Why are Arctic Freezer III AIO's cheap?

[Kirby Wurm]

Some googling shows the Galahad has a LOT of failures

I believe there was a known issue with the pump failing on the original Galahad. It happened to me after about a year of use (I bought one in mid-2021) but their support was great, they sent out a fresh unit (sans fans) and it's been working wonderfully ever since.

I can't comment on the Galahad II.

 

[WARburton]

I believe there was a known issue with the pump failing on the original Galahad. It happened to me after about a year of use (I bought one in mid-2021) but their support was great, they sent out a fresh unit (sans fans) and it's been working wonderfully ever since.

i dont think iver even have an AIO fail on me, my brothers NZXT did get loud towards the end of its life

 

[zaniro]

I have a III 240 to put in my build once I get a case, so will give my impressions in due course. The reviews online were favourable when I looked into it before purchase.

 

[WARburton]

I have a III 240 to put in my build once I get a case, so will give my impressions in due course. The reviews online were favourable when I looked into it before purchase.

when making a choice between the single and triple cable, if your using the stock fans use the triple.

 

[GoRedwings19]

I’ll i

I fitted one yesterday to cool my 9800x3d. Was a nightmare. Ive used them in the past (artic IIs) and they were a simple fit. This thing wasnt, the screws to tighten it down were miles off and the metal top section to act like a spring of sorts was so bent up I could have gone through the board pressure wise to screw it down.
I had to take the side brackets off and attach those first before screwing to the board.
Its on that tight now I have decided im getting a different AIO.
I reseated it twice and the cpu is idling at 53 degrees..... its also noisy.

Oh god this happened to me the other night drove me insane although I didn't have the intelligence to bolt it to the side brackets and then securing it down.

I didn't used the supplied contact frame I had already bought the thermal right one before deciding which AIO to get.

Now I do have the Galahad 2 and h150i but for this build even though I am on an older version of icue and have connect installed for my strimmers I didn't want any software running in the background.

I run it through bios and even though it is a bit of a faff it takes out the necessary software out of the equation.

I think I have to reseat my cooler as I wasn't happy with how many attempts it took me to get the thing attached. I am sure I must have smeared most of the thermal paste off, lulz.

But I do share your sentiments about the mounting however I feel is still an excellent cooler.

My idle temps according to hwinfo64 is at least CPU average is about 41-42c. When I ran an hour long occt test I did see 87c. This was on the 9800x3d and on the 7800x3d I nevér saw it above 72c.

But I do think I have to experiment with the bios settings more on the 9800x3d to get temps down a bit.

 

[Shaolin Chicken]

After reading all the of the problems with the mounting mechanism for AM4/AM5, I decided to order a different cooler.
Probably should have first contacted Arctic for the longer screws that come with the Revision 2 version of the AFIII,
they have excellent customer support.
Oh well.

 

[WARburton]

I didn't used the supplied contact frame I had already bought the thermal right one before deciding which AIO to get

The supplied frame is for intel not AMD. You don’t need a frame for AMD as the socket clamp works.

 

[WARburton]

After reading all the of the problems with the mounting mechanism for AM4/AM5, I decided to order a different cooler.
Probably should have first contacted Arctic for the longer screws that come with the Revision 2 version of the AFIII,
they have excellent customer support.
Oh well.

I have to say obviously I’m not on AMD right now so can’t comment but on intel the mounting was as easy as any other cooler I have had

 

[Marak]

I fitted one yesterday to cool my 9800x3d. Was a nightmare. Ive used them in the past (artic IIs) and they were a simple fit. This thing wasnt, the screws to tighten it down were miles off and the metal top section to act like a spring of sorts was so bent up I could have gone through the board pressure wise to screw it down.
I had to take the side brackets off and attach those first before screwing to the board.
Its on that tight now I have decided im getting a different AIO.
I reseated it twice and the cpu is idling at 53 degrees..... its also noisy.

I finally got mine bought and installed this week now that I have a new AM5 system, and I initially had a similar problem to you.

However then I realised I had screwed the mounting brackets in upside down. Once I put them the right way the screws of the pump block fit very easily. Sounds to me like that's what you have done.

 

[Marak]

I find the pump noise at 50% perfectly acceptable and I'm a picky bugger when it comes to noise. Obviously using the 3-way cable is the right choice as others have said.

 

[WARburton]

I find the pump noise at 50% perfectly acceptable and I'm a picky bugger when it comes to noise. Obviously using the 3-way cable is the right choice as others have said.

And at 50% it runs as fast as the ACF2 did at 100%

 

[Marak]

And at 50% it runs as fast as the ACF2 did at 100%

I recall in the manual it says the pump speed would be reported as 50% higher than it actually is however, is it still twice as fast even taking that into account?

 

[GoRedwings19]

The supplied frame is for intel not AMD. You don’t need a frame for AMD as the socket clamp works.

I just do it now as it a force of habit.

 

[WARburton]

I recall in the manual it says the pump speed would be reported as 50% higher than it actually is however, is it still twice as fast even taking that into account?

I never seen this but it’s good to know. I know mine at 48% reports about 1900rpm. But it dose keep my cpu cool under all loads

 

[Kirby Wurm]

i dont think iver even have an AIO fail on me, my brothers NZXT did get loud towards the end of its life

Glad to hear it! I think it may have been a bad batch or manufacturing defect in this instance.

 

[Tombs75]

And this post right here is why I said artic have a return proble

I finally got mine bought and installed this week now that I have a new AM5 system, and I initially had a similar problem to you.

However then I realised I had screwed the mounting brackets in upside down. Once I put them the right way the screws of the pump block fit very easily. Sounds to me like that's what you have done.

Indeed I did initially get the brackets incorrect. I did still struggle though once they were the right way mounted. I still had to mount the brackets to one side of the aio head. . That image though will help others too as in the video that part isnt really detailed enough if you ask me, Those look upside down still in my head!

 

[GoRedwings19]

@WARburton Was there much of a cooling performance increase when you went push pull or was it marginal?

 

[WARburton]

@WARburton Was there much of a cooling performance increase when you went push pull or was it marginal?

I have a very bad push pull set up, only for looks.
unmatched fans at unmatched speeds.

push pull will always be good, you move more air at a set PWM percentage, but in my case i didnt even test. the front fans are just for RGB looks
the stock fans do all the work

 

[GoRedwings19]

Do you know which fans they use I was looking for the same fans and not sure if they are the p12 or p14.