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Modern AMD & Intel CPUs are designed to run fairly hot without any problems– up to 95 degrees Celsius for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, and up to 100 degrees C for Intel’s Core i9-13900K. Similar behavior has been standard in laptops for years due to cooling limitations in cramped chassis. Thermal imaging from our FLIR ONE Pro camera shows moderate heat soak around the radiator sides and within coolant tubing at 50% fan speed, while 100% fan speed shows good regulation and exchange of thermal load. Given that the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 runs so quietly, operating the unit with a good PWM curve should allow for aggressive fan speed without excess system noise. While it was fairly easy with previous generations of CPUs for coolers to keep the flagship i9 processor well under TJ max (the maximum temperature a CPU can sustain without throttling) in tough workloads, this is no longer realistically possible with the Core i9-13900K without extreme cooling (or enabling power limits). While in the past a CPU hitting its peak temperature was cause for concern, enthusiasts are going to have to learn to accept high temperatures as “normal” while running demanding workloads with Raptor Lake and Ryzen 7000 CPUs.
This configuration allows me to monitor and control fan speeds and curves. The pump speed is completely obfuscated because I have a v2, but it is plugged into the AIO port on my mobo so should be getting 100% power. In addition to testing Cinebench without power limits enforced, we’ll also be showing results when the CPU’s power consumption is limited to a more reasonable 200W. We’ll also show results at 125W for those who prefer whisper-quiet cooling, at the cost of some performance. For both of these results, we’ll show traditional delta over ambient temperature results. The next is that this AIO actually concerns itself with cooling the motherboard VRMs and not just the CPU. Unlike most, the Liquid Freezer II 360 comes with a secondary (or to be accurate quaternary) cooling fan that actively cools your motherboard’s VRM heatsink(s). Yes, this is not the first to do so, but it is very rare. The vast, vast majority of AIOs do not.A) it would greatly benefit from upgraded high static pressure fans and/or a push/pull fan configuration The VRM fan clearly does something, and temperature improvements will follow the more even FPM on either side of the VRM heatsink, but we also want to be clear that a top-mounted radiator would also benefit the VRM. This is something we simulate in our test setup. VRM Thermals
B) it will be difficult to run a push/pull due to the sheer size of the radiator depending on your case. I BARELY got it all to fit. This shows the delta in height, measured in microns, from a calibrated 0-point. The A500’s box plot shows the largest range, illustrating the chaotic levelness that hurt its performance, while the Deepcool Assassin III and original Wraith coolers have some of the best levelness. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II averaged about 8-10 microns depth from the 0-point, with minimums and maximums at 2 microns and 48 microns. The Liquid Freezer II has a couple deep points in the coldplate, but is overall closer to the smooth end than the unlevel end. Installation & Mounting Edit: and yes, similar to OP, I am OCD and need to have every fan in my case match (noctua for me). The increased cooling challenges posed by Raptor Lake mean that we’ve had to change some of the ways we test coolers. Some coolers were able to pass Cinebench R23 multicore testing with Intel’s 12th Gen i9-12900K when power limits were removed (although only the strongest models were able to pass that test).
Motherboard Compatibility
The nature of a review cycle (while a product is relevant) typically dictates that there’s no means to realistically test for endurance or age. We can revisit in the future if needed, but that’s the only question mark left after the review process: Arctic’s pump design is new, something we’ll look at in our tear-down video coming up shortly, and a new design means we have no reference point for endurance and reliability. In general, liquid coolers outlive the usable life of the system, and potentially two systems, but those that fail do so in a much more visible or catastrophic fashion. Failures are overall rare, however, and that’s always important to note. We’ll send you to our Air vs. Liquid cooler content for more of an explanation on this front. Arctic has built, thus far, a good product. We need to see how it does long-term, as Enermax has scared us away from firm recommendations on thermals alone. We would recommend the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 as a go-to solution over competing liquid coolers, based on thermal and acoustic performance, although we’d also note that most proven (e.g. Asetek, CoolIT) coolers will perform similarly. If you want RGB LEDs, you’re mostly just paying more for them, but should be in the ballpark for performance.
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