German firm Arctic has been a mainstay within the PC cooling area ever since its founding in 2001. As we speak the corporate is thought for its Freezer Air & Liquid CPU Coolers, MX thermal pastes, followers, in addition to customized Accelero GPU coolers.
It’s been a few years since Arctic impressed us with its budget-priced Freezer 34 Esports Duo air cooler. In contrast to the entry-level Duo, Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 360 AIO is the corporate’s top-performing and most costly cooler, at $140 USD. Can it deal with the warmth of Intel’s Core i9-13900K and earn a spot on our finest AIO Coolers listing? We’ll put it via testing and discover out. However first, listed here are the cooler’s specs, direct from Arctic.
Cooler Specs
| Cooler | Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB |
| MSRP | $140 USD |
| Radiator Dimensions | 398(L) x 38(W) x 120(H) mm |
| Radiator Materials | Aluminum |
| Socket Compatibility | Intel 1700, 1200, 115X, 2011-3*, 2066* *Sq. ILM |
| AMD AM5, AM4, AM3(+) | |
| Base | Copper |
| Max TDP (Our Testing) | ~290W |
| Guarantee | 6 years |
Packing and Included Contents
Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 360 is available in a pretty big field, with plastic and cardboard used for cover of the contents.
Included with the bundle are the next:
- 360mm Radiator
- CPU Block with VRM fan
- Three 120mm followers, pre-installed
- Mounts for all trendy CPU sockets (together with AM5 & LGA1700)
- A small tube of thermal paste
Set up
Putting in the Liquid Freezer II 360 was pretty easy. To start, you connect the studs to the CPU backplate and safe them utilizing the O rings. After urgent the backplate to the motherboard, you should screw within the standoffs. Subsequent, apply the included thermal paste from the syringe to your CPU, then mount the CPU block and safe it with the included thumbscrews.
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Options of the Liquid Freezer II 360
(Non-obligatory) RGB Controller with software program assist
Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II A-RGB is offered in two variations: one which comes with their ARGB controller (which raises the worth by $10 USD), and one that doesn’t. If software program ARGB assist is vital to you, be certain to pick out the mannequin which incorporates the ARGB Controller. The pattern despatched to us was of the latter, as such we didn’t check the software program. In case you’d like extra info on the software program used to regulate the ARGB Controller, please see the guide for the ARGB controller on Arctic’s web site.
Distinctive CPU block with VRM fan and silent pump
Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II incorporates a small fan atop the CPU block, which helps dissipate warmth and funky the VRMs surrounding the CPU. Because the CPU block doesn’t intervene with RAM slots, there’s full RAM compatibility when utilizing this cooler.
The vast majority of Liquid Coolers in the marketplace at this time are primarily based round Asetek designs, however the Liquid Freezer II incorporates a pump which was designed in-house by Arctic, with the aim of quieter operation and better effectivity. Like its followers, the water pump is PWM-controlled and can modify its speeds. This decreases energy consumption and results in decrease noise ranges in lighter workloads.
Thick, Premium-class radiator
The radiator included with the Liquid Freezer II has excessive fin density and is extraordinarily thick–1.5 inches or 38mm to be exact. That is good for cooling by permitting for a bigger quantity of liquid for use within the circuit whereas additionally growing the general cooling floor space. However it additionally means you’ll want a case with extra clearance, about 2.5 inches whenever you add the followers.
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Arctic P12 followers
There’s extra to a cooler than simply the heatsink and radiator. The bundled followers have a big affect on each cooling and noise ranges. Included with the Liquid Freezer II are three 120mm P Sequence followers, preinstalled to the radiator for comfort. These followers have been designed with an emphasis of targeted airflow and excessive static stress, to make sure environment friendly cooling even with air resistance. And as we’ll quickly see in testing, clearly that design works.
| Mannequin | Arctic P12 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 120 x 120 x 15 mm |
| Fan Pace | 200-1800 RPM |
| Air Circulation | As much as 48.8 CFM |
| Air Strain | 1.85 mm H20 |
| Bearing Sort | Fluid Dynamic Bearing |
| Lighting | ARGB |
Testing Methodology
Whereas it was pretty straightforward with earlier generations of CPUs for coolers to maintain the flagship i9 processor effectively below TJ max (the utmost temperature a CPU can maintain with out throttling) in powerful workloads, that is now not realistically potential with the Core i9-13900K with out excessive cooling (or enabling energy limits). Whereas prior to now a CPU hitting its peak temperature was trigger for concern, fanatics are going to need to study to simply accept excessive temperatures as “regular” whereas working demanding workloads with Raptor Lake and Ryzen 7000 CPUs.
Trendy AMD & Intel CPUs are designed to run pretty sizzling with none issues– as much as 95 levels Celsius for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, and as much as 100 levels C for Intel’s Core i9-13900K. Related conduct has been commonplace in laptops for years on account of cooling limitations in cramped chassis.
Moreover, Intel’s i9-13900K particularly helps Adaptive Increase Know-how (ABT), which permits the CPU to dynamically increase to increased all-core frequencies primarily based on accessible thermal headroom and electrical circumstances. This enables multi-core masses to function at as much as 5.5Ghz if the mandatory quantity of thermal dissipation is there. This characteristic works in a manner that actively seeks excessive temperatures: If the chip sees that it’s working beneath the 100-degree C threshold, it should enhance its efficiency and energy consumption till it reaches the protected 100C restrict, thus sustaining increased clocks (and offering higher efficiency) for longer durations.
The elevated cooling challenges posed by Raptor Lake imply that we’ve needed to change a number of the methods we check coolers. Some coolers have been in a position to cross Cinebench R23 multicore testing with Intel’s twelfth Gen i9-12900K when energy limits have been eliminated (though solely the strongest fashions have been in a position to cross that check).
Because the Raptor Lake 13900K actively adjusts in a manner that seeks its high protected temperature, we’ll examine efficiency as an alternative by taking a look at complete benchmark scores and clock speeds maintained.
I’ll be testing Intel’s i9-13900K CPU utilizing Asus’ TUF Gaming Z690 Gaming Plus WIFI motherboard and Cooler Grasp’s HAF 700 Berserker pc case, with case followers restricted to 35% speeds. The motherboard’s default fan curve is used for the CPU Cooler’s followers.
Along with testing Cinebench with out energy limits enforced, we’ll even be exhibiting outcomes when the CPU’s energy consumption is restricted to a extra cheap 200W. We’ll additionally present outcomes at 125W for many who desire whisper-quiet cooling, at the price of some efficiency. For each of those outcomes, we’ll present conventional delta over ambient temperature outcomes.
We’ll additionally present noise stage measurements recorded utilizing a PSPL25 Sound Meter for all three energy ranges examined, to match how a lot noise every cooler makes in numerous eventualities. We count on most coolers to run successfully silently at 125W. You’ll discover that our noise stage graphs begin at 36 dBA. That’s the noise ground in our testing setting; something decrease can’t be measured over common background noise. Understand that noise measurements are logarithmic, that means the variations between the noise ranges of the coolers will probably be extra substantial to the human ear than these charts recommend.
LGA1700 Socket Bending
Please observe there are lots of elements apart from the CPU cooler that may affect your cooling efficiency, together with the case you employ and the followers put in in it. A system’s motherboard also can affect this, particularly if the socket suffers from bending, which leads to poor cooler contact with the CPU.
As a way to forestall bending from impacting our cooling outcomes, we’ve put in Thermalright’s LGA 1700 contact body into our testing rig. In case your motherboard is affected by bending, your thermal outcomes will probably be worse than these proven under. Not all motherboards are affected equally by this challenge. I examined Raptor Lake CPUs in two motherboards. And whereas one among them confirmed vital thermal enhancements after putting in Thermalright’s LGA1700 contact body, the opposite motherboard confirmed no distinction in temperatures in any respect! Take a look at our evaluation of this contact body for extra info.
Testing Configuration
| CPU | Intel i9-13900K |
| Comparability Air Coolers Examined | Cougar Forza 50 |
| DeepCool AG400 | |
| DeepCool AG620 | |
| Iceberg Thermal IceSLEET G6 Stealth | |
| SilverStone Hydrogon D120 ARGB | |
| Thermalright Murderer X 120 R SE | |
| Thermalright AXP120-X67 | |
| Comparability AIO Coolers Examined | DeepCool LT720 |
| Enermax AquaFusion ADV 360 | |
| Fractal Celsius+ S36 Prisma | |
| MSI MAG CoreLiquid P360 | |
| SilverStone VIDA 240 Slim | |
| Motherboard | Asus TUF Gaming Z690 Plus Wifi DDR5 |
| RAM | Essential DDR5-4800 |
| GPU | Intel ARC A770 LE |
| Case | Cooler Grasp HAF 700 Berserker |
| PSU | Cooler Grasp XG Plus 850 Platinum PSU |