ARCTICLiquid Freezer II 420 A-RGB - Multi-compatible All-in-One CPU AIO Water Cooler with A-RGB, Efficient PWM-controlled pump, Fan speed: 200-1900 rpm, LGA1700 compatible - Black

What an awesome piece of kit this is.I bought this as I moved to AM5 and a 7900X to make sure the CPU is nice and cool.And, you know what?It does that and so much more.Lets get the low points out of the way first.-I am not a fan of the fans. They were replaced with great Thermaltake Fans I bought and configured to a push pull configuration. (The original fans were then installed on the PC Chassis as fron intakes.-The waterblock is not to everyones liking, it looks weird and does not blend into modern aesthetics, that is very obvious, and it is also very plasticky. I like it though, it is different and it really stands out, plus it covers the important parts of my AM5 monster.-Installation of the waterblock is weird. I have installed many air and AIO coolers on various sockets but this is the worst one, not really due to how, but due to the lacl of labling of the parts and the lacl of clear instructions.Moving on to the highs of this item.-It cools, and cools and cools.Whether you run it on silent or turbo (Asus Armoury setting) it is near inaudible.Only when you crank up the 6 high powered fans does it become vocal, and then, not much more than a Noctua NH15. (Also note, that the original fans are significantly quieter due to, well, being half the amount of fans, and slower overall.- the waterblock works wonders on AM5 with the offset bracket, it does better on the hotspot than Corsair or Noctua and the little fan keeps the surrounding components cool, while not being intrusive (a fear I had when buying)-The heat dissipation from the Thick radiator is brisk and rarely actuallt feels all that warm. (I only felt good heat coming through when I was stressing an overclock with Aida64, and even then the CPU never touched 80C)-Mounting the fans and the radiator was very easy, though the mounting of the radiator depends on your chassis and whether thism (near half meter long) behemoth will fit in your caseAll in all, I am very happy with this cooler and would buy another in a heartbeat... if I had another chassis that could take one.Go out and buy this cooler if your case supports it. You will not be disappointed.

This is the perfect aio, no silly software required and works great. Its fans can be controlled via Bios or your motherboard software, which is a plus compared to other brands that force you to install their software.It is very silent, and keeps my CPU cool.

Awesome cooler and well made, certainly better than the Corsair coolers I have used in the past.Keeping the wiring tied in with the hoses is a great idea on the face of it but wasn’t helpful for me as I still wanted to use the Corsair rgb.Managed to hide the wiring but had to buy a rgb cable converter to use with the Corsair.I really love the small fan on the block to keep airflow moving around the surrounding hardware and it doesn’t make much noise.Be aware that this cooler is massive so make sure you can fit this in your care.FYI it does fit in the top on the Corsair 7000d/x cases, it is a tight fit and you have to be semi creative on the fitment but it does fit.Apparently 420s don’t fit in the case according to the Corsair website.Installed on a z790 board coupled with a i9-13900 and idle temps went from 36-40 down to 26/28.CPU used to thermally throttle within 30 seconds in CineBench before this cooler was installed now it doesn’t break 80.Definitely grab this if you have the space, or possibly the ek360.

The good:1. good value for money2. great thermal performance3. low noise*4 neat cable managementI don't think there's an AIO in the market that can beat Arctic when performance is adjusted for price. The more serious AIOs from the likes of EK or Alphacool seem to be retailing for at least £100, so not worth the extra cash for more noise than this one and only a non-discernible 1-2C lower.I run this on an Intel 12700K overclocked to 5.1Ghz on p-cores and 3.9Ghz on e-cores, and idle 30C, 70C max. in gaming, and +90C in stress test (thermal throttling kicks in with prime95 when OCed but doesn't when running within Intel's recommended power limits).Cable management is excellent and is literally 2 cables: 1 for pwm radiator fan and pump control, the other for the rgb on the fans. If you have the non a-/rgb version it's just one pwm cable.With the single pwm cable you can control the fans on the radiator and the fan inside the pump block (took me a bit of digging on the web, as there seems to be no clear direction/instruction/explanation from Arctic). If you split the fans from the pump block you can connect the pump to the AIO header and the fans to the CPU fan header, on the motherboard. This way pump runs at 100%, while fans based on the curve. If you are more sensitive to noise like I am, then having the single cable power both fans and pump is the way to go, as you can adjust them in the BIOS, and not have the pump run at 100% all the time (more noise).The bad:1. unclear/non-existent instructions to control pump rpm (the loudest part of the cooler on idle)2. no RGB on the pump blockWhen the pc is idle, on my desk, I can hear the pump. Fans spin at 40/50% so around 800rpm so it's not the fans causing the noise, but the pump itself, but it's quietest one I've ever tried so there is not better out there for me to swap to. In fairness the pump noise could be due to the other AIO in the system for the GPU, which truly runs at 100% regardless of load, so I am not going to reduce the score of this review by that much. Yet I don't feel like giving it 5 stars because of the lack of rgb on the pump block.