Performance: 40 out of 40
There is no ifs, no butts, and certainly no coconuts about it. The ALF 3 PRO 420 is about as good as you are going to find this side of custom water loops. Even then, unless you go full tilt boogie with the budget, the differences are not going to be night and day large. Put another way, Arctic has once again raised the bar a bit higher than where they found it… and made custom water cooling just that much more niche.
Ease of Use: 15 out of 20
As with the non-Pro edition, the ease of use of this new breed of AIO is the weakest link in the chain. Put bluntly, Arctic has to fix its M.2 compatibility issue, for all socket types, and allow buyers to install it in the opposite orientation. Would this necessitate a rework of the mounting brackets? Yes. Possibly even requiring two sets. They need to do this… as it eclipses the potential issues with their Intel RP-ILM “contact frame” installation.
Build Quality & Warranty: 19 out of 20
The all-new ALF 3 Pro series is built to an exceptional high standard. One that puts not only the previous ALF 3 series to shame, but even many AIOs costing significantly more than it. Put another way, when you buy any Arctic Liquid Freezer model, you gain access to one of the best fusions of Swiss and German engineering you are going to find in the entire AIO marketplace.
Value 18 out of 20
Best in class cooling performance? Check. Excellent, if a smidgen too conservative, aesthetics? Check. Included accessories that fix Intel’s stock “mounting bracket”… and even fix the M.2 offset for Intel buyers? Double check! Honestly, when viewed in totality of the AIO marketplace, there is simply no real competition for the ALF 3 Pro… except the ALF 3 non-Pro. That is how big a value Arctic offers buyers. Now, if they would only include a torque tool and fix the PCIe violations for non-Core 200 buyers and it would be that much closer to perfection.
Final Score: 92 out of 100
While not perfect, the ALF III Pro 420 does indeed deliver on its promise of raising the performance bar even higher than where Arctic left it. Thanks in no small part to noticeable improvements in the fan and other hardware components, this is a new and improved ALF. One that may not be worthy of an entirely new model number but certainly earns its “Pro” moniker. Bluntly stated, it is the superior choice for vast swaths of the marketplace, with nearly everyone from the “balanced thermals vs acoustics” to even the “performance is king” crowd who will be satiated with what the new ALF III Pro can offer.
