be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 280 Review

Introduction

As part of their 20th Anniversary be quiet! re-released some of their long-standing products as part of a special 20th FX series featuring some minor and not-so-minor changes including some performance enhancements and RGB!  Let's find out how the special edition be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 280mm turned out!

What's in the Box?

Although it's a special edition, the Pure Loop 2 FX 280 comes in the usual be quiet! styled box.

Once we've unboxed everything, we will find the following items:

• be quiet! Pure Loop AIO
• 2x Light Wings 140mm High-Speed
• Bottle of replacement coolant
• Installation Hardware Intel
• Installation Hardware AMD
• ARGB/PWM Hub
• Thermal Paste

Down below you will also find a summary of the Pure Loop's spec sheet:

Compatibility

On the compatibility side of things, the special edition Pure Loop offers the exact same list as the regular one. Down below you will a full compatibility list.

Individual Components

Waterblock

Although it looks unchanged, the water block used on the Pure Loop FX got a slight change compared to the original one. Instead of the white LED light shining ring around the whole unit, the FX model comes with a controllable ARGB ring.

Other than that, the water block looks pretty much unchanged, we will have the same brushed aluminum finish with a matt be quiet! logo in the very center and a copper nickel-plated base.

Pump

Similarly to the original version, the Pure Loop FX has its PWM-connected pump built right into the 400mm long tubes shortly before they enter into the radiator. This 5500RPM quick pump may not be controllable, but it doesn't need to be as it's surprisingly quiet, even whilst spinning at its 5500RPM.

Radiator

As for the radiator, be quiet! used a 27mm thick double-fan radiator meant for 140mm fans. 

At the bottom of the radiator, we will also find the screw that be quiet! installs on each of their AIOs.

By unscrewing said screw, we are able to replace the coolant in case it has been in use for many years,  or just exchange it for another coolant that you believe to be better.

In case a coolant replacement is needed, be quiet! adds a small bottle containing some of their original liquid.

Fan

The biggest and most notable difference between a regular Pure Loop 2 280 and the special 20th Anniversary FX edition must be the fans. Instead of using their Pure Wings 140mm High-Speed fans, be quiet! opted for more static pressure optimized Light Wings 140mm High-Speed. Apart from the performance benefit that this upgrade brings along, this also gives the Pure Loop the RGB pump that it truly deserves. Thanks to the RGB Ring all around the fan blades, the Pure Loop 2 can shine in every color that we want, in or not in sync with the waterblock.

On spec, the Light Wings 140mm High-Speed are able to spin at up to 2200RPM while pushing around 71CFM at 2.3mm/H2O, a significant upgrade from the previously used Pure Wings.

The Controller

A small, yet significant upgrade came in form of the included ARGB/PWM Hub. This SATA-Powered Hub allowed us to connect up to 6 PWM and 6 ARGB devices by using the passthrough PWM and ARGB headers which are supposed to be installed on the motherboard. Although the Hub comes in a slightly un-common shape, it is very useful considering that we are now no longer forced to use multiple splitters and other extensions to connect every Fan and ARGB connection.

Appearance

As it's usually the case with AIO most of the design is purely Fan and Waterblock related. In this instance, the Waterblock comes in a brushed aluminum finish with an ARGB line all around it. The Fans on the other hand may not have that aluminum finish on them, but the ARGB line around the fan is still present.

Although you have to make up your own mind with this look, we can objectively say that the AIO looks clean and rather simple whilst being easily intergraded inside a black case.

Benchmark

We tested the new Pure Loop 2 280 FX on top of our usual CPU Cooler setup.

Whilst letting the Fans spin at their max 2200RPM and cooking our 3900x, the special edition Pure Loop managed to keep the CPU at 50°C above ambient. This positions it 3°c in front of be quiet!'s biggest Dark Rock Pro 4 Air cooler and 5°C behind the bigger 360mm Silent Loop 2.

On the Noise-to-Performance end, the Pure Loop landed again exactly where we expected it to. While it completely outperformed every be quiet! Air Cooler, it even managed to outperform the Noctua NH-D15 once the fan speeds were lowered enough.

Compared to a Silent Loop 2 360 however, the Pure Loop was clearly behind, although this was expected considering their size difference.

The only outliner in this scenario was the Arctic Liquid Freezer 280 ARGB, which thanks to its thicker 37mm radiator just tops the list and stays the unbeaten champion.

Conclusion

All in all, the special 20th-anniversary edition of be quiet!'s Pure Loop lineup was a welcome change. Not only did the ARGB upgrade turn out to look amazing, but the performance level that the Light Wings 140 High-Speed were able to achieve, positioned the AIO as a whole in a very good position.

Performance and Noise-wise there is little negative to be said, a bit more performance on max RPM would be appreciated, but compared to other AIOs, bigger or smaller, the Pure Loop 2 FX 280 seems to be a solid option for things like a 5900x or a 12700k and below.

Although the performance and ARGB upgrade were already enough, we were very happy to see that be quiet! made some effort in creating a truly useful PWM/ARGB Hub which was included with this set. We sincerely hope that this exact hub finds its way into the box of their Tripple-Light Wings.

All in all, we were very happy with how the special edition of the Pure Loop 2 turned out, and we can only recommend it.