We have many of the huge stuff coated with our Gear of the Yr awards. Although even I will admit we’re lacking award classes for circumstances and coolers. There are a lot of deserving of a nomination, from the superb Havn BF 360 to the return of a legend, the Corsair Air 5400. However I needed to go along with my intestine.
I first caught sight of the Liquid Freezer III Professional at Computex, Taiwan’s greatest tech present. I arrived at Arctic’s sales space in a little bit of a large number, having basically jogged between appointments many of the morning within the stuffy climate. I spent an undue period of time admiring the brand new Liquid Freezer Professional, if just for a quick respite because the cool air from its followers reached my face.
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It would not be simple to enhance upon the unique Liquid Freezer III. Our Nick rated the unique mannequin so extremely that he awarded it our no.1 spot in our greatest liquid cooler shopping for information. It additionally price pennies in comparison with different all-in-one coolers providing related efficiency. However Arctic was going to offer it a go, anyway.
The Professional improves on the earlier Liquid Freezer III in a few methods, particularly improved pump management, higher fin density, and new, sooner followers.
I’ve reviewed the Arctic Freezer III Professional 360 since then. It reveals its true colors in testing. It retains even probably the most power-hungry processors at an honest temperature ( you, 14th Gen), and makes gentle work with much less demanding chips, such because the Ryzen 9000-series. What’s extra, the P12 Professional followers are wonderful—rated to an enormous 6.9 mmH20 static strain. Whereas loud at their 3000 rpm high velocity, and crushed by Noctua’s newest at slower speeds, you may tune them down and nonetheless reap many of the advantages.
Most of all, the Liquid Freezer III Professional earns my suggestion as a result of it does one thing fairly extraordinary nowadays. It launched at roughly the identical worth as its predecessor; the factor it improves upon in nearly each manner.
Fan
Max RPM
Rated airflow (CFM)
Rated static strain (mm H20)
Airflow (m/s) @ Max RPM
@ 1,200 RPM
@ 800 RPM
@ 450 RPM
Arctic P12 Professional
3,000
77.00
6.90
2.60
1.10
0.70
0.40
Hyte Thicc FP12
3,000
105.80
8.14
3.20
1.30
0.90
0.40
Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 PWM
1,800
63.15
3.14
2.20
1.40
1.00
0.50
Corsair iCUE LINK QX120 RGB PWM
2,400
63.10
3.80
2.20
1.10
0.70
0.40
NZXT F120 RGB DUO
1,800
48.58
2.42
1.40
1.00
0.60
0.30
The Liquid Freezer III Professional 360 will set you again, as of time of writing, simply $90. In order for you some RGB lighting to go along with that, it is one other $9. Each choices have been cheaper for appreciable lengths of time, however you may hardly argue with that worth. There’s little else that may contact it by way of bang in your buck—although I did have a tender spot for the Cooler Grasp MasterLiquid Core II 360 for $60 over Black Friday.
When it seems like corporations are taking prospects for a trip and wringing each final penny from our financial institution accounts, Arctic had the chance of a technology with the Liquid Freezer III Professional to do the identical. Nevertheless it did not. No point out of ‘macro-economic headwinds’. No discuss of tariffs. Only a nice product, enhancing on what got here earlier than, and for an outstanding worth. That is why the Liquid Freezer III Professional beat the opposite merchandise to earn my private choose for Gear of the Yr.
If you wish to discover out who wins within the PC Gamer {Hardware} Awards, we’ll be publishing all of the winners on New Yr’s Eve.
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