Finished Looks

The black and white design of the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB is a good fit for monochrome, white, or even all-black builds, but the pump-block design leaves much to be desired in terms of visual appeal. That said, the A-RGB fans are the star of the show, aesthetically speaking anyway, so in a case with a tinted side panel, the pump's visual design becomes less noticeable, while the fans add that visual flair. You won't see it in an enclosed chassis, so all that matters is pure performance, which is also the most important aspect of a CPU cooler in my opinion. That said, while the cooler may not be the sexiest AIO to hit the market, I at least find the 40 mm VRM fan to be more useful than the latest trend of adding an LCD to the pump top. So I will give Arctic props for sticking to reasonable design decisions that at least make sense.


There were no issues on either platform regarding memory and graphics card clearance, which is a plus. Although depending on the revision, or possibly old stock, there could be some motherboard incompatibility issues. So always double check.


When it comes to the A-RGB lighting, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 has no LEDs in the pump; instead, all the visual flair comes from the fans. However, in terms of illumination, it's quite even, and while certain static-color lighting modes make individual LEDs somewhat visible, the uniformity is still fantastic. Most users who tend to pick a color and stick with it will have no regrets.