Entering "Arctic 420" into various search engines over the past week has resulted in a lot of targeted ads from a different industry. Grab a GN Mouse Mat, Toolkit, Bar Runner, shirt, or other item on store.gamersnexus.net/ (in stock and shipping now) Watch our Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 initial review: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KPaSEGe6ML0.html And the Arctic 360 vs EK AIO 360: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KPLWlkHPlyo.html Learn about our CPU cooler testing methodology here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fmTOJP4KOyk.html You can find the written methodology article here: www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3561-cpu-cooler-testing-methodology-most-tests-are-flawed
I accidently mounted it that way and my temps were terrible for some reason. I didn't understand the manual from Arctic and they also delivered wrong mounting screws which made the problem worse. A little disappointed after all the praise it got from GN
Do you consider updating the test bench with the 5950x since it has a significantly higher heat output? Even with the 280 I get temperatures of about 90°C on my chip. I heard the heatspreader is also hit or miss on the Ryzen 5000 series. But I have no way to confirm that
Where it is better to install a radiator - on top or on the side Lian Li PC-O11 AIR? ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming and Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II-360 compatibility good?
@@onoff9895 on that casing top or side would perform almost same. for best GPU temps top mounting preferred because all the hot air goes out. for best CPU temps side or front mount so fresh air goes to the CPU rad but its exhaust air will be inside the case.
Where I work, if the computer doesnt have a gpu, we put a gt710 to test it. 5800x x570 aorus master 32GB 3600 360 aio Seasonic psu Lian li o11 GLORIOUS GT 710
@@SiliconPower74 Three months ago I ordered 10 new workstations. Core i9 10980XE, 128 GB RAM, 10x SSD, 2x dual 40 GbE cards, 1000 W PSUs and GeForce 8400GS. I'm absolutely shocked they still make them o_0
@@alreed2434 just because something doesnt have leds doesnt mean its cheaper. If he wanted cheap products the comment should say something like "that price is really good for that performance" or something like that.
Woah, I remember watching you a long while ago when I played pokemon. I also oddly remember you as being a previously avid sign spinner. You really get around to all the hobbies!!
I was able to use 2 hands to install Arctic Freezer 34. With some help from bent pliers. It wasn´t ideal (i was cursing the whole time), but it worked for me. Now i´m hoping i won´t need to take it off ever again 🤢
Thanks Steve. I got the Arctic Freezer 280 due to your review. Was a little confused with the installation. I used a flashlight to look at the offset mount and noticed that the offset did not cover the IHS completely so i did the standard mount instead but this review completely sold me on the offset so ill remount it in a few hours. Really appreciate the testing and explanation. Definitely will become a Patreon member when funds come in.
Can I just say that you guys are heros?! Thanks for testing that off-set. I'm in the middle of a build right now and was looking at the pictures thinking WTF. I'm so glad you evaluated it and confirmed the offset install.
I'm using that for my 3700X and an Corsair H100i Platinum, it gave me slightly lower and more even temps and higher frequency of the cores! I'm satisfied. But you have to mount the M.2 first on my ASUS Tuf gaming x570 Wifi, at least the Corsair MP600 with it's cooler...
If you have a custom loop you may as well get the TechN block that focuses flow directly over the CCDs. It's by far the best AM4 block. Less flow restriction than the Optimus Foundation and much better performance than the EKWB Magnitude at almost half the price.
@@Lead_Foot i just looked that techn block up and that shit is ugly af lol. On top of that its not even that cheap and even tho it is a good performer, it is not that drastic to justify it for me. Moreover, you cant rotate the block thus limiting you massively in your looping choice so it wouldnt even fit for me.
@@anonymouscommentator I love the industrial looks of it. Its almost the same price as the highend (but little bit worse performing) Heatkiller 4s and cheaper than the worse performing optimus and ekwb. And why would you want to rotate it? We're talking about using the custom Bauer bracket to get little bit better temperatures. Then why would you rotate the block to get much worse temps?
Thanks Steve for your review. As you pointed out, our customer support team, although a bit backed up right now, will assist anybody who face interference issue or has been supplied with a product that has wrong screws.
Thank you Steve for talking about such things! I didn't pay attention to it and installed this water block in the standard setting. After watching your movie, I bought TG Kryonaut paste and changed the mount to offset. MSI Unify has no problem with such an assembly. Previously, I had 44-45 degrees Celsius in idle, now I have 39-41 in offset. This is a huge difference! It was 64-65 degrees in OCCT, now it's 55 degrees. It is a scandal that the Arctic does not write about it more extensively!
I can't tell whether the cadence of your speech has slowed down and improved or whether I'm now just used to it. But I definitely felt I had to skip back less to catch certain information this video, so thanks and keep up the good work! :)
I watched this at x2 and it still was understandable. I usually watch videos at x.1.25 and it's borderline. Steve on the other hand really speaks very slowly.
thank you for going FULL HOG with the testing equipment, GN is going to be the industry standard for testing this type of stuff if you aren't already. You guys are on fire with the good content.
I just purchased an Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 to replace my dead EVGA CLC360 and was pleasantly surprised to see your mounting video on their online installation instructions
Arctic has pretty great customer service. The bracket in my haste sliced the pwm cable in half and they helped me replace it in a very quick way. Great cooler glad to see more testing around this.
I am currently in Heat Transfer class for my degree and it's quite crazy I never realized how that tiny shift would make such a cooling difference. It makes sense that it's improved as the heat has less distance to travel, but that is quite a creative solution.
I would suggest it's not a larger distance to travel, it was still always in direct contact with the same area - the offset simply places the central skived vanes of the cold plate over the CCX's The flow paths inside the cooler means that the fluid here is cycled through faster as it doesn't have to flow around the corners which mean a drop in flow speed That increased flow then practically means the hot fluid evacuates faster which makes a comparative local change
Can I just say Arctic`s P Series Fans are amazing, they`ve beat my BeQuiet Shadow Wing 3 Fans both in thermal performance and noise performance while only being half the price. Arctic has been killing it on the price/performance side of things lately. Makes me happy to see a brand I`ve been using for decades at this point still going strong :)
They are great, boughe 3 P12 PWM PST CO fans and had to RMA one and noticed the replacements box stated only a 6 year warranty whereas when i ordered them they had a 10 year warranty.
As a regular Anandtech reader, their power measurement shows the 10900k and even the 65W 10700 non K reach 215W power draw under turbo, which has no time limit on most motherboards. So measurement around or above 200W seems pretty realistic for recent Intel CPUs.
Yes with manual overclock i got me 5950x to pull 302w but at 100deg 2nd pull cut out so really a custom loops needed for this hot little beasty have reduced to motherboard limits and all is well @ 245w
This gave me knowledge, not just information. Manufacturer instructions have improved some but still give a lot of information with little to no "why."
I have the 280mm using the offset bracket on an Asus Crosshair VIII Impact DTX motherboard. The clearance was so tight between the left VRM heatsink and the bracket. Less than a milimetre of gap on the edge and top of the vrm heatsink
Hey GN, Thank you for reviewing this and answering the very question that I had regarding how well it cooled with the offset vs no offset. I bought the 280 for my new build (5900x, FE 3060ti) and I had issues not being able to mount with the offset due to it interfering with one of the M.2 drives on my Dark Hero. I'm glad to hear that I don't have to feel bad about leaving it with the original configuration.
I would love to see more testing at higher heat loads maybe in 25w increments up to 300w to really separate the leaders of the pack both noise normalized and full tilt. The ~200w cap is starting to show its age with CPUs being so power hungry under load and moreso with overclocks. Another test I'd like to see would be, assuming different pump, tubing and rad designs between sellers, a test with a fixed set of fans across various models would be interesting too to see how the core design copes with similar fan/static pressure being applied both noise normalized and max.
Given the different design of the RGB Arctic P14 fans, I've seen some discussion about how they perform better in terms of noise and performance compared to the non-RGB variant because of the ring connecting all the fins, improving the acoustics and fan pressure for the speed due to lessened air turbulences. At some point I'd like to see a technical review of it in the Gamers Nexus style.
I've been using my Freezer II 280 since November 2019 where i got it for $89! I have it cooling a 9700k 5.1GHz overclock. These came out right when i was looking to make some minor (waiting for the 5950x) upgrades and i didn't want to spend too much, and I was already using two Freezer I 120s to cool two 8 core xeons (no overclock available). Great product! And im sure when i finally get myself a 5950x, I can probably (hopefully) move this cooler right over!
Literally why i swapped mine to a capellix. Kinda strange that a company called "arctic" doesnt have a white version def missing out. They already have white fans so
It seems like you always read my mind Steve. Every time I either am looking to buy or install something you post a video about it. I have the revision 1 360 and I just talked with arctic 2 days ago for the new am4 mounting hardware and they are sending it free of charge. Hopefully the offset will fit my Aorus master. Thanks for the review.
I love Arctic, they always offer amazing price/performance. I'm particulary impressed with their fans, P-series is competing with much more expensive premium brands like Noctua.
Still hoping for some bequiet Pure loop 280 AIO testing and Hyper 212 BE also! Love to see the Pressure and cold plate flatness Tests done on these. Interested in seeing a teardown of the Pump setup on the Pure loop AIO's unique Pump setup! Great work as always Guys!
Thanks for your excellent review. A quick note for buyers of the 280 Rev 3, which I installed a day ago. The QR-code that directs to the install manual shows the old manual and old mounting assembly; so beware and look for the url to the Rev 3 manual in small red type within the older 'instructions' (such as they are) on that webpage. Also, as stated here, with the 280 Rev 3, my kit was missing the four screws needed to mount the cooler head: these are the same screws used to fasten 2.5" SSDs to their frames. Arctic acknowledges this, but don't expect a quick reply to requests for replacement screws. With those caveats, the Arctic 280 performs to specs.
I bought the LF2 360 when it came out and I agree, installing the backplate was challenging, I had to lay my case flat and put some cardboard underneath to hold the backplate against the board. Not a major headache but took a little forward-thinking to install. I also bought the LF2 240 for a SFF build about 9 months ago and it came with the new mounting solution, it was a definite improvement in mounting difficulty. In both cases, both the 360 and 240 perform admirably, I still heartily recommend these to anyone who comes to me for build advice and will continue to do so. The 360 is currently cooling a 5800X and I consistently see higher boost clocks and lower temperatures than friends running them on alternative coolers. They really are worth the money.
Any chance you have tested the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420mm with an EATX or ATX? I would like to know if I can mount the water cooler without the need of an extension. Thank you.
It would be nice to see a video comparing the performance of the stock Artic Liquid Freezer against another with push-pull configuration, does more fans make any meaningful difference?
I have a version 1 freezer 280, contacted Arctic regarding the offset kit and a failed vrm fan via their support and they are now mailing out a new vrm fan and version 4 mounting kit completely free of charge. This process was completed in 2 days.. Great product and customer service which other companies can learn from. Cheers for original review Gn.
20:24 found my answer!! Thanks Steve, though Arctic shipped the new mount kits, never had the patience to swap them. Will probably think about when I am about to replace the thermal paste
for people who want to do a offset Mount , but without a LF2: there are two versions of a Ryzen 3000/5000 OC bracket developed by Der8auer. it basicly does the same but is compatible with other liquidcooler mounting mechanisms. Worked wonders for me on my 5800x
I’m glad you addressed this, I was going to use the recommended offset with my 5600x but it didn’t line up with the chip. Standard mount works great for me but I may have to change that now. ASUS tuf b550-m 280mm aio Also I got the bad screws, they mailed me new ones pretty quickly though I never heard back from them until screws showed up.
You're going to have to test the offset kit on the other LFIIs now. If it can significantly improve a smaller aio, on top of the cost and vrm fan, it becomes very compelling.
Arctic also sells "factory second" items at a good discount. I believe those are customer returns since the cooler seems flawless, just the outer packaging is damaged/opened. Got the 420 with RGB and AM5 offset mouting kit for 80€ that way.
I'm running my 3900x about a year with a offset mounted Dark rock pro 4. You just have to tweak the middle bar of the included mounting bracket a little bit. With full load over time there is not a big difference, but with partial used cores the temps are more even and some cores spike up less fast.
Bought the 360mm version Rev.3. Awesome AIO and quite afortable. Under 100 Euro compared to similar AIOs and it's also running cooler. Best thing also, only one cable from the AIO to the MB. Winwin situation.
But now what we need is a list of X570/B550 motherboards that can safely leverage the offset kit, alongside with a list of cases that will support the 420mm size in both the most common top and front positions.
@@benisrood hi i have a msi B550 A-Pro and i just ordered a 360mm rev 3 are you using the same motherboard with the same revision ? because i thought it would fit in the offset position.
Steve literally said the offset kit would work similarly for the 360mm and 280mm AIOs. It should do well on the 240 too. No need to get a crazy big case just for a 420mm AIO you don't need in the first place. The new revisions now have made the offset work without getting in the way of the M.2 slot but you may have to remove the motherboard's heat sink. But remember that the LF II 280 was the chart leader before there was an offset mount so if you can't use it that way it will still cool your set up just fine. Good day to you.
I had eight standard fans screws instead of eight radiator mounting screws on my 240mm Freezer II. A fellow enthusiast helped me out. I believe the standard HD screw works. I checked to make sure there was enough clearance between the radiator and the screw mounting plate. It worked just fine.
I pulled mine off the other day and noticed a part of the chip and plate had no paste. So I changed all the brackets. This video is literally for me!!! Having used the bracket in both positions. I have noticed that my m.2 peak temperatures are 4-5 degrees lower when using the standard AM4 position.
I have a Corsair Obsidian 1000d that needs a 420mm cooler and since I don't care about lights the 6 year warranty causes me to buy this unit after your review. I have 3 noctua Nfa 14 140mm 3000rpm fans that I will use with the mobo header. Over kill probably, but I have them new that I was going to use anyway. THANKS for the review. I LIKE your informative reviews as well as Jayz2cents. Lol I have this up and running on my Gigabyte x570 Aorus Master 1.2 and a 5950x with 64 gigs of gskill ram idling at 33.75 to 34 degrees c.
so basically: normal users are still best adviced to get the 280mm - with the new offset bracket (make sure the offeset bracket is compatible with your mobo though)
Any chance you have tested the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420mm with an EATX or ATX? I would like to know if I can mount the water cooler without the need of an extension. Thank you.
As the CPU heats and cools it will contract and expand ... in order to compensate for this you need consistent tension ... hence why most CPU cooling blocks are spring based. What I've seen Steve and Jay do is using a torque wrench once and only once ... this is not the best way to ensure an even spread of tension to ensure the most efficient heat transfer over any given area. The problem with using SpeedStepping and/or Boost frequencies for CPU/GPU is that they vary significantly in the heat they generate. Since spring tension in most CPU/GPU blocks are very cheap solutions (it's much more expensive to manage mechanical pressure under changing loads/temps). The best "compromise" is to provide enough fixed tension evenly that allows for heat expansion ... so the initial cold state tension should be less than the desired tension at the projected thermals for highest CPU loads. Since we're dealing the thermals at or around 90-100C at max loads (212 F) heat expansion is significant and needs to be factored in. I recommend using FIRSTINFO 5-60 cNm torque limiting screwdriver ($80) or Sumake 5-25 in/lbs but tolerance is +/- 6%.
Thermal expansion is in the order of microns, the change in mount pressure would be negligible and possibly immeasurable. You would likely have more effect by the direction you place the hoses of the AIO or if there is a twist in them placing torque on the mount. The are mounting screws are spring based to increase consistency in mount pressure so you dont just crank down a non-spring load with no idea the load being placed on the other corners.
Great video as usual. Any chance you guys might get your hands on be quiet!'s Pure Loop series of AIOs? Curious about how the difference in pump placement performs.
I would love to see you guys put some of the random, cheap no name but still popular CLCs that come up on Amazon if you search and scroll the results lol. They get 4.5 stars from people, are usually 20 to 50 dollars cheaper than many name brand ones and I am genuinely curious (Amazon reviews mean little, obviously lol) and buying a couple different ones would be a small investment for a great vid maybe? Great stuff guys as usual!
They sent me this mounting kit for my Rev 2 model that didn't include am4 mounting, was easy to install but my M.2 got in the way of the offset mount so I wasn't able to try it. Extremely glad I purchased this nonetheless.
You heathen disgust me. Mainly because most of them just have a cable you can leave unplugged to not have RGB. RGB is a sign of our ascension from peasantry!
I have the 420 and just tried moving the bracket to offset 2 on my 5800x. (Grind off the edge a bit on the bracket as it is interfering with my m.2 slot). And the temperature really drops by 4 to 5 degrees! Running r20 used to be 87 ish degrees multicore and now max 82 degrees thanks Gamer Nexus!!!
For those interested, I was able to email Arctic and get an AM3/AM4 mount kit mailed to me for use with my existing Liquid Freezer II 280mm. At first, there was some confusion with their customer support when they thought the mount kit only supported AM3, but with @Gamers Nexus help we cleared up the confusion and they mailed me the kit on request.
Just brought this last week. Waiting for it to make its way from the UK. Bought 3 Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 fans to cool the radiator and the rest of the pc, while doing mild overclocking.
