Arctic Liquid Freezer III PRO ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler Review
Meet the Arctic Liquid Freezer III PRO
It’s time to test the new PRO series version of Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III CPU liquid cooler
Arctic have taken their Liquid Freezer III CPU cooler to the next level, releasing a new PRO-series variant of their 360mm model. This new cooler features a new offset CPU mount for Intel LGA1851 motherboards and new P12 PRO series fans. With this new cooler, Arctic is promising lower CPU thermals, which is great news for PC builders.
Pricing-wise, Arctic also promises strong value, with Overclockers UK having pre-orders pricing of £79.99 and £89.99 (Black, White) for the non-RGB and RGB versions of this cooler, respectively. Those are low prices for CPU coolers of this size and feature set.
Available in RGB and Non-RGB forms
The Arctic Freezer III PRO is available with three pre-installed fans. These heatsinks are available with RGB and non-RGB fans, with the RGB model carrying more premium pricing. Today, we will be testing the RGB version of this cooler, though the non-RGB version is expected to perform similarly. This cooler is also available in black and white, with the white version only being available with ARGB fans.
CPU Contact Frame
One key feature of the Liquid Freezer III family is its inclusion of a CPU contact frame for LGA1700 and LGA1851 processors. This contact frame helps to maximise CPU cooling performance by reducing the bending pressure Intel’s standard mounting frame design places on their processors.
With this contact frame, Arctic states that their CPU cooler can be installed more consistently and that it achieves better CPU thermals long-term. Note that this contract frame isn’t the same as the frame supplied with Intel’s non-PRO Liquid Freezer III coolers, as Intel’s new mount features an offset for optimised LGA1851 CPU cooling.
Offset mounts
One thing to note about Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III PRO coolers is that they exclusively use “offset” mounts. These mounts place the center of these new liquid coolers above the CPU “hot spot” on AMD AM5 Ryzen and Intel Core Ultra 200 LGA 1851 processors. This is both a good thing and a bad thing for Arctic. It’s good because users of optimal CPUs receive optimal cooling results. The problem is that when used with sub-optimal CPUs, cooling performance is worse. We will dive into this topic more later.
Sadly, “non-offset” CPU cooler mounts are not available for these coolers. Honestly, we think this is a little short-sighted of Arctic, as “offset” cooler mounting should be an optional extra, not the only mounting option available. As we will get into later, standard mounts are standard for a reason.
Arctic Liquid Freezer III PRO cable management
Cables for the ARGB fans on the Freezer III Pro are routed through the unit’s coolant tubing. These fans are daisy-chained, allowing all three fans to be powered by a single cable. RGB lighting is also controlled using a single cable. Arctic’s integrated cable management system makes this liquid cooler incredibly easy to install.
Thick radiator!
Like its predecessor, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro features a 38 mm-thick liquid cooling radiator. This is much thicker than most normal CPU liquid cooling solutions, which are typically 27 mm thick. Add on this cooler’s 25mm fans, and their combined thickness is 63mm.
OC3D CPU Cooler Test Rig Specifications
Last year, we built a new PC for CPU cooler testing. This new PC has a newer, hotter-running CPU, a more power-hungry graphics card, and a cooling layout that is common for today’s gaming PCs. Simply put, we have moved to more modern hardware so that we can better test modern CPU cooling solutions.
CPU: Intel i5-14600K @1.27V (Fixed)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WIFI
Case: Custom Lian Li O11 EVO XL
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 32GB (2x16GB)
GPU: Sapphire RX 7900 GRE Nitro+
PSU: be quiet Dark Power 1,000W
Fans: 4x be quiet Silent Wings 4 fans
