A Closer Look

Except for its thickness, the radiator is not all that different from what is used on essentially every all-in-one liquid cooler. While the radiator is a standard 280 mm design, it is 38 mm rather than 27 mm thick. This should add further surface area and thus result in better cooling in the right situations. Regarding fin density, I was quite surprised as the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB has a fins-per-inch (FPI) count of 15. Compared to the more typical 20 FPI on other AIOs, the pressure necessary to force air through the radiator should be less, which should result in lower noise and better overall airflow at the expense of maximum cooling potential. However, the extra radiator thickness offsets that to some degree. Finally, the tubing is 450 mm long, but due to the rigid design of the pump fittings, it's not that flexible since the tubing cannot be rotated for better routing.


The pump is where things begin to diverge from the norm. It's quite chunky due to the VRM fan at the top. This also means the pump cannot be rotated on the socket; it installs one way, and that is it. The overall design feels solid enough, but is still just a huge chunk of plastic and not all that appealing visually, at least to my eyes. That said, in regards to the copper base, our unit was relatively flat according to the razor blade test, with only a very minimal convex shape. As for machining marks, some were visible, but much less so than usual. Overall, the fit and finish of the base is quite good.


As the name implies, the Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB features everyone's love-it or hate-it A-RGB lighting feature. In this case, Arctic opted for their P14 PWM A-RGB, which has an extended PWM range of 200–1900 RPM. That massive range is nice since it results in whisper-quiet computing at idle and low loads with enough grunt to deliver high-end performance when necessary.