be quiet! Pure Loop 2 280MM AIO Cooler Review

be quiet! has been one of the best brands for high-end PC hardware, having some of the coolest, quietest, and most feature-packed PC cases, fans, coolers and power supplies since on the market. Obviously, with their brand name literally saying "be quiet" they've always had a focus on acoustic performance. However, from our own testing, they've always done rather well with actually cooling your components too, and that's why I'm eager to check out their latest AIO series, the Pure Loop 2. I'm kicking things off with the 280mm model today, but we'll explore other models in the coming weeks too. be quiet! Pure Loop 2 The Pure Loop 2 looks fairly similar to their other AIO coolers, but that's to be expected. What is different, however, lurks within the pump. It features a new doubly decoupled design, is now PWM controllable for the first time, and the ARGB LED is now customisable rather than a single-colour white LED on the old model. Furthermore, they have an exclusive new fan design, Pure Wings 3, which uses a closed-loop motor technology, which at the time of writing, cannot be purchased separately. These fans not only monitor the PWM signal, but the actual fan speed, and will increase or decrease to reach the true RPM required, rather than be at the mercy of any resistance from air pressure and other factors within your build; very clever stuff! Features High cooling performance Up to 3 Pure Wings 3 PWM high-speed fans offer high static pressure with very quiet operation Doubly decoupled PWM pump reduces vibrations to an absolute minimum ARGB illumination on the cooling block, combined with an all-black design and aluminium style for an unmistakable and stylish look Easy-to-access refill port and included coolant bottle guarantee a long lifespan Flexible-sleeved tubes and a convenient mounting ensure easy handling 3-year manufacturer’s warranty Product conception, design and quality control in Germany Specifications Packaging The box is classic be quiet! with an all-black design, a clear photo on the front just the simple logo and product name on the front. The back of the box has a nice rundown of the key features too, showing the new doubly decoupled PWM pump, new fans, radiator and the new block. Everything is nicely packaged, and it's all recyclable materials in here too, which is always good to see. In the box, you get all the usual nuts and bolts for the common AMD and Intel sockets, as well as some cable ties and a tube of thermal paste, which is always handy. There's even a little squeezy bottle of cooling solution, allowing you to top the radiator up to maintain its peak performance throughout its life span. A Closer Look The Be quiet! Pure Loop 2 comes with the latest Pure Wings 3 fans, and they look absolutely stunning. Actually, be quiet! fans have always looked great, so these are no exception, with their black-on-black design and rifled fan blades. We know their old models have good air pressure and quiet performance, so if these are even better, that's obviously a good thing. The fans have a tight frame design, ensuring air doesn't leak through the edges, which will help further improve the air pressure that can push through the fan. As I said in my introduction, they also have a new closed-loop design, where they can monitor their own PWM signal and true fan speed, allowing them to adjust their speed to combat any issues with air resistance when mounted to a radiator. The radiator itself looks stunning, with a very clean design with lots of tidy-looking straight edges and a simple PURE LOOP 2 logo printed on the side. The radiator can support fan mounting on either side, allowing you to use a push or a pull configuration depending on what orientation your case supports, greatly increasing its compatibility. The radiator also has a fill port. Now, this is interesting as traditionally AIOs are sealed non-servicable units. However, you get a bottle of fluid included with this one, allowing you to maintain it over time, rather than have its performance degrade as it ages. The tubing looks great and features a pump that's mounted between the radiator and the CPU block, which will take any unwanted vibrations away from harder surfaces such as your motherboard, further reducing the acoustic levels. The block itself is now ARGB, a nice upgrade from the older white LED design, giving you more customisation options. Furthermore, it comes with a matte finish aluminium top panel, so the RGB lights around the edge, and overall, it just looks very sleek and classy. I like that they didn't do RGB fans too, it's a bit more understated and more in line with their brand aesthetic. The contact plate is nice and larger and polished, so will provide an excellent contact surface even for the largest of the supported CPUs. Test System & Methodology Idle tests are recorded after 10 minutes of the system being left alone after boot with no additional background processes or software running. All load tests are performed in Cinebench R2, first using a single speed run to generate the Cinebench R23 score, then a 10-minute loop to determine the overall all-core average load temperature for the relevant cooler. Clock speeds are left at the default factory settings provided by the CPU and our NZXT Z690 N7 motherboard. Optimised settings lock the CPU P-Cores to 4.9Hz and the E-Cores to 4GHz at a voltage of 1.3v. Fan speeds for the case are set to 30% at all times. Pump RPM is fixed to 100% for liquid coolers, and CPU cooler fans are left to the motherboard "automatic" and "normal" profile unless otherwise stated. Acoustics are measured from 2ft above the NZXT H7 Flow PC case, using a decibel meter, with all side panels and filters in place on the case and as stated, the case fans are left at 30% (just to the point where they become comfortably audible over ambient), to represent a real-world usage scenario. We are no longer testing coolers on an open-air test bench for this reason. As of 20/07/2023, all coolers featured on these charts were retested to reflect our improved methodology, and as such, reviews prior to this date can not be fairly compared to the new results. However, we have been periodically retesting older coolers, which is why you may see their performance figures here, and why they may not align with previous test results from the same product in their respective reviews. Test system: NZXT Z690 ATX Intel Core i9-12900K @ stock and & 4.9 GHz all P-Core 4 GHz E-Core 1.3v Aorus RTX 2080 16GB Crucial DDR4 4400 MHz XMP 512GB NVMe SSD Thermaltake Tough Power 750W NZXT H7 Flow RGB Case All testing is conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste We want to thank Gigabyte, Noctua, Crucial, Intel, Thermaltake, NZXT and more for providing us with the above testing equipment and their ongoing support. Testing Methodology We always use Noctua Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers not the efficiency of the bundled thermal paste Cinebench R23 is run for 10 minutes to calculate “load” results Multiple readings are taken with the average of the package temperatures calculated for our recorded result Fans are left to operate at default PWM profile speeds unless otherwise stated For water cooling tests, all pumps have been operated at 12 volts unless otherwise stated Ambient temperatures should be between 21-23 degrees in all our tests unless otherwise stated Acoustic measurements are taken 60cm vertically away from the CPU cooler Stock tests are performed using “out of the box” settings for the CPU All coolers were tested under identical settings unless otherwise stated. There is approximately a 1-degree Celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software CPUID HW Monitor There is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meter In all these graphs we may have a few “reference” results of particular products that do not fit within that category for comparative purposes. Software Used CPUID HWMonitor Cinebench R23 Unigine Superposition The RGB looks great, with some really warm and vibrant colours that really pop thanks to the black mounting kit and the brushed aluminium top plate. Obviously, since the pump is on the tubing the block is very low profile too, which I think looks pretty cool. Temperatures Right away, the Pure Loop 2 seems to be running a little on the warmer side, but still within what we expect from similarly priced rivals, but far from the best really. Optimisation improved things quite a lot though, with temperatures dropping nicely to 74c, putting it in line with many other high-end coolers that all scored... exactly the same! Acoustics Acoustics are interesting though, as while it's somewhere in the middle here, it actually sounds quieter than most. The acoustic profile is more pleasing to the ear, with less turbulence and absolutely no motor noise, all I can hear is airflow, which is to say it sounds quieter than the numbers imply. Optimisation made zero difference to the fans, and honestly, I think be quiet! has set their fans to be a little too gentle. I increased their RPM profile to a much higher setting and still found them to be surprisingly quiet and knocked a few extra degrees off the CPU load temperatures in the process. CineBench R23 CPU performance clearly isn't an issue though, with our fourth-highest score yet on the stock CPU, it's clear that the new pump is doing a fine job here. But when overclocking the PWM signal needs increasing or the score doesn't go up as much as you would expect. I sped the fans up to around 75% and the score easily pushed into the mid-27500 region. Of course, it's not surprising that be quiet! tuned this to run quieter, that's what they do. How Much Does it Cost? Pure Loop 2 is available from today with a recommended retail price of $99.90 / €89.90 / £84.99 (120mm), of $114.90 / €104.90 / £99.99 (240mm), $124.90 / €114.90 / £109.99 (280mm), and $139.90 / €129.90 / £125.99 (360mm). We'll have up-to-date retail links for you shortly, but you can check for stock and prices on Amazon UK here. Overview be quiet! has always been regarded as a premium brand, and while they have released some more affordable versions of their products over the years, I don't think they've ever faltered on quality. The Pure Loop 2 may largely look like a typical AIO, and it is fair to say it's even priced like any other AIO cooler too, but it has a few tricks that really set it apart from the competition. Firstly, the new fans are pretty awesome, they're working behind the scenes to ensure they're delivering a much more consistent performance than their older models. It's only a small detail, but say the PWM signal is 800RPM, due to air resistance, pressure and other factors they may only be spinning at say, 750 RPM (just an example). In that case, the fans will increase or decrease their speed as required till the true RPM matches what your system is reporting. The double-decoupled pump design is another great innovation, moving it away from the block and radiator to the tubing, where the flexible hose can more easily absorb vibrations and noise. This results in less noise overall from the pump, a small but welcome thing, that's for sure. Furthermore, the pump is now PWM controllable, rather than fixed to 100% as it was in the old model, so you can turn it down quieter when you need to. The performance is obviously very good too, competitive with the rest of the market, but at this price, it's fair to say that be quiet! have the lead on the competition. They have more advanced fans, a more interesting pump design, and the fact that you get both a refillable loop design with a bottle of liquid included and a tube of thermal paste, means you can maintain and service to cooler yourself over its life span to maintain the best performance. However, this is certainly cooler for PC users who know what they're doing. Your typical first-time system builder likely won't be confident in refilling the loop, as it can be topped up when needed. Enthusiast users will know more about tuning the fans and pump to their requirements too. Out of the box, the performance is... mid-tier in acoustics and cooling. However, my own experiments showed me that dropping the fan RPM even lower made it virtually silent with next to no drop in cooling performance, and pushing the fans harder resulted in very little increase in acoustics, but a significant drop in CPU temperatures, so it's best to setup the fan and pump PWM requirements to suit the needs of your CPUs TDP, and your preference for noise levels. Should I Buy One? be quiet! has taken a very good cooler and tweaked pretty much every aspect of it to make it a truly great cooler. It performs better, it's better made, the fans are more advanced, the pump is better, the loop is fillable, it now has ARGB, and so much more, yet the price isn't more than the competition that lacks these features... so it's a no brainer really, it's just a solid all-around AIO cooler!