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

Upgraded system from Ryzen 5900X to 9900X. I don't overclock or game much, but 9900X set for higher TDP in BIOS. Initially reused old 240mm AIO (Corsair H100i Pro). Idle temp was ~50 C and 95+ C under heavy video editing with some throttling - needed to upgrade AIO too.Pros:Fantastic price of $86 can't be beat.Same system with 280mm Arctic idles in high 30's C and only hits mid-high 70's C under same load. That's 20C cooler under load! and no throttling.Supplied fans cool fantastically, yet can barely be heard under full load (1650 rpm)The Arctic components are impressively built. All parts HD and well finished. The AMD mounting was easy to install. Out of box everything setup for top of case install - nothing to change.Minor Cons:No install documentation provided - Web only and cannot be downloaded - had to view on another device during install.My case was "approved" (Corsair 4000D Airflow), but everything was very tight. Fan wires and memory modules inaccessible after radiator in place.Hoses are stiff - had to restrain with big tie wrap to allow case door to be put back.Pump speed reporting whacky - out of box showed 4000-4800 rpm? Had to dial-in a 0.6 adj factor to get readings to 2800 max.If it will fit, highly recommend this AIO for hot CPUs

First package came destroyed with missing parts, sent it back and got a new one from Amazon and it was great!I didn’t double check clearance and had to front mount it in my PC with 3 exhaust fans. I have an AMD 7600X cpu with an ASUS ROG GTX 4060, and playing most games my cpu stays around 50 degrees if not less. Couldn’t be happier, and curious to see how much better it’d be if it was top mounted!Installation: Was my first time installing a cpu cooler like this, and it was very easy to follow instructions. I did have to flip the fans since it was front mounted but again VERY simple as long as you follow directions.Picture doesn’t include my graphics card in it, but it had enough space for a triple fan to fit. Towers is a Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case for reference.

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

Purchase the 280mm pro version. Glad I’d waited because it only came in 240mm and 360mm AIO couple months ago. Keep my CPU temps below 70c while gaming. AIO was able to fit into Ncase M2 with the vrm cover on. Very tight fit but just enough room.Cons: installation was annoying at first depending on motherboard. This will interfere with the m.2 ssd heatsink. I had to remove it and purchase lower profile m.2 heatsink.Tubes are much stiffer than the original model.Overall, very happy with the AIO. Please make sure your case and motherboard is compatible before purchasing.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Absolutely quiet even under load. Keeps my i7 12700kf at 30c-35c at idle and only gets to 77c-84c under full load.

Really shows you don't need all these bells and whistles and needing to spend a whole lot on amazing performance. Keeps my 5800x3D nice and cool even under extreme workloads.

Amazing cooler, phenomenal performance. Can keep a Ryzen 9 9950x cool and performing beyond spec

This thing is way too bulky! Even the fans are bulky! Not to mention that its nearly impossible mounting this on your CPU. Very risky doing so, almost damaged my 7950x3d trying to install this $100 aio. Doesn't fit the Coolermaster nr200p v2 without buying thinner fans. This was my first Artic product and I'm completely let down. Also, not taking GamersNexus as a viable review channel now that I've experienced this product which he was praising.