Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360mm AIO Cooler Review

A Closer Look

This is a really cool addition, it’s a fan that drops over the CPU block to provide cooling for the socket and the surrounding VRM. But best of all, it’s tool-free to install, as it uses magnets to mount over the pump, and no cables as it uses a set of pins to take power from the pump to drive the PWM fan.

The fan is tall, and more of an impeller so that it can drive air outwards rather than down, thus better cooling the components surrounding your CPU socket.

The CPU mounting kit (for LGA1700) is bonkers, I’ve never had to remove the intel mounting retention bracket before. However, this just screws right to the motherboard, holding the CPU down for you. Then it’s just two screws from the pump to this block. It’s both more complex and more-simple than any mounting kit I’ve dealt with before.

What is seriously cool, however, is that the radiator comes with the fans pre-installed right out of the box. The cables are neatly routed and tucked down the side already, and there are NO fan connectors to deal with. All of the cables run through the tubing right to the CPU/pump block.

The CPU pump/block looks pretty strange, with a copper contact plate on the bottom of a pretty thin-looking CPU block, and a pump off to the side, with an exposed PCB on it. Very strange, and well, rather ugly, but keep in mind that there’s the fancy fan to pop on the top of it, which will hide all of this.

It’s such a unique design, and honestly, just so unlike everything else I put on the test bench!

All the basics of an AIO are here though, such as angle adjustable hoses, a powerful pump, a copper cold plate, and all that, it’s just how it’s all laid out that looks so peculiar.

The radiator is thicker than most AIOs, and that increase in surface area is definitely going to give it an advantage over the usual slim radiators we see on AIOs.

The pre-installed Arctic fans look amazing, and interestingly only have five blades per fan, but they’re huge blades and built for high pressure, which makes sense as they have to push through a much thicker and denser radiator than your typical AIO cooler fan.

There’s room for fans on the other side too, so you could move the fans to the other side to suit your installation needs, but for me, I’ll be leaving it as-is.