be quiet! Silent Loop 2 AIO Cooler Review

A Closer Look

Out of the packaging, the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 presents itself well with a sleek black aesthetic offset by the stainless steel covering to the pump. The length of the liquid piping isn’t overly generous, but it should still be entirely suitable for the vast majority of PC chassis designs.

Given that this is an AIO cooler, however, there are clearly more than a few individual components that go into the overall design. Let us, therefore, take a closer look at some of the key aspects of this design!

Pump Head

One of the first things that grabs your attention with the pump head is the brushed stainless steel that covers the top. This is an exceptionally nice touch as it both looks very impressive and with the be quiet! logo well sized and situated, really adds to the overall aesthetics.

There are also some hints as to where that ARGB lighting might come from, but in regards to a closer look, we’ll leave that until we’ve hooked this up to our test bench later in the review.

Contact Plate

The contact plate is amazingly large and, as such, this should provide no difficulties for either Intel or AMD CPU owners. Polished to an amazing shine this should, all going well, provide some excellent heat dissipation and, by proxy, low temperatures as it moves that all important heat away from the processor.

Radiator

On something of a moderate downbeat, the radiator is black and, overall, looks exceeding generic. There’s no branding, and aside from one key point, is totally bereft of any points of interest.

So, what is interesting about it? Well, you remember that top-up coolant from earlier in the review? Well, a look at the side shows you where you can apply this via the simple posi-screw covering. My only minor grumble is that the screw isn’t black to match the radiator and, as such, it does stand out a bit more than was really necessary!

Fans

As this is a 240mm AIO liquid cooler, it shouldn’t come as any surprise to find that you are provided with 2 x 120mm fans. Black and sleek, with a little branding to the center, we fully expect these to look fantastic when mounted to the radiator.

A closer look confirms these to both be a be quiet! design and, in something of a moderate surprise, their latest ‘Silent Wings 3’ model. We’re only surprised as this is their latest cooling fan and, in the past, we have largely seen their slightly more generic (but still bloody good) ‘Pure Wings 2’ utilized in AIO products. This is, however, all good stuff and hopefully should provide some excellent airflow while keeping the noise levels down!

In terms of the noise levels, be quiet! has clearly gone the extra mile here in providing very spongy covers to each of the fan’s mounting corners. Designed to prevent/reduce any vibration, this is again more than a little indication that the acoustic performance in the Silent Loop 2 should be excellent.

Overall

When assembled and ready to install, the Silent Loop 2 does look absolutely fantastic with its stark black design. You might note as well that the octagonal design of the fans allows for truly excellent coverage of the radiator.

As a personal highlight though, seeing it all put together, I must admit to really liking the stainless steel cover to the pump head. It’s just a little bit of shine to offset all the black and your eyes can’t help but be drawn to it.

As part of our review process though, how it looks it one thing, how it tests is another, but first we have to get this fitted to our system. So, let’s see how that process went!