In order to test the CPU cooler we used the following configuration:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• Thermal compound: Arctic MX-5 (included at the retail box)
• Case: bequiet! Silent Base 802
• Case fans: 2x140 bequiet! Silent Wings 3 High-Speed RPM speed controllable via SmartFan BIOS + Asus Xpert4 software
• CPU Fan: Stock 2x120mm Noctua
• Motherboard: Asus X570 E-Gaming with 4403 BIOS
• Memory: 2x16GB G.skill Trident Z RGB CL14 @ 3200MHz CL14 (XMP Profile) @ 1.35V
• PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 11 650Watt
• HDD: Crucial MX500 SSD
• VGA: Asus 1060 6GB Dual
• Ambient room temperature ~ 25 Celsius (with AC climate control) - Environment Temperature measurements: Precision Gold N09AQ Envirometer Meter
• Sound measurements at 1m distance: miniDSP UMIK-1 microphone with calibration file and latest REW software
• Operating system: Windows 10 x64 with all the latest updates installed
• Software: AIDA64 / HWInfo / OCCT Enterprise Edition (Latest builds)

Before each run, we left the CPU cooler cooled down and we reset the OCCT Enterprise Edition values to be accurate.

We set the CPU fan speeds at "Smart Mode" with the Asus Xpert4 software. The case fans were also set at SmartFan mode with the option for Auto Fan Stop at low loads down to 0% for the two front fans and auto for the back case fan.

The CPU fans were detected from the Asus motherboard and gave us the following fan curve

Bios settings:

• Ai Overclock Tuner: D.O.C.P -> XMP DDR-3200 CL14
• BCLK Frequency: 100MHz
• FCLK Frequency: 1600MHz
• CPU core ratio: Auto
• TPU: Keep Current Setting
• Performance Bias: Auto
• VDDCR CPU Voltage: 1.100V
• VDDCD SOC Voltage: 0.900V
• DRAM Voltage: 1.350V (XMP)
• Precision Boost Overdrive: Auto
• Rest BIOS options: Auto

For further evaluation, we also used OCCT Enterprise Edition with a 30min run and we noted all temperatures as were noted from the software. For maximum temperature we used the following settings:

• Data Set: Small
• Mode: Extreme
• Load Type: Steady

Under normal loads, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280RGB came very close to very good air coolers like the Noctua NH-U12A, at least for the average temperature. A competitive product from be quiet! the Pure Loop 2FX 280mm came slightly behind, even such small temperature differences don't matter at the final end.

Placing the miniDSP UMIK-1 microphone around 1m from the closed case, we were pleased to get very low overall case+cpu cooler noise. What really impressed is that the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280RGB had the best results at acoustic performance, giving top performance even at full load!

Overclocking

Bios settings:

• Ai Overclock Tuner: D.O.C.P -> XMP DDR-3200 CL14
• BCLK Frequency: 100MHz
• FCLK Frequency: 1600MHz
• CPU core ratio: 45Χ
• TPU: Keep Current Setting
• Performance Bias: Auto
• VDDCR CPU Voltage: 1.18125V
• VDDCD SOC Voltage: 0.900V
• DRAM Voltage: 1.350V (XMP)
• Precision Boost Overdrive: Auto
• Rest BIOS options: Auto

Lastly, we wanted to see how this CPU cooler will handle even higher temperature loads, so we set the CPU multiplier to 45X and set CPU Vcore at 1.18V.

At the CPU overclocking test, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280RGB gave good results, even cannot compete with very big air coolers like the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 or the Noctua NH-D15. Note that small differences can happen due to the different thermal paste we used for this test (Arctic MX-5 vs be quiet! DC1 we had used in all previous tests).