ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 280 – Water Cooling PC, All-in-One
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 280 – Water Cooling PC, All-in-One CPU AIO Water Cooler, Intel & AMD compatible, efficient PWM-controlled pump, fan: 200-1700 rpm, LGA1851 and LGA1700 Contact Frame – Black
60 mm fan in CPU block
Active cooling in the socket area
Enables a continuously higher load and a longer service life of the voltage converters.
Replaces the standard ILM
Contact Pressure Distribution LGA1851 | LGA1700
Minimal mechanical stress on the CPU and mainboard and improved cooling efficiency.
5 mm offset coldplate
Centring on CPU hotspot
Better temperatures on AMD’s multi-die chip design thanks to vertically offset mounting.
23 % larger finstack
More surface area – more power
Consistently lower temperatures due to optimisation of the internal structure of the 38 mm radiator.
Two control modes
Complete control or simple control
Individual control of pump/VRM fan/radiator fan or all via one connection.
Integrated Cable ManagementCables for the radiator fans are integrated into the sleeving, it means that only the plugs on the pump head need to be connected to the mainboard, separate cabling of fans is therefore not necessary.
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />Optimised, In-House Developed Water PumpEquipped with a newly developed PWM-controlled pump, optimised in terms of performance and volume, as well as a coldplate with an extended fin surface and improved water ducts.
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />Technical Specifications
| Compatibillity | Intel Socket: 1851, 1700; AMD Socket: AM5, AM4; Promise: 6 Years; Operating Ambient Temperature: 0-40 °C |
| Pump/Cold Plate | VRM Fan: 400–2500 rpm (PWM controlled); Pump: 800–2800 rpm (PWM controlled); Cold Plate: Copper, Micro Skived Fins; Thermal Paste: MX-6 (0.8 g) |
| Fan | Fan: 2x ARCTIC P14 PWM (black); Fan Speed: 200–1700 rpm (PWM-controlled) (0 rpm below 5% PWM); Fan Bearing: Fluid Dynamic Bearing; Current: 0,12 A | 12 V DC; Airflow: 72.8 cfm | 123.76 m³/h; Static Pressure: 2,4 mmH₂O; Connector: 4-Pin PWM-Connector |
| Size & Weight | Radiator: 317 (L) x 138 (W) x 38 (H) mm; Tube Diameter: Outer: 12,4 mm | Inner: 6,0 mm; Tube Length: 450 mm; Weight: 1705 g |
Liquid Freezer III Series in comparison
 LF III 280, black |  LF III 280 A-RGB, black |  LF III 280 A-RGB, white |  LF III 240, black |  LF III 360 A-RGB, black |  LF III 420 A-RGB, white | |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,164 | 4.4 out of 5 stars 536 | 4.4 out of 5 stars 536 | 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,685 | 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,246 | 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 |
| Price | £60.82 | £71.60 | £73.14 | £53.89 | £76.99 | £84.69 |
| Intel Socket | 1851, 1700 | 1851, 1700 | 1851, 1700 | 1851, 1700 | 1851, 1700 | 1851, 1700 |
| AMD Socket | AM5, AM4 | AM5, AM4 | AM5, AM4 | AM5, AM4 | AM5, AM4 | AM5, AM4 |
| A-RGB-LEDs | / | 12x per fan 12x VRM module | 12x per fan 12x VRM module | / | 12x per fan 12x VRM module | 12x per fan 12x VRM module |
| Fan | 2x ARCTIC P14 PWM | 2x ARCTIC P14 PWM A-RGB | 2x ARCTIC P14 PWM A-RGB | 2x ARCTIC P12 PWM | 3x ARCTIC P12 PWM A-RGB | 3x ARCTIC P14 PWM A-RGB |
| Fan Speed | 200 – 1700 rpm | 200 – 1900 rpm | 200 – 1900 rpm | 200 – 1800 rpm | 200 – 2000 rpm | 200 – 1900 rpm |
| RGB Connector | / | 3-Pin A-RGB-Connector | 3-Pin A-RGB-Connector | / | 3-Pin A-RGB-Connector | 3-Pin A-RGB-Connector |
| Tube Length | 450 mm | 450 mm | 450 mm | 450 mm | 450 mm | 450 mm |
| Dimensions (Radiator) | 317 (L) x 138 (W) x 38 (H) mm | 317 (L) x 138 (W) x 38 (H) mm | 317 (L) x 138 (W) x 38 (H) mm | 277 (L) x 120 (W) x 38 (H) mm | 398 (L) x 120 (B) x 38 (H) mm | 458 (L) x 138 (W) x 38 (H) mm |
| Weight | 1705 g | 1765 g | 1765 g | 1460 g | 1870 g | 2325 g |
| Weight: | 1.7 kg |
| Dimensions: | 31.7 x 13.8 x 3.8 cm; 1.7 Kilograms |
| Brand: | ARCTIC |
| Model: | ACFRE00135A |
| Colour: | black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | ARCTIC |
| Dimensions: | 31.7 x 13.8 x 3.8 cm; 1.7 Kilograms |
Arctic have done it again with there amazing liquid cooler! upgrading from Arctic Freezer II they made some good changes that make it just that better and compared to other AIO’s which can cost double the price which don’t always have the best temps or it sounds too loud
Really good cooling — one of the best I have had; it easily beats some of the 360mm AIOs I have used. However, the only issue is that the cooler is slightly thicker than other AIOs, which means I have to use the cooler in the front instead of the top.
bought this to replace a corsair cooler that broke after 4 months and have had no issues with it, was much easier to install as radiator and fans came as a pre-assembled unit. I have my pc on pretty much 24/7 and get great performance with this
Nice, quiet cooler for a good price point.
Biggest detractors were the slight juggling getting it into my case (mileage may vary) and after 21 months it was making a bit of a noise, for me to bop my chassis (gently) and a fan fell out. Put the fan back in (didn’t even turn the PC off) and it started back up again.
If it’s anything like my PSU, this cooler might outlive my AM5 upgrade!
I’ve top-mounted it in a Phanteks P500A and this is where the only warning about buying this cooler comes in. The radiator for this cooler is thicker than most other brands (which helps the performance) and if you want to mount it in the top of your case you’ll have to be careful about the case, motherboard and RAM combination you go with. I bought the cooler before other components and it ended up driving my choice of case, which was a bit of a pain.
First of all the radiator is thicker than corsairs radiators you get the little extra cooling fan and the fans are of equal quality to the Corsair ones yet it’s much cheaper when replacing a 4year old corsair hi15 water cooler only noticed a few degrees drop when this was installed so out the box it performs better than a used Corsair water cooler and it’s cheap
Great value for money, easy to follow instructions (once you scan a QR code), do need to grow a 3rd hand to install it all but other than that great! I have it on a 5600x in a lian li o11 air mini; keeps my cpu around 30-40 idle/light work loads, 50 when gaming. Have my fans on quiet profile though
CPU = AMD 5800X
Before:
My previous corsair cooler would top out at 90c in winter if the room was cool and would Idle around 48c.
Sometimes AC Valhalla would just crash.
Cinebench score of 5200.
After:
Had the fireplace on and Temps were at 72c Max.
When Cinebench stopped, it went down to 35c while the fire was going.
Valhalla is rock solid in a warm fireplace lit room.
Cinebench score 5900 – because the CPU was no longer throttling itself.
Absolutely nuts.
Installation:
Was a bit Janky as my Large case did not have wide enough front mounting holes for this massive cooler.
The front air flow is bad but still this cooler is smashing the temps.
Had to get my son to hold the backplate with a hand while I shone my phone torch in to align the screws.
But!!
I made a mistake once it was installed.
My mistake was that I left the plastic on the cooler and even then it was cooling exactly as it did with my rubbish air cooler, WITH THE PLASTIC ON.
I needed to remove and apply it again and that process took 3 minutes as the holes guide the cooler into the socket so that you dont have to stress about failing and then reapplying the thermal paste.
Be careful about orienting the pipes below when front mounting so that you never get air going to the pump.
I heard gurgling for about 2 seconds, temps went up and once the gurgling was gone the temps were super low so really,
Watch the GamersNexus video on how to orient this stuff if you have never done it.
When under high load I would hear the pump sometimes even when I had my headphones in, I changed the pump power to 55% unless the CPU reaches 75 in my bios and it’s worked out great.
My i5-12600k runs around 25-30 ambient and max 55 under load, impressive stuff!
Great value for money. Performance to prioce is very high and it is very quiet. The thickness of the radiator and the compatibility issues with the LGA1700, the former of which made it difficult to mount it to the top of the case. Had to find a manual on the internet to deal with the LGA1700 issue which was not easy but a solution was found. Works well. Very pleased with it.
It never makes much or if any noise I have it with 2 other fans in a push-pull configuration though I don’t think it needs it. My cpu is an AMD Ryzen 3800X, it cools that just fine. Maybe I buy led fans for it one day. Definitely would recommend buying it this one, ( it’s a 280mm radiator).
There is no doubt that this is well made. It is in my build and working fine and cpu temp is hovering arround 30 degs under light load. I dropped a star as you cannot separate pump from cpu fans. This I would have been better if the fans and pump were separate so that the PC software could control the temperature and be even more quieter.
My original plan was to mount it on the top of my case, but that was quickly foiled when I found out that the radiator made contact with my motherboard, let alone the fans on the radiator. This was my fault though, and I did manage to install it on the front of my case and it works great with my ryzen 5 5600x. Recommend but make sure you have enough clearance!
i saw online that my cpu gets to 90 degrees and i was due for an upgrade as my old motherboard failed so instead of using my old corsair h100i v2 which was peaking at 80 degrees on my i7 6700k i choose to get this AIO.
Now I am yet to break 70 degrees which is very good considering it is known this CPU gets hot. it ideals around 40-50 for me but it’s most likely because I didn’t split the fans and the pump so the pump slows down. i intend to change this when I am bothered.
For the 5000 series, it comes with the latest bracket and it didn’t make it know in the description so I was thinking I have to wait a week or two for a support ticket but it was not needed as it comes in the box.
An suberb cooler. I decided to go for a cooler that is built for performance rather than gimmicks i.e RGB & fancy screens. The noise level is minimal and even when the fans kick in for high temperatures it’s not that loud.
Tricky to install however. I had to Google several videos for the version I had and I still had a little trouble installing it but I got there in the end.
Good value for money because it’s ignored all the fancy stuff and went for pure performance in mind. I won’t be second guessing myself about this cooler for a long time.
My full tower has space for 280 rads in the top, but the problem is with the fans and rad it is too deep and gets in the way of most coolers on higher end motherboards. I would stick with a normal 2 x 120 size or 3 x 120 unless you have plenty of room in the top of the case. I tweaked the cooler on my motherboard and it just fits and is doing a great job of keeping my ryzen 7 nice and cool.
This cooler is not compatible with Asus x570 ROG Strix motherboard. My unit was a rev 3 and this mounting mechanism is not compatible with this motherboard because it is interfering with the capacitors on the left of the CPU. I am waiting for more than 10 days now for Arctic support team to respond. Because of this issue temps are not great, but I hope I will get a rev 4 mounting kit.
UPDATE
After 15 days they responded and were very helpful. They sent the rev 4 kit(offset position is now compatible)+ some new paste. Temps are looking great and it is much easier to mount the cooler now with this new revision.
Purchased this AIO after reading numerous excellent reviews, the only negative that I really came across was the installation on AMD AM4. I’ve yet to install this AIO as I’m awaiting a GPU (Whenever stock becomes available..), however after reading there was a revision 3 (Rev 2 with this purchase) with regards to easier mounting for AMD, I emailed Arctic Customer service enquiring on how I can get hold of the rev 3 brackets. With proof of Purchase/Invoice, Arctic are now mailing me the Rev3 brackets free of charge. Excellent. Thank you Arctic.
First of all its a great AIO cooler, the temps at idle for my 3900X are about 25deg and under load abut 60 peak. The profile of the rad is a little thicker than the norm, so it didnt fit my case as an exhaust (motherboard VRM heatsink was too high) which in that case was width and it took some fanagling to get in as an intake. The fans are pre mounted and had to be flipped for intake, this was easy and the fans are daisy chained and tuck under the mountinf screws to stay flush with the fans shroud. Overall its a great cooler, one star off for the cpu mounting brackets, if you try to mount with the case vertical you need three hands (think they have fixed in newer models).
Ambient temp 21-22c.
Stock cooler | 3700x & PBO: 4800 multi, 510 single
Liquid Freezer | 3700x & PBO: 5073 multi, 524 single
During gaming it’s way quieter, cooler and average frequency is 50-100mhz higher. It never dips below 4.3 ghz when heavy gaming, light gaming and web browsing boost to 4400-4500mhz (autoOC 150mhz).
Top tip, install the radiator first for easier installation. The radiator is very thick so make sure it fits in your case before purchasing, I didn’t check that properly and now I have to use cable ties as a temporary fix.
No completely silent, but nothing ever really is it seems. Still, this is a very quiet cooler that does a very good job. However, this radiator is quite a bit thicker than those from other manufacturers, so please make sure it fits your case before committing to it! My system temperatures during heavy usage are way down with this Arctic unit compared to my previous Gamer Storm 120mm unit that this replaces. So much quieter as well, which was my main reason for purchasing. I certainly would recommend these all in one coolers from Arctic!
This cooler is amazing. It costs a fraction of some of the “big name” coolers from other companies, and yet can beat all of the other 240/280mm coolers, and can beat a lot of 360mm ones as well.
It looks unassuming, and comes in some pretty plain packaging but don’t let that fool you, this is the real deal when it comes to high performing, and quiet, closed-loop AiO’s. It did an amazing job keeping my 10900K cool, I only switched it out for a 360 AiO because I wanted some RGB. If I was going for a stealth install I’d for sure get this again.