Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB review: My new favorite AIO CPU cooler

Like the Liquid Freezer II, these AIO kits are fantastic for more powerful processors. The larger radiator allows the loop to soak up and radiate more heat than competing AIOs, resulting in lower temperatures for AMD and Intel processors. Due to the way CPUs are designed these days, you will still find the more powerful Ryzen and Core chips hitting 100 degrees Celcius in synthetic benchmarks, but for gaming and general computing, you really cannot go wrong with the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB. It's easy to install, powerful, and looks great with the preinstalled blowers.

About this review: XDA purchased the 280 and 360 versions of the Arctic Liquid Freezer III A-RGB for this review. Arctic had no input to its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

The Arctic Liquid Freezer III is available in a variety of configurations. There are A-RGB and non-ARGB versions, the latter of which are available in either black or white. There are also several radiator sizes, depending on the case you will be installing the Liquid Freezer III inside. The largest size is the 420mm Liquid Freezer III, costing $160, then there's the Liquid Freezer III 360mm (which we're reviewing here) for $150, the 280mm for $140, and finally the 240mm for $125. These are for the A-RGB variants with flashy lighting and the same performance.

Design and features

The AIO is packaged in separate pieces, but the fans are pre-assembled on the radiator. This is a nice touch, though you will need to remove them if you plan on installing the AIO differently from how Arctic has it assembled. The CPU water block and pump are fixed to the radiator via tubing, like all other closed-loop coolers, but the Liquid Freezer III has a separate housing for the cap. This is attached to the block via two magnets and contains RGB lighting. Having it separate easily allows you to conveniently switch cabling.

The included VRM fan is something not frequently found on even the more expensive AIO liquid coolers.

Arctic includes two main cables for powering the AIO. One has a single 3-pin fan connector which uses the same header to control the pump, radiator fans, and VRAM fan. If your motherboard has multiple headers available, I would recommend using the splitter which allows all three components to be controlled separately with different curves and input. The VRM fan is something not frequently found on even the more expensive AIO liquid coolers. This is something often overlooked by those who buy AIO coolers.

Because of how an AIO takes heat away from the CPU, the VRMs and other vital components located near the CPU socket do not benefit from any airflow, which is offered by a CPU air cooler. Arctic addresses this with the inclusion of a VRM fan, which is larger on the Liquid Freezer III. Regardless of whether you opt for the A-RGB versions, the same Arctic fans will be included and are capable of pushing through a lot of air at reasonably low speeds and sound levels.

Installing the Arctic Liquid Freezer III is a breeze for AMD and Intel systems. For the latter, Arctic uses its contact frame for the LGA 1700 socket. This does require the removal of the preinstalled frame but this takes a few moments and should allow Arctic to create a far better seal with the cooler. One thing to note with installing the Liquid Freezer III on an AM5 motherboard is the considerable force required to have the springs compress enough for the screws to catch.

Cooling performance

The thermal performance of the Arctic Liquid Freezer III is excellent. The unit we're reviewing here has a massive 360mm radiator and being 38mm thick, it has vastly better capacity and surface area for heat to be extracted by the three installed fans. I tested the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB with an Intel Core i9-14900KS and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X to see how the AIO would handle some of AMD and Intel's more powerful chips. On the AMD Front, the Arctic AIO performed well but it seemed to have some issues keeping the 14900KS from thermal throttling, slightly more so than other AIO coolers.

The Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB is a very capable CPU cooler at a reasonable price.

I tested the AIO with synthetic benchmarks, including Cinebench which pushes the CPU hard to see how the cooler performed. Then I moved to some games and general computing to check on temperatures at lower loads, as well as measuring noise against the case fans and ambience. My findings showed the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB to be a very capable CPU cooler at a reasonable price, offering some advanced features not present on more expensive competitor products.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X was able to perform as expected with other AIO liquid coolers with a 360mm radiator. The Intel Core i9-14900KS did what the 14900KS does best ... thermal throttle. There's some serious heat being outputted by this chip and even the Liquid Freezer 360 A-RGB was unable to prevent this from taking place. The 12600K was a good show with reasonable temperatures recorded throughout the testing phase. VRAM temperatures were excellent with the VRAM fan set to 50% or higher. I found a good 5C improvement over not having the fan spin at all, showing just how much of a difference active cooling makes.

Competition

There are countless AIO liquid cooling kits available for CPUs. NZXT is a popular brand with its Kraken coolers and we've reviewed a couple here at XDA. Thermaltake, Corsair, Cooler Master, and Lian Li are some other renowned brands for AIO coolers. In terms of comparing the Arctic Liquid Freezer III A-RGB against other AIOs with 360mm radiators, this kit offers seriously good value. At just north of $100, Arctic is attempting to offer similar performance and sometimes better features than an AIO costing considerably more.

Should you buy the Arctic Liquid Freezer III?

You should buy the Arctic Liquid Freezer III if:

• You want an AIO liquid cooler for your PC.
• You want a budget-friendly AIO with great performance.
• You plan on pushing your system slighter harder than usual.

You shouldn't buy the Arctic Liquid Freezer III if:

• You don't want an AIO CPU cooler.
• Your PC case doesn't support at least a 240mm radiator.
• You want the most powerful CPU cooling solution.

An all-in-one (AIO) liquid CPU cooler is generally the route to go for keeping your CPU within the best temperature range, even through heavy loads. The Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB is the largest version of this cooler for most ATX PC cases and offers excellent thermal capacity with a thick radiator, reliable pump, high-quality static pressure fans, and an integrated VRM fan on the CPU water block. The best part of this AIO is the price, sitting just north of $100 at certain retailers, knocking almost a full $50 off the MSRP.

The best part of this AIO is the price, sitting just north of $100 at certain retailers.

AIO coolers can cost north of $200, which makes the Arctic Liquid Freezer III an interesting proposition for PC builds and upgrades. If you're using the latest and greatest Intel chips, you may want to look elsewhere as we noted some higher temperatures with the Intel Core i9-14900K and Core i5-12600K compared to other AIO coolers, but it's up there with the best AM5-supported coolers. This could be due to how the AIO is bolted to the LGA 1700 socket, but performance is still pretty good, especially if you're primarily using the CPU for playing games.