooler reviews 😎
The tear-downs are my favorite videos.
Exactly what I needed. I need to flip my fans around on the radiator cause right now its pushing air out through it.
I really think Arctic should consider giving us the option to order these coolers with the option of adding P12 max / P14 max before shipping , at a higher cost ofc .Besides that , only the best from Arctic , my 4 year esports duo is more than sufficient to cool my 13600k for gaming purposes for now .
oh 13th gen... might i recommend and industrial grade chiller and a nuclear power plant.
@@SupraSav hehe, actually at gaming im averaging about 90-100w
at about 65c , not very bad..
It seems to me Arctic did such a good job on the LF II that they had very small opportunity for improvement with the LF III. Performance does seem slightly better on the latest model, but it's hardly a revolutionary improvement. Very insightful teardown.
welp if i need to buy an AIO any time soon, this is it. i love that they went with a very repair friendly construction.