Helping to counteract the negativity of the previous page, and to segue into the ‘form’ side of the equation, the ALF 3 is actually prettier than the ALF 2. Basically, Arctic knew that it was well and fine to have the most advanced, most powerful AIO ever, but if it looks like the equivalent of a Pontiac Aztek and a Pontiac Lumina APV had an ugly and goofy looking baby that got its styling recommendations from Noctua (“always wear BROWN!!”) and could act like a prima-donna… well… no one would ever use it, not even ironically, now would they?!
Thus they made the ALF 3 Super Model Se… err… pretty. Super Model Pretty and by min-maxing the crazy/hot scale, experienced builders will be willing to put up with a bit more drama than they otherwise would. Put another way the ALF 3 ARGB White edition is drop dead gorgeous. Not perfect but as close to it as we have seen any AIO 360-class come. So much so that, as we said in the 420 variant review, if you do not see the ALF 3 in person for the first time and go “Ain’t that Purdy”… you need to touch grass.
More impressive is the aesthetics are well thought out and allow the ALF 3 to be extremely flexible. So flexible that those pesky incompatibility function nits are emphasized by the shear lack of nits to pick on the form side of the coin. Take for example the color. Yes. Many AIOs come in basic black and white options. Few come clad in a white that is truly white. Instead most are either grayish white, blueish white, or just straight up “no idea what it is but thats not “white” white. The ALF 3’s white is damn near perfect. It will straight up work in Corsair white cases, Antec white cases, Fractal Define white, NZXT White… and any other company’s white case. As it is white, white… and extremely thick and scratch resistant. The latter of which is a nice little bonus.
Equally impressive is Arctic even took the time to improve upon a couple niggles the ALF 2’s form suffered from. For example the compression fittings / connectors on the ALF 2 were a faux chromed (aka painted) metal compression headers that were rather large. Not too large as to be an eye sore, but large enough to somewhat clash with the ALF 2’s overall aesthetics (be it white or black). With the ALF 3 they are smaller and now painted the same color as the rest of the ALF 3. Thus they easily blend into the background… just as they should.
Sadly, one thing that has been carried over from the ALF 2 is the sheathing covering the tubing. Much like with the ALF 2 white edition… the tubing underneath said sheath is black and black is a hard to fully cover with white. Thus the tubing’s “white” can appear to be more of a gray than the pure white of the rad. Which is a shame as this is a known issue with the ALF 2 that could have easily been corrected by simply double covering the tubing… or you know… specing out a covering material that did not need to stretch as much to snugly fit over said tubing.
On the positive side the length of the tubing as not changed much, nor has the tubing’s diameter. Put another way the 17 to 18 inch length (~13mm OD (when including the sheath… 12.4mm when not), 6mm ID) tubing is long enough for the majority of cases. Flexible enough to not be a royal nuisance to work with and yet with well over 3mm thick walls is robust enough that punctures and even outgassing are of minimal concern (during the warranty period at least).
Also on the positive side… and both a form and function feature… the other end of the tube headers are radically different than the previous gen. In the last gen the two ports were smack dab in the center of the water block and when the ALF 2 was installed in the top, the front, or the bottom of a case it did place a bit of stress on the block’s mounting hardware. Equally important with them sticking straight up you did have to fight the tubing to get everything nice and neat. Especially in normal sized cases with ‘side’ mounted fan(s).
With the ALF 3 the ports are now located at the end of the waterblock, enter in the side of said block, and have swivel connectors to ease the (needless) stress on the block from the tubing. This does make a major difference and does increase the ease of mounting the rad into a case… and makes for a much, much cleaner looking final build. Color us impressed.
The last major feature of the ALF 3 A-RGB White edition is the fans. We already went over why we like them, but the whole point of buying an ‘A-RGB’ in model is that you can customize the lighting. Here the ALF 3 excels. Want it to light up and do a fancy lightshow? Thanks to 16.1+ Million color combinations baked into A-RGB LEDs it can easily accommodate your every wish. Simply plug in the daisy-chained header and let your motherboards software integrate it seamlessly in with the rest of your system. Want it to be more toned down? Don’t plug in the A-RGB header and they will act just like any non-LED enabled fans. No fuss. No muss. Just pure elegance.
Overall the ALF 3 360 ARGB White edition continues the proud tradition that the ALF 3 420 created. That is to say the ALF 3 360 series does things its own way… but overall that way (the Arctic Way) is rather impressive. Still a few quirks that Arctic should iron out, but the ALF 3 360 does bring a lot to the table. Enough that many an experienced system builder may just start taking the 3×120 class seriously again. We know it is now on our radar… and after using so many good 280 and 420 that is something we did not think any 360 AIO could do. Color us highly impressed.
