Arctic Liquid Freezer II's Warranty

[Salvinz]

Hello,

 

I'll be building a new PC soon and I'm looking to finally switch from air to liquid cooling.  I've narrowed my choices down to NZXT X63 or the Arctic Cooling Freezing Liquid II; the only worry being the markedly different warranties.  I'm very new to liquid cooling, and this is why I'm looking at AIO's before custom loops.  A 280mm NZXT X63 is $210.00 CAD, whilst a 280mm ACLF II is $170.00 CAD.  Additionally, a 360mm ACLF II is $190.00 CAD.  Clearly, the ACLF II wins on price to performance, however, it loses when it comes to warranty, i.e., NZXT's Kraken series offer 6 year warranties, whilst the ACLF II's are on a 2 year warranty.  Note: RGB is not a factor for me.

 

Given the notable differences in warranties, I have three questions:

 

1. Does this point to Arctic having low confidence in their product?
2. Should I be concerned over ACLF II's longevity?
3. Is it common for AIO's to maintain optimal performance well beyond their short warranties?

 

I have both watched and read GN's and Guru3D's review on the ACLF II, and the value proposition is tempting to say the least.  The worry, however, is the two year warranty on the ACLF II.  In any event, if anyone could help shed some light on this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

Cheers

 

Product in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPaSEGe6ML0 , https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/arctic-liquid-freezer-ii-280-liquid-cooler-review.html

[Tristerin]

I have zero issues with old AIO's that I have (Corsair, CoolerMaster), and have in use and love using Arctic products for their price to performance.  I have no experience with their AIO's, but I personally have confidence in their products.  If I were in the market, I would look to reviews and see if people have issues with longevity.

[Salvinz]

42 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

I have zero issues with old AIO's that I have (Corsair, CoolerMaster), and have in use and love using Arctic products for their price to performance.  I have no experience with their AIO's, but I personally have confidence in their products.  If I were in the market, I would look to reviews and see if people have issues with longevity.

Near as I can tell, the ACLF II's are being universally praised, and I haven't been able to find any reports of failures, be it with ACLF II's or Arctic's previous units.  The strongest data point I have is that of Gamers Nexus, i.e., GN has clearly spoken about the Kraken's durability, but given that the ACLF II's are new, it's difficult to gauge its durability.  This is fair, and I don't expect someone to accurately predict ACLF II's longevity, however, what I am curious about are Arctic's previous AIO's.

 

You're absolutely right, I need to do more research on this.  Given that, I was hoping to pick the brains of the more experienced users of AIO's or liquid cooling in general.  That said, every piece of information helps.  It's great to know that Arctic makes reliable products, this will help inform my decision.

 

Thank you! 

[Tristerin]

1 minute ago, Salvinz said:

Near as I can tell, the ACLF II's are being universally praised, and I haven't been able to find any reports of failures, be it with ACLF II's or Arctic's previous units.  The strongest data point I have is that of Gamers Nexus, i.e., GN has clearly spoken about the Kraken's durability, but given that the ACLF II's are new, it's difficult to gauge its durability.  This is fair, and I don't expect someone to accurately predict ACLF II's longevity, however, what I am curious about are Arctic's previous AIO's.

 

You're absolutely right, I need to do more research on this.  Given that, I was hoping to pick the brains of the more experienced users of AIO's or liquid cooling in general.  That said, every piece of information helps.  It's great to know that Arctic makes reliable products, this will help inform my decision.

 

Thank you! 

Oh yeah, and hang tight, more users with experience with this AIO I am sure lurk here and will respond

[Falkentyne]

The LF II is too new for anyone to start complaining about warranty.  The only issues that have been reported are VRM fans getting flaky, but even if -that- happens, current revisions allow you to simply disconnect the fan easily without a tool.  Even on v1 you can disconnect it, you just probably need a small tool to remove the connector from the housing, while on V2 it's on a standard wire harness extension, basically.

 

That being said, Arctic has been around a long time.  And I don't remember many people complaining about their products.

[Salvinz]

6 hours ago, Falkentyne said:

The LF II is too new for anyone to start complaining about warranty.  The only issues that have been reported are VRM fans getting flaky, but even if -that- happens, current revisions allow you to simply disconnect the fan easily without a tool.  Even on v1 you can disconnect it, you just probably need a small tool to remove the connector from the housing, while on V2 it's on a standard wire harness extension, basically.

 

That being said, Arctic has been around a long time.  And I don't remember many people complaining about their products.

True, we can't yet gauge the durability of the ACLF II.  GN did talk about the VRM fan and I think he had a neutral to positive take on them, I can't be absolutely certain though, I'll need to watch the review again to be sure.  Still, it's good to know of any possible issues.  It's certainly news to me, because this is another piece of information I wasn't aware of until now.  As for Arctic, I'm slowly starting to realize that they do have a positive reputation within the industry.  Thank you for pointing these things out Falkentyne, much appreciated.

 

Cheers

[rtyall]

There's been a couple of reports of the braided cables over the pipes causing issues and damaging the cable from pump to fan, not heard of any other failures.

[Jeppes]

Arctic is pricey there. 360 100€, 280 90€ and 240 70-80€ here with all taxes.

 

The most relevant question is what you are cooling with it. Its pretty much pointless to buy an expensive cooler for Ryzen 3000-series until 3900X. And even that will cool just fine with a 40-50€ tower.

[Salvinz]

5 hours ago, rtyall said:

There's been a couple of reports of the braided cables over the pipes causing issues and damaging the cable from pump to fan, not heard of any other failures.

Yet another piece of information I wasn't aware of... Thank you! 

[Salvinz]

13 hours ago, Jeppes said:

Arctic is pricey there. 360 100€, 280 90€ and 240 70-80€ here with all taxes.

 

The most relevant question is what you are cooling with it. Its pretty much pointless to buy an expensive cooler for Ryzen 3000-series until 3900X. And even that will cool just fine with a 40-50€ tower.

That's a great point.  So far, the build is as follows:

 

• Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower
• Noctua NF-14 PWM 140 x 3
• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (Will look to upgrade this in the future)
• NZXT X63 or ACLF II or Noctua NH-D15 (From what I've read, newer Noctua's come with AMD brackets.  D15's sell for $135.00 CAD)
• Asus TUF Gaming Plus X570 (No Wifi version)
• G.SKILL Ripjaws V 32 GB
• Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe SSD M.2 @ 500 GB (Cannibalizing x 2 500 GB SSD's from my previous setup)
• Asus ROG Strix RTX 2070 Super x 1 (May switch this to 2080 Super... Undecided.  If I do go for a 2080, I'll have to change the rest of the build)
• Corsair RM750 Gold Fully Modular 80+ Gold ATX Power Supply
• Zowie XL2411P (Going for this due to its pricing and the fact that it's Blurbusters approved)
• Blue Diamond DisplayPort Cable 1.2, M/M 10 ft

 

The budget is about 3k CAD.  I wish I didn't have to get a new monitor, but I'm forced to switch out the older one.  In retrospect, it's probably for the better, as the old one has burn-in issues.  As for pricing, I agree, but that's par for course in Canada.  Tech prices in Canada have traditionally been more expensive than what they are in America.

 

Note: Depending on how good the offerings are on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday, I may be able to upgrade certain components.  For now, I'm taking a somewhat conservative approach.  In any event, thank you for responding!  Please feel free to critique the build.  Any input is appreciated.

 

 

Cheers