Arctic Liquid Freezer II Cooler Review: New Best CPU Thermals on AMD Ryzen
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Date: 2020-05-06
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Comments and reviews: 10
Stephen
This piqued my interest, but may I request something more human. Assume I'm a n00b (I'm not, I hacked a commodore Amiga into a tower, with a zorro II daughter board and graphics card, sound, sound card, and Apollo A1260 CPU board many years ago, and have always built my own since. I am, however, a n00b when it comes to liquid cooling. My current rig is an Asus ROG B350-F MB with a Ryzen 1800X plugged in. Cooling is case fac (2 front, one exhaust) and a tower air cooler/heatsink. I don't game. I use Linux as my daily driver. I do, however, use Blender - a lot. (currently GTX 106 6Gb gfx card, but some stuff I do will saturate VRAM and I need to render on CPU. So, will I see an appreciable difference with this, what appears to be a simply liquid cooling solution rather than my Freezer tower cooler? Oh, and as an added aside. Would I be better if I was going to replace the cooler also going with liquid metal rather than off the shelf thermal paste?
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This piqued my interest, but may I request something more human. Assume I'm a n00b (I'm not, I hacked a commodore Amiga into a tower, with a zorro II daughter board and graphics card, sound, sound card, and Apollo A1260 CPU board many years ago, and have always built my own since. I am, however, a n00b when it comes to liquid cooling. My current rig is an Asus ROG B350-F MB with a Ryzen 1800X plugged in. Cooling is case fac (2 front, one exhaust) and a tower air cooler/heatsink. I don't game. I use Linux as my daily driver. I do, however, use Blender - a lot. (currently GTX 106 6Gb gfx card, but some stuff I do will saturate VRAM and I need to render on CPU. So, will I see an appreciable difference with this, what appears to be a simply liquid cooling solution rather than my Freezer tower cooler? Oh, and as an added aside. Would I be better if I was going to replace the cooler also going with liquid metal rather than off the shelf thermal paste?
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EFerrorfile
I have the 240-version. Installing this was. Well, easier than what I had to go through with my previous AIO, Alphacool Eisbaer 240. The Alphacool was a nightmare to install without extra pair of hands, while this one wasn't all that bad. My unit has a bad VRM-fan from the factory, had to be unplugged due to the insanely loud noise it kept making. Probably a faulty bearing, made a horrible, horrible noise - vibrated the whole case (Meshify C) too. It was an interesting experience. I didn't RMA for this, since the AIO works fine without it. With the VRM-fan unplugged, the noise levels are impressively low! I thought that Eisbaer had a silent pump. This Arctic actually does. The stock fans are also good, so good that I had to replace almost every case fan with these.
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I have the 240-version. Installing this was. Well, easier than what I had to go through with my previous AIO, Alphacool Eisbaer 240. The Alphacool was a nightmare to install without extra pair of hands, while this one wasn't all that bad. My unit has a bad VRM-fan from the factory, had to be unplugged due to the insanely loud noise it kept making. Probably a faulty bearing, made a horrible, horrible noise - vibrated the whole case (Meshify C) too. It was an interesting experience. I didn't RMA for this, since the AIO works fine without it. With the VRM-fan unplugged, the noise levels are impressively low! I thought that Eisbaer had a silent pump. This Arctic actually does. The stock fans are also good, so good that I had to replace almost every case fan with these.
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Spartan0536
If I remember correctly from their webpage, and this COULD be a typo but by the looks of the product it likely is not a typo. that radiator is 38mm thick. What's interesting is my NZXT Kraken Z63 is 30mm thick, and the EVGA CLC's are 27mm thick. Now the only question left is just how much does that extra thickness help, and what if the fans were swapped out to things like Noctua iPPC's in the 2000 - 3000 RPM range, and push/pull configurations with those fans for normalized and non-normalized dba? I am thinking there has to be a point of diminishing returns until you put in fans capable of making the difference but likely at jet engine levels of noise, but that's just my 2 cents.
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If I remember correctly from their webpage, and this COULD be a typo but by the looks of the product it likely is not a typo. that radiator is 38mm thick. What's interesting is my NZXT Kraken Z63 is 30mm thick, and the EVGA CLC's are 27mm thick. Now the only question left is just how much does that extra thickness help, and what if the fans were swapped out to things like Noctua iPPC's in the 2000 - 3000 RPM range, and push/pull configurations with those fans for normalized and non-normalized dba? I am thinking there has to be a point of diminishing returns until you put in fans capable of making the difference but likely at jet engine levels of noise, but that's just my 2 cents.
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James
I bought one of these about a month ago, along with a 3950x. It arrived with air in the system and when I first booted the system hit thermal protect. It took me a bunch of time and reseats to identify that there was air preventing the impeller function. In the end, I had manipulated the tubes while staring at a loss into the system, watching the temperature climb to shutoff, when all of a sudden I hear a whole lot of gargle and it started actually pumping and actually cooling. I'm not getting the performance represent here, still. So far, support have been shrugging their shoulders. If you go this route, you might have to buy more than one.
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I bought one of these about a month ago, along with a 3950x. It arrived with air in the system and when I first booted the system hit thermal protect. It took me a bunch of time and reseats to identify that there was air preventing the impeller function. In the end, I had manipulated the tubes while staring at a loss into the system, watching the temperature climb to shutoff, when all of a sudden I hear a whole lot of gargle and it started actually pumping and actually cooling. I'm not getting the performance represent here, still. So far, support have been shrugging their shoulders. If you go this route, you might have to buy more than one.
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Donny
I have only used air coolers so far. But let's say i'd go with an artic liquid freezer II, where should I place the AIO? All test i've seen so far say as front intake, because if you put it at the top, you'll blow hot hair in the aio. Bitwit tested this and shows a 10 degrees difference. His conclusion was to have the aio in the front. However. If I learned anything from Gamers Nexus it is that front intake is very important, the difference between a closed front and open front is HUGE. So I was thinking, the aio will be yet another obstacle for the front intake fans, thus resulting in way higher temps. So what is the best option?
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I have only used air coolers so far. But let's say i'd go with an artic liquid freezer II, where should I place the AIO? All test i've seen so far say as front intake, because if you put it at the top, you'll blow hot hair in the aio. Bitwit tested this and shows a 10 degrees difference. His conclusion was to have the aio in the front. However. If I learned anything from Gamers Nexus it is that front intake is very important, the difference between a closed front and open front is HUGE. So I was thinking, the aio will be yet another obstacle for the front intake fans, thus resulting in way higher temps. So what is the best option?
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Adam
1. I can control the small fan in the bios on my x570 ASUS tuf gaming plus wifi no problem 2. At 23 mins you are talking about how you might need extension cables for the fans, I'm not sure if you are aware the fans 2x 140mm fans and small fan are all connected and only need to plug in the one cable near the backplate. All the fans are wired down the hose of the rad tubes. They only make them able to disconnect to change them out. But I imagine you know this you just did not mention it. I cant see any reason why anyone would need extension cables, the one cable they all connect to near the cpu backplate is like a foot long.
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1. I can control the small fan in the bios on my x570 ASUS tuf gaming plus wifi no problem 2. At 23 mins you are talking about how you might need extension cables for the fans, I'm not sure if you are aware the fans 2x 140mm fans and small fan are all connected and only need to plug in the one cable near the backplate. All the fans are wired down the hose of the rad tubes. They only make them able to disconnect to change them out. But I imagine you know this you just did not mention it. I cant see any reason why anyone would need extension cables, the one cable they all connect to near the cpu backplate is like a foot long.
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Wolfchacer01
Does this cooler read temps on Ryzen cpu's correctly? I have the EVGA CLC 280 and have zero way to have a curve set as it reads the 2700x at idle of 99c when the actual temp is 30c. If I set it for fan curve the fans just spin to a million rpms and it sounds like a jet taking off, if I set it to read coolant temps it sends the pump to full speed and the fans at 40-50%. Is there any software I can add that allows AIO coolers to function correctly with Ryzen cpu's? Seems to be a common issue and no solutions on any of the forums.
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Does this cooler read temps on Ryzen cpu's correctly? I have the EVGA CLC 280 and have zero way to have a curve set as it reads the 2700x at idle of 99c when the actual temp is 30c. If I set it for fan curve the fans just spin to a million rpms and it sounds like a jet taking off, if I set it to read coolant temps it sends the pump to full speed and the fans at 40-50%. Is there any software I can add that allows AIO coolers to function correctly with Ryzen cpu's? Seems to be a common issue and no solutions on any of the forums.
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Guest
Totally disagree on the point made on vrms running had. You can run a 3950x on an older AM4 board with vrms not made for such chips. Maybe I will on my Asus b450i. I have an itx case which is ventilated well (ncase m1 v6, but a 3950x will make my vrms really hot. Yes this cooler would probably not fit due to the large tuning sticking out, but people with older boards or smaller itx cases, could really benefit to reduce vrms temps by 5-10 degrees (I guess the difference is a lot higher with fan on vrms being 80 degrees.
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Totally disagree on the point made on vrms running had. You can run a 3950x on an older AM4 board with vrms not made for such chips. Maybe I will on my Asus b450i. I have an itx case which is ventilated well (ncase m1 v6, but a 3950x will make my vrms really hot. Yes this cooler would probably not fit due to the large tuning sticking out, but people with older boards or smaller itx cases, could really benefit to reduce vrms temps by 5-10 degrees (I guess the difference is a lot higher with fan on vrms being 80 degrees.
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Thunder
The day they manage to replace the liquid with something that even in the long run is 100% none-conductive and guarantee no harm to the PC components under extreme failure. That day I would gladly pay extra for an AIO cooling system. I wonder if using low boiling point liquids would be a thing someday, even gas since if all fail the gas just mix with the air and no harm is done if all other safe features come on place. Im sure NASA has some top of the line ideas we still haven't apply to PC as cooling solutions.
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The day they manage to replace the liquid with something that even in the long run is 100% none-conductive and guarantee no harm to the PC components under extreme failure. That day I would gladly pay extra for an AIO cooling system. I wonder if using low boiling point liquids would be a thing someday, even gas since if all fail the gas just mix with the air and no harm is done if all other safe features come on place. Im sure NASA has some top of the line ideas we still haven't apply to PC as cooling solutions.
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GIORGIO
Very good. And the taking apart vid. shows no cause four alarm(get it? Ok bad, but it was there) This will solve the heat. You say good- I need a solution. so I'll get one of these. Hats off. Good work, and how about some external optical drives? - They are especially good for certain data keeping, and optics are also involved with lasers. Very relevant tech there indeed, and applications beyond drives. however- getting into the best external drives and layered disc burning could prove a very cool challenge.
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Very good. And the taking apart vid. shows no cause four alarm(get it? Ok bad, but it was there) This will solve the heat. You say good- I need a solution. so I'll get one of these. Hats off. Good work, and how about some external optical drives? - They are especially good for certain data keeping, and optics are also involved with lasers. Very relevant tech there indeed, and applications beyond drives. however- getting into the best external drives and layered disc burning could prove a very cool challenge.
reply
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