So excited to be doing CPU coolers again. We're also working on 4 new test benches for these. ATX cases are next on the list! They're all being tested RIGHT NOW! SUPPORT our in-depth, independent testing and help fund our next massive effort! Get one of our extremely heat resistant soldering mats! store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-project-soldering-mat And one of our 3D emblem pint glasses: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-3d-emblem-glasses Find the written review of the Liquid Freezer III here! gamersnexus.net/coolers/new-best-arctic-liquid-freezer-iii-360-280-cpu-cooler-review-benchmarks Grab a memory explosion diagram T-shirt with disappointing dates on the back! store.gamersnexus.net/products/disappointment-pc-2023-heather Learn about our Hemi-Anechoic Chamber here! th-cam.com/video/eUqYTenB2A0/w-d-xo.html And watch our Billet Labs Water Block review to see our debut of the 3D laser scanner! th-cam.com/video/0e1nDf0GYZU/w-d-xo.html Find the best air coolers right now in our round-up: th-cam.com/video/ow0crBSKIXw/w-d-xo.html And our full CPU cooler MEGA CHARTS here (haven't added LF III at time of posting): gamersnexus.net/megacharts/cpu-coolers
Incomplete review - Your missing the amd contact frame pressure tests and thermals? Why? I'll wait for the v2 version hopefully they fix that mounting mechanism for AMD.
@@tiborklein5349Arctic is really good about doing free revisions within a product cycle. The pump head on the LF II changed a couple times to accommodate newer boards for example.
They're probably already cracking away at the LGA1700 pressure issues as we speak. Knowing Arctic they're good about finding issues and effecting them, even on coolers that have already been installed.
translation: "We could have made something even better but there is no point because half-assing it produced a superior product to what was already on the market. "
I am a huge fan of Arctic as a company. I was also one of the people affected by the fouling problem; I requested a repair kit through their automated system, and it arrived a few days later; I did the replacement myself, and everything seemed fine. My cooler (the LFII 360) then died, seemingly randomly, about six months later. Turns out the pump motor had died; I don't think it was a gunk issue, since I had noticed no performance degradation - it just bit the dust one day. I put a support request in, mentioning the self-replaced gasket, and asked if I could send it in for warranty repairs (as they had offered an extended warranty window for any units that had the faulty gasket replaced). They didn't even ask for me to return the unit I already had - they just sent me a new one, no questions asked (well, they had to ask for my shipping address, I suppose). I'll be going to them for all of my CPU cooling needs for the foreseeable future; it was just such a nice customer service experience.
Since they only make liquid coolers for GPUs these days and my tube of MX-4 literally shattered, I'm just using one of their 92mm CO fans on a CPU cooler that they didn't even make because they sold out to the AIO fad. Will probably be the last Arctic product I own since I sold my 2070S with an Accelero IV Extreme. It ran as quiet and as cool as a water cooled AIO but that didn't matter to anyone but me apparently. Gen Z is as superficial as the boomers were greedy.
@@Lurch-Bot Arctic still makes air coolers??? Look into it. They just launched a new freezer tower cooler. 🤦🏻♂️ They don’t make GPU coolers anymore because there are too many different models and variants across manufacturers.
I had one of their coolers with the gasket issue. A few months after replacing the gasket the cold plate was fouled with whatever material was still in the system. I contacted their tech support provided my coolers serial number and they sent me a new cooler. The new cooler has been working flawlessly since install. The entire process went much more smoothly than I anticipated. The Arctic Liquid Freezer series will be at the top of my list the next time I upgrade.
Now I want to check if mine is good after replacement. But it's a hassle to do again and I don't see any performance degradation, so I probably will not bother.
@@GamersNexus My LFII had 1 wobbly fan, I contacted them and they sent me an entire cooler. Both were affected by the gasket issue and they sent me 2 kits free of charge. I still have the other cooler serviced and stocked :). My next AIO purchase will definitely be Arctic again.
Man when Steve casually says "they are starting to develop a track record of support" and "we can recommend it" it's like the equivalent of other youtube reviewers standing on a table yelling it's the greatest product ever.
Now Question, would be a double 240mm version for small case with flexible hose between the two radiator to maximise cooling with two 120mm intake front fan and two 120mm exhaust fan top.. Possibly be the best possible CPU cooling solution ? Like plug and play custom cooling ish'
I'm a huge Arctic fan (not the ones that blow air LOL). I rock 7 x P12 ARGB in my case plus an Arctic Freezer II 360. Please redesign the mounting kit for AMD and the plate and I will surely buy the new one! Hoping for a revision pretty soon!
Thanks Steve and Mike for the review. Glad to see the good performance results though a bit disappointed that you faced issues with the assembly on AM5. we are now looking into it to phase in improvements in future production. We'll look into the contact pressure as well because as your test showed, we have some improvements possible here too.
Great to see your engagement here Vincent. It seems like a great product hampered only by a poorly thought out mounting solution, and I'm sure a mechanical engineer could fix the issues with a revision pretty easily, in which case you'd easily have the best AIO on the market.
Two weeks ago, I built a PC and chose the EK Nucleus because I found the Liquid Freezer II ugly. Now, I thought for the cheap price I'd give the third version a try. But after half an hour and TWO broken KryoSheets, I gave up and remounted the Nucleus. I have never seen such a bad mechanism."
Same here. I also destroyed my Kryosheet due to this "hilarious mechanism" on AM5. I'm gonna RMA it and stick with my LFII until this issue get fixed!
@@DDosAndDonts Rysen doesn't need a liquid cooler. Tests show that air coolers performs pretty similar with liquid coolers on Ryzen because in general the heat demands are contained. Liquid coolers are more necessary with high-end Intel chips.
@@Real_MisterSir true. Lian li is a great example of it. They are trying to rob us with LCDs on fans as well. Hyte is also another example with their y70
@@Real_MisterSir Yep. But look at their core audience. Both Lian Li and Corsair know exactly what they are doing. They are using a fairly basic fan, then bling it out, and charge a fortune.
Same goes for Thermalright imo. I got a Peerless Assassin 120 for like £30 and it does the job brilliantly. What more do I need? Pay £50 for some fancy lights?
Wow. You guys are very detail oriented, sound chamber, laser scanner. Even the sidebar progress lines when you're showing a graph which lets us know to pause if we're not done looking. Thanks for all the help!
Bloody hell, you're really putting that anechoic chamber to use, and IMO you've struck the perfect balance between quantitative & qualitative analysis without spending too long overanalyising the results. Yeah, it's nerdy as heck to be awestruck over frequency plots and those high-quality recordings of the VRM fans, but I don't care - this is some exceptional science going on here.
I would enjoy it if I sadly wasn't too stupid to understand any of it lol. I try and try, but my brain simply doesn't have the required hardware to input the information haha
I am using the first Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 since well over 6 years now. Never had a single problem with it. That's why I love arctic. Just good, reliable products. No tricks or unnecessary gimmicks. All for a fair price.
The Liquid Freezer II install on AMD was my one bugbear with that cooler. The instructions are really unclear regarding the offset mount, and which screws you use for what task. Their online help for it is dreadful, and I have fed that back and their reply was not at all impressive. Considering everything else they do good, I am baffled as to why they can't improve the LF II installation docs. Everything else about these coolers is great and I've installed several and recommended them to dozens of people.
I bought this cooler after watching reviews from you guys and Hardware Canucks. I can safely say that it blows me away! My previous cooler was a air cooler and it didn't performed well enough for my liking as I use a ITX case and it didn't have enough space for sufficient air cooling capabilities. After I switched to the liquid freezer 3, max temp dropped 10C to around 61C, with average temps around 55C during gaming. The noise is also greatly improved (I watched your guide on how to correctly mount an AIO too). It's really a life changer!
THANK GOD! I was so sad that they'd announce this and then us have to wait months for reviews. This is 100% the best way to launch a product; immediately send it to GN for review
Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of the LF2 issue and service kit. I just checked and my cooler is in the affected batch so a service kit is now on its way!
Never had an issue with an Arctic cooler, but I did have an RGB fan with half the LEDs fried out of the box. Support sent a new fan just by seeing the receipt, which went to the wrong address due to a mistake on my bank's side. I let them know, offering to pay for the lost fan, and they just sent another with no fuss at all. Top tier support that I have nothing but praise for.
this video is incredible for many reasons not least of which is its outstanding to see all of GN's new high-tech testing tools showcased. i mean holy moly, the chamber, the new studio, the 3D monitoring machine, GN studio looks more like NASA every day
My 240mm LF2 was not the ones affected by the gasket issue and either way I requested one kit and they approved it. I topped the water and replaced the gasket, for some reason I saw a slight improvement in cooling but it may've been margin or error. I really like Arctic and their business practices.
On Amazon there is a discount on every Liquid Freezer 3 model, which makes the prices the same as the Freezer 2. Atleast in germany, didn't check for international. Just ordenered a Liquid Freezer 3 280 Black für 69€, together with a R7 5800X3D and new RAM. Can't wait to assemble it :D. Everything is getting more expensive and Arctic launches their new products with a "try it out for cheap"-discount. Love it!
@@malphadourIt's around £85 now which is amazing i would get it but i'm going to go with an external build when i got enough money meanwhile i have to suffer with my Lian Li Galahad 2 until then for my hot i9-12900KS might upgrade that in the future too Tech is so expensive :(
@@razonspielt1851 I ended up getting this as my previous AIO was failing i can tell you it's very quiet and probably the best AIO cooler i have had it's amazing at cooling
@@razonspielt1851 On default settings I heard it a tiny bit. But when you tweak the PWM settings in your BIOS and adjust the fan/pump-curve (takes 5 minutes), its perfectly silent and cools my 5800X3D like a beast :). Dont forget to put the tubes at the bottom (if you install the radiator in the front). This helps to reduce pump/water noise aswell.
I was quite displeased. My aio looked to have a leak when I opened it. It turns out however that the thermal paste they used discreated a chemical that smelled exactly like cryofuel. The pump wasn't too loud but the circulation was infuriating
I've used arctic fans in a lot of refurb builds of older PCs and small projects, and after my dell precision died a few weeks ago, i've had my eye out for parts to build my new rig with. Seeing the maturity arctic had with their arctic freezer 2 gasket problems and the performance stats from the LFIII line, I'll definitely be using the 240 in my next rig. Big props to you guys, love the videos.
Nice to see a review on these go up, I was quite interested in how this new gen of these would do as a consideration for my next build since the freezers have always been at a really good price point for people on a budget.
I ordered a Liquid Freezer II 420 a while back. One of the fans broke in shipping. Arctic did not hesitate to send me a replacement fan. I must applaud their excellent customer service, and excellent support for right to repair (as illustrated in their excellent handling of the gasket incident). And their products have a good value proposition. All-round 10/10, shut up and take my money.
To think I was blown away by your level of detail and knowledge when I began watching some years ago. You're only getting better and better, gents. No doubt the engineers behind the products appreciate all this detail as well.
Impressive to hear how technical educated you guys are, appreciated you mentioning the difference between acoustic pressure doubling at 3dB and the volume doubling at 10dB. Going with the LF3 360 for my new build, thanks for the great review.
Yeah, to be frank, the Liquid Freezer 2 looked just so ugly, I could never look past it unless my PC didn't have a tempered glass side panel (in other words, the internals aren't visible to you), so I'm glad they made the design a lot more pleasant this time around.
Also seemed harder to mount/orient for itx builds chassis like NR200 with the 240mm freezer II per ex vs different options/blocks/hoses. Potential to rotate/mount the coolers vs ARCTIC really only having one mount/direction of viability. Though the design/color scheme matched well in my MESH II performance edition. Mathed my X570 tomahawk scheme looked good with 5700xt tuf evo, 3070 FE, 3070 Strix, and now my 4070ti gaming oc. Chassis/glass is so dark you cant really even see the VRM/fan spinning as it is. Id still take that design over something with "reflective" plastic or chrome...or RGB XD. Just wish the hoses/mountability had a bit more flexibility for ITX use cases specifically given their price point and potential to be ran in push pull/cheap 5x packs of 120mm fans for pretty solid/budget directional airflow in an ITX build w.o having to spend 100$+ on "special" fans in said ITX build
I got the II 280 on my 5800X..and before that i had it on my old ryzen cpu. Time to get the new 280 cuz that shit just rocks. Never been so happy with an AIO as with the liquid freezer series. I prioritze noise over anything (i can live with higher temps on a quiet pc) And my current is superquiet when controling every fan in the case with fancontrol. Going for the black non rbg as i have everything black and no rbg in the machine. Another great review of a great product.
I was just about to order an AIO for a 7000D/14900K project and saw this video pop up. Ordered the Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB! I already have a Thermalright contact frame on hand, so I'm disappointed to see I won't be able to use it. I'm coming from a 12700K and Liquid Freezer II 360 on the intel stock ILM, so I'm sure I'll still see an improvement. Thanks for the timely review!
I have the liquid freezer ii 420mm with Thermalright contact frame on my 13900ks. It's one of the only few setups where the cpu is not thermal throttled. You will love arctic coolers. 👍
11:49 the good idea is to use a mouse button click for comparison. During pump noise audio recording, you click mouse button from time to time. Then when you boost volume up during editing- we still will be able to recognize a reference point, because we all know what is the correct volume level of the mouse button click.
@@ReggieVdz yes, but it is still the best choice. We all had a lot of mouses in the past, we click that button billion times so we all know - in what volume range that sound could be. What else can be that good for reference?
@@ReggieVdz True, but, say, Logitech G503 and G703 have very similar click sounds, and in my experience, they are kind of "average/medium" sounds. I would wager that a majority of the audience has heard one of those two mice and for those who have not, a typical/average sounding mouse like that is still probably a pretty good benchmark. I agree it's not perfect, but it could be pretty good.
Yeah, but the perception of the sound also differs depending on the frequency, not only the volume itself. So a humming noise of 30db can seem to be quieter than the same squealing sound at the same volume. So the benchmark sound would have to be at least in a similar tone.
Had to change my AiO after almost 6 years and your videos about this helped mi pick me this one and it is silent. 1st I thought I will go to air one, noctua d15 because it is silent, but this one was like more then 1/2 of price and noise and performance was out of this world. Thank you Steve.
Thank you GN, watched this video and finally bought an LF III 360, on my AM4, before normal temps were around 55-ish (on a tropical country btw)... And now I am on 39-43. Happy and Proud
10-15 decibels less than other AIOs cooling at about the same level is very impressive, like with Noctua case fans you don't need to ramp them super high for good airflow, and a quiet system is an ideal system.
I upgradedf from a LF2 240 to a LF3 360. Bad thing was: the mainboard had a M.2 heatsink (way too high) in the way of the new pump. *But* this was mentioned in their mounting manual together with a solution. I mailed the invoice of my mainboard and got a lower M.2 heatsink for free. did take 1 week and some very smooth conversation with their customer service. Perfect.
would love to see this expertise and leadership back on custom gpu coolers. I remember that they were all the rage 10 years ago. maybe something to compete with alphacool's eiswolf offering.
The biggest downside to that is just how huge the GPU coolers are these days -- it'd feel bad taking such an expensive cooler off a card to replace it with an aftermarket one. The costs really have ballooned!
@@GamersNexus EVGA proved that you didn't need a four slot thick cooler to cool a 4090. They proved that the efficiency is there, and that it's more than likely a design Choice forced by Nvidia to be 4 slots thicccc. This could open up the aftermarket for more efficiency gains, but the market is very small for that. I understand why nobody has done it yet, it's a niche market that would likely have a very low volume of sales, which would lead to an extremely high price on top of an already pricey gpu.
@@GamersNexus Huge, yeah. But I think the bigger problem is "target audience". So many different cooler designs between card makers, and even within a card maker's "family", versus how few people would ever actually replace the included cooler.
@@GamersNexus That is kinda the problem, pci-e really isn't made for the weight of those coolers and i have seen a lot of flex-related GPU gore, here on yt, thanks to said weight, this also makes shipping PCs way harder for pc building companies, as you have probably seen multiple different methods of doing so. The closest thing we had to a 3rd party non-enthusiast water-cooling solution for GPUs was the nzxt g12 but the complete lack of standards in the GPU space made even that a pretty complex product to install.
@@chubbysumo2230 it came down to nvidia miss representing the product to their AIB's. initially they were told that the cards needed to be able to cool 450w min up to 600w. this was one of EVGA's biggest complaints because the required cooler ate up what little profit margin there was for the cards. by the time AIB's found out that the cards TDP was going to be much lower it was already to late for them to change the cooler design. this eventually led to another problem where sure they could of released later designs with smaller coolers and ran the cards a little warmer but marketing is all about numbers and if X card with a larger cooler had 10C lower temps then Y card with a 2.5 slot cooler then Y card is worse and no one should buy it. another perfect example is why do motherboards have dual 8 pin cpu power when it's not needed? well ASUS advertised it as being better(it's not) so everyone else now has to have it otherwise their boards look worse.
I bought the LF II 420 ARGB a three weeks ago, a couple of days later the discounts started (about 20 euros off) and now a whole brand new model even cheaper than I paid for the LF II :D but well, the LF II have been awesome, the only drawback is the appearance of the pump block.
I've told pretty well everyone I know with a PC to go and check those prices out now if they fancy a cooling bargain. They were already just about the best priced brand on the market (save maybe for Coolermaster) so the sales prices are bonkers good. LF420 for £109 in the UK - I was super happy when I got mine for £139 so that is an uber bargain.
The first aftermarket cooler I ever bought was the OG Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 for my 2500k and it's still going strong today in my media server. Great to see them still killing it and STILL at incredible prices too.
Have two Liquid Freezer 2 360 and 420 (on the 360 replaced the cold plate) Amazing temps, quiet, long warranty, reasonably priced, very good after sale support. You cant wish for more really. I will buy my next CPU cooler from them again for sure.
just a n AMD instalation tip, if u pre mount the pump on the brackets (but dont tight the screws to the max) and then mount the brackets on the mobo, and after that tight the pump screw, the instalation becomes pretty simple and easy with no headaches.
Got the LF II 280 a few months ago for my second computer and was completely blown away by the performance. Seriously, if you are looking for an AIO these coolers are a no brainer.
tip for those on new builds coming here: I searched a lot for a case that would fit the little bit taller clearance Liquid Freezer coolers and I found the Lian Li 216 a reasonably priced, fully featured, well ventilated case that has the option of installing your mobo in air or water cooling positions. In the last case it will give you extra clearance.
damn that's a steal.. i got lucky on my LF2 since they were offloading all the coolers they had to open to do the recall fix, got my LF2 360 for 60 USD off their fleabay store. definitely interested in the LF3 so i can move my current cooler to another system.
Arctic support is really great, I wanted extra screws for mounting a push pull configuration and they sent it over free, no questions asked. Same thing happened when I wanted the offset mount. Absolutely top notch.
I went through the replacement kit for the the freezer II, it was a pretty straight forward process, I put in a SN and they had the kit to me within 2 days which was impressive and the process for replacing it was really straight forward and easy. Since then I've always recommended their AIO to friends that ask and they've also had good experiences. Overall they're affordable, reliable and good customer service. Glad to see them continuing with a new product and who knows maybe they'll improve it more in the future and address some of the critiques GN has.
Keep in mind that copper is a very ductile material which is easily bent especially at high temperatures. The cpu is spring loaded/mounted for a reason. As the metal plate heats up the contact area will increase, which is why it is bowed in the middle. As it goes through multiple heat cycles the metal plate warps, but copper has a great heat capacity which is why it’s a great choice for heat dissipation.
> copper is a very ductile material Yes, but only pure copper, and only when annealed. Copper alloys and work-hardened coppers are much stiffer than copper wire, for example. > which is easily bent especially at high temperatures The temperatures present in a computer are at least an order of magnitude too low to make any difference at all in this regard. > As the metal plate heats up the contact area will increase Not true at all. > As it goes through multiple heat cycles the metal plate warps At the temperatures present in a PC (i.e. less than 90°C, and if you're getting that hot, something's wrong), no permanent deforming occurs, regardless of how many cycles it's undergone. > copper has a great heat capacity which is why it’s a great choice for heat dissipation. No, copper is used because it has the second best thermal conductivity of all metals (second only to silver), not heat capacity. Metals have piss-poor thermal capacities compared to fluids like water, which has nearly 3 times the thermal capacity of copper (4.186 J/g°C vs 1.46).
I remember seeing in all AIO reviews Liquid Cooler II just chilling in the first place nonchalantly so I bought it a year ago. Really happy to see that Arctic finally after all these years dropped a new revision of it. I hope more people see how good they are especially when they are doing a sale for their 23st anniversary and you can get one for under 100e which is just INSANE.
After watching this, I would recommend friends get the Arctic Liquid Freezer II, especially if it's on sale. Arctic Liquid Freezer II just seems more than good enough without extra fidly considerations like contact frames.
Indeed, I have an Artic II 240 cooling my 14700k and it does a stand up job. I even bought p12 max fans thinking I would need them ( because of all the talk of the 14700k being so hot) but I found them unnecessary. 99% of the time the fan rpm is less than 1600 ( which is what the original did) though I suppose its nice to have the option to ramp up the rpms to 3000 in the rare case its needed ( pretty much just for benchmarking).
Incredible amount of detail and narrative (as always!). GN is the gold standard for reviews! Looking at which cooler I want for my inbound 9800x3d and I'm going to stick with Artic. I already have the AF2 280 and 360 versions and they have never let me down.
I'd love to hear what Arctic Freezer says about that mount issue you identified. Do companies just not have access to this type of tests or they see it and just don't care?
I think most of them don't do laser scans and pressure maps. Maybe the huge ones, but most are focused on raw numbers first and foremost, often leaving things on the table.
We indeed do not have such detailed pressure analysis capabilities and a lot is done based on the actual performance results. We do care about the products we do and we are now using Steve's results (that we discover on the video at the same time as you guys) to look into improvements for further production. As Steve said in the video, this cooler will see evolutions along its life.
@@VincentAndre_HK the simple fact you watch these reviews and take notes and not have an ego means you are greater then most other companies, I look forward to purchasing this new AIO 360 unit myself.
I didn't understand how much the mounting issue affects stuff/how big of a problem it is. I can order a lf2 or 3. And I already have a thermal right contact frame installed.
Excellent support is great to see! The company giving the customer the option of self repair is excellent and consumer friendly. I have the v2 version, nice to see the v3 improvement!
@oceanman964 hey man I have a 4090 (Gigabyte 4090 oc) and a Thermaltake p3 so the additional air flow helps for sure. The 420 fits absolutely perfectly between the two metal beams holding the glass. Uncanny perfect perfect fit
@@haies09yep same thought I had. Got thermal right contact frame installed and need to order a cooler. Is the pressure stuff not an issue because it runs cooler regardless? Or do I just get lf2
@@tes33720 I see people getting good results with the LF3 contact frame, I’m hoping and waiting to see if they make a revision and fix what Steve found though. LF2 is still a great choice though if you can’t wait 😊
I have had two good experiences with Arctic's customer support. I had an original Liquid Freezer II with original mounting hardware. I asked for their updated hardware and they sent it to me, no problems. Later I got the RBG version of the Liquid Freezer II and in just a couple of months I had a fan that started wobbling in its bearing and scraping the sides of the fan housing. They sent out a replacement fan, again without issue.
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.
Steve, respectfully, you got this one wrong. For AMD, the Arctic 3 has two fatal and completely avoidable design errors: 1) not enough exposed thread on the mounting screws - Mike touched on this first design error, but didn't see the full implications. At 23:22, the problem he's having is that there is not enough exposed thread on the bottom of the screws that attach the cooler to the brackets, and the upward force of that plate/leaf spring is very strong. So the installation requires motherboard-endangering downward force to get the screws to engage. You can see this happening at 23:35. Mike caught the problem that the minimal amount of exposed thread makes the installation almost impossible, but there is more to it. Two things are going to happen. First, that minimal amount of exposed thread, which makes the installation almost impossible, is not enough for the stress it's going to be under. A mechanical engineer could do the math, but what I can say is that it's just not enough thread to hold that much force indefinitely. It's going to break. Second - I mentioned motherboard-endangering force, I'm predicting that a certain percentage of AMD builds will be damaged by the Arctic 3 installation and will have those strange untraceable BSODs that you get from intermittent shorts on an old motherboard. 2) no cut-out for the bracket screws - you can try to work around the 1st design flaw by attaching the cooler to the brackets before the brackets are screwed onto the mobo backplate, or even when the brackets are still very loose, but 2 of the bracket screws are covered by the fan assembly, you can almost get to them but not well enough to apply any torque.
About a year ago, fully aware of the gasket issue, I bought a LF2. Figured they'd have surely fixed all the ones still selling, and they probably had. I bought it from a poxy distributor with no shame, though, so the box it came in was clearly years old and unopened. Yeah turns out it was one of the defective units. So thanks for showing me what the problem is, I was able to confidently open that thing up without spilling ejuice everywhere, clean it out, and have the system keep running at below 90*c idle while I wait for a new LF3. I know, easy repair, but I can't remember where I got the thing (what warning signs?) and Arctic seem to have done well with this one, so...
I just got a LF III, switched from a Noctua NH-D15S, my temps dropped by 10c° and my temps are much more even. Before some cores was hitting 8-9c° more than others now all cores have 1-2c° difference. Realy happy about my switch.
@@TenPennyTowers Not a good response. People know its an pain in the arse, so they have mechanics do the job, usually as part of a larger comprehensive service. Furthermore that would apply to all cars, but not all AIOs.
@@deuswulf6193I’m a ford tech. But yeah weird way to try to equate differences in two different worlds….. If you can’t handle threading these cpu mounts don’t ever touch any fastener on an any vehicle ever lmao.
So I bought the 360, to replace a 240 from a few years ago, and installed it yesterday on AM4. It was easier than the old block/mounting design but it was almost as frustrating. Trying to get the second side of the leaf spring to thread is something they could work on. Anyway, the price is unbeatable right now for the performance you get. Thanks GN!
So my takeaway from this video is that Arctic is maybe in the top 5 for cooling AMD. Intel on the other hand I can say without a doubt it is middle of the pack even being beaten by the deep cool mystique. I learned a lesson watching reviews and when a reviewer isn't showing both charts for amd and intel you may want to do more research. Now I bought the Arctic liquid freezer 3 360mm for intel because I typically trust gamers nexus reviews and they claimed it was one of the best. I also didn't realize the temperatures they show in the charts are over their ambient Temps which were not listed so you could expect they are going to run 75c at 200watts on amd. Intel has major issues with the wattage needing to be cooled is pushing between 300-400 watts. Which to be fair no aio is going to cool that much heat but it still feels like we should have been told before hand that this was specific to amd. I have the intel i7 14700k and even limiting pl1 and pl2 to 253 each it hits 100c. My biggest question is why wasn't this called out in the beginning? All the reviewers either knew it was a problem because as soon as you run cinebench r23 it goes screaming to 100c +. So please tell me how intel didn't know this was an issue and the reviewers didn't cover for them.
The the CPU benchmark data screenshot clearly shows that they are testing the R9 3950x. It also states at the bottom of the data that temps are delta over ambient of 21°. I can understand your point if the results are significantly worse with an Intel CPU, if that's right. Have you adjusted your vcore settings in bios? Besides the 14700 being a power hungry chip, motherboard manufacturers tend to set the default v/f curves far too aggressive, meaning you can easily reduce the vcore voltages at any given load by 0.05-0.1v or even more, depending on vdroop
bought a liquid freezer II last year pretty much based off GN's recc and also seeing how they handled the pump issues. 0 issues since i got it, works great, stays pretty quiet. Ended up going back to them to pick up 2 80mm fans for exhaust afterwards.
I mean maybe amd shouldn't have put an offset on the inside of their chip where all the heat is... but overall you are getting a good product that actually takes it into mind that there is an offset and is helping out amd users
How is it not? They design their chips do they not? The biggest market is intel, by far, and so making a bracket to work mainly with intel and to also work with amd is going to have some kind of difference in how you mount it yeah? Im surprised they made it so you didnt have to buy a whole seperate mounting system in the first place.
The Arctic 1 and 2 have given me excellent duty, and the company employees have perfect email after-sales service. I have ordered the new Liquid Freezer 111 420. Thank you for this superb review. International Music Services (Malta)
I just bought the liquid freezer II, i did not know this was coming out although theres not much room for mods i still think it would've been the better option. Im running a 13700k with it, flattened ihs and coldplate via sanding and using a tg contact frame dropped temps even further. Im happy with the results and all of it was done without sending over 160. Once i sell my ak620 all said and done will be a $120 upgrade that doesnt throttle under max boost and even some oc!
I know it was only your sponsor, but I came SO CLOSE to buying the Montech King 95 case. Only didn't cause I was shown the NZXT H6 Flow and it being cheaper got me, along with the fans being more directed toward the components. But just wanted to say the fact you opted to sponsor the King 95 tells me you think it at least isn't too bad a case.
Bought this cooler for my build. It's by far the best cooler I've used to date, hands down. There's alot of bulllshit in the AIO market, and it's nice to just have a product that does what it's supposed to do. I do wish they just included a printed manual in the box instead of having to pull their website up on my phone to read the installation instructions, but that's pretty minor. The cooler is badass and I'll 100% be buying one in the future.
Arctic really seems to put a high priority to keeping their customers happy and satisfied. I previously owned a GPU cooler from Arctic, and it started revving the rpm up and down, pretty much on its own. I mailed them and asked about the issue, they thought the fan might be faulty, so they provided me a new fan for the cooler completely free. And the GPU cooler wasn't expensive top of the line model, cost maybe about 40-50 euros. Whole interaction with them was a very positive surprise.
So excited to be doing CPU coolers again. We're also working on 4 new test benches for these. ATX cases are next on the list! They're all being tested RIGHT NOW!
SUPPORT our in-depth, independent testing and help fund our next massive effort! Get one of our extremely heat resistant soldering mats! store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-project-soldering-mat
And one of our 3D emblem pint glasses: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-3d-emblem-glasses
Find the written review of the Liquid Freezer III here! gamersnexus.net/coolers/new-best-arctic-liquid-freezer-iii-360-280-cpu-cooler-review-benchmarks
Grab a memory explosion diagram T-shirt with disappointing dates on the back! store.gamersnexus.net/products/disappointment-pc-2023-heather
Learn about our Hemi-Anechoic Chamber here! th-cam.com/video/eUqYTenB2A0/w-d-xo.html
And watch our Billet Labs Water Block review to see our debut of the 3D laser scanner! th-cam.com/video/0e1nDf0GYZU/w-d-xo.html
Find the best air coolers right now in our round-up: th-cam.com/video/ow0crBSKIXw/w-d-xo.html
And our full CPU cooler MEGA CHARTS here (haven't added LF III at time of posting): gamersnexus.net/megacharts/cpu-coolers
We need more Air cooler testing! Thermalright is pumping way too much out there that I don't even know what to buy anymore from my PA120SE lol
Incomplete review - Your missing the amd contact frame pressure tests and thermals? Why? I'll wait for the v2 version hopefully they fix that mounting mechanism for AMD.
@@kaisersolo76 There isn't an AMD contact frame.
@@7663 You're absolutely right that Thermalright is going crazy, hahaha. Definitely working on more air cooler tests as well!
Good stuff! But why aren't there be quiet numbers in there, aren't the silent loops any good?
"It's the best, but it could be even better" is a great place to be for a product launch.
Gotta leave some room for the Arctic Liquid Freezer IV...
@@tiborklein5349Arctic is really good about doing free revisions within a product cycle. The pump head on the LF II changed a couple times to accommodate newer boards for example.
They're probably already cracking away at the LGA1700 pressure issues as we speak. Knowing Arctic they're good about finding issues and effecting them, even on coolers that have already been installed.
yeah, probably @@SergeyPupkoMusic
translation: "We could have made something even better but there is no point because half-assing it produced a superior product to what was already on the market. "
I am a huge fan of Arctic as a company. I was also one of the people affected by the fouling problem; I requested a repair kit through their automated system, and it arrived a few days later; I did the replacement myself, and everything seemed fine.
My cooler (the LFII 360) then died, seemingly randomly, about six months later. Turns out the pump motor had died; I don't think it was a gunk issue, since I had noticed no performance degradation - it just bit the dust one day. I put a support request in, mentioning the self-replaced gasket, and asked if I could send it in for warranty repairs (as they had offered an extended warranty window for any units that had the faulty gasket replaced). They didn't even ask for me to return the unit I already had - they just sent me a new one, no questions asked (well, they had to ask for my shipping address, I suppose).
I'll be going to them for all of my CPU cooling needs for the foreseeable future; it was just such a nice customer service experience.
Since they only make liquid coolers for GPUs these days and my tube of MX-4 literally shattered, I'm just using one of their 92mm CO fans on a CPU cooler that they didn't even make because they sold out to the AIO fad. Will probably be the last Arctic product I own since I sold my 2070S with an Accelero IV Extreme. It ran as quiet and as cool as a water cooled AIO but that didn't matter to anyone but me apparently. Gen Z is as superficial as the boomers were greedy.
Did they send you the LF2 or the LF3?
@@andressalomonordonezfolgoz611 This was more than a year ago, so the LF3 wasn't out yet - I had an LF2.
@@Lurch-Bot Damn that's quite a lot of resentment.
@@Lurch-Bot Arctic still makes air coolers??? Look into it. They just launched a new freezer tower cooler. 🤦🏻♂️
They don’t make GPU coolers anymore because there are too many different models and variants across manufacturers.
I had one of their coolers with the gasket issue. A few months after replacing the gasket the cold plate was fouled with whatever material was still in the system.
I contacted their tech support provided my coolers serial number and they sent me a new cooler. The new cooler has been working flawlessly since install.
The entire process went much more smoothly than I anticipated. The Arctic Liquid Freezer series will be at the top of my list the next time I upgrade.
Thanks for sharing. It helps to hear real user stories since the only way to know how the companies handle these things is by volume!
Now I want to check if mine is good after replacement.
But it's a hassle to do again and I don't see any performance degradation, so I probably will not bother.
@@GamersNexus My LFII had 1 wobbly fan, I contacted them and they sent me an entire cooler.
Both were affected by the gasket issue and they sent me 2 kits free of charge. I still have the other cooler serviced and stocked :).
My next AIO purchase will definitely be Arctic again.
@@withmygoodeyeclosed
Seems like Arctic understands who fast a reputation is destroyed. Others could learn, looking at you Gigabyte...
@@L1vv4n The tipoff was my CPU temps soaring and CPU throttling. If your temps are good you should be fine.
Man when Steve casually says "they are starting to develop a track record of support" and "we can recommend it" it's like the equivalent of other youtube reviewers standing on a table yelling it's the greatest product ever.
Thanks for the review, guys! 🥶😄
Thanks for the amazing products, arctic!
I am still using the Freezer 34 esports duo , first with the r5 5600 and now with the r7 7800X3D and I think the LFIII 280 will be an amazing upgrade.
Now Question, would be a double 240mm version for small case with flexible hose between the two radiator to maximise cooling with two 120mm intake front fan and two 120mm exhaust fan top.. Possibly be the best possible CPU cooling solution ? Like plug and play custom cooling ish'
very happy with my freezer 2 280 :D , will look in to the 3 :D
I'm a huge Arctic fan (not the ones that blow air LOL). I rock 7 x P12 ARGB in my case plus an Arctic Freezer II 360. Please redesign the mounting kit for AMD and the plate and I will surely buy the new one! Hoping for a revision pretty soon!
Thanks Steve and Mike for the review. Glad to see the good performance results though a bit disappointed that you faced issues with the assembly on AM5. we are now looking into it to phase in improvements in future production. We'll look into the contact pressure as well because as your test showed, we have some improvements possible here too.
Great to see your engagement here Vincent. It seems like a great product hampered only by a poorly thought out mounting solution, and I'm sure a mechanical engineer could fix the issues with a revision pretty easily, in which case you'd easily have the best AIO on the market.
Two weeks ago, I built a PC and chose the EK Nucleus because I found the Liquid Freezer II ugly. Now, I thought for the cheap price I'd give the third version a try. But after half an hour and TWO broken KryoSheets, I gave up and remounted the Nucleus. I have never seen such a bad mechanism."
Same here. I also destroyed my Kryosheet due to this "hilarious mechanism" on AM5. I'm gonna RMA it and stick with my LFII until this issue get fixed!
big brain move with the horrid am5 mounting. the first and last time i buy arctic
@@DDosAndDonts Rysen doesn't need a liquid cooler. Tests show that air coolers performs pretty similar with liquid coolers on Ryzen because in general the heat demands are contained. Liquid coolers are more necessary with high-end Intel chips.
The price and performance Arctic offers really shows how much other companies are charging you for having their name on the box.
Yup, love my freezer 2 360. Half the price, and best feature is no extra bloat software required to run it.
Especially all the new LCD variants. Those screens cost 10 bucks at most, yet they tend to double the overall price of the product whole.
@@Real_MisterSir true. Lian li is a great example of it. They are trying to rob us with LCDs on fans as well. Hyte is also another example with their y70
@@Real_MisterSir
Yep. But look at their core audience. Both Lian Li and Corsair know exactly what they are doing. They are using a fairly basic fan, then bling it out, and charge a fortune.
Same goes for Thermalright imo. I got a Peerless Assassin 120 for like £30 and it does the job brilliantly. What more do I need? Pay £50 for some fancy lights?
Wow. You guys are very detail oriented, sound chamber, laser scanner. Even the sidebar progress lines when you're showing a graph which lets us know to pause if we're not done looking. Thanks for all the help!
Bloody hell, you're really putting that anechoic chamber to use, and IMO you've struck the perfect balance between quantitative & qualitative analysis without spending too long overanalyising the results.
Yeah, it's nerdy as heck to be awestruck over frequency plots and those high-quality recordings of the VRM fans, but I don't care - this is some exceptional science going on here.
I would enjoy it if I sadly wasn't too stupid to understand any of it lol. I try and try, but my brain simply doesn't have the required hardware to input the information haha
I am using the first Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 since well over 6 years now. Never had a single problem with it. That's why I love arctic. Just good, reliable products. No tricks or unnecessary gimmicks. All for a fair price.
The Arctic Liquid Freezer series seems to be hitting it out of the park once again. Impressive performance for the price!
Yep. This is what you get when you build your cooler for performance rather than for kids who want fancy lights.
Bot
@@Anankin12has to be lol
I really like the installation critiques section. It's something I wish I knew before buying coolers in the past!
The Liquid Freezer II install on AMD was my one bugbear with that cooler. The instructions are really unclear regarding the offset mount, and which screws you use for what task. Their online help for it is dreadful, and I have fed that back and their reply was not at all impressive. Considering everything else they do good, I am baffled as to why they can't improve the LF II installation docs. Everything else about these coolers is great and I've installed several and recommended them to dozens of people.
I bought this cooler after watching reviews from you guys and Hardware Canucks. I can safely say that it blows me away! My previous cooler was a air cooler and it didn't performed well enough for my liking as I use a ITX case and it didn't have enough space for sufficient air cooling capabilities. After I switched to the liquid freezer 3, max temp dropped 10C to around 61C, with average temps around 55C during gaming. The noise is also greatly improved (I watched your guide on how to correctly mount an AIO too). It's really a life changer!
THANK GOD! I was so sad that they'd announce this and then us have to wait months for reviews. This is 100% the best way to launch a product; immediately send it to GN for review
Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of the LF2 issue and service kit. I just checked and my cooler is in the affected batch so a service kit is now on its way!
Hi, how did you check? Is this for the artic ii or artic iii?
New drinking game.
Every time Steve says Hemi-Anechoic, do a shot.
This is a dangerous game.
If you do a shot in the hemi anechoic chamber and nobody is there to hear it, did it make a sound?
You son of a bitch, I'm in!
(That's R&M, before anyone gets mad @ internet)
Still not as dangerous as having a shot everytime someone on LTT fakes a reaction
That game is banned under the geneva convention
Never had an issue with an Arctic cooler, but I did have an RGB fan with half the LEDs fried out of the box. Support sent a new fan just by seeing the receipt, which went to the wrong address due to a mistake on my bank's side. I let them know, offering to pay for the lost fan, and they just sent another with no fuss at all. Top tier support that I have nothing but praise for.
Bought the liquid freezer II last year because of GN's review and I have been so happy with it, glad to see them knocking it out of the park again
How has it been so far, any issues?
Another strong point for Arctic is that they retroactively extended the warranty from 2 to 6 years on all LF2 products, which is pretty cool.
this video is incredible for many reasons not least of which is its outstanding to see all of GN's new high-tech testing tools showcased. i mean holy moly, the chamber, the new studio, the 3D monitoring machine, GN studio looks more like NASA every day
arctic has always made some awesome products, especially at their price - their geforce6 and ati 9x00 series coolers were unmatched!
I was among those who received a repair kit that i got the link to from here. Very quick and easy install. I thought that was good on them and rare.
My 240mm LF2 was not the ones affected by the gasket issue and either way I requested one kit and they approved it. I topped the water and replaced the gasket, for some reason I saw a slight improvement in cooling but it may've been margin or error. I really like Arctic and their business practices.
On Amazon there is a discount on every Liquid Freezer 3 model, which makes the prices the same as the Freezer 2. Atleast in germany, didn't check for international. Just ordenered a Liquid Freezer 3 280 Black für 69€, together with a R7 5800X3D and new RAM. Can't wait to assemble it :D.
Everything is getting more expensive and Arctic launches their new products with a "try it out for cheap"-discount. Love it!
LF III 420 ARGB going for £115 in the UK. That is insanelely cheap.
@@malphadourIt's around £85 now which is amazing i would get it but i'm going to go with an external build when i got enough money meanwhile i have to suffer with my Lian Li Galahad 2 until then for my hot i9-12900KS might upgrade that in the future too
Tech is so expensive :(
Is it loud? Can you hear the pump, like watter drops?
@@razonspielt1851 I ended up getting this as my previous AIO was failing i can tell you it's very quiet and probably the best AIO cooler i have had it's amazing at cooling
@@razonspielt1851 On default settings I heard it a tiny bit. But when you tweak the PWM settings in your BIOS and adjust the fan/pump-curve (takes 5 minutes), its perfectly silent and cools my 5800X3D like a beast :).
Dont forget to put the tubes at the bottom (if you install the radiator in the front). This helps to reduce pump/water noise aswell.
Please review the EK-Nucleus AIO next, it performs really well and it's very straight forward without gimmicks.
Was just going to say, I want to see how the 360s compare.
Will look into it!
I was quite displeased. My aio looked to have a leak when I opened it. It turns out however that the thermal paste they used discreated a chemical that smelled exactly like cryofuel. The pump wasn't too loud but the circulation was infuriating
@@GamersNexus Thanks!
I purchased the EKWB AIO Nucleus CR360 Lux DRGB to pair with a 5900x
Very happy with the performance though slightly loud pump.
I've used arctic fans in a lot of refurb builds of older PCs and small projects, and after my dell precision died a few weeks ago, i've had my eye out for parts to build my new rig with. Seeing the maturity arctic had with their arctic freezer 2 gasket problems and the performance stats from the LFIII line, I'll definitely be using the 240 in my next rig. Big props to you guys, love the videos.
Nice to see a review on these go up, I was quite interested in how this new gen of these would do as a consideration for my next build since the freezers have always been at a really good price point for people on a budget.
I ordered a Liquid Freezer II 420 a while back. One of the fans broke in shipping. Arctic did not hesitate to send me a replacement fan. I must applaud their excellent customer service, and excellent support for right to repair (as illustrated in their excellent handling of the gasket incident).
And their products have a good value proposition. All-round 10/10, shut up and take my money.
To think I was blown away by your level of detail and knowledge when I began watching some years ago. You're only getting better and better, gents.
No doubt the engineers behind the products appreciate all this detail as well.
we do appreciate all these details, even if it means that every little flaw of the product is being shown. That helps us improve.
Impressive to hear how technical educated you guys are, appreciated you mentioning the difference between acoustic pressure doubling at 3dB and the volume doubling at 10dB.
Going with the LF3 360 for my new build, thanks for the great review.
finally they redesign the VRM fan and the sleeve tube is just pure black/white now
It definitely needed an update on the pump block.
@@GamersNexus I liked the old pump block :( To me, the new one one just kinda looks like a generic asetek-ish design .
@@mactep1 same but my case doesn't have a window so it's not a huge deal for me. i'm just glad it doesn't have some useless annoying LCD screen on it.
Yeah, to be frank, the Liquid Freezer 2 looked just so ugly, I could never look past it unless my PC didn't have a tempered glass side panel (in other words, the internals aren't visible to you), so I'm glad they made the design a lot more pleasant this time around.
Also seemed harder to mount/orient for itx builds chassis like NR200 with the 240mm freezer II per ex vs different options/blocks/hoses. Potential to rotate/mount the coolers vs ARCTIC really only having one mount/direction of viability. Though the design/color scheme matched well in my MESH II performance edition. Mathed my X570 tomahawk scheme looked good with 5700xt tuf evo, 3070 FE, 3070 Strix, and now my 4070ti gaming oc. Chassis/glass is so dark you cant really even see the VRM/fan spinning as it is. Id still take that design over something with "reflective" plastic or chrome...or RGB XD. Just wish the hoses/mountability had a bit more flexibility for ITX use cases specifically given their price point and potential to be ran in push pull/cheap 5x packs of 120mm fans for pretty solid/budget directional airflow in an ITX build w.o having to spend 100$+ on "special" fans in said ITX build
I got the II 280 on my 5800X..and before that i had it on my old ryzen cpu. Time to get the new 280 cuz that shit just rocks. Never been so happy with an AIO as with the liquid freezer series. I prioritze noise over anything (i can live with higher temps on a quiet pc) And my current is superquiet when controling every fan in the case with fancontrol. Going for the black non rbg as i have everything black and no rbg in the machine. Another great review of a great product.
I was just about to order an AIO for a 7000D/14900K project and saw this video pop up. Ordered the Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB! I already have a Thermalright contact frame on hand, so I'm disappointed to see I won't be able to use it. I'm coming from a 12700K and Liquid Freezer II 360 on the intel stock ILM, so I'm sure I'll still see an improvement. Thanks for the timely review!
I have the liquid freezer ii 420mm with Thermalright contact frame on my 13900ks. It's one of the only few setups where the cpu is not thermal throttled. You will love arctic coolers. 👍
You think that works on am5? I have the same thermalright and i want this aio. But i like the thermalright plate
Ordered the 240 Black version, happy to support an awesome company!
11:49 the good idea is to use a mouse button click for comparison. During pump noise audio recording, you click mouse button from time to time. Then when you boost volume up during editing- we still will be able to recognize a reference point, because we all know what is the correct volume level of the mouse button click.
Mouse button click volumes can be /very/ different depending on the mouse
@@ReggieVdz yes, but it is still the best choice. We all had a lot of mouses in the past, we click that button billion times so we all know - in what volume range that sound could be. What else can be that good for reference?
@@ReggieVdz True, but, say, Logitech G503 and G703 have very similar click sounds, and in my experience, they are kind of "average/medium" sounds. I would wager that a majority of the audience has heard one of those two mice and for those who have not, a typical/average sounding mouse like that is still probably a pretty good benchmark. I agree it's not perfect, but it could be pretty good.
Yeah, but the perception of the sound also differs depending on the frequency, not only the volume itself. So a humming noise of 30db can seem to be quieter than the same squealing sound at the same volume. So the benchmark sound would have to be at least in a similar tone.
Had to change my AiO after almost 6 years and your videos about this helped mi pick me this one and it is silent. 1st I thought I will go to air one, noctua d15 because it is silent, but this one was like more then 1/2 of price and noise and performance was out of this world. Thank you Steve.
d15 is so overhyped and expensive
tyvm for taking montech up for your sponsors these guys are delivering some serious punch for good prices i love my montech sky two case!
excited to see CPU cooler reviews again! Sounds like there'll be needed soon....
I'm still using my Liquid Freezer II. I will definitely keep this in mind if I ever run into an issue or need to upgrade.
Same! Mine is paired to a 5950X. Great cooler!
@@jamesyoung151 12900k here. Never hit higher than around 65-70C under full load.
Still using my Liquid Freezer II on my 5800X3D and it's been rock solid.
but howww my 7800x3d + LF III 360 got 50c idle dudeeeee
@@StormsparkPegasus
Thank you GN, watched this video and finally bought an LF III 360, on my AM4, before normal temps were around 55-ish (on a tropical country btw)... And now I am on 39-43. Happy and Proud
10-15 decibels less than other AIOs cooling at about the same level is very impressive, like with Noctua case fans you don't need to ramp them super high for good airflow, and a quiet system is an ideal system.
Radiator thickness does a ton of heavy lifting, but contact patch does the rest!
Well i would probably go with Phanteks F120T30 at 3000rpm to see the absolute max potential
I upgradedf from a LF2 240 to a LF3 360. Bad thing was: the mainboard had a M.2 heatsink (way too high) in the way of the new pump. *But* this was mentioned in their mounting manual together with a solution. I mailed the invoice of my mainboard and got a lower M.2 heatsink for free. did take 1 week and some very smooth conversation with their customer service. Perfect.
would love to see this expertise and leadership back on custom gpu coolers. I remember that they were all the rage 10 years ago. maybe something to compete with alphacool's eiswolf offering.
The biggest downside to that is just how huge the GPU coolers are these days -- it'd feel bad taking such an expensive cooler off a card to replace it with an aftermarket one. The costs really have ballooned!
@@GamersNexus EVGA proved that you didn't need a four slot thick cooler to cool a 4090. They proved that the efficiency is there, and that it's more than likely a design Choice forced by Nvidia to be 4 slots thicccc. This could open up the aftermarket for more efficiency gains, but the market is very small for that. I understand why nobody has done it yet, it's a niche market that would likely have a very low volume of sales, which would lead to an extremely high price on top of an already pricey gpu.
@@GamersNexus Huge, yeah. But I think the bigger problem is "target audience". So many different cooler designs between card makers, and even within a card maker's "family", versus how few people would ever actually replace the included cooler.
@@GamersNexus That is kinda the problem, pci-e really isn't made for the weight of those coolers and i have seen a lot of flex-related GPU gore, here on yt, thanks to said weight, this also makes shipping PCs way harder for pc building companies, as you have probably seen multiple different methods of doing so.
The closest thing we had to a 3rd party non-enthusiast water-cooling solution for GPUs was the nzxt g12 but the complete lack of standards in the GPU space made even that a pretty complex product to install.
@@chubbysumo2230 it came down to nvidia miss representing the product to their AIB's. initially they were told that the cards needed to be able to cool 450w min up to 600w. this was one of EVGA's biggest complaints because the required cooler ate up what little profit margin there was for the cards. by the time AIB's found out that the cards TDP was going to be much lower it was already to late for them to change the cooler design.
this eventually led to another problem where sure they could of released later designs with smaller coolers and ran the cards a little warmer but marketing is all about numbers and if X card with a larger cooler had 10C lower temps then Y card with a 2.5 slot cooler then Y card is worse and no one should buy it. another perfect example is why do motherboards have dual 8 pin cpu power when it's not needed? well ASUS advertised it as being better(it's not) so everyone else now has to have it otherwise their boards look worse.
I was just looking for a general recommendation for IAOs and this was certainly a higher quality video than I was looking for. Well done!!
Oh, that's why there's massive sales on the liquid freezer II serie
haha, came to the same realization when this came in!
I bought the LF II 420 ARGB a three weeks ago, a couple of days later the discounts started (about 20 euros off) and now a whole brand new model even cheaper than I paid for the LF II :D but well, the LF II have been awesome, the only drawback is the appearance of the pump block.
I got a 240mm one for $96 AUD 3 years ago. This thing is amazing as well.
I've told pretty well everyone I know with a PC to go and check those prices out now if they fancy a cooling bargain. They were already just about the best priced brand on the market (save maybe for Coolermaster) so the sales prices are bonkers good. LF420 for £109 in the UK - I was super happy when I got mine for £139 so that is an uber bargain.
The first aftermarket cooler I ever bought was the OG Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 for my 2500k and it's still going strong today in my media server. Great to see them still killing it and STILL at incredible prices too.
Ah, the Montech King 95 ad spot is back. This is a good sign that a full review of it might be coming. * fingers crossed *
I just bought the king 95 on sale for £89 and now I've got the freezer 3 360 RGB for £77 from Amazon it's my lucky day for the discounts
Are you still feeling optimistic? lol
Have two Liquid Freezer 2 360 and 420 (on the 360 replaced the cold plate)
Amazing temps, quiet, long warranty, reasonably priced, very good after sale support.
You cant wish for more really.
I will buy my next CPU cooler from them again for sure.
just a n AMD instalation tip, if u pre mount the pump on the brackets (but dont tight the screws to the max) and then mount the brackets on the mobo, and after that tight the pump screw, the instalation becomes pretty simple and easy with no headaches.
arctic's customer support was AMAZING with my arctic cooler ii replacement. No hassle.
cant belive they havent shut down linus yet... this channel is sooo much better in every fucking way
"I don't like it, therefore YOU aren't allowed to and it has no right to even exist!"
What happened?
Got the LF II 280 a few months ago for my second computer and was completely blown away by the performance. Seriously, if you are looking for an AIO these coolers are a no brainer.
Why don't you guys review the liquid freezer 420?
tip for those on new builds coming here: I searched a lot for a case that would fit the little bit taller clearance Liquid Freezer coolers and I found the Lian Li 216 a reasonably priced, fully featured, well ventilated case that has the option of installing your mobo in air or water cooling positions. In the last case it will give you extra clearance.
At least in Germany the 360 LF3 (non rgb) is currently at 76€ on Amazon as a special release price.
Ngl... You can't beat that price/performance :D
Where?
£67 on amazon in the uk, gonna pick one up for my new build.
@@Gilaric amazon? and on their own website
damn that's a steal.. i got lucky on my LF2 since they were offloading all the coolers they had to open to do the recall fix, got my LF2 360 for 60 USD off their fleabay store. definitely interested in the LF3 so i can move my current cooler to another system.
@@sirmonkey1985can you control the vem fan speed?
Arctic support is really great, I wanted extra screws for mounting a push pull configuration and they sent it over free, no questions asked. Same thing happened when I wanted the offset mount. Absolutely top notch.
The Phanteks D30 280/360 would be an interesting comparison; curious how the (presumably) thicker fans match up with the Freezer III.
I went through the replacement kit for the the freezer II, it was a pretty straight forward process, I put in a SN and they had the kit to me within 2 days which was impressive and the process for replacing it was really straight forward and easy. Since then I've always recommended their AIO to friends that ask and they've also had good experiences. Overall they're affordable, reliable and good customer service. Glad to see them continuing with a new product and who knows maybe they'll improve it more in the future and address some of the critiques GN has.
Keep in mind that copper is a very ductile material which is easily bent especially at high temperatures. The cpu is spring loaded/mounted for a reason. As the metal plate heats up the contact area will increase, which is why it is bowed in the middle. As it goes through multiple heat cycles the metal plate warps, but copper has a great heat capacity which is why it’s a great choice for heat dissipation.
> copper is a very ductile material
Yes, but only pure copper, and only when annealed. Copper alloys and work-hardened coppers are much stiffer than copper wire, for example.
> which is easily bent especially at high temperatures
The temperatures present in a computer are at least an order of magnitude too low to make any difference at all in this regard.
> As the metal plate heats up the contact area will increase
Not true at all.
> As it goes through multiple heat cycles the metal plate warps
At the temperatures present in a PC (i.e. less than 90°C, and if you're getting that hot, something's wrong), no permanent deforming occurs, regardless of how many cycles it's undergone.
> copper has a great heat capacity which is why it’s a great choice for heat dissipation.
No, copper is used because it has the second best thermal conductivity of all metals (second only to silver), not heat capacity. Metals have piss-poor thermal capacities compared to fluids like water, which has nearly 3 times the thermal capacity of copper (4.186 J/g°C vs 1.46).
I remember seeing in all AIO reviews Liquid Cooler II just chilling in the first place nonchalantly so I bought it a year ago. Really happy to see that Arctic finally after all these years dropped a new revision of it. I hope more people see how good they are especially when they are doing a sale for their 23st anniversary and you can get one for under 100e which is just INSANE.
After watching this, I would recommend friends get the Arctic Liquid Freezer II, especially if it's on sale.
Arctic Liquid Freezer II just seems more than good enough without extra fidly considerations like contact frames.
Not much concerned about contact frames during the boycott tbh, AMD makes better CPUs anyways.
Indeed, I have an Artic II 240 cooling my 14700k and it does a stand up job. I even bought p12 max fans thinking I would need them ( because of all the talk of the 14700k being so hot) but I found them unnecessary. 99% of the time the fan rpm is less than 1600 ( which is what the original did) though I suppose its nice to have the option to ramp up the rpms to 3000 in the rare case its needed ( pretty much just for benchmarking).
Better in what regard? @@nimrodery
@@daunted232 In every regard. Keep being butthurt Intel fanboy lol.
@@JohnSmith-oh9ux Are you literally 12?
Incredible amount of detail and narrative (as always!). GN is the gold standard for reviews! Looking at which cooler I want for my inbound 9800x3d and I'm going to stick with Artic. I already have the AF2 280 and 360 versions and they have never let me down.
I'd love to hear what Arctic Freezer says about that mount issue you identified. Do companies just not have access to this type of tests or they see it and just don't care?
I think most of them don't do laser scans and pressure maps. Maybe the huge ones, but most are focused on raw numbers first and foremost, often leaving things on the table.
We indeed do not have such detailed pressure analysis capabilities and a lot is done based on the actual performance results. We do care about the products we do and we are now using Steve's results (that we discover on the video at the same time as you guys) to look into improvements for further production. As Steve said in the video, this cooler will see evolutions along its life.
@@VincentAndre_HK the simple fact you watch these reviews and take notes and not have an ego means you are greater then most other companies, I look forward to purchasing this new AIO 360 unit myself.
Will the improvements to the mounting system be available to people who have recently purchased it? (With proof of purchase)
I didn't understand how much the mounting issue affects stuff/how big of a problem it is. I can order a lf2 or 3. And I already have a thermal right contact frame installed.
Excellent support is great to see! The company giving the customer the option of self repair is excellent and consumer friendly. I have the v2 version, nice to see the v3 improvement!
Phenomenal tech your using in this analysis!
Thank you!
Honestly pretty sick review, you guys are true professionals, I damn near might go get a project mat from you guys. Keep up the honest work!
Where are the Thermalright AIOs? I really want to see how their $55 options hold up!
Just learned about the $60 one a few days ago and have it on order!
@@GamersNexus awesome! I’m really excited for that content. Thermalright really shook up the air cooler market.
Oh sweet, I didn't even know they did AIOs. They sure have been slaying the air coolers on price to performance.
I got the Freezer 2 420 after watching your review a few years ago thanks Steve for making me stable all core at 6Ghz ❤
Do you have a 4090? If so, what case?
@oceanman964 hey man I have a 4090 (Gigabyte 4090 oc) and a Thermaltake p3 so the additional air flow helps for sure. The 420 fits absolutely perfectly between the two metal beams holding the glass. Uncanny perfect perfect fit
So if I already own thermalright lga1700 plate, I’m forced to use inferior arctic frame to mount the new aio? Ahhh, I don’t like that
Yep
@@haies09yep same thought I had. Got thermal right contact frame installed and need to order a cooler.
Is the pressure stuff not an issue because it runs cooler regardless? Or do I just get lf2
@@tes33720 I see people getting good results with the LF3 contact frame, I’m hoping and waiting to see if they make a revision and fix what Steve found though.
LF2 is still a great choice though if you can’t wait 😊
I have had two good experiences with Arctic's customer support. I had an original Liquid Freezer II with original mounting hardware. I asked for their updated hardware and they sent it to me, no problems. Later I got the RBG version of the Liquid Freezer II and in just a couple of months I had a fan that started wobbling in its bearing and scraping the sides of the fan housing. They sent out a replacement fan, again without issue.
Dammit I just ordered an Arctic II for my new build and set it up a week ago. Time for a new build!
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.
Jeez that's an insane price
Still love my Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280. No contact frame to deal w/.
A contact frame is not a bad thing. I use a DerBauer frame with my 280. Could not be happier. It is not a gimmick, they do reduce temps.
Contact frames are good for intel. Sounds like you're coping
@@triliner254 I’m on amd
@@AB-80X not a gimmick, but not necessary on some builds
17:00 this is just amazing. Good work
Steve, respectfully, you got this one wrong. For AMD, the Arctic 3 has two fatal and completely avoidable design errors:
1) not enough exposed thread on the mounting screws - Mike touched on this first design error, but didn't see the full implications. At 23:22, the problem he's having is that there is not enough exposed thread on the bottom of the screws that attach the cooler to the brackets, and the upward force of that plate/leaf spring is very strong. So the installation requires motherboard-endangering downward force to get the screws to engage. You can see this happening at 23:35. Mike caught the problem that the minimal amount of exposed thread makes the installation almost impossible, but there is more to it. Two things are going to happen. First, that minimal amount of exposed thread, which makes the installation almost impossible, is not enough for the stress it's going to be under. A mechanical engineer could do the math, but what I can say is that it's just not enough thread to hold that much force indefinitely. It's going to break. Second - I mentioned motherboard-endangering force, I'm predicting that a certain percentage of AMD builds will be damaged by the Arctic 3 installation and will have those strange untraceable BSODs that you get from intermittent shorts on an old motherboard.
2) no cut-out for the bracket screws - you can try to work around the 1st design flaw by attaching the cooler to the brackets before the brackets are screwed onto the mobo backplate, or even when the brackets are still very loose, but 2 of the bracket screws are covered by the fan assembly, you can almost get to them but not well enough to apply any torque.
this is invaluable info we were in the process of looking at Artic have now removed them from our list
About a year ago, fully aware of the gasket issue, I bought a LF2. Figured they'd have surely fixed all the ones still selling, and they probably had. I bought it from a poxy distributor with no shame, though, so the box it came in was clearly years old and unopened. Yeah turns out it was one of the defective units. So thanks for showing me what the problem is, I was able to confidently open that thing up without spilling ejuice everywhere, clean it out, and have the system keep running at below 90*c idle while I wait for a new LF3. I know, easy repair, but I can't remember where I got the thing (what warning signs?) and Arctic seem to have done well with this one, so...
The Montech King 95 is an absolutely fantastic case. Can you please review it ?
I just got a LF III, switched from a Noctua NH-D15S, my temps dropped by 10c° and my temps are much more even. Before some cores was hitting 8-9c° more than others now all cores have 1-2c° difference. Realy happy about my switch.
@0:18 what did you expect, thye're German :)
Getting a GN recommendation is not an easy feat. Great work Arctic!
That afwul AMD installation is enough to make me not ever use it, personally.
Same here.
same
If you think that’s bad you obv never wrenched on any car before lol
@@TenPennyTowers Not a good response. People know its an pain in the arse, so they have mechanics do the job, usually as part of a larger comprehensive service. Furthermore that would apply to all cars, but not all AIOs.
@@deuswulf6193I’m a ford tech. But yeah weird way to try to equate differences in two different worlds…..
If you can’t handle threading these cpu mounts don’t ever touch any fastener on an any vehicle ever lmao.
So I bought the 360, to replace a 240 from a few years ago, and installed it yesterday on AM4. It was easier than the old block/mounting design but it was almost as frustrating. Trying to get the second side of the leaf spring to thread is something they could work on.
Anyway, the price is unbeatable right now for the performance you get. Thanks GN!
So my takeaway from this video is that Arctic is maybe in the top 5 for cooling AMD. Intel on the other hand I can say without a doubt it is middle of the pack even being beaten by the deep cool mystique. I learned a lesson watching reviews and when a reviewer isn't showing both charts for amd and intel you may want to do more research. Now I bought the Arctic liquid freezer 3 360mm for intel because I typically trust gamers nexus reviews and they claimed it was one of the best. I also didn't realize the temperatures they show in the charts are over their ambient Temps which were not listed so you could expect they are going to run 75c at 200watts on amd. Intel has major issues with the wattage needing to be cooled is pushing between 300-400 watts. Which to be fair no aio is going to cool that much heat but it still feels like we should have been told before hand that this was specific to amd. I have the intel i7 14700k and even limiting pl1 and pl2 to 253 each it hits 100c. My biggest question is why wasn't this called out in the beginning? All the reviewers either knew it was a problem because as soon as you run cinebench r23 it goes screaming to 100c +. So please tell me how intel didn't know this was an issue and the reviewers didn't cover for them.
What cooler would you recommend for the 14700k?
The the CPU benchmark data screenshot clearly shows that they are testing the R9 3950x.
It also states at the bottom of the data that temps are delta over ambient of 21°.
I can understand your point if the results are significantly worse with an Intel CPU, if that's right.
Have you adjusted your vcore settings in bios?
Besides the 14700 being a power hungry chip, motherboard manufacturers tend to set the default v/f curves far too aggressive, meaning you can easily reduce the vcore voltages at any given load by 0.05-0.1v or even more, depending on vdroop
bought a liquid freezer II last year pretty much based off GN's recc and also seeing how they handled the pump issues. 0 issues since i got it, works great, stays pretty quiet. Ended up going back to them to pick up 2 80mm fans for exhaust afterwards.
I never seen such a stupid mounting mechanism on AMD platform, it's a no buy for me........
I mean maybe amd shouldn't have put an offset on the inside of their chip where all the heat is... but overall you are getting a good product that actually takes it into mind that there is an offset and is helping out amd users
@@TheDawnOfLemonV1 How is that AMD's fault?
How is it not? They design their chips do they not? The biggest market is intel, by far, and so making a bracket to work mainly with intel and to also work with amd is going to have some kind of difference in how you mount it yeah? Im surprised they made it so you didnt have to buy a whole seperate mounting system in the first place.
The Arctic 1 and 2 have given me excellent duty, and the company employees have perfect email after-sales service. I have ordered the new Liquid Freezer 111 420. Thank you for this superb review. International Music Services (Malta)
bought the lf3 360 and the pump is so loud had to return it. i dont recommend buying one
I just bought the liquid freezer II, i did not know this was coming out although theres not much room for mods i still think it would've been the better option. Im running a 13700k with it, flattened ihs and coldplate via sanding and using a tg contact frame dropped temps even further. Im happy with the results and all of it was done without sending over 160. Once i sell my ak620 all said and done will be a $120 upgrade that doesnt throttle under max boost and even some oc!
The AMD mount is so bad on this thing
I know it was only your sponsor, but I came SO CLOSE to buying the Montech King 95 case. Only didn't cause I was shown the NZXT H6 Flow and it being cheaper got me, along with the fans being more directed toward the components. But just wanted to say the fact you opted to sponsor the King 95 tells me you think it at least isn't too bad a case.
uggh ok... so does this mean its good or what?
Bro did not watch the video 😂
Bought this cooler for my build. It's by far the best cooler I've used to date, hands down. There's alot of bulllshit in the AIO market, and it's nice to just have a product that does what it's supposed to do.
I do wish they just included a printed manual in the box instead of having to pull their website up on my phone to read the installation instructions, but that's pretty minor. The cooler is badass and I'll 100% be buying one in the future.
What a perfect timing! I was about to order a AIO to build my PC this weekend.
Arctic really seems to put a high priority to keeping their customers happy and satisfied. I previously owned a GPU cooler from Arctic, and it started revving the rpm up and down, pretty much on its own. I mailed them and asked about the issue, they thought the fan might be faulty, so they provided me a new fan for the cooler completely free. And the GPU cooler wasn't expensive top of the line model, cost maybe about 40-50 euros. Whole interaction with them was a very positive surprise.
Sweet! I was planning to change my 280 Arctic for a newer model. I haven’t find this cooler last week😅 Thank you for this video!
Got a 360 AF II in my rig, absolutely love it.
Happy that they are still innovating and doing new stuff. :)
Having a mounting guide included in the video is literally gold
Just picked up an A-RGB Black 360 for $107 USD on Amazon. Thanks for the review!
Still on AM4 FWIW with a 5950x.
Just got one for my 13900k, works wonders!! Super happy purchase so far
Thought it was just me that had problems threading the 2 screws while under tension. I feel a bit better now, so thanks for that!