Not that long ago, Arctic End Of Life’d the beloved ‘ALF 2’ and unleashed upon a stagnating closed-loop ‘All In One’ marketplace a water cooling solution jam-packed with innovation. While not without controversy, that boundary-breaking design set the gold standard upon which all AIOs must be judged. With such a success, most companies would… take a pause. Take a break. Take some time to recoup their R&D expenses before trying to one-up their latest and greatest. Artic engineers apparently only have two settings: retired and full tilt boogie. We say this, as while it has been less than two years since the ALF 3’s inception, they already have the successor to the ‘ALF 3’ ready and rearing to go. To be precise, the ALF 3 team has created “Pro” variants of their existing lineup, which promise to be just that: pro-grade. If creating a new variant was not enough, and just like with the ALF 3 (and 2 before it), the ALF 3 Pro series comes in multiple variations with everything from ARGB to more conservative options. As it is personal preference to avoid LED-enabled devices, we will be taking a long, hard look at the ‘standard’ non-ARGB Big Boi “420mm” edition first.
All hyperbole aside, these Pro models in general, and the 420 in specific, promise to build upon the original Liquid Freezer III’s legacy of solid engineering and performance via meaningful enhancements. Tangible enhancements focused squarely on improving the user experience. Be it sheer cooling performance (estimated in the ~2+ degree Celsius range), an improved noise vs. cooling envelope that offers better flexibility, or even just ease of installation, these are the key areas that Arctic’s team first zeroed in on and then improved upon their existing tech’s design.
On the performance front, this new Pro 420 offers an aggressively optimised radiator+fan combination. Specifically while the ALF 3 Pro keeps the characteristics of the original that made the ALF III famous (i.e. 38mm thickness with moderate density cooling fin array) the Pro is rocking re-engineered fans that were built from the ground up to do one thing: push air through a radiator better than any standard(ish) thickness (~27mm) fan has any right doing. To be precise, backstopping that highly demanding radiator is the Arctic P14 Pro fan series, an all-new design crafted to deliver high static pressure (5.2mm!!) and impressive airflow (up to 110 CFM!) at speeds that range from ‘sixth gear’ 2500rpm on the high end, all the way down to a mere 600rpm on the low end. Mix in the ability to have them be ARGB enabled, and this new series of “P14 Pro” fans promises to offer a level of versatility that we cannot think of a proper ‘out of the box’ comparison and have to think in terms of “San Ace” or “Noctua Industrial”.
On the ease of use front, this new Pro version introduces a redesigned and refined Intel ‘contact frame’ that should prove to offer improved mounting pressure while at the same time offering a more optimised offset for the new Intel Tile-based layout. Going hand in glove with this improved performance and ease of use feature set is the fact that Arctic has redesigned its tubing. As such, the ALF III Pro is rocking EPDM rubber tubing with internal fibre reinforcement. A combination that ensures longevity… and should all but eliminate ‘sagging’.
Last but not least, this 3x140mm Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 III Pro may indeed be the king of the ALF 3 series… but it is not priced like one. Rather, just like the non-Pro ALF 3 420 edition, it comes with a price more in line with 2×140 (aka “280”) AIO models. In fact, with an asking price of only $120 USD, it is actually cheaper than many 240 (2×120) AIOs.
On paper, that is a lot to like, but no mass-produced product is perfect. Every design comes with trade-offs. As such, experienced builders will have one question that demands answers: are these improvements worth any and all tradeoffs that probably come along for the ride? Let’s find out.
