A few small things we needed to add here. A) The version tested is the 240mm B) At 9:19 - Intel 253W testing while the chart is correct the legend is incorrect. The top two coolers should be the LFIII and LFII, NOT the Pure Loop
One thing I have to mention about Arctic is the outstanding customer support. Noctua is the only company in the fan and cooler space that does it better. I needed radiator screws for my Arctic fans bc the ones included were too short, 1 week later with no further questions asked they were in my mailbox at no cost. I didn't expect that from a company with these competitive prices.
I can also vouch for their customer support, I had some incompatibilities with the AM4 mounting hardware on my Freezer 34 Esports and got the corrected screws without any fuss.
yep. i can also vouch for their customer support being outstanding and that they're very complaisant. actually there's one other company in that sector that comes to my mind which I think might even be a little more "customer-minded". that's EKL (or Alpenföhn, which is their consumer brand I think). I feel like they're not that well-known outside the German speaking countries. Which is very unfortunate I think, because their products are great and they are so helpful and show goodwill in their customer support. Just one example: they sent me mounting brackets for free when i bought a used cooler from a friend and he didn't have the ones I needed. I actually wanted to buy them from them but they didn't want money xD.
I've said it in the 240 Roundup but i need to say it again considering that it seems like you're carrying this over for future individual AiO Reviews : the fan normalized testing is an absolute gamechanger. That way individuals like me, who are set on their favorite fans, can compare between each individual AiO without having the variance factor fans included in the testing. Again : absolute gamechanger, hats off guys! Absolutely nailed it.
Thanks. We'll continue to make changes to our videos based on recommendations. The fact some of the updates are appreciated really makes the extra work worth it.
@@HardwareCanucks Your fan normalized testing makes other AiO reviews pretty much irrelevant, at least for me personally. Again, hats of guys. Highly appreciated!
@@zeph5800 TRUE, the i7 14th gens do over heat if your using a air cooler, it's recommended to use a AIO no smaller then 280mm, I have a artic freeze 3 360, and the temps are amazing, at max 71 Celsius under extreme load with the pump set to 80%, I did run a test with a cooler master 212 v2 and that was horrendous, I got temps hitting as high as 115 Celsius under extreme load and 100 Celsius on Helldivers 2 and other top tripple a titles, the i7 14700k is a great cpu and worth the buy if your coming from the 8th gen or earlier, but I do recommend getting a AIO cooler as these new procesors are on the gotter side, i got mine for $100 no RGB, I have a photo of the build in my community post on my channel
@@JahonCross So what are you saying?? That's not a clear comment - it could be either positive or negative. These are not only some of the cheapest AIO's on the market, but also some of the best.
Honestly pretty much proves how much you're overpaying for other AIOs. £62 right now for the LED, £53 for the non-LED, absurd pricing and a no-brainer.
The LED vs non LED AIOs isn't that bad. You can get non LED fans for $10 and ARGB is $30 and that is absurd. When they add a screen to the water block that no one needs and they are making that the standard rather than just one version of it. That adds an extra $100 to the price which is also absurd.
@@MrJerppu I just wish companies gave options of top tier. Not just 1 top tier that has all the top tier stuff whether you want it or not. Like how arctic at least makes their best in RGB and no RGB. Especially since you pay extra for each extra option they put on it.
The pricing in the UK for this is unbelievable. Chart topping performance for less than £54 or £10 more for ARGB in black or white. Unreal, GG Arctic - keep it up
Thanks for mentioning this, I wasn't expecting them to be THAT cheap here. Need to buy a cooler for an older rig and was going to stick to air just due to cost (not worth spending much on it), but that is very tempting.
I bought Liquid Freezer III 360mm for £66. I still can't believe how cheap it is. Despite me running intel, I don't care if it's slightly worse than t30 for this price it's unbeatable. Maybe Thermalright Frozen Edge 360 AIO for £46 is even better but I wouldn't trust Thermalright QC and warranty as much as I would Arctic. Did you buy anything?
makes sense, it's a german company, usually stuff is or at least should be a little cheaper in the country of origin. the price is still pretty insane. pretty much no one other than thermalright can even compete.
I wasn't serprise from the Freezer iii's results especially after I watched the round video that you guys did a few days ago. I have to say though, amazing work on the charts animation! The transitions are so smooth, and the data is presented in such a clear and engaging way. Also, that thumbnail is fire 🔥! It really grabs your attention and makes you want to click. Keep up the fantastic work!
Also, Artic has a lot of goodwill (with me at least) from their previous handling of issues with the Freezer II. When the issue with gaskets gunking up the cold plate was discovered, Arctic reached out to the media to spread info about their recall and provided the public/reviewers with info about the problem and how to get any bad units fixed/replaced. This is why I am actually going to jump on their introduction offer now and get the black 280 Freezer III in preparation for a future build down the line.
@stennen - I too had a small issue with a Freezer 280 II, and they solved it immediately and sent me a part FoC even though it was out of warranty - excellent company to deal with,,, unlike ASUS scumbags! Now with this Mk III 280 version - another excellent product at a good price.
I have a LF2 240 and i love it. Arctic is the type of company i appreciate: great products without taking your liver as payment. And the review, as usual, spot on! HC are my favs when we talk about reviews, specially cooling ones ❤
I dont know if this is world wide, but at least in germany, on their own webshop, they have a massive sale right now due to anniversary. I just got the Liquid Freezer III 240 ARGB in white for 70€. That is massive. I paid 60€ 2 years ago for my be quiet! Dark Rock 3 lol. Time to replace it and increase the cooling performance for just 10 bucks more. Crazy.
I beg to differ i bought the Arctic liquid freezer III 240mm to replace my Arctic esport duo 34 and the freezer is only 2 3 c cooler and is louder because of the pump and if i lower the pump speed the Arctic duo is better and quiter... Arctic freezer 3 sucks donky balls remounted it 5 times with 3 different kinds of tim thinking something must be wrong my budget single tower cpu cooler cant be quiter and only be 2 3 c from a 240mm King AIO but it is and wins aswell at fixed speeds and noise level so yeah my freezer III is going back to where it came from
pretty much the old goat for the money.Being buying arctic products for years,and never been let down. The fans and even the old GPU bolt on coolers have always been among the best for any price.
Just got my 360 yesterday. Under the same stress conditions, i noticed a 5-10 degree C difference from my Arctic 2 and this absolutely blew me away. I have some Unifan Infinities for aesthetics and anyone who's used Unifans know that they make some decent noise lat high rpms. So this cooler going from 70 under gaming load to 60 under the same loads helped keep the noise down phenomenally
Thanks a ton for the heads up on the compatibility with the AM5 Offset mounting, my x670E Aorus Master was affected and I wouldn't have known without your video. You just saved me a lot of time and headache!
Love your work! I jammed up my speakers trying to hear the fan noise and was worried that it will blow my ears when you resume your review, but to my good surprise you had a countdown for that. AMAZING!!!
I definitely getting one in the future,i honestly had no idea AIOs became so affordable. I got an Arctic Freezer esport duo for a little over a year now and that thing has been amazing aswell, especialy with their pricing
This video (and your roundup) helpede choose this AIO from an overwhelming number of options. Affordable, beautiful, and built to perform! From an absolute newbie, THANK YOU!
I wish Artic made every other type of computer component too. Realistic prices, options for no LED add ons, top of the line performance, excellent product support across long lifespans. A unicorn of a company in modern consumer tech.
GN tested it and it isn't as good as Thermal Grizzly/Thermalright. Furthermore Freezer III cannot be used with aftermarket contact frame due to mounting mechanism design.
@@lesliegrace8360 Nor can you rotate the water block. Not all configs are good with tubes on the bottom like that. At least with their old design, it was almost universal in compatibility. Not exactly the right step forward imo.
@@deuswulf6193 Agreed. I wanted Freezer II to have non-fixated tubes on the pump but the mounting mechanism just made me want to skip Freezer III entirely. 1 step forward, many steps backwards. Looks like Enermax's LIQMAXFLO would have been a better option if you want RGB, flexible tubes, VRM fan, and a 38mm thick rad.
@@lesliegrace8360 The downside with the enermax, is that they use Apaltek as their AIO OEM, which does not have a good record. Lots of AIO failures with that company.
@@lesliegrace8360 I need a cooler (I had to RMA my Liquid freezer ii) and dno if i should get the ii or iii. I have a contact frame already installed and the arctic frame isn't that good -- however temps are still lower? So still g with iii?
The main problem for mini-itx systems will be not the pump, but a 38 mm radiator. Not so many okayish mini-itx cases are on the market which will fit it inside with fans. 27mm vs 38mm is a huge difference in mini-itx systems.
Pick slim fans to go with it. If you doing 240, go for Silverstone Air Slimmer which is the best in the market right now. If you are doing 280, go for Jonsbo HF1415 (Available in 120 and both black or white frame). Both slim fans do not have the pertinent issue of slim fans where the blades are too close to the intake surface that cause that annoying scratching sound against chassis ie Arctic Slim fans.
@@HardwareCanucks Technically I would prefer to cut the NR200 max top cover than to replace it with slim fans. What you definitely don't want to do is lose the efficiency of cooling in a mini-itx case with these hot-as-hell Intel chips, even after undervolting. Slim fans are definitely not for AIO. Currently using Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM for intake. They are not bad, but you lose too much performance even with simple intake airflow, even don't want to talk about static pressure for water cooling. They will fail with AIO.
Still using my Deepcool LT720 , it's working like a charm for a year, silent , temps are amazing, if i change i will take the new mistique 360 , cause that looks amazing.
@tybmz best there is from a year ago, it's like 315 watt aio, top tier on every review, fans are not that good but the pump and everything top tier. I changed from x73 kraken to z73 nzxt, both pumps after year went haywire, and with lt720 not a single problem,plus it has a valve that you can fill up loop etc, check a review if you like to know more.
How’s that deepcool treating ya? One of my fans on my 720 just went out yesterday, starting with a weird wine and now is just unbearable. Spins irregularly compared to the other two. On top of that they don’t sell their fans by themselves according to their customer support. Just bought this arctic freezer 3 and not looking back.
@@andresbarboza594same thing happened to me, i went for noctua fans and it's good, fans are pretty cheap on that AIO, buy these NF-A12x25 or phanteks t30 and you are set for a long time, you will get better performance with custom fans.
That pump noise at max speed is less than a lot RGB fans :D I ordered new AM5 complete white setup with 420 Arctic 3 AIO. Its shocking how good they made 3rd version.
I just waited for your review Cause u r literaly the oly reviewer in the world who taught us that there is a huge differ between amd and intels cooler And what work well with one may not be as good with the other Thanks❤❤
I have the 360 III Black version and replaced the fans with the Arctic P12 Max, and it can handle 300W TDP dissipation. I tried 320W setting on BIOS, and I was able to get it to hover around 87c to 95c no Thermal throttling. Amazing combination. One thing I can say though is that with the P12 Max it is loud cause it can run at 3000rpm the moment the CPU heats up. With the standard fans it was tolerable. Overall I'm happy with my Arctic 360 III with the P12 Max combo. 👍
I think it would be for fun to throw in an air cooler in these AIO charts just to see where maybe the Peerless Assassin stands in a AIO jungle. As well as vice versa, throwing in a lone AIO into an air cooler graph. :)
I will tell u peerless assasin is 1 2 c hotter than the 240mm its not worth it 240mm AIO's are only for looks and not actual performance 360 and above or u might aswell get a Peerless assasin or phantom spirit wich performs identical to 240mm aios
We haven't dived into 360 yet. Unlike some other publications, if we haven't built sufficient experience in a category (like we did with 240mm) we won't tackle it until we are ready.
Good video, I have the 7700x with the 240mm NZXT aio with a hefty bios OC. The temp differential only being around 5c makes it seem like it doesn’t matter which aio you have as long as you got one. Plus I got a good deal on it. I think about $60 cause Best Buy put it on the wrong shelf, and hell yea if they mess that up make them accountable.
I've been thinking about a complete overhaul of my fans and AIO. There are just way too many cables, and my AIO is a couple of years old and not performing as it once did. The 360 version of this is now at the top of my list.
I have a 13900k and a Freezer II 280 with a Thermalright Contact frame. I use Liquid metal from Thermal Grizzly and undervolted the i9 that keeps it at around 280W at Cinebench full load with full turbo boost permanently. The Freezer II keeps the CPU at 88°C peak core in a 23°C environment. I have now ordered the LF III because of the looks and white color that fits my system better. Will keep the rest the same. I just hope the latest contact frame will perform as good as the Thermalright and I hope for 2-3°C less like GN has tested compared to the LF II. This would give me that last little bit of delta to handle the power in summer at 35°C in my apartment :D
@b14ckyy - you should NOT have used LM on these, as there's a chemical reaction because of the copper cold plate; the LM almost welds the cold plate to the CPU! der8ouer doesn't mention that, or didn't. Only use LM on cold plates which are Nickel plated. I had to use a screwdrive to prise my 280 LF II off my 5900x! Change it NOW to TG Extreme TIM.
@@davybloggs1564 I know well what LM does to copper and I know how to handle it ;) After the first month you have to clean it up and you can "sand" it down with paper to scrape off the remaining hardened tin and get a smooth surface again. Then use LM again and repeat the process once more after about 3 months. After that the cold plate is saturated with the Gallium and no more ion infusion is happening. Yes its a lot of work but in the end it works perfectly fine.
I think it's important to mention that contact frames aren't meant to improve cooling performance on a bent CPU. They are meant to prevent them from bending in the first place.
Arctic is the goat. One of not many companies who continuously pushes both quality and affordability of their products. The only brand that can be recommended at any time.
i dunno, thermalright dual towers for 40 CAD and single towers for 25 CAD are pretty good in afffordability. even the quality is really good for low profile coolers and those are still in the 20-40 range.
@@Frozoken Fans are TOTALLY adequate, and don't need changing at all. Running HB with my 5900x flat out on all cores at 4.8Ghz, the temps were 74° with my Freezer II 280, and 72° with this Freezer II 280.
I bought the 360 ARGB version for about 91$ when it came out. It's really great, my CPU isn't very demanding but I wanted an future proof solution. Right now the system runs almost passive. The fan curve was a bit of a challange but after some teaking I found the right settings. I added 3 extra fans to my case (Asus AP201) to support GPU cooling and airflow. Even at 100% load during gaming both CPU and GPU are running at about 50-55°C max. CPU is a Ryzen 5600X (OC Mode) and a GPU is an Asus TUF RX 7800 XT OC Gaming edition.
I got a day ago, before installing the DeepCool LT520, from Canada Computers. Previously an employee said get the Arctic. I liked the design of the DC... Cue Reddit this morning, a guy posting the whining noise of a misaligned pump vibrating from his DC AIO, installed 3 weeks ago !! Waiting for 10am to return the DC and getting the "employee recommended!" Artic LF III instead, worth the extra (oops 50$ extra) 20$, DC is on sale. Why? Thursday the store didn't have the black model in stock, this morning it says there are 4 available, I guess they received on Friday. Can't wait for long-term testing of various AIO's under load coming out, and a big thank you to HC, I'm paying someone a coffee right now.
My freezer II 280 is already 4 years old and running strong. Typicaly its recommended to change your aoe after 5years of use and they are crazy expensive now and the deal was amazing on freezer III so ordered 360mm non RGB(RGB was out of stock aready). Will just switch a bit earlier and sell the freezer II for someone who does not have much money. Freezer III was just 96eur with shipping and if I get 20eur for freezer II 280, it will be very cheap upgrade/renewal.
DO NOT FLIP THE PUMP. It’s purposefully offset lower because of the actual chips or whatever they’re called that’s under the metal cap thingy for the CPU. If you flip the pump then you won’t be cooling the lower chips as good.
This is gonna be a huge upgrade for me coming from an older DeepCool 120mm AIO. Which is actually very good and enough for the Ryzen 2600 and 5600 I've been running (on auto). But I still want to make it even easier on the CPU (and I might still upgrade to a heavier one later). - This was, in my particular literal case, I can also put a 140mm exhaust-fan instead of the 120mm radiator that's keeping that spot occupied now, and then instead of the two 140mm Arctic Cooling exhaust-fans I have in the top, I will put the Freezer III. - Is it necessary?... Not really. But it will be an improvement and I like to change things around and see what happens.
Arctic is a good brand I can stand behind. I have the freezer II, my fans and thermal paste are from Arctic. I like the moveable pump wires on this one because it was quite difficult fitting the freezer II in my nr200p case 😅
I always thought AIOs were hard to research and not that interesting, but you've managed to change both those things with this series so far. Kind of exciting now! Thanks for all the testing and making it so easy to understand a large amount of data, all with good context! I like my air cooling, but this is nice, too.
Arctic are like the opposite of Nvidia when it comes to pricing their products. Gotta respect them in a big way for delivering on all fronts here. People will be happy to pay them the money for a quality product. That’s the way it should be.
As a first time pc builder this aio was looking very very favorable for my price range. But reading about all of the issues people have had with its installation, im not sure worrying about breaking my motherboard to get it on is something I want to test out.
Did you watch the AIO round-up video a few days ago? The Kraken’s price to performance isn’t great… aesthetically it does look nice, but much better performance on offer for less money :)
It has very long tubes. Would not recommend this in a smaller ATX especially top mounted or smaller form factor build unless you want some tubes bent awkwardly pressed on your side panel. I had both today and decided to use the 240mm EK nucleus. It has a more premium feel and looks better. Will be returning the Arctic 3. I understand there is a performance difference tradeoff but it's something to keep in mind.
Great video just what I was looking for. Im thinking of getting a LF III 240, i already have 2x phantek T30 fans, and wanted to know if they would improve the performance even more, and now I know they will be perfect 😊
They should keep the sale all the time. I bought$60 whiet rgb 360mm liquid coolers that are pretty good Keeping my 7900x at 70 -75c after 10 hrs of gaming.
Thanks for the review. Looking really good, think will get it (the 360 version), or next version, once the AMD 9800X3D is out, till then I got Ryzen 7700 (All-core 5.25Ghz and Single-core @5.5Ghz with TjMax @88C) with Cougar Poseidon GT240 fans running @70% max = performance/noise really good, ear level less than 40db during load with 3080Ti, idle close to 27db.
Hey there! I'm currently planning to build in a white Jonsbo Z20 case and I went through pretty much all your videos about cooling. As the Liquid Freezer doesn't (officially) fit into the case as it can fit only up to 30mm thick coolers, I was wondering if you have any recommendation for the best possible alternative for AM5. The previously recommended Phanteks T30 seems to be discontinued (at least it doesn't appear on Phanteks webpage anymore and can't find it in stores). Many thanks!
Could you include a "best case" air cooling option like the PS120SE in your performance graphs for future AIO reviews? It'd be interesting to see how the PS120SE compares in Intel / Ryzen testing both with the stock fans ($40) and with with P12 Max fans for fan normalized testing ($55-60).
Excitedly ordered this then found the massive vrm fan won’t fit as it crashes into the top mount aio fans. Now have to find a case that this will fit into.
Just finished installing my 420mm black rgb, honestly very impressed especially for the price point. I installed mine with liquid metal and prime95 can't get my 7950x3d above 60.5c
If you care about Zen 2 platform performance you can't go wrong with their numbers! 👍👍 But please don't extrapolate any thermal numbers (even ours) to mean a certain cooler will work well on your chosen platform if said platform isn't being tested in the review.
A few small things we needed to add here.
A) The version tested is the 240mm
B) At 9:19 - Intel 253W testing while the chart is correct the legend is incorrect. The top two coolers should be the LFIII and LFII, NOT the Pure Loop
8:01 where's the promised link in the description? :(
test the others especially the behemoth 420 please.
@@ThisMarv support(.)arctic(.)de/liquid-freezer-iii-360
make sure to remove ( )
is the nucleus in your video an cr360 ?
Hey, from what i heard you can flip the right and left brackets and negate that offset on the CPU. Could you test it aswell? :)
One thing I have to mention about Arctic is the outstanding customer support.
Noctua is the only company in the fan and cooler space that does it better.
I needed radiator screws for my Arctic fans bc the ones included were too short, 1 week later with no further questions asked they were in my mailbox at no cost. I didn't expect that from a company with these competitive prices.
I can also vouch for their customer support, I had some incompatibilities with the AM4 mounting hardware on my Freezer 34 Esports and got the corrected screws without any fuss.
"We pay our customer support solely by a problems successfully solve KPI." Arctic, probably. 😂
Do i need to buy two noctuna fans, or is it unercersary? IF so, which one should i buy for 280 mm aio?
yep. i can also vouch for their customer support being outstanding and that they're very complaisant. actually there's one other company in that sector that comes to my mind which I think might even be a little more "customer-minded". that's EKL (or Alpenföhn, which is their consumer brand I think). I feel like they're not that well-known outside the German speaking countries. Which is very unfortunate I think, because their products are great and they are so helpful and show goodwill in their customer support. Just one example: they sent me mounting brackets for free when i bought a used cooler from a friend and he didn't have the ones I needed. I actually wanted to buy them from them but they didn't want money xD.
@@Akarhama01 I've used the Mk II version, and now this Mk III, both 280mm, and the supplied fans are absolutely fine, so don't waste you money.
I've said it in the 240 Roundup but i need to say it again considering that it seems like you're carrying this over for future individual AiO Reviews : the fan normalized testing is an absolute gamechanger. That way individuals like me, who are set on their favorite fans, can compare between each individual AiO without having the variance factor fans included in the testing. Again : absolute gamechanger, hats off guys! Absolutely nailed it.
Thanks. We'll continue to make changes to our videos based on recommendations. The fact some of the updates are appreciated really makes the extra work worth it.
@@HardwareCanucks Your fan normalized testing makes other AiO reviews pretty much irrelevant, at least for me personally. Again, hats of guys. Highly appreciated!
Artic ain't playing around
My wallet isn't playing around either!
Just installed one for my i7 14700k in a h9 flow case it looks amazing, I got a photo of it posted in my community section on my TH-cam
@@bougougesjeweleryworld how are the temps so far ? I heard the i7-14700k can get super hot
@@zeph5800 TRUE, the i7 14th gens do over heat if your using a air cooler, it's recommended to use a AIO no smaller then 280mm, I have a artic freeze 3 360, and the temps are amazing, at max 71 Celsius under extreme load with the pump set to 80%, I did run a test with a cooler master 212 v2 and that was horrendous, I got temps hitting as high as 115 Celsius under extreme load and 100 Celsius on Helldivers 2 and other top tripple a titles, the i7 14700k is a great cpu and worth the buy if your coming from the 8th gen or earlier, but I do recommend getting a AIO cooler as these new procesors are on the gotter side, i got mine for $100 no RGB, I have a photo of the build in my community post on my channel
@@JahonCross So what are you saying?? That's not a clear comment - it could be either positive or negative. These are not only some of the cheapest AIO's on the market, but also some of the best.
Honestly pretty much proves how much you're overpaying for other AIOs. £62 right now for the LED, £53 for the non-LED, absurd pricing and a no-brainer.
The LED vs non LED AIOs isn't that bad. You can get non LED fans for $10 and ARGB is $30 and that is absurd. When they add a screen to the water block that no one needs and they are making that the standard rather than just one version of it. That adds an extra $100 to the price which is also absurd.
@@trsskater Tbh having a screen on a cpu block is just for the looks, Only reason why i'd ever get that is just to have a picture of my cat on it.
@@MrJerppu I just wish companies gave options of top tier. Not just 1 top tier that has all the top tier stuff whether you want it or not. Like how arctic at least makes their best in RGB and no RGB. Especially since you pay extra for each extra option they put on it.
The pricing in the UK for this is unbelievable. Chart topping performance for less than £54 or £10 more for ARGB in black or white. Unreal, GG Arctic - keep it up
Im in the UK too, i could have bought a few of these for the price of my Rog Ryujin III
Yeah, same here in Sweden pretty much, 55 quid in SEK. Nuts.
Thanks for mentioning this, I wasn't expecting them to be THAT cheap here. Need to buy a cooler for an older rig and was going to stick to air just due to cost (not worth spending much on it), but that is very tempting.
which retailer? on scan, they are expensive
I bought Liquid Freezer III 360mm for £66. I still can't believe how cheap it is. Despite me running intel, I don't care if it's slightly worse than t30 for this price it's unbeatable. Maybe Thermalright Frozen Edge 360 AIO for £46 is even better but I wouldn't trust Thermalright QC and warranty as much as I would Arctic. Did you buy anything?
The Prices here in Germany are CRAZY on these. The Liquid Freezer 3 280 ARGB sells for 80€ (~87$ Us). Insanely cheap for whats being offered.
Yeah..but those are 23years anniversary price
makes sense, it's a german company, usually stuff is or at least should be a little cheaper in the country of origin. the price is still pretty insane. pretty much no one other than thermalright can even compete.
Got my 240 ARGB For 72€
In canada fhe 240mm costs $170+ which is around triple the price of a frost edge lol
£70 for the black 280 here in the UK - bargain IMO.
I wasn't serprise from the Freezer iii's results especially after I watched the round video that you guys did a few days ago.
I have to say though, amazing work on the charts animation! The transitions are so smooth, and the data is presented in such a clear and engaging way. Also, that thumbnail is fire 🔥! It really grabs your attention and makes you want to click. Keep up the fantastic work!
Thanks! Robert our editor puts SO MUCH work into them and hearing positive feedback just makes it all worth it.
Also, Artic has a lot of goodwill (with me at least) from their previous handling of issues with the Freezer II. When the issue with gaskets gunking up the cold plate was discovered, Arctic reached out to the media to spread info about their recall and provided the public/reviewers with info about the problem and how to get any bad units fixed/replaced.
This is why I am actually going to jump on their introduction offer now and get the black 280 Freezer III in preparation for a future build down the line.
@stennen - I too had a small issue with a Freezer 280 II, and they solved it immediately and sent me a part FoC even though it was out of warranty - excellent company to deal with,,, unlike ASUS scumbags! Now with this Mk III 280 version - another excellent product at a good price.
I think Im the only one who loves how Liquid Freezer II's pump looks like. Its like something out of a sci-fi machinery set in an icy environment.
It looked sick but it made it a pain to route tubes in smaller cases.
It grew on me 😊
I love it. The only reason I don't already have a Liquid Freezer is I refuse buy new stuff, when the thing I have is working flawlessly.
Yes, it looks like a hybernation chamber. :)
Lol, you literally couldn't pay me to put that thing anywhere near my PC
I have a LF2 240 and i love it. Arctic is the type of company i appreciate: great products without taking your liver as payment. And the review, as usual, spot on! HC are my favs when we talk about reviews, specially cooling ones ❤
How long has it lasted you?
@@nithianathan7962 what you mean?
Glad to see Arctic getting the recognition that they deserve. I built my rig last 2021 and I chose Arctic liquid II 360. Insane performance until now.
Thanks Mike for the review. glad that you liked it.
I dont know if this is world wide, but at least in germany, on their own webshop, they have a massive sale right now due to anniversary. I just got the Liquid Freezer III 240 ARGB in white for 70€. That is massive. I paid 60€ 2 years ago for my be quiet! Dark Rock 3 lol. Time to replace it and increase the cooling performance for just 10 bucks more. Crazy.
Yeah, I just picked up the 420 A-RGB version for 95€. And they didnt even charge for shipping.
I beg to differ i bought the Arctic liquid freezer III 240mm to replace my Arctic esport duo 34 and the freezer is only 2 3 c cooler and is louder because of the pump and if i lower the pump speed the Arctic duo is better and quiter... Arctic freezer 3 sucks donky balls remounted it 5 times with 3 different kinds of tim thinking something must be wrong my budget single tower cpu cooler cant be quiter and only be 2 3 c from a 240mm King AIO but it is and wins aswell at fixed speeds and noise level so yeah my freezer III is going back to where it came from
@@martinfletcher9699 If yoy have a low spec cooler you have also a low spec cpu? It is probably running so cool the change is not that much?
@@lauri9061 7700x cpu 240 AF III
pretty much the old goat for the money.Being buying arctic products for years,and never been let down.
The fans and even the old GPU bolt on coolers have always been among the best for any price.
Half asleep watching steve's liquid freezer iii review then your notification came out, so i moved here instead
Stay awake. :)
mike is a better host, but yea steve do digs deep on news and debacle
Just got my 360 yesterday.
Under the same stress conditions, i noticed a 5-10 degree C difference from my Arctic 2 and this absolutely blew me away.
I have some Unifan Infinities for aesthetics and anyone who's used Unifans know that they make some decent noise lat high rpms. So this cooler going from 70 under gaming load to 60 under the same loads helped keep the noise down phenomenally
Great video and thanks for reminding me that I do not need to upgrade from Arctic Liquid Freezer II. I almost hit that buy button.
Great job as always Mike. I love that compatibility checker, this should be standard from all companies
The "Back to Mike" countdown is a life saver since I had to turn my volume way up, thanks lol
Thanks a ton for the heads up on the compatibility with the AM5 Offset mounting, my x670E Aorus Master was affected and I wouldn't have known without your video. You just saved me a lot of time and headache!
has been using the Arctic Freezer II for years and it has been great. Definitely go for Freezer III when it's come to the time to upgrade
The sale prices is amazing
Love your work! I jammed up my speakers trying to hear the fan noise and was worried that it will blow my ears when you resume your review, but to my good surprise you had a countdown for that. AMAZING!!!
I definitely getting one in the future,i honestly had no idea AIOs became so affordable.
I got an Arctic Freezer esport duo for a little over a year now and that thing has been amazing aswell, especialy with their pricing
This video (and your roundup) helpede choose this AIO from an overwhelming number of options. Affordable, beautiful, and built to perform! From an absolute newbie, THANK YOU!
I just installed this cooler. It is amazing. It is a pain in the butt to install on AM5 tho, but once you figure it out it gives great performance
Glad I randomly came across this video. Was looking all night for coolers for a new SIM Racing build and this popped up in my feed. Thank you
I wish Artic made every other type of computer component too. Realistic prices, options for no LED add ons, top of the line performance, excellent product support across long lifespans. A unicorn of a company in modern consumer tech.
including a contact frame is next-level
GN tested it and it isn't as good as Thermal Grizzly/Thermalright. Furthermore Freezer III cannot be used with aftermarket contact frame due to mounting mechanism design.
@@lesliegrace8360 Nor can you rotate the water block. Not all configs are good with tubes on the bottom like that. At least with their old design, it was almost universal in compatibility. Not exactly the right step forward imo.
@@deuswulf6193 Agreed. I wanted Freezer II to have non-fixated tubes on the pump but the mounting mechanism just made me want to skip Freezer III entirely. 1 step forward, many steps backwards. Looks like Enermax's LIQMAXFLO would have been a better option if you want RGB, flexible tubes, VRM fan, and a 38mm thick rad.
@@lesliegrace8360 The downside with the enermax, is that they use Apaltek as their AIO OEM, which does not have a good record. Lots of AIO failures with that company.
@@lesliegrace8360 I need a cooler (I had to RMA my Liquid freezer ii) and dno if i should get the ii or iii. I have a contact frame already installed and the arctic frame isn't that good -- however temps are still lower? So still g with iii?
The main problem for mini-itx systems will be not the pump, but a 38 mm radiator.
Not so many okayish mini-itx cases are on the market which will fit it inside with fans.
27mm vs 38mm is a huge difference in mini-itx systems.
Well technically you could offset it by buying some slim fans. For example the Scythe Kaze are very good though you'd sacrifice some performance
Pick slim fans to go with it. If you doing 240, go for Silverstone Air Slimmer which is the best in the market right now. If you are doing 280, go for Jonsbo HF1415 (Available in 120 and both black or white frame). Both slim fans do not have the pertinent issue of slim fans where the blades are too close to the intake surface that cause that annoying scratching sound against chassis ie Arctic Slim fans.
@@HardwareCanucks Technically I would prefer to cut the NR200 max top cover than to replace it with slim fans. What you definitely don't want to do is lose the efficiency of cooling in a mini-itx case with these hot-as-hell Intel chips, even after undervolting.
Slim fans are definitely not for AIO. Currently using Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM for intake. They are not bad, but you lose too much performance even with simple intake airflow, even don't want to talk about static pressure for water cooling. They will fail with AIO.
Still using my Deepcool LT720 , it's working like a charm for a year, silent , temps are amazing, if i change i will take the new mistique 360 , cause that looks amazing.
it does look good. the Arctic pumphead looks like absolute dogshit...
@tybmz best there is from a year ago, it's like 315 watt aio, top tier on every review, fans are not that good but the pump and everything top tier.
I changed from x73 kraken to z73 nzxt, both pumps after year went haywire, and with lt720 not a single problem,plus it has a valve that you can fill up loop etc, check a review if you like to know more.
How’s that deepcool treating ya? One of my fans on my 720 just went out yesterday, starting with a weird wine and now is just unbearable. Spins irregularly compared to the other two. On top of that they don’t sell their fans by themselves according to their customer support. Just bought this arctic freezer 3 and not looking back.
@@andresbarboza594same thing happened to me, i went for noctua fans and it's good, fans are pretty cheap on that AIO, buy these NF-A12x25 or phanteks t30 and you are set for a long time, you will get better performance with custom fans.
This piece of technology looks beautiful. Good job Arctic!
This made me feel like ditching my noctua air cooler and get this Artic 😅! Love what they been doing ! Love the design of this cooler also !
Exactly what I did. Farewell Noctua NH-D14, you served well.
Dont ur noctua performs the same if u choose the 240mm
I am so very tempted to buy 280mm one, especially when could be found cheaper than MSRP *already* !
Here in the UK they're only £70 for the 280 black - bargain. I've just replaced my LF II 280 with the vIII. Gfi
i paid 83 Euros for mine LF III, amazing runs cools and i hope to do a push and pull in the future with some lian li TL Lcd.
I knew this product was coming; Amazon constantly having deals on the Freezer 2. £60 for the 280mm was well worth the price.
@ornatus9616 - but £70 is a better price for a LF 280 III. Why save just £10 for old tech.
That pump noise at max speed is less than a lot RGB fans :D
I ordered new AM5 complete white setup with 420 Arctic 3 AIO. Its shocking how good they made 3rd version.
Have their prior gen for 7800X3D with offset mount. Definitely awesome and great to see even more improvements on a new series.
the 360 is sold out, will the 280 be enough?
@@madde88 for sure
@@StaySic4Ever Ordered. Thank you! :)
this, this right here is my new AIO , amazing, and for the price ultra amazing
I just waited for your review
Cause u r literaly the oly reviewer in the world who taught us that there is a huge differ between amd and intels cooler
And what work well with one may not be as good with the other
Thanks❤❤
I have the 360 III Black version and replaced the fans with the Arctic P12 Max, and it can handle 300W TDP dissipation. I tried 320W setting on BIOS, and I was able to get it to hover around 87c to 95c no Thermal throttling. Amazing combination.
One thing I can say though is that with the P12 Max it is loud cause it can run at 3000rpm the moment the CPU heats up. With the standard fans it was tolerable.
Overall I'm happy with my Arctic 360 III with the P12 Max combo. 👍
I think it would be for fun to throw in an air cooler in these AIO charts just to see where maybe the Peerless Assassin stands in a AIO jungle. As well as vice versa, throwing in a lone AIO into an air cooler graph. :)
I will tell u peerless assasin is 1 2 c hotter than the 240mm its not worth it 240mm AIO's are only for looks and not actual performance 360 and above or u might aswell get a Peerless assasin or phantom spirit wich performs identical to 240mm aios
I wanna see some 360 numbers on these lol. I bet they would be amazing!
We haven't dived into 360 yet. Unlike some other publications, if we haven't built sufficient experience in a category (like we did with 240mm) we won't tackle it until we are ready.
Good video, I have the 7700x with the 240mm NZXT aio with a hefty bios OC. The temp differential only being around 5c makes it seem like it doesn’t matter which aio you have as long as you got one. Plus I got a good deal on it. I think about $60 cause Best Buy put it on the wrong shelf, and hell yea if they mess that up make them accountable.
I've been thinking about a complete overhaul of my fans and AIO. There are just way too many cables, and my AIO is a couple of years old and not performing as it once did. The 360 version of this is now at the top of my list.
Mike you are a legend! Keep killing it!
I have a 13900k and a Freezer II 280 with a Thermalright Contact frame. I use Liquid metal from Thermal Grizzly and undervolted the i9 that keeps it at around 280W at Cinebench full load with full turbo boost permanently. The Freezer II keeps the CPU at 88°C peak core in a 23°C environment.
I have now ordered the LF III because of the looks and white color that fits my system better. Will keep the rest the same. I just hope the latest contact frame will perform as good as the Thermalright and I hope for 2-3°C less like GN has tested compared to the LF II. This would give me that last little bit of delta to handle the power in summer at 35°C in my apartment :D
@b14ckyy - you should NOT have used LM on these, as there's a chemical reaction because of the copper cold plate; the LM almost welds the cold plate to the CPU! der8ouer doesn't mention that, or didn't. Only use LM on cold plates which are Nickel plated. I had to use a screwdrive to prise my 280 LF II off my 5900x! Change it NOW to TG Extreme TIM.
@@davybloggs1564 I know well what LM does to copper and I know how to handle it ;)
After the first month you have to clean it up and you can "sand" it down with paper to scrape off the remaining hardened tin and get a smooth surface again. Then use LM again and repeat the process once more after about 3 months. After that the cold plate is saturated with the Gallium and no more ion infusion is happening.
Yes its a lot of work but in the end it works perfectly fine.
I’ve been eager for a white Arctic AIO!
I think it's important to mention that contact frames aren't meant to improve cooling performance on a bent CPU. They are meant to prevent them from bending in the first place.
They're meant for the latter but can be beneficial for the former.
Arctic is the goat.
One of not many companies who continuously pushes both quality and affordability of their products.
The only brand that can be recommended at any time.
i dunno, thermalright dual towers for 40 CAD and single towers for 25 CAD are pretty good in afffordability. even the quality is really good for low profile coolers and those are still in the 20-40 range.
They've done what everyone was waiting for. The performance Arctic is known for with a modern CPU block.
I will get four of them :D
Id change out the fans tho theyre really showing their ag e by now
@@Frozoken Fans are TOTALLY adequate, and don't need changing at all. Running HB with my 5900x flat out on all cores at 4.8Ghz, the temps were 74° with my Freezer II 280, and 72° with this Freezer II 280.
I bought the 360 ARGB version for about 91$ when it came out. It's really great, my CPU isn't very demanding but I wanted an future proof solution. Right now the system runs almost passive. The fan curve was a bit of a challange but after some teaking I found the right settings. I added 3 extra fans to my case (Asus AP201) to support GPU cooling and airflow. Even at 100% load during gaming both CPU and GPU are running at about 50-55°C max. CPU is a Ryzen 5600X (OC Mode) and a GPU is an Asus TUF RX 7800 XT OC Gaming edition.
Arctic outperforms every brand out there.
I got a day ago, before installing the DeepCool LT520, from Canada Computers. Previously an employee said get the Arctic. I liked the design of the DC...
Cue Reddit this morning, a guy posting the whining noise of a misaligned pump vibrating from his DC AIO, installed 3 weeks ago !!
Waiting for 10am to return the DC and getting the "employee recommended!" Artic LF III instead, worth the extra (oops 50$ extra) 20$, DC is on sale.
Why? Thursday the store didn't have the black model in stock, this morning it says there are 4 available, I guess they received on Friday.
Can't wait for long-term testing of various AIO's under load coming out, and a big thank you to HC, I'm paying someone a coffee right now.
Is it time to replace my Noctua Air Cooler? Might have to get the Arctic Liquid Freezer III especially at that price.
That one incompatibility with ITX motherboards just eliminated this from my list of potential replacements for my aging H100i platinum
I really like the thickness, makes big case looks full
i ordered mine as soon as i seen its released... cant wait for my rma'd cpu ....
Just ordered new mobo cpu ram and cooler. Im getting the 7800x3d and this cooler is the one I ordered with it. I am certain I will be more than happy.
Since Phanteks comes with one of the best fans on market I wonder how would results look like if we slap those fans on Arctic Freezer III
My freezer II 280 is already 4 years old and running strong. Typicaly its recommended to change your aoe after 5years of use and they are crazy expensive now and the deal was amazing on freezer III so ordered 360mm non RGB(RGB was out of stock aready). Will just switch a bit earlier and sell the freezer II for someone who does not have much money. Freezer III was just 96eur with shipping and if I get 20eur for freezer II 280, it will be very cheap upgrade/renewal.
Got the 280mm one for 66€ delivered from starcart
This makes me feel great about my EKWB Nucleus
Finally. A design that isn't super ugly lol. (As a owner of the 2's) they will sell more this way for sure.
DO NOT FLIP THE PUMP. It’s purposefully offset lower because of the actual chips or whatever they’re called that’s under the metal cap thingy for the CPU. If you flip the pump then you won’t be cooling the lower chips as good.
arctic getting the respect it deserves because they are giving aios the respect they deserve
What camera did you film like video with? The sharpness looks amazing! great content too
This definitely would be in my next build.
Just got the 280 rgb black for 80€, what a steal
This is gonna be a huge upgrade for me coming from an older DeepCool 120mm AIO. Which is actually very good and enough for the Ryzen 2600 and 5600 I've been running (on auto). But I still want to make it even easier on the CPU (and I might still upgrade to a heavier one later). - This was, in my particular literal case, I can also put a 140mm exhaust-fan instead of the 120mm radiator that's keeping that spot occupied now, and then instead of the two 140mm Arctic Cooling exhaust-fans I have in the top, I will put the Freezer III. - Is it necessary?... Not really. But it will be an improvement and I like to change things around and see what happens.
Arctic is a good brand I can stand behind. I have the freezer II, my fans and thermal paste are from Arctic.
I like the moveable pump wires on this one because it was quite difficult fitting the freezer II in my nr200p case 😅
I thoght this was a canadian channel, obviously not since the prices r in usd. i learn something every day. so be it
I always thought AIOs were hard to research and not that interesting, but you've managed to change both those things with this series so far. Kind of exciting now!
Thanks for all the testing and making it so easy to understand a large amount of data, all with good context! I like my air cooling, but this is nice, too.
any chance on getting a review on the phanteks glacier one 420? reviews on it are very scarce if any
Arctic are like the opposite of Nvidia when it comes to pricing their products. Gotta respect them in a big way for delivering on all fronts here. People will be happy to pay them the money for a quality product. That’s the way it should be.
As a first time pc builder this aio was looking very very favorable for my price range. But reading about all of the issues people have had with its installation, im not sure worrying about breaking my motherboard to get it on is something I want to test out.
I love my NZXT Kraken Elite RGB White, worth the money for the perf and bling.
Did you watch the AIO round-up video a few days ago? The Kraken’s price to performance isn’t great… aesthetically it does look nice, but much better performance on offer for less money :)
@@ProfShikari i use the 360 version and it looks and works better that the competition when I bought it a year ago. Also I don't trust Arctic at all.
It has very long tubes. Would not recommend this in a smaller ATX especially top mounted or smaller form factor build unless you want some tubes bent awkwardly pressed on your side panel. I had both today and decided to use the 240mm EK nucleus. It has a more premium feel and looks better. Will be returning the Arctic 3. I understand there is a performance difference tradeoff but it's something to keep in mind.
The mounting system for AMD is a hard NO WAY, it just an CPU cooler for intel
Really want to see the Cooler Master Atmos and the EK Nucleus CR360 Direct die AIOs included in these tests
Thank you for the exceptional video. Very informative !
Great video just what I was looking for. Im thinking of getting a LF III 240, i already have 2x phantek T30 fans, and wanted to know if they would improve the performance even more, and now I know they will be perfect 😊
Once it lands in Australia, it’s a day one buy for me
They should keep the sale all the time.
I bought$60 whiet rgb 360mm liquid coolers that are pretty good
Keeping my 7900x at 70 -75c after 10 hrs of gaming.
The Arctic ii is 20 bucks cheaper in Central Europe at 79¥ vs 99€
Tell me who's longtime liquid cooler without lik.
Does a vertical gpu build fit with this series though? I'm wondering if the tubes on the underside of the pump could give problems with fitting.
I was always impressed by the performance of the Freezer II but the VRM on it was flat-out ugly, in my opinion.
I WILL be ordering the Freezer III.
Thanks for the review. Looking really good, think will get it (the 360 version), or next version, once the AMD 9800X3D is out, till then I got Ryzen 7700 (All-core 5.25Ghz and Single-core @5.5Ghz with TjMax @88C) with Cougar Poseidon GT240 fans running @70% max = performance/noise really good, ear level less than 40db during load with 3080Ti, idle close to 27db.
Thank you for the video. What you think about push pull on lf3 240mm or have you try this configuration ?
"quietest pump ever"
I think your not telling the truth. It is noticeably louder than the previous model
I could barely hear the pump noise over the noise of the pump/Fans on my own Deepcool LS240 cooled build haha
Hey there! I'm currently planning to build in a white Jonsbo Z20 case and I went through pretty much all your videos about cooling. As the Liquid Freezer doesn't (officially) fit into the case as it can fit only up to 30mm thick coolers, I was wondering if you have any recommendation for the best possible alternative for AM5. The previously recommended Phanteks T30 seems to be discontinued (at least it doesn't appear on Phanteks webpage anymore and can't find it in stores). Many thanks!
Could you include a "best case" air cooling option like the PS120SE in your performance graphs for future AIO reviews? It'd be interesting to see how the PS120SE compares in Intel / Ryzen testing both with the stock fans ($40) and with with P12 Max fans for fan normalized testing ($55-60).
Excitedly ordered this then found the massive vrm fan won’t fit as it crashes into the top mount aio fans. Now have to find a case that this will fit into.
@@ralphpurves Shuda sussed it out FIRST!!! Noob
@@davybloggs1564 er, thanks mr friendly, took advantage and got a really nice new case so every cloud ….( noob, you haven’t got a clue 🤣)
Just had a look on PC Part Picker and here in the UK, I can pick up the Freezer III 240mm A-RGB in black for £62.36 🎉
All my fans from arctic and the (280) AIO is just the best cooler !
Just finished installing my 420mm black rgb, honestly very impressed especially for the price point.
I installed mine with liquid metal and prime95 can't get my 7950x3d above 60.5c
How much is the temperature in the normal usage without using any program. I have same cpu
Nice :) That damn T30 is sold out since months anyway, guess i have a new option for my shopping list.
I mainly look at the Gamers Nexus numbers. AC III looks pretty amazing again.
If you care about Zen 2 platform performance you can't go wrong with their numbers! 👍👍 But please don't extrapolate any thermal numbers (even ours) to mean a certain cooler will work well on your chosen platform if said platform isn't being tested in the review.
GN is comparing against some fairly outdated models.
@@HardwareCanucks
Bit disingenuous.
Glad i bought one when it first was released