Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 240-240 mm AIO CPU Cooler, Water Cooling, 38 mm Radiator

Been building and using PC`s longer than most of the readers out there have alive. I have always used air coolers and again my latest build was with an air cooler. It did a great job at keeping a 9950x3d cool, but with some loading doing workstation task, the cpu temp started creeping up. My retired threadripper had air cooling, but it never suffered from heat creep during work. So, I did some research on AIO`s and particular the 240mm size because that's all I could fit in case. Saw the reviews for the Arctic coolers and I liked the design and the fact that the only difference with each model was the radiator and fan size or count. The price was also a plus. So here goes. Installation for the ASUS Crosshair X870E Hero had a problem right off the bat which were identified in the compatibility chart on Arctic`s website. Solution 1 was a new NVMe M.2 heatsink which they would provide for free with motherboard proof of purchase or 2, turn pump assembly 180 degrees. For now, I installed it 180 degrees like they recommended. Next install the AMD brackets, thermal paste which was MX-7 from the kit, and the PIA procedure of trying to bend leaf spring retainer enough the get the unit secured to the motherboard. So now it's done and I used the 3-plug cable assembly and hooked everything up per the recommendation from Arctic tech support. Make sure you install cable assembly to pump head before stating pump install. Went into Armory Crate and then tuned the fans. After running the system for a 1/2 hour at moderate load to seat the contact plate thermal paste to cpu surface, I performed another fan tuning. For a small 240mm cooler I am impressed with the little bugger. In reviews for this cpu reviewers say 280mm for smallest, 360mm cooler optimum for the 9950x3d for best cooling. From what I am seeing 75c under load is a pretty good result. My air cooler was good at 80c but was showing some temp creep. I also like that at high loads; this thing was actually not too noisy. This instructions and videos on Arctic`s website were excellent and helped a lot during install and setup. Customer tech support replied overnight which was impressive. So only issue I had was the install position of the pump head. Make sure before you buy this is to go to Arctic website and review the installation information and verify the pump head will mount without any conflicts with your motherboard. My ASUS M.2 heatsink is big and tall. This caused the issue. Arctic had the solution in their great install information so go there first. So, for now I am sold on this cooler. Time will tell how I feel. The other thing to make sure of now is to keep an eye on the complete system temps in case you need to add or remove or even change the fan size for your case cooling. Systems temps will change when you go from air cooling to aio cooling. So, I provided a pic so you can see how little room I have for cooler and my installation in my case. The reason for a 240mm rad system is my PC has 5.25" drives and front usb headers. If I didn't have those, I would have installed the 360mm version. My case is a Silverstone SETA D1. So, about a week later and now the MX-7 thermal paste has set and broke in, my temps are lower yet. Been running Cinebench r23 with the multitask test and this cooler keeps the 9950x3d sitting right at 65c. I am not into overclocking mainly because of why. I just spent a butt load on a new pc and really don`t feel like frying the cpu. Only setting different from default are I set memory to EXPO2 and PBO is still in auto. Tried ASUS AI overclocking and the whole pc heated up like heating pad. Turned that off and back to nice and cool and stable. That ASUS AI Overclocking needs a little work imo.

Ordinary Joe Blow · 2026-04-24 · via amazon

I've installed quite a few cooling systems in my years but this one did give me a little bit of trouble due to the packaging not coming with instructions. The video guide skips a few steps as well but once i figured it out, it went on like a glove. I got this for a 12th gen i7 cpu LGA 1700 and while trying to install the cooling plate onto the cpu, I was trying to turn it to optimize the hoses not hitting any other components which caused the plate to be upside down. Trying to install the plate upside down when the bracket is right side up makes it impossible to screw into (good design but wish there were some instructions that stated not to attempt it). Once i got it mounted and tightened up though, i fired up the computer and it was super quiet sitting at idle. I dont even notice the fan noise unless im stressing out the system and even then, they are quiet compared to my previous cooling system. I've overlocked my cpu to its max and tracked it using AI Suite 3. It's keeps my cpu at sub 90 F at idle and under 110 F at 100% load (video compression, gaming & streaming simultaneously) which is quite impressive for the price. I was a little skeptical about the quality of this because the box arrived heavily damaged and semi opened but its really sturdy and a great size for a mid size ATX tower.

Sergio Torres · 2026-01-18 · via amazon

This is a highly reviewed and rated aio cooler. Most people get it because of that. But having ran air coolers for decades, this is my first AIO, and I have several thoughts below. First of all - you don't need a water cooler unless your CPU draws lots of power, or you run extended CPU intensive things for extended durations. A good air cooler is more than sufficient. Spend more on water only adds to money and potential failure points. I ran an air cooler for almost 16 years and the fan still held strong. So why did I go AIO? For the novelty mostly, and because I applied thermal paste poorly in my last build and had higher temperature than I expected. By comparison, the AIO kept my CPU 10C cooler than my air cooler - due a combination of better thermal paste application, and it being a brand new, undirtied cooler. Some tips on getting the most mileage out of this unit. First, fan speed above 50% is loud. I set my fan curve in my bios to keep 50% until I hit 70C, which is very unlikely with my 5700X3D. Second, this device is noticeably louder than my air cooling setup. The reason being that the air cooler has top panels to deaden the noise, while this exposes the whole case to sound. For an easier install on AMD, do not tighten down the side brackets first. You'll need to secure the cooler to them first, and the extra little leeway will make your life much easier. And there's a backplate to your motherboard that you will screw into -- do not unscrew everything at once. The backplate will fall out, requiring you to reattach it. Instead, remove just one side and attach a bracket from this kit. It'll save you a lot of time. Finally - this does cool very well. At 50% fan speed, the noise is pretty acceptable. Overall - only buy if you need the extra cooling. These things wear out, so 6 years is probably time to get another one, vs 16 years on my air cooler. But if you do want to try this out, it's a pretty good product.

AnotherUser · 2025-08-03 · via amazon

People saying it's quiet are either lying or doing very light tasks. When the fans kick on it gets LOUD. However, it does a good job of cooling. So far has kept my 7800X3D around 60°C while gaming. Does not include instructions so you have to look up a guide (includes a QR code to a video that wasn't very good). Regardless, it was a PAIN to install.

Rue · 2026-05-03 · via amazon

I bought this for my Intel i7 11700k that was using a traditional ThermalTake cooler. It was running so hot that the computer would shut off to protect itself. Running HWMonitor it showed that the CPU cores would frequently hit 100 degrees (C). I tried cleaning the processor and re-applying thermal compound, which made it slightly better. Once the new cooler was installed the CPU runs at about 25-30 degrees when idle and has so far peaked at 63 degrees under load. Had I not seen the before and after with my own eyes I would have a hard time believing that a cooler could have such a huge impact. Dropping 35-40 degrees is significany, so say the least. It was easy to fit inside my case and the quality of the build is excellent. One thing I will say is that the cooler has two options for power, one uses a single fan header and the other uses three for individual fan controls. Make sure you have enough fan headers for the application you prefer. Very quiet operations so far, even under load.

Anders · 2026-01-19 · via amazon

MSI

Not tracked at this retailer

Newegg (Open Box)

Not tracked at this retailer

VALUE SCORE

Price

$20

Price

$46.07