Very recently we took a long hard look at the new Arctic Liquid Freezer III Rev.2 “420mm” A-RGB White Edition AIO and walked away very impressed with both its performance and its cutting edge features. Of course as it is a big boi 3x140mm class All In One cooling solution it is a bit… niche to say the least. Perfect for those who can mount it, perfect for those who want near custom water loop performance without the cost of a full custom loop… but very niche due to its rather large foot print. This time we are turning our attention to what is arguably the largest ‘mainstream’ AIO option: the 3×120 class of AIOs. To be precise we will be putting the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB White edition to the test to see how it stacks up against its larger brother.
On the surface such a comparison does not seem overly fair. Obviously the larger 3×140 “420-class” will outperform the (relatively) smaller 3×120 / “360-class” option. It is just physics. More surface area, more coolant, more dwell time in the radiator… just plumb more. That however is not the point. One could easily bodge together a custom loop using the radiator from a PeterBilt 389 and it would obviously be better than any AIO on the market. Good luck fitting it inside the typical case though. While hyperbolic, that is the crux of the issue with the entire 420-class AIOs. The 420’s are so large that they simply will not fit inside most modern PC cases. Instead the venerable 360-class is as big as one can go without running into… too many incompatibility issues.
Furthermore, the “ALF 3” series (as many including ourselves have come to know it as) is extremely advanced and boasts a massively improved pump and a radiator that belies each form-factor’s “known performance” ceiling. As such the question is not whether or not the ALF 3 360 variant can keep up with the ALF 3 420 series, it is how much performance is one sacrificing on the altar of ease of use by stepping down a notch? Equally interesting is… how close can the new ALF 3 360 get to the last generation ALF 2 420? After all, the ALF 3 series brings numerous performance improvements to the table, and considering the ALF 3 360 ARGB White edition is $110 while the last gen ALF 2 420 is still going for about 100 (USD), many an experienced system builder is going to want to know if they can get close to 420 performance without 420 headaches. If that is indeed the case the ALF 3 360 may just become the mainstream performance model to buy. Let’s see if we are placing too much faith in the ALF 3… or not.
