be quiet! Silent Loop 280mm AIO CPU Cooler Review

Introduction

be quiet! is one of the biggest names in the cooling business, offering up multi-award winning air coolers that have long been some of the best performing and quietest coolers on the market. While the company has expanded their ranges over the years to include high-end power supplies and even chassis, they’ve never bothered to follow the trend for water cooling, at least that was true until today.

The new Silent Loop series comes in three sizes, 120mm, 240mm and 280mm, featuring all the usual attention to detail we’ve come to know and love from be quiet! and that gives us a lot of hope that these new coolers will be some (if not the) best coolers in their respective price ranges.

• Innovative decoupled reverse-flow pump runs smoother, quieter and with less vibration than conventional pumps
• Full copper radiator for an impressive cooling performance
• Two Pure Wings 2 PWM fans provide quiet operation with high air pressure
• Customized fan speed thanks to PWM function
• Easy handling due to flexible bend-protection tubes and convenient mounting
• Full copper parts and a refill port extend the product’s life span
• Nickel-plated cold plate allows optimum use of heat-conducting metallic paste
• Compatible with Intel® and AMD™ sockets
• 3-year manufacturer’s warranty
• Product conception, design and quality control in Germany

“Silent Loop delivers high-performance cooling at a minimal sound level, guaranteeing quiet, efficient cooling for overclocked and high TDP CPUs in high-power computer systems. To ensure compatibility with all types of performance-heavy PCs, be quiet! offers three different Silent Loop models” – be quiet!

Equipped with an innovative pump design, be quiet!’s own high-end Pure Wings 2 fans, a good quality radiator and more, we’re expecting great things from be quiet!’s first water coolers.

“be quiet! equips its Silent Loop All-in-One water cooling system with a decoupled pump designed to reverse the cooling circuit. Liquid is drawn in from the outside over the cold plate, then transported through a second layer on the inside of the radiator. This innovative solution operates the pump at a low 2,200 revolutions per minute, noticeably generating less vibration and noise than other conventional AIO coolers.” – be quiet!

As you can see, the dimensions are fairly standard for these radiators sizes, so compatibility should be pretty high with most desktop systems. The fan connects via a 3-pin header, while the fans use a 4-pin PWM connection. Virtually all major socket types from AMD and Intel are supported too, so there are few people out there that can’t enjoy these new coolers.

Packaging & Accessories

The box is typical of the design we usually see with be quiet! with a black box and a stylish photo of the product. You’ll also notice it says premium on the left side, highlighting that this is one of their flagship products.

Around the back, a few technical details on the Pure Wings 2 fans, as well as the reverse-flow pump design.

In the box, you’ll find a multi-language manual, Intel and AMD brackets, universal backplate, all the fitting screws, a fan Y-split cable and a tube of high-quality thermal paste.

There are two Pure Wings 2 fans included in the box, each rated up to 1600 RPM and designed for high airflow with minimal noise. Each comes fitted with a flat black cable and 4-pin PWM header.