Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB AIO Review: Surprising Results!

Epilogue

The Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB is silent, especially for an AIO, and offers decent performance. While the promo prices last, it is a good bargain, but I cannot say the same for its regular price. One of its main assets is the fan that cools down the mainboard’s VRMs, which can get pretty hot given that Intel’s high-end CPUs can draw more than 360W or even exceed 400W in some cases. And I am talking about sustained power here and not peak power readings.

Besides the VRM fan, another strong point of this AIO is that it provides an LGA1700 contact frame in the cooler’s bundle to replace the stock one, offering better contact with the CPU. The non-stock contact frame does a way better job than the stock one, and this is also shown by the CPU power consumption, which is notably higher in the Liquid Freezer III models than the other coolers I have evaluated so far. The better contact unlocks the CPU’s potential, so it asks for more power. The only problem here is that the cooler’s installation in Intel systems is not as straightforward, and it will be easier if you remove the mainboard from the system, which is what Arctic suggests. Lastly, I should emphasize that this cooler doesn’t support other Intel sockets but the LGA1700 one, so it won’t be compatible if you use an older Intel system.

Speaking of installation, the fact that the AIO comes with the fans preinstalled and all of their cables in place will significantly relieve many users, especially the not-so-experienced ones. Moreover, you can use the all-in-one connector to control everything through a single header. I wouldn’t advise that because it is better to have the VRM fan controlled separately since it has a small diameter and can spin at high speeds; hence, it can be annoying if its speed is paired with the notably slower radiator fans.

On a high power consumption Intel CPU, I noticed that the performance of the Freezer III 360 model wasn’t up to the level of the 280 model, which is weird. I conducted these tests several times, and the results were identical in all cases. The block was installed correctly on the socket; otherwise, CPU power consumption wouldn’t be as high (the CPU would throttle, and its power consumption would be notably lower). In the less demanding AMD system, the 360 model performs notably better than the 280 model. I believe the different fans are to blame here; the 360 uses 120mm fans, while the 280 model uses 140mm fans. The latter might be more efficient at high thermal loads, while the 120mm fabs are probably better at medium thermal loads. By looking at Arctic’s fan specs, I noticed that the 120mm fans have a lower static pressure than the 140mm fans, and the 38mm thick radiator needs increased static pressure to dissipate its heat faster.

In any case, the Freezer III 360 is a strong AIO, but it doesn’t stand out from the rest of the AIOs I have tested so far on the Intel platform. That said, it performs pretty well on the AMD platform, which saves the day and helps it get a recommendation.

In this table, you can see the MSRP prices for all Liquid Freezer III models.

If you are searching for fans for your AIO or chassis, read my Best Cooling Fans article before investing in new cooling solutions. You help me a lot by using my affiliate links, which don’t increase the product’s price. I get a commission from Amazon every time you do it, which can make a difference for me, especially now that I am on my own, working exclusively for my media and not for someone else.