be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 AIO Cooler Performance On LGA1700 - Review

Table of Contents

Introduction

We recently took a look at be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360 AIO. This time we are spinning another 360mm AIO from be quiet! named Silent Loop 2 360. This series of AIO coolers come under the Premium Category of be quiet! products. APALTEK is OEM of these units and recently they have been under the spotlight due to failing units from other brands. This AIO features three Silent Wings 3 PWM High-Speed fans.

On top of that, this unit has a 6-pole, 3-phase motor using a 3-chamber and noise dampening design. This unit is compatible with Intel LGA 1150, 1151, 1155, 1200, 1700, and 2011(-3) square ILM sockets. It is compatible with AMD AM4, AM5, sTRX4, and TR4 sockets. TR4 and xTRX4’s mounting hardware are not provided in the box and you would need to buy those separately from be quiet!

Key features of this cooler are:

Dampened and adjustable pump with 6-pole motor for very silent and immensely high-performance operation
Powerful 3-chamber pump design significantly reduces turbulences and noise
Silent Wings 3 PWM high-speed fans for high performance and whisper-quiet operation
Cold plate with high density stack of fins for the highest cooling characteristics
ARGB LEDs for lots of illumination options and great visual effects
Easy-to-access refill port with coolant bottle included, ensuring a long lifespan
3-year manufacturer’s warranty

Product: be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360

Price: £164.99 [SCAN UK pricing at the time of this writing] or £135.90 on Amazon UK

be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360 AIO Specifications

Packing Box

The cooler comes in a cardboard box finished in black color. On top, there is a picture of the unit along with its name

Be quiet! has mentioned key features of this unit over here including:

Refill port
6-pole Pump
Silent Wings 3 Fans
Fin Stack

We can see an egged carton holding the components. This is a standard layout for shipping AIOs as it prevents damage to the unit during shipping where possible.

Accessories

Let’s see what is provided in the box.

Be quiet! has provided a user guide with instructions about installing this unit on supported sockets.

There are:

1x Intel Backplate
Mounting Brackets for Intel LGA 17xx and 18xx sockets
Mounting Brackets for Intel LGA 115x and 1200 sockets
4x Intel Spacer Nuts A [For Intel LGA 20xx socket]
4x Intel Spacer Nuts B [For Other Intel Sockets]
4x Mounting Brackets Fastening Screws
4x Intel Backplate Screws
4x O-Rings

Be quiet! has provided:

Mounting Bracket
4x Backplate Screws
4x Spacer Nuts

There is a 100ml coolant bottle provided with this unit. We saw the same approach on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 unit. This coolant and a provision of a refill port help in service the unit for a more extended period of use. The provided coolant is made of water and Propylene Glycol and supports anti-freezing to -5°C.

There are:

12x Screws for Radiator
12x Screws for Fans

There is a 3-way PWM splitter cable and a few zip ties as well.

Be quiet! has provided a dedicated A-RGB controller with this cooler. It is SATA powered and has a simple interface for handling. There are three buttons on top. The arrow-labeled buttons change the speed of dynamic lighting effects and cycle through the static colors. M label button changes the lighting mode.

There is a 2-pin port to which the SATA cable is connected.

There is a fixed 3-pin standard 5V RGB connector on the other end of this controller.

Closer Look

Here is be quiet! statement about this cooler, “Silent Loop 2 is a very high-performance and whisper-quiet all-in-one water cooling unit for sophisticated users with overclocked systems. With its powerful and dampened 6-pole pump and Silent Wings 3 PWM high-speed fans it offers superior features that make it very silent and highly effective at the same time. ARGB LEDs provide lots of illumination options for great visual effects and make Silent Loop 2 a highlight in any system.”

This unit has an aluminum material-made radiator having a dimension of 394x120x27mm. This dimension is a bit less in length compared to the Silent Loop 2 FX 360 AIO. Installing 120x25mm fans would give an overall height of this unit to be 53mm or so including the heads of the screws. It has an FPI count of 20 with 12 channels for the coolant flow.

Looking at the far end or block, we can spot a screw covering a port. This is a dedicated refill port integrated into the radiator. Be quiet! has provided a 100ml coolant bottle for this purpose. This would allow the users to service this unit for an extended period of use. Though, there is no mechanism provided for the ease of the users to know when it is time to refill the loop and how much.

Be quiet! has done a good job in fin stacking.

Looking at the tube side of the radiator, we can see a small cover on top of probably another port. I think this is a factory reserve port and should not be tampered with as it may lose the vacuum pressure of the loop. There are black color clamps covering the tube and fittings connections.

Looking at the side of the housing, there is no branding. Side plates are riveted to the main frame.

There is a certain gap between the actual fin stack and the side frame of the housing. There is no protective plating under the mounting holes on the frame.

Be quiet! is using low-permeability rubber tubes. These tubes run to approximately 400mm in length and have a nylon braided mesh sleeve for better looks.

The pump housing is made of ABS material and has a dimension of 94.5x80x54mm where 54mm is a height factor. There is a brush aluminum pump top having be quiet! branding. There is a diffuser under this cover that is exposed on the border area. It is A-RGB backlit. The pump is a 6-pole, 3-phase design having a rated speed of 2800 RPM at 12V.

Be quiet! seems to be confident in their employed pump on this unit. Here is a statement, “Powerful pump with innovative three-chamber design ensures the very high-performance Silent Loop 2 360mm is whisper-quiet at the same time. The second of its three chambers offers enough space for the coolant to spread out and thus reduces turbulences before it leaves the pump unit. In combination with the 6-pole three-phase motor, this results in a smooth and as a consequence silent operation.”

Be quiet! has mentioned, “The massive dampening of the pump absorbs vibrations and as a consequence minimizes the resonances in the pump housing. This leads to significantly reduced noise and is key to the famously whisper-quiet be quiet! operation.”

Looking at the backside of this housing, we can see a 90° connectivity of tubes and fittings. This allows a certain movement range towards the right or left side. There are two flat cables coming out over here.

There is a flat cable powering the pump using a 3-pin connector.

There is a flat cable with a dual connector design. Both connectors are using standard 3-pin, 5V RGB interface where one is a socket and the other is a connector to allow a daisy chain of supported RGB devices.

This block is also using a 2-point mounting that we saw on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler. There is a spring-loaded screw installed on the mounting bracket.

We can see a copper base on this unit measuring 55x55mm. It is not nickel plated which the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 has. Be quiet! has mentioned that they are using a dense fin stack on the cold plate to ensure maximum heat transfer. On a side note, don’t forget to peel off the protective cover from the base before installation.

This cooler comes with 3x Silent Wings 3 PWM High-Speed fans. These fans have been high-performance fans until replaced by Silent Wings 4 series fans. These are black in color and there are 7 blades in each fan. There are layers on the blades that enhance airflow and reduce air turbulence.

Each mounting corner has a ring design. There is a circular anti-vibration pad on these mounts.

There is a 4-arms assembly on the backside of these fans. One arm has an inset on which the wires are routed. The power rating of the fan is printed on a sticker. The fans are rated for 2200 RPM.

The sleeved cable has a 4-pin PWM connector to power this fan.

The specifications of the fans are:

Dimension	120x120x25mm
Type	4-pin PWM Connector
Speed	2200 RPM
Airflow	73.33 CFM
Air Pressure	3.37 mmH₂O
Noise	39.8 dB(A) at 100% Speed
Bearing Type	Fluid Dynamic Bearings
Lifespan	300,000 hours at 25°C ambient
Input Voltage	12VDC
Input Current	0.16 A
Safety Current	0.37 A
Input Power	1.92 W
Operating Voltage	5-13.2 V*

Installation

We are not covering the details of installation. Installation is the same as we have seen on other be quiet! coolers and we did not observe any particular issue to report here. Please refer to the user guide for more details.

D-RGB Lighting

Since, this unit is using standard 3-pin, 5V connectors for D-RGB lighting, it is compatible with RGB sync technologies from all major motherboard manufacturers. We have tested the lighting on GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G DDR5 motherboards. The D-RGB lighting is working fine with RGB FUSION 2.0 on these motherboards. Here are a few pictures.

Testing

We have used following configurations for testing:

Intel core i7 12700k
GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G D5
Sabrent Rocket 32GB DDR5 Kit @ 4800MHz CAS 40
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 VISION OC
Sabrent Rocket Q 500GB NVMe SSD [For OS]
Be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout

Test table is:

Clocks	P-Cores 4.8GHz E-Core 3.8GHz
Voltage	1.20V
C-States	Disabled
Speed Step	Disabled
Rest of settings	Stock, Auto
XMP	XMP Loaded where available
Thermal Paste	Noctua NT-H1
Thermal Paste Application	X lines method
Headers	CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT, and PUMP Headers
Stress Software	CINEBENCH R23.2
Stress Run Time	30 minutes
PC Idle Time	5 minutes
Monitoring Software	HWInfo64
OC Tool	Intel XTU

A bit of note about the new platforms. We have seen AMD AM5 and Intel Alder Lake S CPUs taking more power and this time both sides have aimed at reaching the maximum clocks regardless of thermal limit. In fact, the AM5 SKUs will run into thermal limit right away depending on the cooling solution and the clocks being used. This has made testing of CPU coolers challenging because viewers/readers are not used to a new nomenclature which is what clocks are sustained under a given load using a particular cooler. That is if the cooler is capable of providing enough cooling head to sustain the high frequencies. Traditionally we are used to going the other way around that is which cooler is better in terms of thermal capacity. Despite this, we are using temperatures as a base for measuring this unit. Among other reasons is the high thermal density of these new CPUs.

The ambient temperature was in the range of 25°C to 25.5°C. Since the variation in the ambient temperature is within 1°C, we are reporting absolute temperatures in the graph. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.

Disclaimer: Every silicon is different hence no two same SKUs are likely to take same voltage to yield same performance at same thermals per se but the margin would be close. Not every stress test run may yield the same result which could be due to various reasons like thermal paste application, ambient temperature variation, mounting pressure of the cooler, etc. This is very why we have listed our variables and their settings. Let’s take a look at the results.

Result

The Silent Loop 2 360 sits between the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 and Cougar Poseidon GT 360 in our thermal testing. There is 1°C difference between both be quiet! coolers.

Noise

Our sound meter shows this unit making a sound output of 52 dB(A) at an ambient of 32 dB(A).

Conclusion

We are doing a roundup content of 360mm AIOs for which brands have started shipping their coolers. be quiet! has joined in quite some manner as they sent us two high-end AIOs. We recently tested their Pure Loop 2 FX 360 and this time we have spun Silent Loop 2 360 AIO. APALTEK is the OEM of this unit. This cooler is compatible with Intel LGA 1150, 1151, 1155, 1200, 1700, and 2011(-3) square ILM sockets. It is compatible with AMD AM4, AM5, sTRX4, and sTR4 sockets. Mounting hardware for sTR4 and sTRX4 sockets is not provided in the box. One would need to buy that kit separately.

This unit features an aluminum radiator having a dimension of 394x120x27mm. 27mm is height of this radiator. Overall height of the assembled unit would stand at 53mm approximately. FPI count of this unit is 20 and it has 12 channels for coolant flow. Like Pure Loop 2 FX 360, this unit also has a refill port integrated into radiator. Be quiet! has provided a 100ml coolant bottle as well to service this unit for an extended period of use. However, our observation stands for this unit as well. There is no visual aid or guidelines on determining when the coolant refill is required and how much to refill. The rubber tubes have nylon braided mesh sleeves for pure aesthetics. The connection of fittings and tubes is also well concealed.

This unit features a powerful pump having a 6-pole, 3-phase motor with 3-chamber design. The pump housing has a dimension of 94.5x80x54mm. 54mm is height of this unit. This 3-chamber design is further enhanced using noise dampening. This pump has a maximum rotational speed of 2800 RPM using a voltage range of 9 to 12V. The pump top has a brushed aluminum plate with a be quiet! branding. It has a diffuser underneath that is exposed on the border area and it is A-RGB backlit. The housing is made of ABS material and finished in black color. This unit has two spring-loaded screws pre-installed. This unit has a copper base measuring 55x55mm and it is not nickel plated unlike Pure Loop 2 FX 360. Be quiet! has mentioned that there is a large size cold plate with a high-density fin stack to provide maximum heat transfer.

This unit comes with three Silent Wings 3 PWM High-Speed fans. These are black fans with no RGB lighting. Each fan has 7x blades with a layered design. The mounting corners have circular anti-vibration pads. Each fan is powered by a 4-pin PWM connector cable. These fans have a dimension of 120x120x25mm. They have a maximum speed of 2100 RPM with a maximum of 73.33 CFM airflow at 3.37mmH₂O static pressure. The noise level is rated at 39.8 dB(A) maximum. These fans are using Fluid Dynamic Bearings with a life span of 300,000 hours at 25°C ambient.

There is a dedicated RGB controller as well with this cooler. It is SATA powered and it uses a standard 3-pin, 5V interface. The RGB connectors on the cables are also in standard format. This controller has a sleek design and it has three buttons to control the lighting effects. Using standard RGB connectors would ensure maximum compatibility with leading motherboard manufacturers’ digital RGB solutions. We have tested the digital RGB lighting on GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G D5 motherboard using RGB FUSION 2.0 app. The lighting effects were working flawlessly. Installation mechanism is exactly same as is on the Pure Loop 2 FX 360 cooler. Installing this cooler on an Intel LGA1700 socket would require a total of 19 items to install the block on CPU socket. Be quiet! should consider using a 4-point mounting instead of a 2-point mounting in my opinion.

This unit is listed on SCAN UK at £164.99 or £135.90 on Amazon UK. Be quiet! is offering a 3-year warranty on these units. This cooler is relatively giving a bit better performance compared to the be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360 with a margin of only 1°C. The Cougar Poseidon GT 360 is leading with a 1°C margin. This unit is a bit noisy compared to the Pure Loop 2 FX 360. But it has a good thermal headroom to cover major market segments.

Pros: