Introduction
We've seen RGB take the market by storm, with manufacturers stapling these multi-coloured LEDs to everything hey can get their hands on. It now seems that all-in-one CPU coolers aren't able to escape this treatment. Arctic AIO's being no exception. Within this review, we're going to look at the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB, a 240mm all-in-one watercooling solution to keep your CPU cool while also remaining quiet. AIO coolers from Arctic is nothing new, however, the inclusion of RGB is. Included with the radiator and pump is a pair of 120mm P12 PWM PST RGB fans, renowned for their quiet operation and high static pressure, two qualities which should make them ideal for forcing air through a radiator. Read on to see how it fares.
The Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB is an all in one (AIO) CPU cooler that is designed to work on a wide variety of sockets. These include Intel's LGA 1150/1151/1155/1156/1200/1366/2011/2066 and AMD's AM2/AM3/AM4/strR/sTRX4. This range covers most high-end desktop processors on the market today.
Packaging & Contents
ARCTIC's retail packaging for the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB is quite compact when you consider that there is a full AIO system within. The cardboard box offers a matte finish, with a black and navy blue illustration of the cooler on the front panel. A 6-year warranty label is also included on the front of the box, which should give potential customers ease of mind when considering this AIO for purchase.
On the sides and back we have an specification table and some additional information, but in the form of a QR code that will take us to the instructions.
The Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB came well-packaged, sheathed in plastic wrapping around tight-fitting cardboard. While not as snug as if it were shipped in styrofoam, it's unlikely that damage would occur to the cooler in shipping.
As with any AIO cooler, the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB comes packed with all of the mounting hardware you need for both Intel and AMD systems. This includes multiple sets of screws, standoffs, mounting clips, brackets, etc.
Together with the installation hardware, Arctic has included a syringe of their MX-5 thermal compound.
A Closer Look
As the product name implies, the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB is a 240mm AIO. As with most current AIOs, the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB combines a CPU water block and pump unit connected via braided cooling lines to a radiator. An all-black design has been applied to the radiator with Arctic branding on the top and bottom edges of the radiator. Around the outer border of the radiator is a matte black shroud, typical of AIOs, and along the long sides of the shroud is the ARCTIC logo and nameplate in chrome. Moving on to the CPU combination unit, we have a quite different looking design when compared to other modern examples. An almost stealth-looking design has been chosen for the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB's cooler, with the mostly black plastic casing being quite angular and aggressive looking.
Preinstalled on the cooler are two 120mm P12 PWM PST RGB fans, arranged in the push configuration. Luckily, for those looking to switch to a pull configuration, swapping the fans around is quite simple. An Arctic A logo is applied to the central hub of the fans with RGB lighting in sight, which is a refreshing change. The fans have anti-vibration rubber pads on both sides.
The P12 PWM PST RGB support dynamic fluid bearing and a listed fan speed of 200 to 1,800 RPM on their specs at a reported noise level of 0.3 Sone. The stated airflow is 48 CFM with a static pressure of 1.85 mm H2O.
Regarding its lighting system, it has backlit with RGB diodes. It is compatible with major plate lighting technologies such as Asus AURA Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light, and ASRock Polychrome RGB.
All the cables for powering the fans or the backlight are led under the braid together with the hoses, and the power supply of the complete AIO is one 4-pin PWM cable for the fan and one 4-pin RGB cable.
The Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB measuring 277 x 120 x 38mm. Taking a look at the radiator, we have an aluminum construction with a 38mm thickness, which is on the thick side when compared to most AIOs. This additional thickness has been paired up with a fins-per-inch spacing of 14FPI. This wider fin spacing will allow air to flow though the thicker radiator much easier than it would if the fins were closer together. Wide fin spacing and a thicker radiator allows the fans to spin a bit slower in order to push the same amount of air through the radiator, which helps keep the noise level down. While great for performance, this thickness might cause problems for installation.
Exiting from the top of the cooling unit are the two braided cooling lines, again connected via crimped connections. They have an OD/ID of 12.4/6.0mm. The barb fittings have aluminum covers on the radiator and the block which look good in person. These cooling lines are 450mm in length and their black and white sleeving provides protection and better looks than plain tubing, which we don't really see much of anymore. Unfortunately, these connections are static, and do not offer any rotation, which makes installation a bit more tricky when you try to twist and maneuver the components in your case. This isn't a deal-breaker, but we would have loved to see swivel fittings here.
The Liquid Freezer II RGB Series features an all-new, in-house developed PWM-controlled pump for improved efficiency, low power usage, and quiet operation. Unlike most pumps, which run at full load even when idle, ARCTIC's pump is able to slow down and reduce noise even further when not under heavy loads. The CPU block is made of plastic, and there's the manufacturer's logo on it. The pump has a working frequency between 800 and 2000rpm. The water block has a copper base, with dimensions of 98 mm (L) x 78 mm (W) x 53 mm (H).
The next most interesting part of this AIO is the inclusion of a 40mm PWM VRM cooling fan on the cooling unit with a speed that varies between 1000 - 3000 RPM. We have seen fans mounted to cooling units before, but they have always felt like an afterthought. The way ARCTIC designed the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB's fan makes perfect sense, with the opening on the top of the blower-style fan to pull in air, and multiple fins surrounding the fan to direct air towards your motherboard's VRMs. This is especially helpful in liquid cooled systems, as you would typically have a bit of airflow that reaches the VRM heatsinks when using a standard air cooler.
After removing the protective sticker, we can see that the copper base has a satin finish to it, and is mostly free of any machining markings. Also seen on the bottom of the cooler is the wiring for the 40mm VRM fan, which routs along the bottom, and the PWM cable that provides motherboard connectivity and power to the pump, VRM fan, and radiator fans. Overall, nothing about this unit feels cheap or prone to breaking, which should calm any reservations that one might usually have when it comes to liquid cooling.
Installation Process
When installing the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB, users will need to first prepare the backplate. Slide the screws into the right slot on the backplate to then use the washers to secure them. At this point, you can position the backplate on the motherboard.
Next, use the washers and standoffs to secure the backplate to the motherboard.
Then secure the mounting arms to the standoffs.
Threaded holes are provided for thumb nuts on the cooler mounting bridge. With this, the heatsink itself is now properly secured.
The final and easy bit is to plug it into the fan header. That's it, all done.
When it comes to pure looks, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB's LEDs provide a nice touch that should look good in any system. The 12V RGB lighting looks pleasant in person and is not overly done, to my liking. Here are some pictures for your eye pleasure.
Test System & Methology
Test System:
Cpu:Intel Core i7-6700K@4.8 GHz.
Motherboard:Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z170
Memory:16Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNova 1200 P2
Storage Drive: 3TB Seagate Barracuda
Boot Drive: SSD 850 PRO 2.5" SATA III 2TB
Chassis: Dimastech Bench Table Easy V2.5
Windows 10 64-bit
Software:
Speedfan
CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime 95
I am testing the performance as follows:
Ambient temperatures are kept at 23C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime 95′s for 30 minutes.
Performance
In our initial base frequency test, the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB gets off to an excellent start.
It's the same story in the first overclocked test. At 4.6 GHz, the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB performs well again, with a decrease in CPU temperature of 1-4C over other 240mm AIO's.
Once overclocked, temperatures were also dealt with well. Not quite topping our charts, however, the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB again performs very well with the CPU frequency at 4.8 GHz. The Core i7-6700K is a difficult CPU to keep cool which proves the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB is an excellent cooler.
Not only can this cooler keep the temperature of the Core i7-6700K well under control, it does this while being one of the quietest 240mm AIO coolers we have tested. As you can see, the Arctic copes well here in audible tests and those PWM fans could easily spin a little slower from motherboard's software.
Final Thoughts
We all know that in terms of coolers, Arctic is one of the most popular and widely used manufacturers and as such you know you're getting a quality product. With the inclusion of RGB lighting and Arctic's P12 PWM PST RGB fans, this new Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB represents a decent improvement over the previous iteration. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB has been in use for about a week as of writing this. Overall, I've got to say that I'm impressed. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB has a subtle, mostly black design which we like. The little silver accents here and there will make this kit look great on any PC. When the RGB lighting is turned on, the already nice sleek design suddenly comes to life in spectacular fashion. The pump design also is excellent. The inclusion of a dedicated 40mm fan to keep nearby VRMs cool is a welcome addition to the pump unit. Much like the other models, the kit was straightforward to install with its mounting system. No 'advanced' skills are required other than the need for ten minutes to install the kit. Just install the backplate, the standoff-screws, position the cooler, and secure it. Another feature of the 240 RGB that we love is the hidden cables. Arctic have routed the fan cables through the tube sleeving to the pump. With this design, you end up with a neat and tidy looking unit. The Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB's radiator, being 38mm in thickness, is certainly offering something a little different to the market. As we said earlier, these size radiators are not unheard of, but certainly do not fit in with more common designs. On the whole, though, this larger design does work. It's different, but in a very good way! While the default clocked performance showed more traditional results, it was the opposite when we started to tweak. The kit really showed it has a lot of extra capacity available. Not only did the Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB perform excellent in thermal testing, it also ranked very high in our charts during acoustic testing. We've not been bothered or even noticed any noise coming from the pump or the fans, aside from the brief movement of liquid that happened when I first turned my machine after installation.
The Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB is listed at 90 Euros at the time of the review. Arctic have increased the warranty period of Liquid Freezer II series coolers from two to six years. With subtle RGB lighting, near silent fan operational noise and Great Performance figures the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 RGB is hard to fault.
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