Review Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro Review: The best AIO for Ryzen 9950X3D, and Intel too

[-Fran-]

Sorry I missed this part of your comment. I figured some of y'all might want to see verification data, so I took screenshots 😉

Ah, I forgot to reply directly to you, but I'll try to share the same Discord image I shared with you last time:

Curiously my default PPT is 231W (the screenshot is with PBO enabled I set to 250W since unlimited it went all the way to 280W), but I'm using an Asus Strix X870E-E, so I wouldn't be surprised there's some Asus shenanigans at play when I turn off PBO.

Still, the LF2-240 is barely holding water, but for games and such, it's fine. For the full 30 minute torture test I still hit 95°C at around the 20 minute mark. I've been using CB23 and 2024 for temps and Linpak for stability.

I've left the PC encoding at night as well, using all cores at that, and it just worked fine, so I'll take that as a sign it's "fine". I didn't record the temps over night though.

Regards.

 

[rluker5]

I'm still happy with my $50 Frozen Notte 240 for my 13900kf. Not as good as this thing, but still not bad for the price. That and I already have it and my case doesn't fit a 360.
Pretty tough for air cooling to keep up nowadays.

 

[rluker5]

Ah, I forgot to reply directly to you, but I'll try to share the same Discord image I shared with you last time:

Curiously my default PPT is 231W (the screenshot is with PBO enabled I set to 250W since unlimited it went all the way to 280W), but I'm using an Asus Strix X870E-E, so I wouldn't be surprised there's some Asus shenanigans at play when I turn off PBO.

Still, the LF2-240 is barely holding water, but for games and such, it's fine. For the full 30 minute torture test I still hit 95°C at around the 20 minute mark. I've been using CB23 and 2024 for temps and Linpak for stability.

I've left the PC encoding at night as well, using all cores at that, and it just worked fine, so I'll take that as a sign it's "fine". I didn't record the temps over night though.

Regards.

I don't know specifically about Ryzen, but on my Intel systems Asus reports more power consumption than MSI or Gigabyte on hwinfo because Asus includes the system agent power where the other two brands do not. It varies from 5-10w depending on if I have a 13600k or 13900k in and bios settings. And the same chip with the same settings report higher power consumption on my Asus board because of it.

Perhaps other brands are not as good at reporting Ryzen SOC or misc power? If SOC or misc power consumption isn't explicitly stated and idle consumption goes down to less than possible if these are included (on other motherboard brands) perhaps these necessary power consumptions are just unreported and the package power consumption is underreported.

 

[Vanderlindemedia]

Most AIO coolers lack a proper water flow. I mean if you ever cut open a hose and look at the strength it's pushing the water with you know what i mean. Additional the mounting pressure is always on the safe side, while a simple washed mod couple improve temperatures drastic. I think they understood that at Artic and came up with a cooler as it should. Great stuff.

 

[Memes11]

Thanks Albert for the review, I'll pass it on to the engineers, I am sure they'll be happy.

Concerning the remark about monitoring the water temperature : although this is a very valid point, the fans cool the coolant, the coolant cools the CPU, the problems here are multiple :
- firstly, controlling based on fluid temperature means that you have a certain target temperature... however this would be different from AIO to AIO, some AIOs have a very good Die-to-water thermal impedance while having a bad water-to-air thermal impedance, some are the other way around. it would be almost impossible for a user to know what temperature to target for the fluid.
- secondly, the motherboard, although getting better on that, do not all offer a temperature probe input that would be necessary to feedback the fluid temperature to the motherboard, an alternative would be to use USB, but here again, drivers and other shenanigans make it difficult for the motherboard to use it at BIOS level, we would then need to ask customer to have an extra software which is not really a good idea.
- thirdly, do we need to monitor the hot fluid (i.e. before radiator) or the cool fluid (after radiator)? 😉

Bottom line, although this is a very valid point, the level of difficulty that this brings on is not justified when the CPU temperature is already a very good indicator. The comment about fans suddenly revving up is dully noted, we'll look into that.

And as a response to the previous comment about the water flow : from our internal tests, above 1L/min for below 300W, it does not yield much gain anymore. We prefer to go for a smaller pump, more easy to integrate, lower power consumption, noise and cost. Passing more fluid only make sense if you are not using your radiator array fully (i.e. your fluid is already down to ambient temperature or almost).

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Thanks Albert for the review, I'll pass it on to the engineers, I am sure they'll be happy.

Concerning the remark about monitoring the water temperature : although this is a very valid point, the fans cool the coolant, the coolant cools the CPU, the problems here are multiple :
- firstly, controlling based on fluid temperature means that you have a certain target temperature... however this would be different from AIO to AIO, some AIOs have a very good Die-to-water thermal impedance while having a bad water-to-air thermal impedance, some are the other way around. it would be almost impossible for a user to know what temperature to target for the fluid.
- secondly, the motherboard, although getting better on that, do not all offer a temperature probe input that would be necessary to feedback the fluid temperature to the motherboard, an alternative would be to use USB, but here again, drivers and other shenanigans make it difficult for the motherboard to use it at BIOS level, we would then need to ask customer to have an extra software which is not really a good idea.
- thirdly, do we need to monitor the hot fluid (i.e. before radiator) or the cool fluid (after radiator)? 😉

Bottom line, although this is a very valid point, the level of difficulty that this brings on is not justified when the CPU temperature is already a very good indicator. The comment about fans suddenly revving up is dully noted, we'll look into that.

And as a response to the previous comment about the water flow : from our internal tests, above 1L/min for below 300W, it does not yield much gain anymore. We prefer to go for a smaller pump, more easy to integrate, lower power consumption, noise and cost. Passing more fluid only make sense if you are not using your radiator array fully (i.e. your fluid is already down to ambient temperature or almost).

Wow, thanks for taking the time to engage with the forum and provide responses; kudos to you! Keep up the good work, I'm extremely happy with my LFII 360.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Ah, I forgot to reply directly to you, but I'll try to share the same Discord image I shared with you last time:


Curiously my default PPT is 231W (the screenshot is with PBO enabled I set to 250W since unlimited it went all the way to 280W), but I'm using an Asus Strix X870E-E, so I wouldn't be surprised there's some Asus shenanigans at play when I turn off PBO.

Still, the LF2-240 is barely holding water, but for games and such, it's fine. For the full 30 minute torture test I still hit 95°C at around the 20 minute mark. I've been using CB23 and 2024 for temps and Linpak for stability.

I've left the PC encoding at night as well, using all cores at that, and it just worked fine, so I'll take that as a sign it's "fine". I didn't record the temps over night though.

Regards.

With Linpak you will always get high temps unless you reign the CPU in, but personally I'd recommend that you go for the 360 or wait for the 420 if it ever comes out but that depends on your case size.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

- firstly, controlling based on fluid temperature means that you have a certain target temperature... however this would be different from AIO to AIO, some AIOs have a very good Die-to-water thermal impedance while having a bad water-to-air thermal impedance, some are the other way around. it would be almost impossible for a user to know what temperature to target for the fluid.
- secondly, the motherboard, although getting better on that, do not all offer a temperature probe input that would be necessary to feedback the fluid temperature to the motherboard, an alternative would be to use USB, but here again, drivers and other shenanigans make it difficult for the motherboard to use it at BIOS level, we would then need to ask customer to have an extra software which is not really a good idea.
- thirdly, do we need to monitor the hot fluid (i.e. before radiator) or the cool fluid (after radiator)? 😉

I think the best solution for this would be a fan that somehow takes ~15 seconds to ramp up to its full speeds. This would avoid the annoyance of instant fan bursts that are the reasons that most users who want coolers that have operation based on AIO coolant temperatures.

 

[helper800]

I think the best solution for this would be a fan that somehow takes ~15 seconds to ramp up to its full speeds. This would avoid the annoyance of instant fan bursts that are the reasons that most users who want coolers that have operation based on AIO coolant temperatures.

Isn't such a setting called hysteresis, or fan ramp up/down? Also, seems Arctic does not know how to count to 4. Maybe they should have called this AIO the AF 3.5 or 3.1? Thanks for the review as always Albert!

 

[Albert.Thomas]

Isn't such a setting called hysteresis, or fan ramp up/down? Also, seems Arctic does not know how to count to 4. Maybe they should have called this AIO the AF 3.5 or 3.1? Thanks for the review as always Albert!

I have no idea what the technical term would be, tbh.

But yeah, it really would have been helpful to have different branding. There was one Redditor on /r/hardware who thought this was another review of the original Liquid Freezer III and was a bit confused as a result.

 

[newtechldtech]

This is only fan choice ... I would like to see a roundup review of 360 AIO with the best fans installed ... Noctua has better fans than these for both air flow and pressure ...

 

[dwd999]

I think the best solution for this would be a fan that somehow takes ~15 seconds to ramp up to its full speeds. This would avoid the annoyance of instant fan bursts that are the reasons that most users who want coolers that have operation based on AIO coolant temperatures.

This is why you use the Individual Control Cable that Arctic gives you and connect it to either a cpu or chassis fan connector. For example, on ASUS motherboards the cpu ramp up (and step down) times are: [0 sec] [2.1 sec] [2.8 sec] [3.6 sec] [4.2 sec] [5.0 sec] [6.3 sec] [8.5 sec] [12 sec] [25 sec] and the case fan ramp up (and ramp down) times are: [0 sec] [12 sec] [25 sec] [51 sec] [76 sec] [102 sec] [127 sec] [153 sec] [178 sec] [204 sec]. (Some ASUS motherboards use the same step up and ramp down settings for the AIO pump connector). (Some ASUS motherboards only give you 5 ramp up and step down time settings).You just choose what you want to even out the fan speeds.

 

[-Fran-]

With Linpak you will always get high temps unless you reign the CPU in, but personally I'd recommend that you go for the 360 or wait for the 420 if it ever comes out but that depends on your case size.

Changing the case is too much of a hassle. I already downsized a while back, so I don't want to go back to a bigger case. I rather delid the 9950X3D in that case and keep the 240 or, perhaps, get the 280. Valid suggestion, but already been mulling over it and I rather pass 😀

Regards.

 

[JayGau]

Hey guy,

I understand why you value coolers that are tied to the temperature of a liquid coolant, but please remember that not everyone shares the same view! That's one of the reasons I test coolers that offer this functionality both tied to the coolant temp, and through traditionally controlled operation.

We all need to keep in mind that not everyone will feel the same way we do about how something should be done, and we shouldn't disregard anyone's preferences - even if they don't match with our own.

I don't want to force anybody to do like I do. If you prefer the CPU fan curve then go for it.

I just find it ridiculous that so many coolers don't come with this fundamental feature, especially the expensive ones (the 300$ Asus models don't even have it!). It's infuriating that only a handful of AIOs models allow me to do what I consider to be the right way. You say we should be free to do as we prefer, but that's my point, I can't do as I prefer with most coolers. I'm basically stuck with either Corsair or NZXT (if you know any other brands with liquid temp sensor please let me know).

Of course it's more convenient to use the CPU temp curve since most coolers don't even allow to do otherwise and it's much simpler to set up, but physically speaking, bursting the fans when the CPU warms up is useless with a liquid cooler. Again, the fans are cooling down the liquid, and you have to keep it as cold as possible since it's the liquid that cools down the CPU.

If you have a heavy load for several minutes and the liquid warms up, yes you gonna have the fans spinning at higher speed for some time (until the liquid cools down) while they slow down immediately with the CPU curve, and I understand why some people prefer that, but

1-it's a low price to pay to not have annoying fan bursts.
2-I prefer to have my liquid cooling down faster when the CPU load stops.
3-If you have good fans and you set the curve properly you don't need a very high fan speed to keep the liquid at low temp. My radiator fans barely ever reach 50% and my liquid never reaches more than 9c above room temperature, even during long gaming sessions. So the noise at low liquid temp is not much different than the high temp one and since it changes very slowly I don't even notice the variation anyway, unlike the sudden bursts when set with the CPU temp.

Anyway, let's all do as we prefer, when manufacturers are kind enough to give us the options.

 

[Heiro78]

I understand why some people would prefer to tie fan speeds to liquid temperatures, but I don't like it *most* of the time.

While I appreciate the lack of fan bursts, there's a few reasons I do not use coolers this way.

Scenario #1: Near-term throttling. When you use a cooler that operates based on liquid temp, your CPU can hit TJMax and throttle as a result - while the cooler stays in low operation because the liquid temperature hasn't warmed up yet.

Scenario #2: Extended high speed fan duration. If you run a high intensity load for more than a few moments - lets say a full CPU load for 10 minutes - it is gonna take a while for the liquid temp to cool. A traditional cooler will lower fan speeds almost immediately after a workload ends. However, a cooler tied to liquid temperature will take two or three minutes to return to low fan speeds.


I test things using the motherboard's default fan curve. While you may or may not agree with this, this is how most users will run their coolers.

Noise normalized results are included to show how you can still have higher performance while operating quietly.

Agreed on the fan curve. I can understand the two scenarios as well. I just wish you had done a more head to head comparison between the LF3 360 pro vs non-pro. I'm getting the 360 pro ARGB White on monday and will do comparisons between it and the non-pro on my 13900KF. I'll let ya know what I find!

 

[Heiro78]

This review is very disappointing!
I just built a new computer, and I made my decision on your review on April 6, 2024.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/liquid-cooling/arctic-liquid-freezer-iii-aio-review

When I saw this review I said to myself; ok, maybe someone else at TomsHardware has a different opinion; but no it's the same person doing the same review on the same product. Now all of a sudden, you go from 2.5 stars to 5 stars.
Now I can understand rerunning the test and using "Updated cooler testing methodology" (August 18, 2024).

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...-testing-methodology#xenforo-comments-3852191

But how do you go from; "Unimpressive" to "The best AIO for Ryzen 9950X3D, and Intel too"?

What happened?
Did Arctic call you and yell at you for giving a bad (but true) review?
Or is Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 is a great product and your initial testing was that wrong?

One last thing; you (Albert Thomas) got a little defensive when readers questioned your review (April 6, 2024), and you were adamant, that your methodology was better and more accurate that the rest of the reviewers online.

I really hope you come back and read this reply. The april 6th review was for the original Liquid Freezer III 360 and this review is for the PRO version that Arctic just released. And you should also always get reviews from multiple sources so you can get a well-rounded opinion on things or better yet, as close a test setup to what you may run in your rig as possible.

 

[Heiro78]

New fans, so far so good. Now the obvious questions: does the 360 Pro perform better than the 420; and will there be a 420 Pro (in white)?

If we believe Arctic's marketing, yes for the newer intel 200 series, probably for AM5, and probably not for 12-14th gen unless you have the offset mount that comes with the non-pro and Arctic isn' yet selling on it's own. I surmise this from looking at youtuber, STS's video here

View: https://youtu.be/0HiShkg8Kkg?si=evIRbqDptaF_cNRU&t=152


You can see the LF3 360 had a temp of 54.5C under a 250W load while the LF3 420 was at 53.3C. Arctic's claimed minimum -10C on the intel 200 series and -3C on AM5 would lead one to believe the Pro 360 will be better than the non-pro 420.

 

[Heiro78]

I just installed an NZXT Kraken 360 AIO and quite disappointed with the results on my 9950x3D. All stock + EXPO and I'm idling around ~60C and easily loading up to 95C during stress testing. Thought it had to be my thermal paste application. Went with Kryonaut paste. Repasted it and went even thinner with the exact same results.
This cooler is much cooler, much cheaper. Going to give it a try and return the NZXT if I'm happy with the results.

This or the Montech Hyperflow are definitely better deals than NZXT Krakens. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if the Thermalright Phantom Spirit did better! I'm kidding on that last one, it won't. It's just more bang for buck

 

[Heiro78]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to engage with the forum and provide responses; kudos to you! Keep up the good work, I'm extremely happy with my LFII 360.

Who is Memes11? You make it sound like they are big deal

 

[Heiro78]

Isn't such a setting called hysteresis, or fan ramp up/down? Also, seems Arctic does not know how to count to 4. Maybe they should have called this AIO the AF 3.5 or 3.1? Thanks for the review as always Albert!

I remember learning somewhere that Arctic made 3 iterations on the LF2. So they'll count to 4 when they change the look of their main AIO and have some other improvements haha

 

[rexet]

Thanks for the review!

There’s one thing I’m not quite clear on (apologies if I missed it): aside from the upgraded fans, what exactly has changed? Were there any improvements to the radiator or the pump? If I install the new fans on the non-Pro version, would it essentially be the same product?

 

[thestryker]

There’s one thing I’m not quite clear on (apologies if I missed it): aside from the upgraded fans, what exactly has changed?

Offset mounting for Intel CPUs is the only change other than the fans as far as I'm aware.

The offset mount is available for the regular one, but I don't know if they changed what it is shipping with or not.

https://www.arctic.de/en/Intel-LGA1700-1851-Offset-Contact-Frame-Mounting-Set/MPSAS01261A (it's also on their ebay store)

 

[snemarch]

This is why you use the Individual Control Cable that Arctic gives you and connect it to either a cpu or chassis fan connector.

I wonder if it would be optimal to keep the pump at a constant rate (for thermal performance as well as mechanical wear and tear), and then do custom curves for just the fans?

 

[Memes11]

Who is Memes11? You make it sound like they are big deal

Hi, I am no big deal at all, I am though quite close to the topic here as I am the Technical Director of ARCTIC 😉

 

[Memes11]

I think the best solution for this would be a fan that somehow takes ~15 seconds to ramp up to its full speeds. This would avoid the annoyance of instant fan bursts that are the reasons that most users who want coolers that have operation based on AIO coolant temperatures.

my idea exactly 😉