Guide
Hidden Changes: Tear-Down of Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III
Hidden Changes: Tear-Down of Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III CPU Cooler & Disassembly
#Hidden #TearDown #Arctics #Liquid #Freezer #III
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Thanks Steve!
Steve's brain forgot to download the latest density update.
hey help @GamersNexus
i have a cooler master 240 lite and its making kinda funny gurgle sound i think its low on coolant? not that old 2-3 yrs
arctic use the best fans for this cooler for the price it cost , i have the same arctic fans at a thermal 120mm aio it drope 10 degrees lower than stock fan
the important parts here are the pump and the fan. as an old pump mechanic, i can tell you both are high quality high volume. the fan may have a narrow diameter, but the vanes are long and have a lot of surface area. the pump impeller is the same, a lot of surface area in the vanes. both will move a lot of water and air respectively.
What I don't get: Is it so super duper difficult and (not) expensive use automotive grade coolant and mix ratios for corrosion and evap resistance? Water evaporates easy. Glycol, either propylene or ethylene (automotive use) do not evaporate easy. None of these in the amounts used in an AIO is expensive. So why the heck, instead of use the cheapest dilluted shite available and not use a at least a 30/70 ratio automotive antifreeze coolant/water that has a many many centuries proven track record for not "gunking up" etc.? Fo shu I am going to replace my AIOs coolant with that when its nearing 5 yrs. In the past I have had two AIO and both went to bed at the same time of duration. 5 yrs. Dried out and gunked. (Corsair)
you repair kit plate was crazy looking. I replaced a 360 v2 and 280v2 both my plates looked fine maybe I was lucky?
No idea why Arctic thinks applying pressure to a hollow chamber and semi-flimsy and somewhat thin coldplate would be a good idea. This is not an NH-D15 after all. That leaf spring sure looks like it's way too heavy duty to use with a liquid cooler. I'd recon lower pressure and four screws with springs could be a much better way to attach the coldplate/pump component of the cooler
nice
excellent analysis and presentation, and cute joke at the end lol
thank you for the work you have done, i purchased mine yesterday based on your true practical review. it's almost unbelievable an AIO this good is in such an affordable price and also a discount on top of that. all the best Arctic!
The impeller is very nice. The height of the veins and the curve of the blades are designed for the best flow to pressure ratio. I work on pumps that use bronze impellers that are basically the same thing but need to me machined for longevity. these pumps need to pump more flow at less pressure. I am sure that arctic did some work finding out the best vein height and curve to make sure that the motor running it would last awhile. My next build is going to use one of these because I would love to see how far they have come. I mean aside from @gamersnexus review.
Is it possible to change the fans? E.g. for the p14 slim ones
Corsair and NXT fanboys down voted this or what?
Oh bro, Yesterday I wanted to order the freezer II, but I felt like I should wait.. i will buy the freezer III instead 😮😅
Respect for artic making both the II and III fairly serviceable. Extra points for the III looking more serviceable than the II. With the pump build quality it gives me confidence that if you top off or change coolant every 4/5yr it will keep it going, save you money, and keep the great cooling performance.
Quick comment regarding the impeller. I suspect it's injection-molded plasto-NdFeB. The whole part is made out of magnet.
It has a density of around 6 and does feel like metal, but in reality it's a PPS or PA12 matrix with infused NdFeB particles.
I'm wondering if those pins that handle the ARGB (There are three empty ones I could see, including one marked5v) could be used for data? Could we see a replacement VRM fan unit with a screen in it instead of the finned array with the Arctic logo in the centre that it currently has?
As someone who has built custom loops for 20 years and constantly bashes AIOs for all of their easily solvable design problems (aluminum radiators with leftover flux in them that will always eventually result in buildup, mixed metals, insufficiently cooled pump motors, limited lifespan PG based coolant, undersized impellers and poor flow rates, plastic with poor thermal characteristics, etc. etc.) this is probably the most well designed CLC I've seen, and I especially like the motor and impeller housing, the VRM cooling, and cold plate design.
That being said, it still uses an aluminum radiator, it still has mixed metals, and it still uses a limited lifespan PG based coolant. So, despite the excellent design choices, I won't use these in builds and will only offer air cooling or custom water, because I guarantee my builds work maintenance free for 5 years once assembled, and that is not a lifespan I can comfortably promise with any CLC, including this one.
Until CLCs have made these changes, I consider them to have planned obsolescence baked in and won't touch them:
-Copper radiators.
-No more mixed metals.
-Ethylene glycol coolant. There's a huge selection of excellent automotive coolants that will work in a CLC for 10 years. Use them. No more PG.
-Use glass fiber reinforced plastics for pump/impeller housing. 60C is too easy to reach with pump/impeller failures, it's a liability.
-No more sealed fans that make re-lubricating them unnecessarily difficult. Also, provide options to buy fanless to save unnecessary costs.
Did Arctic offer any comment or explanation for the coldplate pressure design?
I still await the Noctuas of water cooling.
Had 3x AIO's die on me over the years. 1 Coolermaster had the pump die for no apparent reason. 1x Corsair wasn't the cooler's fault but the fan connector on an NZXT case that decided to have poor connection, not realizing none of the fans were going so the water kept going around getting hotter and melted the impeller inside, and then 1x Corsair's pump died after a month. Full custom was tedious and too much maintenance for me personally.
At least with air cooling, you still have passive cooling if the fan(s) die.
Mostly ran Noctuas, but my fav was a lapped TRUE Copper and lapped IHS. Motherboard breaking awesomeness.
The repairability of this Arctic cooler is promising though and I do like their MX paste.
I'll wait another 10 years and see where water cooling comes lol
Steve !
please re assemble it and test it again !!
see the difference in performance
Artic is such an awesome company. They replaced my faulty aio hassle free. They are top notch.
Looks like a winner
To add to the comment of repairability. I was thinking that Artic is trying to also reduce e-waste.
they did it again:)
Manufacture date: Fanurary 20J6
You mention needing to top up the rad eventually with the rubber hoses… how does one go about that though?
I have the LF2, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out where any reasonably accessible refill port should be located…
Would be cool to get a "how to maintain and repair your AIO video" from you guys. =)
i like the over all design of this all in one cooler but still needs a built in fill port on radiator which is easy to do for manufacture by installing threads and use a o-ringed plug and screw into radiator. then it would truly be a true rebuildable unit by end user. i am curious to see if lapping the cold plate on the side that contacts cpu if it increases contact pressure's on cpu and how much it would improve performance.
The #1 thing by a fair bit is how easy is it to refill/replace the liquid inside. #2 cooling ability #3 the price. #4 material quality #5 ease of installation and removal #6 looks. If the cooling is good but i cant refill it then its an instant no from me. Materials are important but its hard to find a cooler that wont last 5 years these days that can be refilled so its low on the list these days.
The Corsair H150i is $395 in country I live and the LCD screen thing is extra $150 so that $545… I buy Deepcool LS720 for $195, I not pay $395 for a cooler because for extra few hundred can do custom loop, these cooler prices are ridiculous.
Actually, I ordered a 280 unit just now when they have their "birthday sale" on their site. I had some issues with payment and left them a message along with a modest amount of praise for how they handled "Gunk-gate" proactively.
Companies aren't your friends and the products need to stand on their own merits. But I think we as enthusiasts can influence companies with both the "whip and the carrot". I also left a suggestion that they might want to look why the Intel results don't match the AMD. Kitguru actually has the Freezer III 360 second to last on the Intel 300W+ test. It might be an issue with mounting pressure or cold plate GN observed.