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Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB in the test: Arctic's inexpensive AiO is also a recommendation when illuminated

Jul 26, 2021

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The Arctic Liquid Freezer is good AiO cooling in the budget segment: The manufacturer combines a quiet pump with good fans at an attractive price. The current Generation II is getting a bright new addition. In the ComputerBase test, the Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB shows that none of its strengths are lost.

Table of contents

1 Arctic's affordable AiO is also highlighted a recommendation
1. Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB in detail
2 Measurement results and conclusion
1. Test system and methodology
2. Measurement results
3. Conclusion

Arctic has earned a good reputation from the budget segment: With Generation 1 of the Liquid Freezer (test) as compact water cooling, it has offered strong cooling performance at a low price. The CPU air cooler Freezer 34 eSports (Duo) (test), which manages the same balancing act, hits the same line. The Liquid Freezer II 240 (test) as the second generation of AiO cooling could not catch any new records on the AM4 test system, but still scored with quiet fans and a quiet pump.

Since then, Arctic has continued to develop the Liquid Freezer II in a gentle evolution. The latest revision has a renewed assembly system and is optionally available with brightly colored fans as an A-RGB version. ComputerBase takes a close look at the large 360 mm model with glowing fans and shows how the AiO cooling on the Ryzen generation 5000 from AMD performs.

Arctic Liquid Freezer II (360 A-RGB) Radiator (L × W × H): 398 × 120 × 38 mm Radiator material: aluminum Connections: closed system Hose length: 450 mm Expansion tank: – Pump speed: 800 – 2,000 rpm Lifetime pump (MTBF): – Connection pump: 4-pin PWM position pump: integrated in cooler Consumption pump: 2.7 watt fan: 3 × 120 × 120 × 25 mm
hydraulic
200 – 1,800 U min
82.9 m³/h
1.9 mm H₂O
4-pin PWM fan control: Integrated in the pump Compatibility: AMD: Socket AM4
Intel: LGA 2011 (-3)/2066/115x/1200 Price: from 95 €

Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB in detail

The Liquid Freezer II 240 tested at the end of 2019 already impressed with its hidden but practical details. These are retained in the most recent revision. There is still a common control of all rotating components: The pump, the VRM fan attached to the pump unit and the radiator fan are all supplied with power from a 4-pin PWM connector. The speed of all components is controlled by the PWM signal of this connection, so that the volume of the cooling increases homogeneously and there is no need to separately control the pump and radiator fans.

The lighting of the Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB is also supplied by a single connection cable. As a result, there are only two cables in total from the pump unit – cable management is rarely that simple with illuminated AiO cooling systems. Mechanically, the pump unit remains true to the older revision of the Liquid Freezer II. A copper CPU support surface provides the processor cooling, and above it there is a small 40 mm radial fan next to the pump, which cools the CPU voltage converter. Its effectiveness has already been confirmed in the test of the Liquid Freezer II 240.

With a depth of 38 mm, the radiator of the compact water cooling is larger than the usual approx. 30 mm for AiO cooling. On the other hand, the lamella density of 14 FPI (“fins per inch”) is somewhat lower than usual. The radiator is neatly processed. There are no bent slats. With a hose length of 45 cm, Arctic leaves enough space to screw the radiator either in the front or in the housing cover, even in large housings.

The RGB fans of the AiO cooling are specified by the manufacturer with a speed interval of 200 to 1,800 rpm. In the test system, between 200 and 1,650 rpm are achieved. Like the non-glowing fans from Arctic (test), they work very quietly at low speeds, so that a fan change is not worthwhile.

scope of delivery

As usual, the scope of delivery at Arctic is manageable. The AiO doesn't need a lot of accessories anyway: The assembly material for all current Intel sockets and for the AMD socket AM4 is included. There is a backplate for Intel, while AMD uses the backplate pre-installed on the mainboard. Y-adapters for fans or screws for fan mounting are searched in vain: The Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB arrives at the customer with pre-installed fans and is satisfied with only one connection cable.

A special feature of the AiO cooling accessories is the thermal paste. Compared to the standard model of the Liquid Freezer, the manufacturer is switching from the well-known MX-4 to the Arctic MX-5, which was introduced at the beginning of the year. The thermal paste is included in the form of a small syringe, so that in case of doubt more than one installation of the cooling is possible without the separate purchase of thermal conductive material.

Assembly in the test system

Arctic has revised the assembly system of the Liquid Freezer II. In the current revision of the AiO cooling, it is no longer necessary to juggle the CPU cooler and the backplate at the same time: First, the backplate is screwed with two retaining brackets. The retaining brackets for the AM4 socket can also be adapted for certain CPUs: They can be screwed in two positions. The center of the cooling block shifts depending on the position, so that Arctic allows a slightly offset mounting for Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 5000, which should increase the cooling performance on these CPUs.

As usual with AiO cooling, the compatibility of the Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB around the CPU socket is excellent. However, it should be noted that the radiator of the compact water cooling is about one centimeter thicker than usual. The housing must not only provide enough space for radiator mounting, but also enough depth.

On the next page: Measurement results and conclusion