ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 280 - CPU AIO Water Cooler, Water Cooling PC, Intel & AMD, Efficient PWM-Controlled Pump, Fan: 200–1700 RPM, LGA1851 and LGA1700 Contact Frame - Black

3-07-25. A Asus ProArt x870E MB went into a Sliverstome RM46-502-I 4U case, with AMD 9950X3D CPU and Asus 5070TI OC GPU. Install and configuration instructions were minimal, with no documentation on POST issues or BIOS settings for UEFI Win 11 Pro install on NVME. Internet was no help with too many variations between MFG. MB Bios was at ver. 1203, so I had to scale back install to single RAM stick, 2TB Samsung Pro 990 NVME and hoped system stayed stable until chipset drivers could be loaded. Once loaded got caught in endless reboot loop with windows install wiped out until after Wifi chipset driver installed, then Windows update took over and system became stable enough to complete chipset. Drivers install to create a stabile system. About 24 hours to get the OS stabilized.As a followup after a few weeks of use, the required low profile CPU cooler, Noctua NH-D12L chromax.black was one of the few that allowed proper 4U case clearance and air flow through case. CPU Heat pipe stubs clear case cover by 4mm. Single 120mm CPU fan and at 1200 rpm, CPU at 95C with 30 CPU threads enabled, 10% overclock and 96% utilization during an hourlong 15000 x 12500 rendering run was woefully inadequate. With these high temps using only CPU to render, an AIO will be the better choice (cost is about the same as air CPU cooler) but max width and height for rear case radiator is 333mm x 140mm. An Artic Freezer III 280 fits the case and can dissipate up to 230W according to documentation. A 360mm radiator would will not fit the case, a 240mm does not have the heat dissipation capacity. Using RTX5070Ti 16GB OC 10% with 99% utilization on GPU 58C GPU temp , CPU remained at 76C with 10% utilization during same rendering run using open CL with the GPU only render taking about 10 minutes longer to render same image.An update 4-11-25: the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 280 was purchased and installed and found that the CPU block interfered with the ProArt M2 NVME quick release heat sink block. A 0.750"x0.5" x 1.25" chunk was machined from the NVME heat sink to allow M2 quick release to clear and snap into place. The same hour long 15000 x 12500 rendering run was used, CPU at 78C max with 30 CPU threads enabled, 10% overclock and 96% utilization with max 175W reported by Amour Crate during an hourlong rendering using only the CPU. Asus tech support was made aware of the NVME heatsink interference with a 3rd party AIO cooler. Suggested fix: Since the M2 quick release is near the GPU, there is enough clearance to remove the material along the complete length of the heatsink and add material to remaining heat sink to regain original heatsink disspation.Seems ready for Blender

I installed it on an AMD motherboard and I genuinely don't understand what most people were having trouble with; it really wasn't that difficult. The installation took a total of 20 minutes, but I do have some experience with this brands older models.9800x3d, 32g @6k cl32, 5080.This screenshot of Hwinfo is my pc running Cyberpunk 2077 at maximum settings, including ray tracing. 50c.. that's not bad.

No instructions in box. Had to youtube the instructions.

Arctic always has great aio's for a decent price but anyone using these in an itx case or have space constraints should really do your homework before buying. The issue comes with their rotatable 90's coming out of the pump/block. They do not rotate 360° and that causes issues with the hoses sticking out farther than the actually pump itself and of course you won't be able to close your case on a sfx build. They really only rotate about 180°, not sure why they designed it this way bc other models can twist all the way. We all know an extra half inch or so on a sfx build means the world in those builds. But performance is great especially for a 280mm.

Met expectation

Well, it’s an arctic product. What that means is that this aio cools incredibly well at a good price (7900x build). If I had one gripe with this cooler, it would have to be the mount for the block. It takes some time to get everything aligned and a good amount of pressure to screw it down tight. I also own the 360mm version of this cooler, and they both work great.

Pump is loud (more so with 3-way split connector, less so with single header cable). Even at idle, creates a loud "humm" harmonic.Fans are really loud, even at idle.Thicker radiator = more air pressure required. Cheap fans (like what are present here) have to be loud to generate this required pressure.VRAM fan is a gimmick. Only vreats additional noise, good case flow will perform same effect as this noisy little fan.Overall, you get what you pay for, and there is a reason it is so cheap.

This is my 3rd arctic AIO cooler, and so far they have been great. with the version 3 coolers though, they have substantially altered the mounting system by incorporating a flexible piece of metal into it to provide the contact tension, and quite frankly its kinda horrible. You need to apply A LOT OF DOWNWARD FORCE to get the screws on both sides to catch, and its danged NERVE WRACKING. Hearing a screw clank out of its location, switch to that one, screw on the other side pops out, etc... I was so afraid I'd crack the damned CPU or damage the motherboard. and because of the back and forth I probably dont have an even spread of paste.. 7800x3d seems to idle at about 44c at about 50 under moderate usage, hits low to middle 60's on some games... I'd suggest (ARCTIC), add screw threads to the bracket, you slide the cooler over, then use knurled knobs on each side to fasten it down, that way you could make the screws longer and you wouldnt have any issues. But anyways, I guess Dont Be Too Afraid To Apply Force, it seems to be ok. but its kinda a bad design (IMO) Good cooler though and it works great.