Offset mounting looks to be the new trend in Intel processors now. Arctic will start providing one to its customers for the Intel LGA1851 socket, promising up to 7 °C temperatures on the high-end Core Ultra 9 285K! Check the review to find out if this stands, indeed!
I have reviewed several Arctic Liquid Freezer III coolers, which left an excellent impression on me because of their increased performance and affordable prices. Some weeks ago, I received an email from the Arctic asking if I would like to test its new contact frame for LGA1851 sockets. This was the most crucial part of this email:
We found that the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K heat spot in particular is shifted so far to the northeast that we can achieve an improvement of up to 7 °C with an offset assembly. We will also be offering this offset mounting to our customers in Q1 2025.
I accepted, of course, the challenge. In this article, I will check whether the offset contact frame delivers such a high-performance difference because it affects the operating temperatures and the average CPU frequency since the latter is closely related to the operating temperatures.
- Arctic Liquid Freezer III 280 A-RGB AIO Review
- Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB AIO Review
- Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB AIO Review
Arctic offers a contact frame in the cooler’s bundle to replace the stock one. Thanks to the provided contact frame, the CPU is evenly locked to the socket at four points instead of only two, ensuring better contact with the cooler’s block. As I found out in the LGA1700 socket, Arctic’s mounting frame does a better job than the stock one, and the CPU’s power consumption readings clearly show this. Since I recently changed the Intel testing platform to LGA1851 and the Core Ultra 9 285K processor, it is an excellent opportunity to test Arctic’s top AIO with the original contact frame and with the offset one.
This table shows the MSRP prices for all Liquid Freezer III models.
Cybenetics Coolers Database
- Model name: Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB White
- Color: White
- Socket Support: Intel LGA1700
- Socket Support: AMD AM5/AM4
- Radiator Dimensions: 458 (L) x 138 (W) x 38 (H) mm
- Radiator Material: Aluminum
- Block base: Copper, Micro Skived Fins
- Tube Length: 450mm
- Tube Diameter: Outer: 12.4 mm | Inner: 6.0 mm
- Pump Speed Range: 800–2800 rpm (PWM controlled)
- Pump Connector: 4-Pin
- Pump Rated Voltage: 12 VDC
- VRM Fan Speed: 400–2500 rpm (PWM controlled)
- VRM Fan Current/Voltage: 0.05 A | 12 V DC
- VRM Fan LEDs: 12x A-RGB LEDs
- Number of Fans: 3x
- Fan Models: P14 PWM A-RGB
- Bearing Type: Fluid Dynamic Bearing
- Fan Dimensions: 140 x 140 x 27 mm
- Fan ARGB: ✓
- Fan Daisy Chain: ✓
- Fan Speed: 200–1900 rpm
- Fan Airflow: 69.90 cfm | 117.06 m³/h
- Fan Air Pressure: 2.0 mmH₂O (Max)
- Max Noise Output: 34.3 dB(A)
- Fan Connector: 4-pin PWM
- Street Price (excl. VAT): $119
- Warranty: 6 years
Wow, 5°C and over 100MHz, that’s quite an improvement…hats off 😉
yeap this was one of the best mods I seen in the recent years 🙂
the father of the idea of offset mounting is Noctua, but their processes take a long time, so I’m curious if and when they will come up with it for LGA 1851…
I guess that other Asian competitors will overtake them now
and they are super expensive too! Arctic will offer this new contract frame for just 5 dollars!