be quiet! Pure Loop 2 360mm AIO Cooler Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The be quiet! Pure Loop 2 360mm AIO CPU Water Cooler is available now from OCUK for a very reasonable £124.99, putting it firmly in line with similarly equipped coolers from Cooler Master, Corsair, Thermaltake, DeepCool and plenty of others, not a bargain, but certainly fairly priced. However, it does come with some fans that are of a higher quality than we usually see on many AIOs, and the fact that it is a refillable loop certainly adds to the value for money and longevity of the cooler.

Overview

I loved the be quiet! Pure Loop 2 280mm a few months ago, with its larger and quieter fans it certainly made a good impression. However, if you need a larger radiator or your case doesn’t support the 140mm fans, then the Pure Loop 2 360mm is equally impressive. It allowed me to push our i9-12900K with ease, getting great performance while overclocking and using optimised CPU voltages.

The new fans are interesting, offering a higher RPM than what we used to see from be quiet! fans, meaning you have the choice of much higher airflow than before, or you can dial them back a little bit using your fan curves and get them virtually silent. Personally, I found just limiting them by a few hundred RPM resulted in exceptional cooling performance and they were remarkably quiet, considering there were three running at the same time. The default fan curve did seem a bit aggressive, but again, it’s something you can easily configure to your taste.

The overall build quality is excellent too, and I like the way they’ve moved the pump from the CPU block onto the tubing. Throughout my testing I never heard any noise from the pump or even any obvious water flowing or gurgling noises as I often do from AIO coolers, the pump is virtually silent.

The loop is also refillable, which is rare for an AIO. All liquid coolers lose fluid over time through evaporation, it’s a slow process, but after a year or two, you’ll start to hear more air in the loop. Simply take the squeeze bottle, squirt some more into the Pure Loop 2, and you’ll be back to optimal efficiency in no time.

Should I Buy One?

There’s no shortage of great 360mm AIO coolers these days, all the big-name brands have something worthy of your attention. However, for be quiet! the inclusion of their latest fan technology, the refillable loop, the decoupled pump, subtle RGB lighting, a three-year warranty and clean aesthetics are more than enough to make it stand out from the crowd.