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Jul 02, 2023

be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 Liquid Cooler Review

Learn everything there is to know about the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 as we

Learn everything there is to know about the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 as we walk you through its unboxing, installation, and testing.

Review Summary

be quiet! has another 360mm performance rich liquid cooler in its arsenal of liquid coolers. This cooler is Silent Loop 2 360. It packs a good performance punch with subtle digital RGB lighting with only 3 years warranty. be quiet! is winning the market segment with cost-effective, high-performance cooling solutions in the 360mm size category.

Pros

Cons

be quiet! is a Germany-based PC Components manufacturer that is well known for its good quality products. They are famous for their PC Cases and PSUs in particular. However, that is not all as be quiet! is also making fans, liquid coolers, thermal pastes, air coolers, and M.2 SSD Coolers, you name it. They have been in the industry for over 17 years and have earned the customer's confidence and trust. Their Liquid coolers fall into two categories:

The Pure Loop and Pure Loop 2 come in an essential category where the focus is on high-performance and silent operations at a good price point. The Silent Loop 2 comes in the premium category, where the focus is on Extremely high performance, quiet operations, and digital RGB lighting. Clearly, one should expect a high price tag for this series of coolers. The Silent Loop 2 coolers are available in 120mm, 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm sizes. This cooler is using Silent Wings 3 PWM High-Speed fans which have been taken over by new Silent Wings 4 series fans.

We have tested be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360 liquid cooler recently, and this time we are taking a look at the premium Silent Loop 2 360 liquid cooler from be quiet! This cooler has APALTEK as OEM from our understanding, and this OEM design has come under the limelight recently generated from Lian Li GALAHAD AIO's failure rate.

The pump housing has digital RGB illumination with an aluminum face plate on the top. This cooler is using be quiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM High-Speed fans. The be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 is compatible with Intel LGA 1150, 1151, 1155, 1200, 1700, and 2011(-3) square ILM sockets. From AMD's point of view, this cooler is compatible with AM4, AM5, sTRX4, and TR4 sockets. Please take note that you would need to buy mounting hardware for sTRX4 and TR4 sockets having part number BZ008 separately, as these are not included in the box.

be quiet! is showing the dimensions of all four SKUs in the Silent Loop 2 series of coolers. 52mm is the overall thickness of the unit for a 360mm size cooler, including the fans.

This cooler is shipped inside a cardboard box made packing box. This box has a black color theme on it. "Significant Quiet, Exceptional Cooling" seems to be the marketing tagline more than anything else. The only digital RGB element on this cooler is on the block.

Looking at the backside of the main packing box, we can see that be quiet! has focused on 4 key points We will cover them later in this article. These are:

We can see a serial number sticker as well as a part number label.

The specifications are printed on one side of the main packing box. The contents of the box are also printed at the bottom. This cooler is developed in Germany.

Unlike be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler's box where the egged carton needs to be taken out of the main packing box, this carton is easily accessible in Silent Loop 2 360 packing box by simply lifting the top cover. The components of the cooler are safe and nicely placed in this carton. This helps to safeguard the contents during shipping and prevents damage.

It is time to take a look at what is provided by be quiet! in the accessory department.

There is a user guide provided with the cooler that helps the users in installing this cooler on supported sockets.

be quiet! has provided the following for the Intel platform:

be quiet! has provided the following for the AMD platform:

be quiet! has provided the following:

be quiet! has provided the following:

be quiet! has emphasized servicing this cooler. For this purpose, they have provided a 100ml coolant bottle with this cooler. There is a refill port integrated into the radiator housing. Users can refill the unit should the coolant level drop in the long run. Normally, AIOs don't have this feature, with the exception of ALPHACOOL Eisbaer and Reeven NAIA 240 coolers. The provided coolant is made of water and Propylene Glycol and supports anti-freezing to -5°C. However, there are no instructions or guidelines on how to know if the coolant level is dropped. This is the same as we saw in the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler's box.

Let's start with a statement from be quiet! about this cooler. "Silent Loop 2 is the very high-performance and whisper-quiet all-in-one water cooling unit for sophisticated users with overclocked systems. With its powerful and dampened 6-pole pump and Silent Wings 3 PWM high-speed fans it offers superior features that make it very silent and highly effective at the same time. ARGB LEDs provide lots of illumination options for great visual effects and make Silent Loop 2 a highlight in any system."

Here are some key features of be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 cooler:

We are seeing a different radiator design and size compared to the one on the Pure Loop 2FX 360. This is because the OEM of both units is different. We know that APALTEK is the OEM of Silent Loop 2 series coolers, but we are not sure about the OEM of the Pure Loop 2 FX series of coolers. The radiator on Silent Loop 2 360 is made of aluminum material. The complete assembly is in black color spray coated. The dimension of this radiator is 394x120x27mm. This dimension is 397x120x27mm on the Pure Loop 2 FX series of coolers.

This radiator has a bit less length. Here 27mm refers to the thickness or height of this radiator. Installing 120x25mm fans would make an overall height of 52mm. This radiator also has an FPI count of 20. There is a gap of 105mm between two opposing mounting holes on the radiator's frame. There is a gap of 15mm between any two adjacent mounting holes on one side of the frame. This radiator has 12 channels for coolant flow. be quiet! has done a good job in fin stacking.

The far end or chamber of the radiator has a length of 15mm. This was 19mm on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler's radiator. There is an integrated port on this end of the radiator. It is covered by a screw. This is a dedicated refill port. be quiet! has provided 100ml coolant with the box. This would help in prolonging the service life of this unit. The same design thought is on the Pure Loop 2 FX series of coolers. There is no branding or sticker over this end of the radiator. This chamber has a length of 19mm, whereas it was 14mm on the Pure Loop 2 FX series of coolers.

The tube side of the radiator shows black color clamps concealing the tube and fitting connections. There is a serial number sticker pasted over this end. There is also what seems like another port with a cover on it. This port seems to be reserved for factory use only. Don't open this port, or you may lose the vacuum pressure of the loop.

Both sides of the radiator's frame are riveted to the main housing. There is no branding of any sort over here. There is no protective plating under the mounting holes of the housing. This plate prevents damage to the fin stack from excessive torquing. It would be better if you use bundled fan screws to be safe.

There is also a certain gap between the frame end and the actual fin stack. We mentioned in our take on CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White and iCUE H100i Elite Capellix XT White coolers that there is almost no gap between the fin stack and the frame sides. That is why CORSAIR coolers actually have more surface area on the fin stack compared to other AIOs. This cooler seems to have a 22mm or so thickness.

be quiet! is using low-permeability rubber tubes. This is the same design we have seen on CORSAIR coolers. These tubes have a nice textured sleeve in black color wrapping them. The length of these tubes is approximately 400 mm.

Let's take a look at the block and pump housing. be quiet! has focused on pump design.

The pump here is a keynote. "Powerful pump with innovative three-chamber design ensures the very high-performance Silent Loop 2 360mm is whisper-quiet at the same time. The second of its three chambers offers enough space for the coolant to spread out and thus reduces turbulences before it leaves the pump unit. In combination with the 6-pole three-phase motor this results in a smooth and as a consequence silent operation."

be quiet! has mentioned, "The massive dampening of the pump absorbs vibrations and as a consequence minimizes the resonances in the pump housing. This leads to significantly reduced noise and is key to the famously whisper-quiet be quiet! operation."The pump is rated for 2800 RPM and uses a 3-pin flat cable to power it up using 9~12V.

The dimension of the pump housing is 80x96x56mm. 56mm is the height of this unit. There is a beautiful brushed aluminum made face plate or top cover on this housing. It has a be quiet! branding. There is a diffuser running on the sides of the pump top beneath this face plate. There are digital RGB LEDs under that diffuser for lighting effects. The main housing is made of ABS material.

The above picture shows the diffuser clearly. This unit comes with two pre-installed spring-loaded screws on the pump housing. This is the same design that we saw on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler. Personally, I would prefer a four-point mounting mechanism for even pressure mounting compared to two-point mounting.

Looking at the backside of this housing, we can see 90° fittings used for the tube connection. This is a standard design in the AIO as it gives some flexibility to rotate the tubes as per requirements. ALPHACOOL Eisbaer coolers are an exception to this standard design having tubes installed on top of the pump housing. There are two flat cables coming out from the middle.

One cable has a 3-pin connector. This cable powers the pump of this cooler.

The second cable has dual digital RGB connectors (male and female ends) using a standard 3-pin, 5V interface. These would allow daisy chaining of other RGB elements in this loop.

be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 has a copper base. This base is nickel plated. be quiet! has mentioned that they are using a large size cold plate with a high-density fin stack for maximum heat transfer. There is a protective cover on the base. This prevents damage to the base during shipping. Don't forget to peel it off during installation. The base has a dimension of approximately 55×55 mm.

be quiet! is using Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM High-Speed fans with this cooler. These fans have been taken over by a new generation of Silent Wings 4 fans. I am expecting a new cool iteration using those fans. The Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM High-Speed fans have the following features:

These fans are black in color from head to toe, making this cooler ideal for stealth or neutral scheme builds. Each fan has a 7-blade design with layers on these blades. This design helps in enhanced airflow and reduces air turbulence. This is the same design that we saw on Light Wings fans on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler.

Each mounting corner has a circular shape anti-vibration pad. There are two arrow symbols on the frame. These help novice users to identify the direction of airflow through the fan and the direction in which blades will spin.

We can see a 4-arms assembly on the backside of these fans. One arm has an inset on which the wires are routed from the hub toward the frame. The power rating of the fan is printed on a sticker. The fans are rated for 2200 RPM.

These fans have sleeved cable (not a flat one) having a 4-pin PWM connector.

The specifications of the fans are:

Please note that the performance data of these fans are not provided in the specifications of the Silent Loop 2 360 cooler. We have taken this data from the webpage of Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM High-Speed fans. This data will be true if be quiet! is using a standard version with this cooler.

We have tested the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 cooler on Intel platform using Intel core i7 13700k on GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard. Its installation is the same as we saw on Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler. I am reproducing the steps from our content of Pure Loop 2 FX 360:

This cooler has a dimension of 394 x 120 x 27mm without fans. With fans, this size is 394 x 120 x 52mm. We did not observe any clearance issue of this cooler. You would need to check that your PC Case has clearance for this size radiator. The tube side does not hinder DIMM slots. There is no hub provided with this cooler and fans are not RGB, so cable management should not be an issue.

be quiet! has provided an RGB controller with this cooler, unlike a ARGB-PWM-Hub on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360.

This is a slim design with minimalistic cables requirement which is a good implementation. The housing is made of the plastic material and it is finished in black color. One end of this controller has fixed 3-pin, 5V RGB connector (male). The other end has a 2-pin header to which a SATA cable is already connected. This is a similar-looking design from my personal experience. The SilverStone PF360 cooler and iCEGEM coolers have the same looking controller.

This controller has three buttons. Two buttons have arrow symbols on them and third has a letter M over it. The M-labeled button changes the lighting mode. The arrow labeled buttons increase or decrease the speed of dynamic lighting effects or change the static color. This housing has LED indicator as well that changes colors on every click of the M label button.

be quiet! is using standard 3-pin, 5V RGB connectors so you can expect the lighting to work on any solution from leading motherboard manufacturer motherboards. We have tested the lighting effects on GIGABYTE RGB FUSION 2.0 app and found the lighting working flawlessly. Here are a few pictures.

We have used a below-mentioned configuration for this testing:

Here is the settings table for testing:

Before we move on to the results, let me write a few lines on the new platforms from both camps. We have seen AMD AM5 and Intel Alder Lake S CPUs taking more power, and this time, both sides have aimed at reaching the maximum clocks regardless of the thermal limit. The thermal density on these CPUs is high due to the fabrication node process of 7nm or less. In fact, they run into thermal limits right away depending on the cooling solution and the clocks being used.

This has made testing of CPU coolers challenging because viewers/readers are not used to a new nomenclature which is what clocks are sustained under a given load using a particular cooler. That is if the cooler is capable of providing enough cooling head to sustain the high frequencies. Traditionally we are used to going the other way around, that is, which cooler is better in terms of thermal capacity. Despite this, we are using temperatures as a base for measuring this unit.

The ambient temperature was in the range of 30°C to 31°C. Since the variation in the ambient temperature is within 1°C, we are reporting absolute temperatures in the graph. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.

Disclaimer: Every silicon is different; hence no two same SKUs are likely to take the same voltage to yield the same performance at the same thermals per se, but the margin would be close. Not every stress test run may yield the same result, which could be due to various reasons like thermal paste application, ambient temperature variation, the mounting pressure of the cooler, etc. This is very why we have listed our variables and their settings. Variables not mentioned are on Auto setting. We are actually testing the cooler on all Auto and stock settings.

The above graphs are taken from be quiet! webpage of Pure Loop 2 FX 360. These graphs seem to be made after internal testing by be quiet! We are not sure about sample size i.e. how many SKUs they have tested before generalizing the data in categories of i7, i9, R7, R9, etc. We have seen almost majority of the 360mm coolers struggle on Intel 13th gen platform and even on AMD Ryzen 7000 series not because these coolers have a lackluster performance but how these new platforms behave thermally (given the high thermal density on these CPUs).

I am not sure that this cooler can handle overclocking on Intel core i7 13700k in high ambient temperature. On AMD side, the new CPUs will hit 95C immediately to provide maximum headroom for boosting the clocks. Testing coolers on that platform in such a condition is pointless.

Let's take a look at the results.

This test was done using Intel's default settings with power limits imposed. The CPU was drawing roughly 225W power so this is a 220W domain result.

be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 – Thermal Performance (Image By Tech4Gamers)[/caption]

The maximum temperature under heavy workload was 90°C. This is 1°C less than the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler and in my opinion, this difference implies nothing as we usually tend to ignore the thermal difference of up to 1°C until it is a sensitive test. This cooler has performed almost the same as other 360mm size coolers like CORSAIR iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT White cooler and be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360. Though you can say that this cooler performs a bit better than those two coolers. Let me dare say it again that it is normal, given how the new platform behaves and the high ambient temperature.

As per our sound meter, these fans were making 54 dB(A) sound output at an ambient sound level of 34 dB(A).

We recently tested be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360 liquid cooler. This cooler is from their Essential product category, which represents high-performance and silent operations at pocket-friendly pricing. This time we have taken a look at be quiet! Silent Look 2 360 comes from the premium category. be quiet! focuses on extremely high performance with whisper-quiet operations and digital RGB lighting. Surprisingly, both coolers have almost the same price range.

APALTEK is OEM of Silent Loop 2 360 cooler and since the pump is integrated into the block, this cooler is not officially available, nor will it be available in the US market to avoid potential patent violation of Asetek. The Silent Loop 2 coolers are available in 120mm (with dual fans), 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm sizes. The be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 is a 360mm size cooler. It is compatible with Intel LGA 1150, 1151, 1155, 1200, 1700, and 2011(-3) square ILM sockets. From AMD's point of view this cooler is compatible with AM4, AM5, sTRX4, and sTR4 sockets. You would need to buy mounting hardware for sTRX4 and sTR4 sockets as these are not included in the box.

This cooler has a 360mm radiator having a dimension of 394x120x27mm. This radiator has a bit shorter length compared to the one on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler. This radiator is made of aluminum material, and the total housing is black color spray painted. After installing 120x25mm fans, the overall height of the unit will be 52mm. This radiator has a FPI count of 20 making it a dense fin stack. be quiet! has done a good job in fin stacking. We did not observe any bend or broken fin. There are 12 channels for coolant flow. There is a standard gap of 105mm between two opposing end mounting holes and 15mm on two adjacent mounting holes.

Much like Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler, this cooler has a refill port integrated into the radiator housing on the far block or chamber. This camber has a length of 15mm. The Pure Loop 2 FX 360 radiator has 22mm length for far block or chamber. be quiet! has provided a coolant bottle in the box that has 100ml coolant. It is a premix solution that the user can use to refill the loop should the coolant level drop in long run. One thing that remains to be mentioned to the user is how to know if the coolant level has actually dropped. The tubing and fitting connections on the radiator is concealed using black color clamps. These tubes have a length of 400mm and they are wrapped inside nylon braided sleeves.

The block of this cooler has a dimension of 80x96x56mm. 56mm is the height of this unit. be quiet! has mentioned that this pump housing uses a three-chamber design giving this cooler high performance at whisper quiet sound level. The second of its three chambers offers enough space for the coolant to spread out and thus reduces turbulences before it leaves the pump unit. In combination with the 6-pole three-phase motor, this results in a smooth and, as a consequence, silent operation. The massive dampening of the pump absorbs vibrations and as a consequence minimizes the resonances in the pump housing. This pump has a maximum rotational speed of 2800 RPM using a voltage range of 9 to 12V.

There is a brushed aluminum-made top plate or cover, having be quiet! branding. There is a diffuser under this cover that runs on the borderline, and it has digital RGB LEDs for lighting effects. This is the only area on this cooler that has digital RGB lighting. The housing is made of ABS material and finished in black color. This unit has two spring-loaded screws pre-installed. I would have preferred a four point mounting mechanism over this two point mounting. There is a copper made base that is nickel plated with a mirror finish. It has a dimension of 55x55mm roughly. be quiet! has mentioned that there is a large size cold plate with a high-density fin stack.

be quiet! is using Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM High-Speed fans with this cooler. This cooler was released before the introduction of Silent Wings 4 fans. I think be quite! might be using Silent Wings 4 with their new top tier cooler in coming time. The Silent Wings 3 fans are non-RGB versions. They feature layered designs on the blades.

The complete assembly is black in color. Each mounting corner has an anti-vibration pad. These fans are powered by 4-pin PWM connector cables. These fans have a dimension of 120x120x25mm. They have a maximum speed of 2100 RPM with a maximum of 73.33 CFM airflow at 3.37mmH20 static pressure. The noise level is rated at 39.8 dB(A) maximum. These fans are using Fluid Dynamic Bearings with a life span of 300,000 hours at 25° ambient.

be quiet! has provided an RGB controller with this cooler. This controller has a standard 3-pin, 5V (male) header to which the RGB connector is connected coming from the pump housing. This controller is SATA powered. It has three buttons. There is an LED indicator as well integrated into its housing. You can change the lighting mode as well as increase or decrease the speed of the dynamic modes or change color in static mode etc.

It is a slim design and main issue with such controllers is that they can't be placed out of the PC Case which makes their handling and operation cumbersome. By using standard connectors, be quiet! has ensured that this controller and RGB elements can work on leading motherboard manufacturers’ digital RGB solutions. We have tested the digital RGB lighting on the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard using RGB FUSION 2.0 app. The lighting effects were working flawlessly.

The basic installation of this cooler is exactly same as we saw on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler. Though it is not convenient as such and involves 19 mounting items for Intel LGA 1700 socket, it is not difficult to use. This is almost the same for be quiet! coolers (air and liquid) as be quiet is trying to use a standard mounting design across the cooling solution except where it is mentioned.

be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 has an MSRP of USD 159.90, Euro 159, and UK Pound Sterling 134.99. We have mentioned above that this series of coolers will not be available in the US market, which is why I am listing prices in three currencies. Interesting enough this cooler is sitting closer to the USD 154.99 price tag of Pure Loop 2 FX 360. I am not sure why using two different design coolers in the same price range. be quiet! is offering a mediocre warranty on this cooler which is 3 years. This cooler was put on Intel core i7 13700k for testing. The ambient temperature was in the range of 30°C to 31°C.

This cooler manages 90°C, which is a 1°C lower temperature compared to Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler (91°C). This is not surprising given how these new platforms thermally behave. We have tested a few other 360mm AIOs and all these coolers are sitting in a same range of 90°C to 92°C. But this cooler has an advantage over the expensive coolers giving the same result in its effective pricing. Plus, it has a digital RGB lighting effect but only on the pump housing. All in all, this actually makes the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 a better value overall.

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