Arctic Dips Into Liquid CPU Cooler Market With Two Liquid Freezers

Arctic is a company that's been making CPU and GPU coolers for a long time, having only recently started with liquid coolers for graphics cards. Today, the company strikes a new product line: Its first all-in-one water coolers for CPUs.

Even though Arctic is rather late to the all-in-one CPU water cooling world, the offerings actually look very promising. The two products in question are the Liquid Freezer 120 and Liquid Freezer 240, and you've already guessed, these are coolers with 120 mm and 240 mm radiators, respectively.

Arctic didn't provide too many details on the pump of the loops, but we do know that it has a top-down fluid flow that enters the microchannel structure in the cold plate from the middle, which reduces hydraulic restriction and increases thermal transfer. Arctic also boasted that the pump uses just 2 W of power, but all that means is that it isn't very powerful. Don't let that statement scare you though; a 2 W pump is more than plenty for a simple closed loop such as this one.

The 120 mm unit has a thick (49 mm) radiator, which in combination with the two 120 mm fans gives the unit heaps of cooling power in its compact size. Arctic claimed that the maximum cooling power sits at 300 W, but it recommends that you load it no further than 250 W. Of course, good luck actually finding a processor that requires such cooling power these days.

The radiator on the 240 mm unit is 38 mm thick, which isn't quite as extraordinary. Regardless, Arctic fitted it with not two, but four 120 mm fans in a push-pull configuration, which bumps the performance numbers for this unit up to a maximum of 350 W, with a recommended maximum of 300 W.

As mentioned, the fans are 120 mm units, and they are capable of spinning at speeds between 500 and 1350 RPM with PWM control. Their hub has a fluid dynamic bearing, and they consume no more than 0.25 A. We don't know the pressure level of the fans, but based on their appearance (many, but smaller blades), we would guess that they strike a balance between airflow and pressure. In an unrestricted environment, they can push up to 74 CFM and make about 22.5 dBA of noise when doing so. Of course, put more fans together with a pump, and you'll get a little more noise.

Arctic includes a tiny sachet of MX-4 thermal paste with each cooler, along with mounting hardware for both AMD and Intel sockets.

Pricing sits at $99.99 for the Liquid Freezer 120 and at $129.99 for the Liquid Freezer 240. These prices are a little on the steep side for 120 and 240 mm all-in-one liquid coolers, but they're not too shabby if you consider the kit included.

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Niels Broekhuijsen has been with Tom's Hardware since 2012, and works as a Contributing Editor on the news team. He covers mostly hardware, components, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Outside of work, he likes to travel, cook, and fix things that are broken.

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