Final Words & Conclusion

The reviewed Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 ARGB cooler performed very well. It handled the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (in place of Ryzen 7 3700X) and Intel Core i9 13900K (as a replacement for the i9 12900K) without a major sweat. The price is very reasonable (148.99 EUR for the aRGB version, non-RGB is 7 EUR less expensive) for an aRGB AIO, with a 38 mm thick radiator offering a very pleasant performance. The maximum rpm (1900) noise is too much, but you can set your fan curve to make it more reasonable. There are four overall size variants (as there are also 240, 280, and 360) and the non-RGB variants. 

Aesthetics, Design & Installation

The installation process for both AMD and Intel is relatively easy. Starting with the aesthetics, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 ARGB looks okay, although the pump is quite controversial in its design.

Important -> A selection of motherboards interferes with the cooler. You can find the list of motherboards that have been confirmed to have this problem – here.
The unit is factory-filled with coolant in a closed loop, so all you need to do is install the backplate and the standoff screws, position the cooler, and secure it. The whole process shouldn’t take ten minutes, and it’s the easiest system I’ve seen so far. The quality tubes bend well and can be adjusted in many ways to avoid compatibility issues. The provided fans have RGB. As for the wiring, it’s managed in the tubes, so you only need to connect two cables (4-pin and the aRGB). The braided sleeving makes the visual aspect nicer, and I liked the white accents. It’s also good that all the cabling is hidden inside the sleeve.  It would help if you remembered that this is a thick 420 mm radiator so it won’t fit the majority of popular chassis.

The Verdict

The Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 ARGB is an affordable solution, costing 148.99 EUR (and 141.99 EUR for the non-RGB variant). You get an RGB functionality here, a VRM fan (which can help sometimes), and the thick 38 mm radiator. You must remember to have a big enough chassis (to fit a thick 420 mm rad). The Liquid Freezer II 420 ARGB pump design is original (it’s a bit “Batmobile-ish,” and a bit too much plastic was used there, to be honest) and creates some motherboard compatibility issues. The performance is very good. It could have been a bit quieter under load, but you can fix that with a good fan curve. The Arctic P140 fans are good overall (but not great) but loud at maximum rpm (1900). The cables of this AIO are long enough, and the tubing (450 mm) is also. The tubing is quite flexible. There’s a 6-year warranty, so it’s better than the standard one. So, summing it up – you get good performance and reasonable noise (if not pushed to the max for the fans/pump). Putting everything together, we can approve this product and grant a “Silver” award for the whole package (especially for the performance/noise ratio). The price is more than reasonable; it’s among the best performance/price department offers.

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