Is the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 over kill if I don't plan to overclock and stick with the stock cooler?

flashheart85

flashheart85

flashheart85

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Bit of an odd question.

I am building a pc on a bit of a budget and purchased an Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 to cool my 7800X3D.
The main reason I purchased it was because it was reasonably priced (£80) and had amazing reviews. I've always used aio's to cool in the past but I've always overclocked. My last couple was a 4790k and enjoyed overclocking However, I don't really ever plan on overclocking this CPU and still have the GPU to buy.

Would I be better off sending it back and putting that £80 towards a new GPU? It's still unopened.

Is there any real world MAJOR benefit over cooling the CPU with a AIO or even buying a much cheaper air cooled heat sink for the CPU.
Thank you for any advice.
 
flashheart85 said:
Would I be better off sending it back and putting that £80 towards a new GPU? It's still unopened.
Click to expand...
Yes, however you'd need to factor in the cost of the return.
The thermalright peerless assassin or phantom spirit for £30-40 would be an excellent alternative

Or if you want another aio, the thermalright frozen prism (240 or 360) the argb white 360 is currently available for £45
 
After the cost of returning it and the price of a alternative cooler, you will not have much left of that £80.

I went from a Thermalright FC to the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 and do not regret it at all.

What GPU Can you afford now and what was you thinking of getting if you return the AIO?
 
An often overlooked benefit of an 'overspec cooler' is silence. My 420mm III barely ticks over when gaming, I use fancontrol to tame it with custom fan curve.
OK with a 360 and 7800X3D it probably won't be silent when gaming, but I'd imagine it will be a lot quieter than some solutions.
 
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Another often overlooked benefit of liquid cooling is the time taken to reach maximum operating temperatures which can mean additional performance in 'bursty' workloads where the CPU is only at 100% for short regular periods. From memory of a Gamers Nexus video a decent air cooler will reach max sustainable temperature under full load within 90 seconds at which point the CPU will most likely start to throttle, a decent AIO will take 5 minutes to reach this point. So with liquid your max clock speeds will be sustained for longer with CPU intensive tasks. Potentially there are scenarios (admittedly rare) where an air cooler will reach max working temp and an AIO will not.
 
As tamzzy said
Especially if returning it is cheap
You could get just about anything thermalright
And get approximately £30--40 back
A thermalright (or other) air cooler has the advantage
Of no point of failure other than fans
AIO are pretty reliable but anything with a pump
That adds a point of failure

Keep the artic
Or return and get a thermalright
Both are valid options
Not really a one is right one is wrong situation
 
flashheart85 said:
Would I be better off sending it back and putting that £80 towards a new GPU? It's still unopened.
Click to expand...
It depend what graphics cards you are choosing between, but from a performance perspective: yes. An extra £50 or so can often make a big (i.e. noticeable) difference to your gameplay, but the AIO will not.
 
It's not enough of a price difference to matter. You won't get anything significantly more powerful for £40-80 extra and I definitely don't recommend any stock coolers, particularly if you try to take one from another CPU and put it on a 7800X3D!
 
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