Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB AIO Review – Promo Price & Top Performance

Test Methodology

I first install the cooler into a hemi-anechoic chamber, and with the help of a highly sophisticated sound analyzer, I take all necessary noise measurements required for the testing. Afterward, I install the system inside a giant climate chamber, where the ambient temperature remains steady at 25 degrees Celsius; this way, I don’t have to take the delta difference into account since I can evaluate all coolers under the same ambient temperature. I used to believe that taking the delta difference between the measured temperature of the CPU and the ambient temperature provided accurate results. Still, after testing with the climate chamber, I soon realized this was not the case.

Besides the Giant Force climate chamber, I also use the following equipment.

IMG_3923

Noise Low

Noise1

Noise2

To evaluate the coolers, I use a superpower-hungry Intel i9-13900K. This beast reaches 360W of sustained load, which I measure accurately using a Powenetics v2 system. Below are all the parts of the CPU cooling station test system. The thermal paste I use is Arctic Cooling MX-4. I run at least two test sessions and take the average results. In all tests, the applied conditions are the following:

• Ambient Temperature: 25°C ±0.5°C
• Humidity: 30% ±4%RH

I also use an AMD system to evaluate the cooler’s performance. This processor’s maximum real TDP is 195W.

The load application is no other but the notorious Prime95 (small FFTs), which applies a tremendous load to the processor. I run each test for 20 minutes, allowing for a 10-minute cool period between each test. The whole procedure is fully automated thanks to a particular application that I made for this purpose. In AIOs, the pump runs full speed during the entire testing duration.

Cooling_Test_App1

Cooling_Test_App2

Cooling_Test_App3

The critical point in my methodology for coolers is that I consider the CPU’s average frequency during testing because it doesn’t remain steady throughout the tests. It constantly changes according to the load and the operating temperatures. Moreover, I have the Powenetics system to continually measure the CPU’s power consumption, which is way more accurate and faster than using a software solution like HWinfo.