Batch of Arctic Liquid Freezer II Coolers Has Design Flaw

[Android1]

The company has announced a free service kit that they will send to affected customers. Click here to request one.

Since its launch in 2019, the Liquid Freezer II series has won countless awards and become a popular product in the hardware community. Because ARCTIC is committed to serving this community with honesty and transparency, it is our duty to inform you of a potential issue. During ARCTIC's routine quality checks, we found a potential issue with certain Liquid Freezer II units. Which products are potentially affected? Affected products first went on sale in May 2021.

In certain units, the gaskets were not sufficiently vulcanized causing a chemical reaction to occur between the copper cold plate and the gasket. This reaction may lead to sulfur residue and copper plate deposits. If this has happened, it can lead to a reduction in cooling performance and potential loss of cooling liquid. The chemical reaction and degeneration of the gasket is a slow process and can occur within the 6-year warranty period. Thus, there is no reason to panic. We recommend that all affected coolers are serviced as soon as possible.

Source: techPowerUp!

[DeathKnight]

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[Meteor_of_War]

More reasons why I will just stick to air cooling.

[Nunz]

More reasons why I will just stick to air cooling.

With worse cooling capability, yep.

[mizzer]

I bought mine in March 2021.
Schwew! Missed the cut.

[Meteor_of_War]

With worse cooling capability, yep.

I don't need the absolute best of everything. Air cooling works plenty good enough for my needs, and knowing it has a much less catastrophic failure risk adds to the piece of mind.

Not trying to start an argument on what is better, just that for me I prefer air.

[Nunz]

I don't need the absolute best of everything. Air cooling works plenty good enough for my needs, and knowing it has a much less catastrophic failure risk adds to the piece of mind.

Not trying to start an argument on what is better, just that for me I prefer air.

The failure rate for AIOs is pretty low. You could as likely have a fan go bad on an air-cooler. Granted, it's cheaper to replace a fan rather than a cooler, but in this case the AFII is covered under a 6-year warranty, so that point is moot.

"Catastrophic failure" is kind of a stretch. If the AIO pump fails, chip will get hot and throttle. If the fan on your air cooler dies, chip will get hot and throttle. Doesn't seem very catastrophic

[Trunks0]

I prefer air cooling, but I also choose a killer case to do it with. And doing that now imho is harder than it used to be. Seems like most cases are designed around AIO's and water cooling in general.

[KAC]

Does it impact coolers sitting in the closet?

[pax]

I think top end air coolers wont hit thermal throttling under normal conditions.

Der Bauer just did some testing:

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He tests not only the new Ice Giant but also the Assassin 3 Im currently using and the NHD15...

[Meteor_of_War]

The failure rate for AIOs is pretty low. You could as likely have a fan go bad on an air-cooler. Granted, it's cheaper to replace a fan rather than a cooler, but in this case the AFII is covered under a 6-year warranty, so that point is moot.



"Catastrophic failure" is kind of a stretch. If the AIO pump fails, chip will get hot and throttle. If the fan on your air cooler dies, chip will get hot and throttle. Doesn't seem very catastrophic

I understand your point, but not sure I'd agree a fan is just as likely to fail as an AIO pump. But either way, i do agree its a rare occurrence for them to fail so probably not a realistic concern.

But I'd still prefer air cooling because i do occasionally hear these stories of AIO defects. Also just never felt comfortable with putting water inside my PC.

[Munkus]

AFAIK a quality air cooler such as the NH-D15 when paired with a good airflow case is perfectly fine in most situations, as long as you don't OC too much. I'm using that on a stock i7 12700K with a Corsair 4000D and never throttle even after a 30 minute Prime95 run. However, it's massive and fugly (IMO). If I cared about aesthetics or liked to OC, I'd get an AIO.

Having said that, I appreciate what the vendor is doing for folks who have that AIO.

[Mangler]

Heatpipes have water in them.

CHECKMATE ATHEISTS AIR COOLING USERS.




It will be interesting to see how much of a benefit the upcoming static pressure optimized 140mm fans from noctua and phanteks will have on giant tower heatsinks though, you could squeeze out some more performance out of them with a tighter fin stack.

[Meteor_of_War]

Heatpipes have water in them.

Such a small amount of liquid in them that they would evaporate rather quickly if they leaked. Also, liquid inside a soldered chamber personally would not worry me.