Review Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 AIO Cooler Review: Unique, Affordable Performance

[Admin]

System builders with an aversion to RGB lighting who seek a liquid cooler with distinct attitude should put Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 280 cooler on their short list.

Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 AIO Cooler Review: Unique, Affordable Performance : Read more

 

[helper800]

This seems like a top contender for the best 280mm AIO. Great job on Arctic's side of things. The only thing left to test is whether or not there will be more or less horror stories with them, as well as, how many are DOA and the longevity of each cooler.

 

[joeblowsmynose]

I have one of their older 120 models (push pull) on an R7 1700 (non-x, but OCd to 3.8)- cools extremely well and is super quiet - I only hear it when 3D rendering (100% load for more than a few minutes).

This one in the review looks really nice as well. I wish more manufacturers would stop making their products look like action figure toys.

 

[CountMike]

I'm using very good CM Nepton 140XL which is doing great job on my 3700x Ryzen but is pushing it's 6th year and time to change the cooler. Good price, easy and simple wiring and that little fan should make it a strong contender i intermediate bracket. Now just to find it in Europe. Is it already for sale in US ?

 

[joeblowsmynose]

I'm using very good CM Nepton 140XL which is doing great job on my 3700x Ryzen but is pushing it's 6th year and time to change the cooler. Good price, easy and simple wiring and that little fan should make it a strong contender i intermediate bracket. Now just to find it in Europe. Is it already for sale in US ?

Should be available in Europe -- I'm pretty sure Arctic is a European company -- based in Germany maybe?

 

[soddo]

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-h115i-rgb-platinum-cpu-cooling,5908-2.html
sneaky marketing suggesting that this is good but is performing less then a h100 pro

 

[joeblowsmynose]

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-h115i-rgb-platinum-cpu-cooling,5908-2.html
sneaky marketing suggesting that this is good but is performing less then a h100 pro

Er ... this thing costs less than half the price of a h100 pro ... and cools within 0.1 degree (by the data that you yourself linked) ... not to mention PWMs @ over 50% cooler with this AIO.

Snarky commenting suggesting that somehow that doesn't make this a superior cooler.

 

[COLGeek]

I consider the lack of LEDs a major plus! I like what I see here.

 

[jpe1701]

I looked back to compare this with my EVGA clc280 and something doesn't add up. The clc280 at full fans was only a 37 degree delta t, while this is 56. Was there a hardware change that wasn't mentioned? The hardware and software mentioned in the articles is the same.

 

[Yandex63]

Just installed this cooler a couple of days ago. Replaced a Corsair
Hydro Series H100i v2, and couldn't be happier! This cooler is everything the Corsair was not...... FAReasier to install, MUCH quieter, and keeps my Ryzen 2700X 7-10 degrees cooler across the board then the Corsair.

My advice is to buy one before Arctic realizes how good the product is, and jacks up the price!

 

[vMax]

System builders with an aversion to RGB lighting who seek a liquid cooler with distinct attitude should put Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 280 cooler on their short list.

Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 AIO Cooler Review: Unique, Affordable Performance : Read more

I am just waiting for the 360mm one to be available and then I will buy!!!! Looks very good in terms of performance...

 

[dbvandyke]

Please fix the huge error in this article!

AM4 is NOT THREADRIPPER!

TR4, sTRX4 is THREADRIPPER.

I HOPE Arctic DOES release a version for THREADRIPPER. I would for SURE give this a go then!

 

[nayuta]

Please fix the huge error in this article!

AM4 is NOT THREADRIPPER!

TR4, sTRX4 is THREADRIPPER.

I HOPE Arctic DOES release a version for THREADRIPPER. I would for SURE give this a go then!

YES!!! I ordered Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 for my amd 3970x and i found this now (ALF already shipped ;_; )

 

[iloveme]

I've been struggling to figure out a Mid tower case for this cooler to be place on the top ,maybe you can give me some ideas ? I'll be running Ryzen 9 3950x on a MSI 570 Unify , and have all 4 RAM slots populated . Haven't decided on the video card , but I won't be playing ( mostly virtual machines ) so nothing too fancy.

I'm currently looking at Fracktal Define S2 , maybe that will work. Is there anyone that has this cooler already in a mid tower case ?

Thanks

 

[COLGeek]

I've been struggling to figure out a Mid tower case for this cooler to be place on the top ,maybe you can give me some ideas ? I'll be running Ryzen 9 3950x on a MSI 570 Unify , and have all 4 RAM slots populated . Haven't decided on the video card , but I won't be playing ( mostly virtual machines ) so nothing too fancy.

I'm currently looking at Fracktal Define S2 , maybe that will work. Is there anyone that has this cooler already in a mid tower case ?

Thanks

You should start a thread in the Components section of the forum to ask this question. You will get better results asking there.

 

[Swordkd]

I looked back to compare this with my EVGA clc280 and something doesn't add up. The clc280 at full fans was only a 37 degree delta t, while this is 56. Was there a hardware change that wasn't mentioned? The hardware and software mentioned in the articles is the same.

vs.

I'm a bit confused as well. I'm assuming the ambient temperature is about the same(office environment?).

 

[jpe1701]

vs.

I'm a bit confused as well. I'm assuming the ambient temperature is about the same(office environment?).

Yeah I've noticed this for a while but I never get an answer. Would be some great data to have on hand.

 

[JC Hancock]

In the review you stated “While the Liquid Freezer II 280’s 140mm fans are factory installed and managed with the same PWM power that controls the pump and auxiliary fan, we opted to disconnect the fans and run them independently for our tests, allowing for independent PWM cooling fan management while the pump remained powered at 100%.”

How were the fans disconnected and and connected to the motherboard to be run and managed independently? Could you expand a little on the advantages of doing it that way.

 

[Aretak]

In the review you stated “While the Liquid Freezer II 280’s 140mm fans are factory installed and managed with the same PWM power that controls the pump and auxiliary fan, we opted to disconnect the fans and run them independently for our tests, allowing for independent PWM cooling fan management while the pump remained powered at 100%.”

How were the fans disconnected and and connected to the motherboard to be run and managed independently? Could you expand a little on the advantages of doing it that way.

The fans just plug into two headers on a splitter that's routed from the block to the radiator inside the sleeving on the tubing. So you can just disconnect the fans from that splitter and hook them up to a regular header if you like, though you'll likely need an extension, as the fans have pretty short cables (presumably to aid cable management). The fans it comes with are of excellent quality, incidentally. They have a Noctua-grade weight and feel to them and are very quiet. Pity the same can't be said of the 40mm fan on the pump.

As for the advantage of doing that, it allows you to control the pump speed and fan speed independently. By default, one PWM signal is responsible for the pump, VRM fan and both radiator fans, with no independent adjustment possible.

 

[Eiion]

System builders with an aversion to RGB lighting who seek a liquid cooler with distinct attitude should put Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 280 cooler on their short list.

Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 AIO Cooler Review: Unique, Affordable Performance : Read more

Something has to be totally off... the fans for the 240 are 25mm thick. Those for the 280 are 27mm thick. The radiator itself is 38mm. So in total that's either about 63mm or 65mm - still you, however you managed it, make that a thickness of 69.9mm... and I cannot wrap my head around how you got that measurement.

So I can only assume that the data that you are supplying in your list of specifications is wrong or... well, it must be wrong.
What's up with that? How thick is it actually with the fans assembled to the radiator?

 

[joeblowsmynose]

Something has to be totally off... the fans for the 240 are 25mm thick. Those for the 280 are 27mm thick. The radiator itself is 38mm. So in total that's either about 63mm or 65mm - still you, however you managed it, make that a thickness of 69.9mm... and I cannot wrap my head around how you got that measurement.

So I can only assume that the data that you are supplying in your list of specifications is wrong or... well, it must be wrong.
What's up with that? How thick is it actually with the fans assembled to the radiator?

Slight discrepancies in imperial to metric conversions and rounding. The official spec sheet is here: https://www2.arctic.ac/liquidfreeze...pec_Sheet_Liquid_Freezer_II_280_EN_LowRes.pdf

Which indicates that it should be 65mm by adding the fan and rad thickness - howeverthese could be rounded to the nearest whole number as well. For example, it could 65.3mm + 27.3mm which could technically round down as standalones but should add to 65.6, which if rounded at this point should be 66, not 65. This is just a speculation though. I assume since this was mfgd in a metric country the mm indicated on the spec sheet should be pretty exact.

Also the screws that hold the fans to the rad stand off from the surface at least two mm - maybe three. this additional number is not fan or rad width but would definitely add to the overall package width. You can see the screw offset below.

The 69.9 mentioned in this article is an exact conversion of 2.75 inches (and then rounded up to the nearest 10th mm) - in which the initial imperial value would have been rounded to the nearest .125 inches to keep with imperial measurement expectations for the USA - and then converted back to mm from there, which made the discrepancy even larger. Go with the manufacturers mm measurement, which is 65mm total and add at least two mm for the screw head offset.