Arctic Liquid Freezer 240 CPU Cooler Review
In-the-know cooling enthusiast use thick radiators and fan sandwich configurations to boost cooling without altering a case. What happens when a value cooling brand leverages both of these concepts into a 120x240mm, sub-$100, closed-loop kit?
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Test Method, Results And Analysis
We retain the hardware configuration from previous big cooler reviews to maintain result consistency.
Some of Arctic’s toughest closed-loop competition comes from Chinese brands with an American presence, both on the pricing and performance scale. ID-Cooling’s Frostflow 240L for example has proven itself formidable even against units priced up to 50% higher, and the Gamer Storm Captain 240 is no slouch either. Rather than create a false value narrative by comparing under-performing expensive models, we’re throwing the Liquid Freezer 240 right up against those two best-value models.
Liquid CPU Cooler Specifications
Arctic’s two-year warranty resembles those of ID-Cooling and Deepcool (Gamer Storm), but only at first blush. According to Arctic’s website: "ARCTIC does not offer a manufacturer warranty." Warranty returns are at the discretion of the seller, and Arctic is responsible to the seller (its direct customer) when a product is found defective. Buyers can expect no assistance when the seller refuses to act as an intermediary (or goes out of business).
[Update: Arctic contacted us to let us know that it has changed its warranty policy. Its new RMA instructions can be found at https://www.arctic.ac/de_en/rma/.]
Test Results
Thanks to its thick radiator and airflow-boosting fan-sandwich configuration, the Liquid Freezer 240 beats even the unbelievably cool Frostflow 240L in our thermal test. It even wins in its worst-performing configuration.
You may have also noticed that the Liquid Freezer 240 performs better when set as exhaust. Once again we’re going to ignore the miniscule impact of rising heat and instead credit the lower pressure difference, since our front fans are always tested as intakes.
While it appears that the fan speed actually goes down when the Liquid Freezer 240 is mounted as exhaust, the measurements on the charts are only coming from the fastest layer of fans. Our test notes show that while the fastest fan slowed from 1560 to 1420 RPM, the slowest fan sped up from 1340 to 1420 RPM.
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The Liquid Freezer 240 is always quieter than either the Frostflow 240L or the Captain 240. Higher noise in its top-intake configuration is likely due to windage, as fan blades that are close to a case’s vent holes create a whistling noise as they pass each hole. When mounted as exhaust, fan frames act as spacers to prevent that noise.
Acoustic Efficiency, or the comparison of temperature to noise, is the true measure of a cooler’s overall performance. Arctic’s Liquid Freezer 240 destroys its rivals.
While we didn't include the Liquid Freezer 240's oversized rivals in the charts of this review, it outperforms them all, even making its higher price (by about $10) worth it. And, remembering that the coolers we compared directly in this review are some of the cheapest high-performance parts available, the Liquid Freezer 240 is still cheaper than most of its other rivals.
Astounding performance superiority easily opens the Liquid Freezer 240 to our elite “Editor’s Choice” award, but would this editor actually choose it? Unfortunately, its 3.6” thickness doesn’t fit any of my cases! I even had to offset it within the case of our own test machine, using vent holes rather than mounting holes to secure the radiator and fan sandwich. We have, however, tested cases with fairly severe default radiator offset, and those cases allow the cooler to hang well past the top of the motherboard and even below the tops of some memory modules.
Normally a fitment issue like that might exclude a product from making our “Recommended” list, yet the relatively broad availability of cases with significant radiator offset makes the case against this award less clear. Two things are clear in that buyers get superior cooling for under $100, and that warranty replacement is at the discretion of the seller. Thus, I’m recommending that new system builders keep this cooler in mind when choosing a case, and restricting its recommendation to cases that support it when purchased from trustworthy sellers.
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IceMyth "Warranty available only through seller" is enough reason not to buy this cooler if you want to stick with the exact same amount 73.2$!Reply -
Crashman Reply
AC has a web store if you don't mind paying the extra $10 to order direct. And Newegg will probably be around in two years as well, but their direct sale is also $10 extra. So I guess that means "pay $10 extra for warranty assurance".18572577 said:"Warranty available only through seller" is enough reason not to buy this cooler if you want to stick with the exact same amount 73.2$!
If you're really concerned about lower-priced sellers, the cooler is probably nice enough to pay for that.
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n0ns3ns3 the thickness is easily solved by using only 2 fans.Reply
other two are bonus and con be used anywhere else. -
g-unit1111 Reply18572577 said:"Warranty available only through seller" is enough reason not to buy this cooler if you want to stick with the exact same amount 73.2$!
Agreed, major deal breaker there. -
RomeoReject Even only using two fans still leaves the unit about a half inch thicker than its rivals, which can be a pain. I have the x61 Kraken, and its juuuust thin enough not to interfere with my things. That half an inch would totally screw me.Reply -
n0ns3ns3 ^ i'd probably use this one if i needed thin AiOReply
http://www.alphacool.com/shop/sets-und-systems/20225/alphacool-eisbaer-240-cpu-black
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Eggz Shouldn't it be illegal to call these CPU cooler things like "freezer," "chili," "frozen," "cold," etc. unless they actually produce cold like a refrigerator does? All of these coolers are actually warm at about 100F when operating, even if they do a very good job of cooling the CPU like this unit does.Reply -
LookItsRain Reply18574009 said:Shouldn't it be illegal to call these CPU cooler things like "freezer," "chili," "frozen," "cold," etc. unless they actually produce cold like a refrigerator does? All of these coolers are actually warm at about 100F when operating, even if they do a very good job of cooling the CPU like this unit does.
Its part of their naming scheme, if your stupid enough to take the name 100% literally, well, should it be illegal to be that stupid in the first place?. -
10tacle As a long time high end air cooler builder, I found the results of the exhaust vs. intake temp setup interesting even though they were only a degree apart. It reminded me of the minor but noticeable temp performance difference when I tested my 4690K build with my Antec Nine Hundred case side door off vs. side door on (runs cooler with the side door on and sealed).Reply
I believe it has something to do with that dude named Bernoulli. ;)