I know I’ll get rinsed by rising costs somewhere when building a PC but my favorite product this year was one of a few things that didn’t ask for more money

We’ve got most of the big stuff covered with our Gear of the Year awards. Though even I’ll admit we’re missing award categories for cases and coolers. There are many deserving of a nomination, from the excellent Havn BF 360 to the return of a legend, the Corsair Air 5400. But I had to go with my gut.

I first caught sight of the Liquid Freezer III Pro at Computex, Taiwan’s biggest tech show. I arrived at Arctic’s booth in a bit of a mess, having essentially jogged between appointments most of the morning in the stuffy weather. I spent an undue amount of time admiring the new Liquid Freezer Pro, if only for a brief respite as the cool air from its fans reached my face.

It wouldn’t be easy to improve upon the original Liquid Freezer III. Our Nick rated the original model so highly that he awarded it our no.1 spot in our best liquid cooler buying guide. It also cost pennies compared to other all-in-one coolers offering similar performance. But Arctic was going to give it a go, anyway.

An Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro liquid cooler set-up on a test bench with the RGB enabled.

(Image credit: Future)

The Pro improves on the previous Liquid Freezer III in a couple of ways, namely improved pump control, greater fin density, and new, faster fans.

I’ve reviewed the Arctic Freezer III Pro 360 since then. It shows its true colours in testing. It keeps even the most power-hungry processors at a decent temperature (looking at you, 14th Gen), and makes light work with less demanding chips, such as the Ryzen 9000-series. What’s more, the P12 Pro fans are excellent—rated to a massive 6.9 mmH20 static pressure. While loud at their 3000 rpm top speed, and beaten by Noctua’s latest at slower speeds, you can tune them down and still reap most of the benefits.

Most of all, the Liquid Freezer III Pro earns my recommendation because it does something quite extraordinary in this day and age. It launched at more or less the same price as its predecessor; the thing it improves upon in almost every way.

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Fan	Max RPM	Rated airflow (CFM)	Rated static pressure (mm H20)	Airflow (m/s) @ Max RPM	@ 1,200 RPM	@ 800 RPM	@ 450 RPM
Arctic P12 Pro	3,000	77.00	6.90	2.60	1.10	0.70	0.40
Hyte Thicc FP12	3,000	105.80	8.14	3.20	1.30	0.90	0.40
Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 PWM	1,800	63.15	3.14	2.20	1.40	1.00	0.50
Corsair iCUE LINK QX120 RGB PWM	2,400	63.10	3.80	2.20	1.10	0.70	0.40
NZXT F120 RGB DUO	1,800	48.58	2.42	1.40	1.00	0.60	0.30

The Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 will set you back, as of time of writing, just $90. If you want some RGB lighting to go with that, it’s another $9. Both options have been cheaper for considerable lengths of time, but you can hardly argue with that price. There’s little else that can touch it in terms of bang for your buck—though I did have a soft spot for the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Core II 360 for $60 over Black Friday.

When it feels like companies are taking customers for a ride and wringing every last penny from our bank accounts, Arctic had the opportunity of a generation with the Liquid Freezer III Pro to do the same. But it didn’t. No mention of ‘macro-economic headwinds’. No talk of tariffs. Just a great product, improving on what came before, and for a superb price. That’s why the Liquid Freezer III Pro beat the other products to earn my personal pick for Gear of the Year.

If you want to find out who wins in the PC Gamer Hardware Awards, we’ll be publishing all the winners on New Year’s Eve.