Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 AIO Cooler Review

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Conclusion

This is my first cooler review since I was so blown away with the Fractal Design Kelvin series that you can read about here, and so I approached it with equal amounts of excitement and dread. I wanted to see what the competition was like but I really wasn’t expecting much from a simple Asetec unit and was wondering how I would break the news. Oh boy was I wrong though. Once it was all assembled and on the test bench the full size of that radiator struck me and it really does its job, both holding extra liquid so the whole loop takes longer to heat up as well as cooling all the extra liquid in one go to keep the whole loop cool. The Liquid Freezer 120 didn’t exactly blow the Kelvin out of the water but it did beat it and that’s what counts, albeit when considering all of our recorded temps we have to allow a little wiggle room for the sake of not having full laboratory conditions.

Part of the cooling ability is of course down to the sheer volume of liquid being cooled in that radiator but some praise must be reserved for the F12 PWM fans which are virtually silent even when ramped up to maximum force and are after all the driving force behind that radiator.

Fitting the Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 though is a mixed bag. If you have made allowance for the sheer size of the radiator and you have somewhere to put it, like a front or top vent, then it’s a straightforward process. Being an Asetec re-branded unit we have all their years of experience behind making sure the holes are in the right place therefore the pump side of things fits ‘just so’ and without the sweating or swearing that can come with fitting a liquid loop. If anything does go wrong with it, you have the reassurance of that 2-year warranty. If however you only read the performance charts and went out to grab one for your Shuttle PC then you may be in trouble. Your best plan is possibly to cut a hole for the tubing and mount it outside the box.

Overall I am quite pleased with the Freezer 120, but excellent cooling by sheer force is not as impressive as if it is done with engineering skill. It’s like knocking over 10 pins in a bowling alley, you could use a massive ball and get the desired result but it’s not the same as someone getting a strike the traditional way… but if it still gets you the same score at the end of the game what’s the problem? I suppose it depends on the player, or in this case the end user, to decide whether or not ever larger radiators are useful, desirable, or perhaps even an increasing and inevitable trend. Maybe we will see people complaining about their 200mm thick rad warping their case instead of GPU flex at some point in the future.

I’ve not really touched on the price, but a record-breaking cooler for a little over £50 is really something to strongly consider. Even if the thermal performance charts are ignored, it would still be a reasonable price for an AIO system.

For reasons of price versus performance and build quality I have to award the Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 with our Value Award, and even though it cools by sheer force it does get the job done so also walks away with our Performance Award.

Congratulations Arctic! Thanks for sending the sample in for review and we look forward to seeing what you come up with next.