be quiet! Silent Loop 2 360mm Review

Introduction

What happens if you combine be quiet!s excellent performing Silent Wings with a good performing pump and rad? A Silent Loop 2 of course! Let's see how the 360mm version of be quiet's Silent Loop 3 performs!

What's in the Box?

be quiet!'s Silent Loop 2 360mm comes in the usual AIO Liquid Cooler style box.

Once the AIO itself and every other part is taken out, we will find the following items:

• Silent Loop 2 360mm Radiator
• 3x Silent Wing 120mm PWM High-Speed
• 3-1 PWM splitter
• Installation Hardware Intel/AMD
• Refill Liquid
• ARGB Controller

Compatibility

In order to be usable on as many CPUs as possible, be quiet! made sure to include a fairly large amount of older Sockets as well as the latest and greatest.

Below you will find the full compatibility list:

Individual Components

Waterblock/Pump

As usual with AIO's, the Waterblock/Pump combo is the most iconic part being also responsible for most of the AIO's overall esthetic.

In this case, be quiet! went with a Brushed Aluminum styled block with a tiny be quiet! logo added on it.

Once the water block's 3-Pin ARGB  connection is hooked up, there is a small LED line visible between the Pump cover and the water block housing.

Overnight the Waterblock/Pump cover we will find a surprisingly big Copper Nickel plated base able to cover all of the now available consumer CPUs.

Tubes

The tubes on the Silent Loop 2 360mm are 400mm long and adjustable at the waterblock.

Radiator

The Radiator used for the AIO is a 27mm thick black Aluminum block capable of keeping 3x 120mm Fans attached to itself.

But unlike most other AIO's, be quiet! added a little special feature to it. At the opposing side of the tubes, the rad includes a small Philips-head screw which can be removed using an ordinary screwdriver. This now open hole can be used to refill or change the cooling liquid inside the complete loop.

Although most applications will never require you to refill or change the liquid, it is a nice touch that be quiet! added this option, just in case.

Included in the Box be quiet! also added 100ml of their liquid for this exact purpose.

Fans

The Fans included in the Silent Loop 2 360mm are be quiet!'s own Silent Wing 3 120mm High-Speed PWM. We already reviewed these individually here. Overall we were surprised by their excellent build quality and very good performance, a perfect match for a High-Performing AIO.

Appearance

Even though this appears to be an ever-repeating pattern among be quiet! reviews, the Silent Loop 2 360mm is another example of be quiet's clean and minimalistic design approach while delivering rigid and high-quality material.

Just like every other be quiet! we had a look at before, the Silent Loop is again a great example that sometimes less is more.

The Pump/Rad combo feels sturdy while the Silent Wings 3 PWM High Speed are among the best quality fans we have seen so far.

Interesting for a be quiet! product is the introduction of some light RGB. Around the Waterblock, be quiet! included a couple of LED's which are shining in between the Pump housing and the brushed aluminum-styled cap on top. A minimalistic approach which we highly enjoy.

Benchmark

We tested the Silent Loop 2 360mm using our usual Benchmark setup.

While letting the Fans spin at 100% of their max speed, the Silent loop was able to keep the 3900x at 45°C above ambient, exactly the same as a Liquid Freezer 360.

Lowering the Fan speed down in 10% decrements revealed quite the surprise. While every AIO's performance slowly decreased with each step, the Silent Loop 360 was able to keep up its performance until 80% of its fan speed. This means that as the noise level decreased substantially, the performance did not.

After Noise normalizing our results, we had a complete picture.

Even though the Silent Loop 360 was able to perform exactly as well as a Liquid Freezer 360, the Silent Loop was always a bit behind in its noise to performance. Still in front of every other 360mm AIO, or smaller, but never reaching the very first spot.

Conclusion

Looking back at our Benchmarks and the overall look and feel that the Silent loop 2 360mm provides, there is very little negative to say about it.

The build quality is exactly as we have expected from be quiet, so is the implementation of RGB around the water block.

The addition of an ARGB Controller in case your mainboard does not provide you with a header is a great thought to not exclude anybody.

And even the installation procedure was an excellent experience considering that be quiet!'s air coolers have a short, yet incredibly annoying step during their installation.

All in all, working with the Silent Loop 2 was a delightful experience.

And even on the performance side, it was a box full of surprises. While being on the same level as the Liquid Freezer 360, the Silent Loop 3 was able to keep up with the very best. Granted that the noise-to-performance ratio was not exactly on par, it is still excellent and far ahead of most watercoolers out there.

All of this then leaves us with an excellently performing Watercooler that also comes with great build quality, a non-annoying installation procedure, and a well-executed RGB implementation.

Considering these points, we can absolutely recommend the Silent Loop 2 in its 360mm size.

That being said, while we were already benchmarking the Silent Loop 2, we quickly switch the included Silent Wings for be quiet!'s own Light Wings. While doing so we still experienced that the Rad/Pump combo was up against the upper limit, but the overall noise produced dropped significantly up to 5db at full load. This means that the simple switch from SIlent Wings to Light Wings made a significant impact on the AIO's overall Noise-to-Performance ratio. Therefore, we can only hope that be quiet! decides to release a Silent Loop 3 featuring their Light Wings in the near future.