The most hotly contested corner of the All In One CPU cooling solution marketplace is inarguably the 280-class. This is for one simple reason: flexibility. While the “280-class” of AIOs certainly are not the best in any one area – be it performance, ease of use, price, etc. – the fact of the matter is the 2x140mm fan-compatible AIO form-factor offers the best blend of all three. Put another way, they are the “old reliable” default choice for most buyers. This is why they outsell all the other form factors combined and why we are so excited to see what this “280-class” variant of the Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 A-RGB variant can do.
Make no mistake, after the superlative performance of the 420 and the class-breaking abilities of the 360 option the “ALF 3” 280 ARGB has rather large shoes to fill if it even hopes to compete against its insanely good brethren. Further making things a wee bit more difficult for the ALF 3 280 is the fact that Arctic has been extremely aggressive on their MSRPs for nearly the entire ALF 3 line-up. To be precise the difference between this ~100 USD 280-class and the 360-class option is only about ten (US) dollars. Furthermore, the difference between the ALF 3 280 and the flagship ALF 3 420 ARGB is only twenty (US) dollars.
In the grand scheme of things, ten to twenty dollars really is not all that much extra to pay for a 360-class or even 420-class AIO over a 280-class option. “Everyone knows” that those two 3-fan-based options can outmuscle 2-fan options, and yet if the second smallest ALF 3 sibling wants to break out of its brothers’ shadow, and make a name for itself, it is going to have to do something that those two options cannot. Possibly even multiple somethings… as those two models are market-dominating models that throw long shadows, to say the least.
Simply stated, the 280-class ALF 3 must be class-breaking in the performance it offers. It has to be just as good as its brothers in the aesthetics department, and it has to be just as glass-ceiling-breaking as the ALF 3 360 when it comes to performance. Anything less than offering all three and this variant will simply fade into the background and never be anything other than an ‘also ran’. We say this as the only real competition (this side of custom loops) for any Artic Liquid Freezer 3 AIO model… is the other ALF 3 variants. So let’s see what Arctic was able to do and if they have indeed created a 1-2-3 combination in their quest, not for market dominance, but market supremacy.
