Performance
Our benchmarks begin with the 105W AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU operating at stock speeds. We run the popular Cinebench R23 multi-core benchmark for an extended period and chart the average CPU temperature from the last five minutes of 100 per cent load.
No surprises here. The largest all-in-one cooler climbs to the top of the charts, but let's not forget that all five tested colours are more than adequate for our 16-core chip.
Arctic's PWM control keeps the cooler quiet at all times, and though the Liquid Freezer II isn't quite as serene as the Noctua NH-U12A, four of the five coolers do a very good job of keeping noise output down to an absolute minimum.
Upping the ante while maintaining complete stability, we raise the CPU multiplier to 45x on all cores and increase voltage to 1.25V. The modest overclock pushes CPU power up to 200W and represents a sterner challenge for coolers of this ilk.
Overclocking is where a radiator as large as this starts to make good sense. Even the G.Skill Enki 280, whose pump and fans ramp-up to jet-engine levels are no match for the Liquid Freezer II 420. A delta temperature of 53°C with all 16 cores working flat out at 4.5GHz is very impressive and over 10°C cooler than one of the best air coolers on the market.
This graph is telling, too. With other coolers increasing noise levels as a consequence of overclocking, the Arctic is able to remain relatively composed; its three 140mm fans don't feel the need to spin quite so fast, once again elevating the cooler to top spot.