Will you pay more for Arctic Liquid Freezer II ?

[gh0st47]

As title said, I'm looking at the Arctic LF 360mm Rev3.0 which is going for 199$. 
( Rev3.0 is the latest one with a better AM4 bracket, we don't have the cheaper 280mm yet same performance as the 360mm, here sadly ) 

The only issue is, as good as this cooler is the price is bit high because other offerings in my country are like.

Lian Li Galahad 360mm - 166$
NZXT Kraken X73 360mm - 199$
Corsair iCue H115i RGB Pro XT 280mm  -146$
Corsair iCue H150i RGB Pro XT  360mm - 166$
Corsair H115i RGB Platinum 280mm - 174$ 
BeQuiet! Pure Loop 360mm - 141$
BeQuiet! Pure Loop 280mm - 121$

Which would YOU buy personally ?? Cheap s BeQuiet is, but I saw the review the performance is rather weak. 
While Corsair are one of the loudest...and I think Kraken is slightly worst than Arctic LF but same price. 
Lian Li seems to be nearly good as Arctic LF and cheaper too ? 

But what would you recommend if for me if I have these preference. 
I be using it to cool the 5900X with Crosshair VIII board in the Fractal Design Meshify 2 case.

1.  Doesn't care about RGB 
2. Want decent cooling and low noise out of the box without swapping the Stock fans 
3. Prefer not to use software to tinker around the Fan Curve etc 
4. Prefer to deal with RGB fan because the stupid amount of connection needed 
5. May consider swapping out Stock fans for EB eLoop B12 P ( 2000 RPM max fans but this is optional, I may stick to Stock fans if they are decent enough ) 

[DoctorNick]

The Liquid Freezer is by far the best of all those coolers, because of the silence/performance. One of my buddies just got it for his 5800x and is using it at max 30% fan speed. Another nice thing is that it only takes one 4 pin fan header on the motherboard for both pump and fans. Fans is synchronized with pump speed. No software no bullshit. Apart from the new bracket the rev. 3 contains. should fit on the Crosshair 8 board though. Due to more socket clearance.

 

Also performance is great:

 

[gh0st47]

3 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

The Liquid Freezer is by far the best of all those coolers, because of the silence/performance. One of my buddies just got it for his 5800x and is using it at max 30% fan speed. Another nice thing is that it only takes one 4 pin fan header on the motherboard for both pump and fans. Fans is synchronized with pump speed. No software no bullshit. Apart from the new bracket the rev. 3 contains. should fit on the Crosshair 8 board though. Due to more socket clearance.

 

Also performance is great:

 

Just saw someone mentioned that he had issue mounting on the Strix-E X570 board which is actually really similar to the Hero 8 board. 
Actually the bricks and mortar store here still carry the Rev2.0 ones. Which has the worst mounting bracket ( actually it's just more difficult to mount but whole lot smaller ). 
I wonder should I just go with the Rev2.0, not to mention the Rev3.0 one here sold is 40$ more expensive ! 
But I can't fin any info what's the big differences between Rev2.0 and 3.0....will I be losing out a lot going for Rev2.0 besides the the new mounting bracket ? 

[gh0st47]

I kinda agree the new mounting bracket is easier but it's just stupidly big....

 

[DoctorNick]

Just now, gh0st47 said:

Just saw someone mentioned that he had issue mounting on the Strix-E X570 board which is actually really similar to the Hero 8 board. 
Actually the bricks and mortar store here still carry the Rev2.0 ones. Which has the worst mounting bracket ( actually it's just more difficult to mount but whole lot smaller ). 
I wonder should I just go with the Rev2.0, not to mention the Rev3.0 one here sold is 40$ more expensive ! 
But I can't fin any info what's the big differences between Rev2.0 and 3.0....will I be losing out a lot going for Rev2.0 besides the the new mounting bracket ? 

Yes just take the rev. 2 - my buddy had to get rev. 2 mounting kit to get it working on his Aorus B550 Pro. it's hard from looking at pictures to verify that the rev. 3 will work with C8H, but it looks like its more spacious then the b550 pro. Yes the new rev. 3 bracket is easier to mount, or sort of.. Not the biggest difference. You'll use more screws, but thats about it.

[gh0st47]

Seems like everyone is having issue with the new mounting bracket on most AM4 Mobo. 
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1277009-arctic-liquid-freezer-ii-rev30-better-am4-mounting-kit/

[gh0st47]

4 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Yes just take the rev. 2 - my buddy had to get rev. 2 mounting kit to get it working on his Aorus B550 Pro. it's hard from looking at pictures to verify that the rev. 3 will work with C8H, but it looks like its more spacious then the b550 pro. Yes the new rev. 3 bracket is easier to mount, or sort of.. Not the biggest difference. You'll use more screws, but thats about it.

Actually the more I look at it, I think even with Rev3.0 it would still be fine. I mean if the new bracket doesn't work, I could just skip it. 
I think the it's just an extra bracket for easier mounting. Instead of having to hold the original mounting with your hand, you use this new bracket to lock it into place, then you mount on to the new bracket. 
 

[DoctorNick]

5 minutes ago, gh0st47 said:

I kinda agree the new mounting bracket is easier but it's just stupidly big....

 

Yes 100%. They should have made it similar to other AIO's but.. Apparently arctic has a thing with getting stardard mounting wrong.

[gh0st47]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

Yes 100%. They should have made it similar to other AIO's but.. Apparently arctic has a thing with getting stardard mounting wrong.

I think I would just go with Rev2.0...I don't think there is much differences. Beside the pricing ! 
 

[DoctorNick]

Just now, gh0st47 said:

I think I would just go with Rev2.0...I don't think there is much differences. Beside the pricing ! 
 

I would too. I would recommend getting a tube of thermal paste, kryonaut perhaps? The bag that come with the cooler is a little hard to get a perfect blub with. Just put a blub in the middle just under the N in Ryzen, about the diameter of a chick pea, then you'll get the best mounting. 

[gh0st47]

Just now, DoctorNick said:

I would too. I would recommend getting a tube of thermal paste, kryonaut perhaps? The bag that come with the cooler is a little hard to get a perfect blub with. Just put a blub in the middle just under the N in Ryzen, about the diameter of a chick pea, then you'll get the best mounting. 

No worries I got two. I had one tube of Kryonaut and NT-H2, I think the NT-H2 is better. 
I was using Kryonaut before, but after 1 Year ++ the paste became really hardened. As if it dries up or something. 
So I switched to NT-H2. the temps are same as Kryonaut. Hopefully it would still be more " liquid " as well after some time. But it has only been 3 Months now, Temps are still fine. 
So far so good. And the NT-H2 paste feels easier to work with too when I was applying it on my CPU. 

[DoctorNick]

2 minutes ago, gh0st47 said:

No worries I got two. I had one tube of Kryonaut and NT-H2, I think the NT-H2 is better. 
I was using Kryonaut before, but after 1 Year ++ the paste became really hardened. As if it dries up or something. 
So I switched to NT-H2. the temps are same as Kryonaut. Hopefully it would still be more " liquid " as well after some time. But it has only been 3 Months now, Temps are still fine. 
So far so good. And the NT-H2 paste feels easier to work with too when I was applying it on my CPU. 

NT-H2 should be great too. Have only tried NT-H1 and its great. Then you're set, go get it!

[gh0st47]

Care package secured, now left is Mobo and CPU...which both completely out of stock everywhere ! 
I'm amazed that such an overpriced board like the Crosshair VIII is completely out of stock, even the Dark Hero !
Especially in my country...all sudden everyone's a PC Enthusiast now here...wtf....to give you context. 
The Dark Hero here costs a whopping 619$ USD while Gigabyte Aorus Master is only 396$ USD and MSI Unify / Ace is only around 322$ USD - 419$ USD. 
Maybe I will have to go with Aorus Master or something else.....the shop retailer told me the local ASUS may not bring in anymore Hero boards.