Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 - The Best Just Got Better 

Knowing Artic, they'll probably release a revision with better mounting bracket for Intel Arrow Lake.

Honeslty the performance difference between this and the EK nucleus seems worth it, considering it goes for half as much. Great addition to the market.

Thanks for the review, glad that you like the cooler. Looking forward to your next video.

just the video i needed when i woke up with a fresh coffee 10/10

I was about to buy a 2 and saw the 3 for sale for super dang cheap. Bought it before I even watched the reviews haha. Such a great surprise today.

Awesome review. It costs so little that at this point i may just get the Argb version to replace my old Liquid Freezer II 420 argb and use the fans on the old one to make a push-pull configuration, since the fans are the same. Wonder if there's any performance difference between the non-argb and the argb aio, since in gen II arctic's aios with 140mm fans belonging to the latter category performed somehow a little better. Do you know if it's the same case with gen III?

I have this AIO as well, I got the 360 III BLACK version and upgraded the 3 fans to an Arctic P12 Max, and it is powerful! With the P12 Max upgrade, I can now dissipate to 300W thermal. On the standard fans, I think at 288W was doable. Right now I set my CPU (i9-14900K) to PL1=253W and PL2=253W, ICC=307A, under volted to an OFFSET of 0.1V, with a Cinebench 23 score of Multi-core = 39075, Single Core = 2351. It's a recommended Cooler for every INTEL I9 especially for the 14th gen series. Temps are in between 75-82c full load, no thermal throttling even on the v-core

Great testing! will you test the EKWB nucleus direct die (it's coming next month) ? It seems at least by initial testing that it gives quite a substantial improvement.

It would be nice to do a comparison between LF 2 420 with thermalright contact frame and the new LF 3 420.

There is no mount for the lga 1200 so I just took the set from the old arctic freezer ii 420 works as well 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Do you plan to do the p12max shroud testing to see if it’s the fans limiting performance?

Nice to see Arctic has a white option available now

Ok, point taken I would need to remove my Z690 board before trying to fit the 420mm AFIII to my system. Or stuff could happen....... Lying the case flat on its back, with the rear of the motherboard supported by a piece of foam, to retain the backplate, how much stuff could still be likely to happen.?! Thanks, and thanks for the video 👍🏻

I just did order 360 mm variant I wanted the 420 but I don’t want to cut my h7 flow. Do you think is a lot of difference between 420 mm and 360mm, thanks.

thanks for the review, very well done and had the specific info i was looking for, i still have an Intel LGA 1200 socket CPU and none of the reviews i had seen so far including Gamers Nexus specifically mentioned if sockets below 1700 were not supported.

I did the push pull pull setup on my Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 , system is so Amazing , also added the same fans to the case x 140mm , did replace the two front fans 200mm on the case, {140mm RAD {140mm {200mm .

Did just ordered the 360 RGB III from my black 360 II. Not that I really need it but... the cooler.. the more... cool on my undervolted 13600K @ 156W. Thanks again for a brilliant review AND season 3 of "The Bear" is in the works so guess see you there as "Richie" again.. :D

On the Arctic Web Page you can check for compatibility with the motherboard. In case there are issues with the SSD heatsink as shown in the video, Arctic provides for free a suitable replacement heatsink.

Will this fit on my sharkoon rev300 case?

What makes the nucleus so much cooler when its smaller than a 420 lf3?

After hearing about EK, this is the Goooooo.

still waiting to review thermalright phantom spirit EVO because I'm planning to buy that cooler

What would be the aio to use on an i9 13900ks?

I just did some rough calculations, the radiator for this aio has about the same internal volume as the velcase velca 3 pc case, which supports mini itx motherboards, itx length discrete GPUs, and a flex atx power supply.

What is the size difference between the ii 420 and the iii 420?

They should've slapped P14 Max fans with hydraulic bearings on it. P14s are aged already a bit.

Shoul i get this one or the EK Nucleus AIO CR360 Lux D-rgb?

Please tell me your AIO, PUMP fan curves I've been looking for hours and hours.

May i suggest to test the 240mm or 360mm with the 120mm max fans?

I still have my original 360 arctic liquid freezer. mounting hardware missing though.

Can anyone help me out? I have loads of experience, bought the cooler, installed it with an i5 14600kf to have a silent experience, 90 Celsius at 213w, tried remounting multiple times seems like the bracket always goes on crooked even when turning screws 1/4 of a turn at a time, cant figure it out please help

Will this fit in a o11 dynamic evo rgb?

Thank you for this tuto, i have one Asus X299 10GB, i want to put thé same Artic, can i do the same like you please? Thank's.

I installed this into my motherboard after my motherboard was mounted in my case. To be honest- not nearly as painful as doing it with a standard AMD cooler like Spire. Every time I've installed one of those I felt like my cpu was going to snap.

Can you compare asus lc420 vs lf3 vs a top end air cooler?

the version ARGB is the same performance?

VRM fan dropped my DDR5 sticks by 10c! They touched 69.5c on an OCCT stress test and dropped to 57/59c on each stick. Did not expect that it would help the RAM sticks!

I ordered it but canceled it because I can’t use my original contact frame. How’re you liking the contact frame on this AIO?

wow, finally. I was wondering when they would come with a new design as i was looking for a new 240 AIO a few weeks ago. Went for galahad II trinity. I did check just now on the 240 version of the freezer III series and saw the airflow and static pressure of the A-RGB fans (200 - 2000 rpm) are 48.82 cfm and 1.85 mmH^2O respectively. I do find that a little concerning. Of course it will probably follow a good score in the noise QC department though.

yay, i was expecting this one, you heard me

this thing is 95 euro's right now here, crazy

LF 3 is on sale . Just paid 80 bucks today.

does this fit in a fractal north?

Core Ocean T38 420mm is better than lf3 420mm ?

This AIO is begging you to test with the just released Arctic P14 max. I hope that’s in the cards 🤞

Any chance this will get tested with the p14 max fans i sometimes see on amazon

Waiting for AMD tests. If you can include tests where the offset mount works without any interference from an m.2 slot, that would be cool.

I need to see the white 420 argb in a white bequiet and nzxt case

Thanks for the review. Looking really good, think will get it (the 360 version), or next version, once the AMD 9800X3D is out, till then I got Ryzen 7700 (All-core 5.25Ghz and Single-core @5.5Ghz with TjMax @88C) with Cougar Poseidon GT240 fans running @70% max = performance/noise really good, ear level less than 40db during load with 3080Ti, idle close to 27db.

So if money is not an obstacle, is EK still the best performing AIO? Noise to performance as well?

I apologize for the inconvenience, but it seems there might have been a mistake with my purchase of the Arctic Freezer III ARGB 420mm cooler. Unfortunately, it appears that the package did not include the necessary screws, ARGB controllers, or thermal paste required for installation and no new contact frame from Arctic. Could you kindly assist me in resolving this issue so that I can properly install the cooler? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. (I bought this cooler from Amazon (95$))

Anyone got try Nzxt Kraken Black 360 vs Liquid Freezer III Black 360? Which one should I go? CPU 14900k

I'm afraid the tubes on the bottom collide with my vertical GPU mount in the Lian Li Dynamic Evo.

Would this fit easily enough into a Lian Li 011 Evo mid tower?

Too underrated bro

I cannot see the 420 on amazon... There max i can find is the 360, how much performance loss are between them?

What sftware do you use for the 100% CPU load?

The new King!!! ✨👍🏻🎀

Put Arctic 6 P12 Max fans on the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 as Push and Pull config lol

Nucleus CR360 tho GAH DAYUM!

in your opinion. does it worth to upgrade from a AC II 420mm to an AC III 420mm? Let's say I can find someone that can buy my cooler for 50 euro, then for 90 euro I can buy the AC III 420mm.

Firstly, are there any IMPORTANT details that were omitted in your tests... What was the ENVIRONMENT TEMPERATURE when the tests were carried out? Second, during load testing, which program(s) were used? Because there is a good difference between a Stress test in Prime95 MAX TEST, compared to Cinebench 2023 for example. I have an I9 13900k and your temperatures are unreal, in an environment with an ambient temperature of 26 degrees Celsius.

I alredy got the 2 but too late to wait and get the 3 it's super op tho fr

Can you consider running an AMD test in the future as well? Certain coolers seem to be prefer AMD or Intel and from other reviews this cooler performs better on AMD cpus.

Why are you not testing on AM5 platform? You seem to have the hardware. CPU cooler performance greatly differs on different platforms and I think ryzen users should know how this AIO performs.

On Amazon why is the old 420 v2 still expensive compared to the new 420 v3? So is the new one better?

Wow

ohoh man i just got the liquid freezerII should i return it and get the liquid freezer III ?

Pretty good revision of the LFII. But they should go with original mounting instead of forcing people to use contact frame on Intel and offset mounts on AMD. They should give you an option to use stock mounting or contact frame on Intel and normal/offset mounting on AMD because lots of people won't be comfortable with this.. just imagine you will overtighten the screws on Intel and kill the MB/CPU. Will the Arctic pay for the damages?

Влезет ли этот малыш в Lian Li LANCOOL III ?

Not sure I'm a fan of this new design either. Its not bad, but it also feels...generic. I think they would have been better off having something close to the old styling, but with one tube on each side of the water block, which CoolerMaster is doing in their upcoming AIO. Its not exactly a new approach, just under utilized.

I just got the DeepCool AK620 ZERO DARK for my Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Think I should return it for the artic 3?

btw atm its 80€ so it is unbeatable. You can buy 2 for the price of almost any other aio on the market.

I have a Kraken Elite 360, a EK Nucleus CR360, Lian Li Galahad II LCD and just got a Arctis Freezer III 420 and have been comparing all of them and am only keeping 2 of the 4. I am running a 14900K + 4090 FE + 48GB DDR5 7200Mhz OC'd to 7400 CPU is OC'd and undervolted GPU varies depending on what I am doing and I am keeping the EK Nucleus and the Kraken Elite 360. Hands down both of these are better than the other two in every way. The EK nucleus is hands down the best AIO I have ever tried period it is a cooling monster. I am returning the other 2 AIO's. I was disappointed in the Lian Li Galahad II it was awful, noise, cooling, software, even the looks when on my build didn't look great. The Arctic Freezer III 420 is also disappointing but not by as much. Running a thermarite frame with the Kraken or the EK is the best AIO cooling there is IMO and they look better also.

Of course 2 days after I order a LFII 420 the new one comes out.....

Nucleus Cr420 🙏

I don't understand the hype behind what is almost the cheapest brand?

Small copper plate! I hate how those screws contact the CPU. They skimped on copper.

I just buy the LF3 360.

B620 + 7950x (3d) and vrm will be fine with that 🤓 and left ram stick too. 🤣Only the left one.

9:36 😂😂😂😂😂

I installed it in the case lol it was so sketchy

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

What I think ruins these tests, is the multiple CPU frame modifications which should be considered a change in the test system control variables. It invalidates the direct cooler to cooler comparisons! What I mean is, your normal test setups are univariate comparisons: they are comparing just the AIO systems against other AIO systems (cold plate+tubes+pump+radiator+fans). Meanwhile the Arctic LF III is testing potentially up to THREE different variables at once: the AIO system, the contact frame and the offset mounts (at least on the AMD version). We have no way to know precisely WHERE the LF III performance increases are coming from, or what percentage of the overall performance is coming from each variable. Hypothetically, what if the LF III AIO on its own performs WORSE than the other coolers but all of the perceived performance gains are coming exclusively from the offset and frame instead? I think the most statistically fair and interesting cooler-to-cooler comparison would be to hold the contact frame and offset mount variables constant, meaning that we should test the Arctic LF III against other test systems that ALSO have a contact frame and offset mount installed.

Now please slap 3 P12 Max on it and see it rip.

Having to use Artic’s contact frame is a deal breaker. When compared to thermal grizzly or Thermalrite’s contact frames, this doesn’t provide better performance over the stock Intel bracket(which is the whole point of using a contact frame). It has equally bad contact as intel’s stock bracket.

It just looks like the EKWB Nucleus is better even with shitty fans and smaller radiator size.

This thing is impossible to install on amd!

Imposible to find pc cases

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo i just bought a liquid freezer 360

and yet 9 months from now, your ordering of AIO's is entirely different, probably a wattage different, but how anyone limits these things to 200 or below is beyond. And no, custom loops are not a good excuse to limit watts - push these fuckers till they fail bigly.

It's not iiii it's 3.

Better? More like louder 😕

I dont think nucleus 360 is better than latest 420mm artcic, feels like bullshit

Still too complicated to install.

farewell... millennium falcon 🫡