be quiet! Light Loop 360 AIO Cooler Review

be quiet! is a brand known for its high-performing and silent PC components, from its award-winning cases to its amazing power supplies! However, today it's all about their longest legacy, PC cooling! We kick things off today with the new be quiet! Light Loop 360mm. This all-in-one (AIO) water cooling unit is designed for high-performance and high TDP systems and promises superior performance. While there are other sizes, such as 240mm and 280mm, we're focusing on the flagship 360mm today. There's also a white version of this cooler available, but again, today we have the black version, but of course, the performance should be the same for either colour. The be quiet! Light Loop 360mm Black is an impressive AIO cooler that offers a compelling combination of performance, aesthetics, and features. It distinguishes itself from the competition with a unique pump design that promises improved noise levels and lifespan. However, there's also the inclusion of their latest Light Wings high-speed PWM fans, which should ensure optimal airflow and cooling efficiency. Of course, as with all be quiet! hardware, we're expecting to literally be quiet too. It should provide impressive practicality too, with a refillable radiator design, and an included ARGB 6-fan PWM control hub, and it comes backed up by a competitive 3-year warranty. Furthermore, at just £126 on Amazon, it's very competitively priced, only increasing its appeal. Key Features and Specifications High-Performance Cooling: Designed to handle heavily overclocked systems with ease. ARGB Lighting: Stylish cooling block with customizable lighting effects. Efficient Fans: Three Light Wings LX PWM high-speed fans for optimal airflow. Quiet Operation: State-of-the-art pump with noise-reducing design. Superior Design: Optimized jet plate and cold plate for enhanced performance. ARGB-PWM Hub: Control and synchronize up to 6 ARGB components and PWM fans. Long Lifespan: Easy-to-access refill port and included coolant for extended use. 3-Year Warranty: Peace of mind with a comprehensive warranty. Light Wings LX Fans Light Loop 360mm Black features 3 Light Wings LX 120mm PWM high-speed fans. They come with 16 LEDs that perfectly scatter across the fan blades and are key for the stunning visuals Light Loop 360mm Black offers. The fan’s 9 airflow-optimized fan blades not only reduce noise-generating turbulences but also ensure that Light Wings LX 120mm PWM high-speed provides the performance that is needed, even in demanding scenarios. Jet Plate Pump Design Jet plate, pump and the cold plate of Light Loop 360mm Black are designed for peak performance. The metal jet plate increases flow speed of the cooling liquid, leading to an enhanced performance. A cold plate with a high-density fin stack increases cooling performance on modern flagship and high-end CPUs. Finally, a progressive IC in the motor reduces switching noise, ensuring the noise of the pump stays at a low level. Packaging and Accessories The Light Loop comes in a fairly basic box, all black, with a small image of the cooler on the front. Around the back, there are some details of the pump, hub, and lighting, but again, it's kept pretty simple. However, the box is thick cardboard and very durable. On the interior, there's a cardboard insert keeping everything nice and secure, and more plastic or card over various components and the radiator. There's also a layer of foam that goes over the top, so everything has at least three layers of protection throughout. In the box, you'll find all the usual mount kit stuff for AMD and Intel, a tube of thermal paste and even a bottle of liquid for topping up the radiator. A Closer Look be quiet! Obviously can't reinvent the AIO here, it still needs to be compatible with as many PC cases as possible, so the radiator is your typical black rectangle with room for 3 x 120mm fans on either side to accommodate a push or pull configuration. There is a nice little detail along the side though, with some ridges pressed into the metal. The lines on the radiator somewhat match the aesthetic of the pump too, which has these massive grooves cut into the frosty top. Obviously, the top is ARGB lit, so when it's powered up, this should look pretty special. There's a small be quiet! logo on the top, nothing too crazy, but overall, the pump looks nice and compact and very well made. There are some pre-fitted screws on the side, so once you fit the mounting plates to the motherboard, you simply tighten these two screws to fit it into place. The cold place is nicely finished, with a large polished surface that should easily cover any of the Intel or AMD CPUs. Hooking it up is simple enough, as the pump uses a standard PWM and ARGB header, so you can hook it up to the included hub, your own hub, a motherboard, etc. The fans look great and are the Light Wings LX PWM High Speed, so they can operate up to 2100 RPM should you need big airflow on really hot days or for overclocking. The fan's airflow is rated at 61.8 CFM at 100% PWM, and 2.5mm H2O air pressure. The hub is simple enough, with power, PWM and ARGB on one end, and fan/RGB connectors on each side where there's a little cut-away. Again, all simple enough to understand and easy to set up. Installation Installation couldn't have been easier, as be quiet! has done a great job with the mounting kit. There's a metal backplate, some stand-off screws, and two mounting plates. Simply screw all that in place, then the pump can be screwed down using its pre-fitted screws. Of course, while there was thermal paste included, we used our usual stuff to keep testing fair. The radiator is snug up in the top of this lovely be quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX PC case, you can read my review of that case here if you fancy it. Now for the light show, and wow does this cooler look epic! The fins on the pump really break up the light with lots of colour and shadows giving it a reactor-like glow. The light is a little more uniform in person, but my camera sort of oversaturates the middle, but it really does look very pretty either way. Of course, with the included hub, I am able to sync the other lights in my be quiet! case with those on the fans and the pump. Performance The be quiet! Light Loop 360 is a large and high-end cooler, so it's hardly surprising to see it perform so well. The load temperatures peaked at just 74c, which puts it firmly in line with many of the best coolers we've ever tested, such as the Cooler Master Atmos, Thermaltake TH420, and the Arctic Freezer III. However, with our optimised settings delivering a nice overclock, and fixed boost clocks, but with lower voltages, the Light Loop came into the big leagues, scoring just 64c at load, making it one of the absolute best performers we've ever had, matched by the Kraken Elite, and only 1-2c off the top spot with the FREEZER III and the THICC Q60. be quiet! has a strong reputation for low noise performance, and while these aren't massively quiet, they're right in the middle of the chart, so I guess you could say the sound is average. However, they're pretty high RPM fans, and for the speed they run at, the amount of airflow the move, and the amazing cooling performance, this level of acoustics is pretty sublime. It stayed the same using the optimised settings, so perhaps the PWM curve is a little eager. We already saw some of the best cooling performance we've had from an AIO, so really, if you want silence, you have a huge amount of cooling headroom to dial the fans back to their silent profile, in which case, they'll be barely a whisper from your computer. How Much Does it Cost? The be quiet! Light Loop 360 is available now from Amazon for just £140. That is a little on the high-end when some rival products come in at around £100 and offer impressive cooling performance of their own. However, you pay a little more and get a little more with be quiet! that easily justifies the extra cost. You get that lovely ARGB/Fan control hub included, you get much higher quality fans than what we usually see on an AIO cooler, and it comes with a refillable design, which is a rare addition even on many flagship coolers. Conclusion The be quiet! Light Loop 360 has got it all, and while it's not the cheapest cooler on our testing run, it's far from the most expensive either. It forgoes current trends such as putting a little TV on the pump, and instead focuses on extreme cooling performance that makes light work of our rather demanding i9 processor. With most high-end gaming CPUs having demanding TDPs, keeping the temps low to maintain those boost clocks while you work and play is important. ARGB I love the ARGB integration too, with that stunning pump design with deep grooves cut into that really breaks up the lighting, giving it lots of surface area with a unique mix of light and shadow. The colours are vibrant and bright, but they light up the cooler pump not the rest of the case, and personally, I prefer more of an assent light, not a disco ball, so a big thumbs up to be quiet! The radiator fans are similar, with consistent illumination across the fan blades, and plenty of LEDs to give them smooth lighting effects and colour fades. Cooling The fans are some of the best AIO fans we've ever seen too, able to deliver massive airflow and higher RPM than most while maintaining low acoustic performance. I do think the PWM curve is just a little higher than it needs to be though. The cooler delivered killer performance, but you can set the fans to a silent PWM curve and still get some of the best cooling performance, which would be more in line with the "be quiet" mentality. Should I Buy One? This is one of the nicest-looking and better-made AIO coolers on the market right now. A premium pump design, top-tier fans for massive airflow and low noise, a nicely finished radiator that even comes with a refillable design, and there's a bottle of cooling fluid included in the box, so you can maintain the cooler's performance over time. With an ARGB fan hub included, it really has everything you need for a premium experience, and we'd have expected nothing less from be quiet!