ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB White: Performance Review on Ryzen 9900X

I have recently upgraded the AMD test bench and decided to test the new Liquid Freezer III 420 White A-RGB on this platform. This cooler is a flagship offer from ARCTIC in this arsenal. The new generation of liquid freezer AIO coolers takes on the predecessors with fine refinements, a new pump design, a dense fin layout, a removable top pump cover, and finally an option to regulate the speed of the VRM fan, Pump, and radiator fans separately as well jointly.

This cooler is only compatible with Intel LGA1700 and 1851 sockets due to the use of a contact frame. It is also compatible with AMD AM4/AM5 sockets.

The price of this cooler is Euro 149.99. Though you can get it for Euro 97.49 at the time of this writing. This is a good value from ARCTIC that is hard to beat.

Specifications

Purchase on Amazon UK for £71.60 at the time of review.

Packing and Unboxing

Same triangular packing box again! In my experience, ARCTIC should return to the standard packing box for 420mm size coolers since it is challenging to pack the cooler back in the box.

Let’s take a look at what is provided in the box. As I mentioned in the previous article, there is no printed user manual so you need an active internet connection for the online manual.

ARCTIC has supplied:

• 1x  Set of 2x AMD Mounting Brackets
• 1x Set of 4x AMD Black Spacers
• 1x Set of 4x AMD Screws
• 1x Set of 4x Intel Contact Frame Screws
• 1x Set of 8x Philips Screws and Washers for the Radiator
• 1x Allen Key
• 1x tube of MX-6 thermal paste

ARCTIC has provided 1x Intel LGA1700 Contact Frame. This is also compatible with LGA1851. Due to this contact frame, this cooler is not compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200 sockets. ARCTIC has released mounting hardware for these sockets separately. They should provide this mounting hardware with this cooler anyway.

ARCTIC has provided two cables with this generation of coolers. You can use one cable to control all fans/pump using a single connector or you can use the other cable to control all fans/pump individually.

As can be seen, there is a proprietary connector on one end that is connected to the header on the block whereas the other end has a standard 4-pin PWM connector for your motherboard.

Closer Look – Radiator

It is time to take a closer look at the components starting with the radiator itself.

The 3x P14 White ARGB fans come pre-installed on the radiator. This makes the life of the user easy as you would need fewer steps to install the cooler. ARCTIC has retained the footprint of Liquid Freezer II coolers.

All fans have short-length cables. ARCTIC has done cable management from the factory. There is a single PWM extension that has 3 PWM sockets to which the fans’ PWM connectors are attached. Similarly, there is a single 3-pin A-RGB extension cable. Two cables are routed towards the pump housing under the sleeve of the tube.

The radiator is made of aluminum material. The dimension of this radiator is 458x130x38mm (LxWxH). However, take note that pre-installed fans would make the overall height 65.5mm. The FPI count on this radiator is 14.

There is a 23% more surface area on these new radiators as well. The complete assembly is black and we have a 105mm gap between any two opposite end fan mounting holes. The coolant flow channel count is 12.

The tube connections are in the center and ARCTIC has used different clamps that look pleasant. Two cables can be seen going from the radiator assembly to a left tube under the sleeve.

The side of the radiator housing has an ARCTIC branding in silver. The rubber tubes have a length of 450mm and they have a black sleeve over them. The tube diameter is 12.4mm OD and 6mm ID.

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Pump/Block

ARCTIC has gone back to the drawing board and revamped the block design including the pump and cold plate.

This cooler comes with a removable pump cover that has an embedded 60mm fan for VRM cooling. There are fin design-guided vanes over the top that provide air inflow for the fan.  The fan is rated for 400 to 2500 RPM using 0.05A at 12VDC. The ARGB LEDs are rated for 0.40A at 5VDC.

Now coming to the main area of interest which is the block itself, we can see a smart design that is in a right-angled design. There is a pump and propeller on the vertical side whereas the cold plate is on the base obviously. Speaking of cold plates, ARCTIC has increased the fin density on the cold plate and optimized the coolant flow channels. The pump is rated for 800 to 2800 RPM using 0.35A at 12VDC.

Now I am showing the PCB on the block which is also vertically mounted. 7 contact pins over the top connect to the pump cover. There is a soldered interface towards the right for the integrated fan header.

I am showing the backside of the housing. This housing encapsulates the rotary fittings and tube connection. The tubes can be slid within this housing only.

ARCTIC has used a copper base measuring 40x44mm which is the same size as on the LF-II coolers. But the internals of the cold plate are re-designed.

Place the pump cover over the block by aligning the pillars on the cover with the magnetic tips of the silver pillars on the block. You should hear a click indicating that the cover is fitted properly.

I am showing the side view of the fully assembled block.

FANS

This cooler comes with three P14 PWM PST ARGB white edition fans. Each fan has 5x frosted blades.  The backside of the fan has a spiral-shaped 4x arms assembly holding the blades assembly with the frame. The fan is powered by a 4-pin PWM connector. I am not going into the details as we have done a detailed review of these and other ARCTIC fans separately.

The specifications of the fans are:

Dimension	140x140x25mm
Type	4-pin PWM Connector
Speed	200~1700 RPM
Airflow	72.80 CFM
Air Pressure	2.40 mmH₂O
Bearing Type	Fluid Dynamic Bearing
Input Voltage	12VDC
Input Current	0.12A

Installation

I am not covering the installation steps/process. Please refer to the user manual for that. But I would mention any observation during the installation. You would need to remove the Intel ILM to install the contact frame on the supported Intel sockets.

I have tested this cooler on the AMD AM5 platform on the ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi motherboard. This board is compatible with this cooler since the top M.2 port is not obstructing the block.

You would need to put some pressure on the mounting sides to compress the block so that it can be installed on this socket.

RGB Lighting

The A-RGB lighting is compatible with RGB Sync technology of major motherboard manufacturers. The lighting was responding well to the changes in the Polychrome app.

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Testing

The following configuration is used for thermal testing:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi
• GSkill TridentZ NEO RGB 32GB 6400MHz CL30 DDR5 kit
• ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7600 Graphics Card for Display
• WD SN850 500GB NVME SSD
• Be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
• Praxis Wetbench

Here is the settings table for testing:

Settings	Auto, PBO Enabled, Manual OC
Clock (MHz)	Auto, Auto, 5.3GHz All Cores
Voltage (V)	Auto, Auto, 1170mV
PBO	Enabled for one testing
Thermal Paste	Noctua NT-H2
Thermal Paste Application	Dots Method
Test Run Time	30 minutes
Idling Time	10 minutes
All Fans Speed	100% PWM Duty Cycle
Pump Speed
Stress Software	CINEBENCH R23.2
Monitoring Software	HWINFO64

I am reporting absolute temperature in the graph because room temperature was 22°C to 23°C throughout the day. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.

Result

Our first run was on the auto and stock settings with no PBO or overclock. The CPU was operating at 160W power. ARCTIC cooler did 63.2ᵒC.

Next, the PBO was enabled and the test was done again. This time the CPU did a whopping 243W load but at the cost of elevated temperature. Still, both 420mm liquid coolers did a fantastic job handling this load.

Next, I manually overclocked the CPU. It was all cores 5.3GHz using 1.17V VCore. This not only reduces the temperature and power draw but also increases the performance compared to the PBO. Both coolers did a fantastic job though be quiet! cooler still has the upper hand.

The fans of Silent Loop 3 420 while operating at full speed were doing 42.5 dB(A) which is 1.5 dB(A) above the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 420 cooler.

Conclusion

I tested the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 420 black earlier on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. This time, I got the opportunity to test the white version of this cooler on AMD Ryzen 9900X. This cooler has a large-size aluminum radiator measuring 458x130x38mm (LxWxH). Three P14 PWM PST White A-RGB fans come pre-installed over the radiator making the overall height of 65.5mm. The FPI count is 14 and channel count is 12. The rubber tubes have black sleeves and the ID/OD rating is 6.0/12.4mm.

This cooler is packed with aura of A-RGB backlighting which looks beautiful in person. Each fan has two cables which have short lengths to neat cable management. The cooler comes with two cables. One controls all fans and pump using a single fan header while the other allows separate control for which you would need three fan/pump headers.

These fans use Fluid Dynamic Bearings which are rated for up to 1700 RPM and feature auto-stop function. They can produce a total airflow of 72.80 CFM with a static pressure of 2.40mmH₂O. These fans use standard connectors. The bundled fan cables use a proprietary connector for the header located on the block.

The block and VRM fans have been uplift. There is a removable pump cover that has 60mm embedded fan for the VRM cooling. The fan draws fresh air from the top where there are guided vanes and flows the air towards the near socket area of the motherboard. The VRM fan is rated for up to 2500 RPM.

The block has a smart design which is in a right angled layout. The PCB has 7-pin contact pins on the top that make contact with the pads on the pump cover. There is a fan header integrated into the PCB to which the bundled fan cable(s) is to be connected. ARCTIC has improved the cold plate design and has provided a dense fin stack with improved coolant flow channels. The pump is rated for up to 2800 RPM.

Now coming to the installation part of this cooler, this cooler is compatible with AMD AM4/AM5 and Intel LGA1700/1851 only sockets. The total number of items required to install mounting brackets for the AM5 socket is 10 in 4 steps. It is convenient and I have no issue there.

This cooler has a price tag of €149.99. But it is on discount these days with a tag of €97.49. This is too good a price for a 420mm liquid cooler to beat. This will give many coolers a run for their money provided your case can house this size cooler.

The thermal performance of this cooler is quite well. It is silent though we have seen be quiet!’s new 420mm cooler taking a solid lead. ARCTIC cooler is still competitive and a 6-year warranty with such a low price tag makes it an easy pick.

Pros:

• Excellent Thermal Performance
• 60mm VRM Fan
• Removable Top Cover
• Integrated Cable Management
• Ability to control all fans and pump individually
• Ability to control all fans and pump using a single cable
• Pre-Installed Fans
• Compatible with Intel LGA1700/1851 sockets
• Compatible with AMD AM4/AM5 sockets
• Improved Cold Plate and pump design
• Easy Installation
• Excellent Noise Output
• 6-Year Warranty
• Price

Cons:

• Mounting Hardware for other Intel sockets should be included
• ARCTIC branding is fixed on the pump cover
• Motherboard Compatibility
• PC Case Compatibility