Yes, this is an AIO system, but let’s talk about the elephant in the room – what is this? I’ve never seen anything like this on a watercooler.
The new BeQuiet Pure Loop one of the biggest changes in design that I’ve seen lately when it comes to the all-in-one watercooler, and what it is is a double decoupled pump, which with this model is not on the water-block itself, but rather on the tubes. What this does is it helps damp the vibration as it’s put on a flexible piece of material, tubes, while also shrinking down the size of the water-block part together with avoiding any potential patent infringing in relation to the Asetek.
A new take – Be Quiet! Pure Loop 280 mm
That’s all there is to it, but what I’m most interested in is of course the pump noise, as this is a completely different scenario, so let’s see right away how does that sound. Here are a few noise sample different fan speed levels, since BeQuiet requirements state that the pump should be connected to 12V directly over their dual 3-pin fan header splitter, so it connects directly together with the power cable for lighting on the block, meaning the pump will turn full speed. Of course, you could try controlling it using different voltage over the motherboard header, but since they explicitly stated this, it’s better not to. Fans in question are their very efficient and also silent Pure Wings 2 PWM models, these being the 140 mm ones as it’s a Pure Loop 280 mm model in question.
So yes, the whole system seems to be extremely quiet, which is not to say a surprise coming from BeQuiet. As you saw the pump is quiet, but it does emit a deeper vibrating type of sound that could be picked-up when only it is working, but it masks away with the fans turned on. But, having in mind that these are not quite radiator optimized fans, what else will help in creating the performance need to cool the CPU off? As I just now mentioned, this is 280 model, so in that regard, we have a 280 mm long radiator, a thickness of 27 mm, and 22 mm tall top reservoir compartment and 14 mm the bottom, on which you will also find a fill port that enables you to changes the liquid from time to time to prevent any performance loss, gunk or accumulation of other unwanted habitats. In this case, it’s here because BeQuiet wants you to top it off every two years with the liquid that actually comes in the bundle. The design of the radiator is very box looking, with sharp lines, it’s not rounded in the corners, so have that in mind if you’re aiming to put in a tighter than usual space.
Moving back to the block, the cold plate is a nickel-plated copper one, making it suitable for liquid metal paste. Although it doesn’t have a pump inside, it’s actually not the thinnest I’ve seen out there, even with ones that have a pump, but nevertheless I like how it looks, very minimalistic and sleek, especially with this brushed aluminum cover and BeQuiet’s logo, surrounded by a white LED ring, which can’t be turned off since as I mentioned earlier, both it and the pump are powered over one 12V SATA power connector over a dual 3 pin fan header splitter. So, yes, as you saw, BeQuiet put some lighting onto it, but they did manage to fight off RGB, as their fans did too. Although, do these products even exist if they don’t have RGB on them?
Balanced choice – Pure Loop 280
Installation is fairly simple, especially in my case where I had an AM4 platform, you need a total of four screws and four spacers for the mounting plant, after that you just hook up the block onto it with two screws, and that’s it. Installing the radiator was, as usual, nothing to write home about, few screws and you’re done. You’re probably asking yourself, what about the radiator position in relation to the pump? Technically speaking, the highest reservoir point is still above the pump, so you’re good to go either way. This design actually pretty cleverly avoids any potential problems in relation to that.
OK, enough chatter chatter, let’s check out the performance. My fairly warm Ryzen 7 3700X was easily cooled off by the Be Quiet! Pure loop 280 mm which is not a surprise since I’ve seen other coolers done the same, but what I haven’t seen is that this one did much quietly as we all heard at beginning of this video. It was keeping it well below 70°C with ease with PBO off and voltage set at 1,1V and 4,1 GHz, while overclocked at 4,25V and 1,3V it manage to stay stable and just in hands reach of 80°C. I’ve also had a scenario where I limited the fans’ speed to 40%, at 4,25 GHz, and only20% with 4,1 GHz, wherein in both cases the temperature went up by just a couple of degrees. All in all impressive performance output considering how quiet it actually is, I think this is one of the better ones out there when it comes to noise to performance ratio out of the box.
Quiet watercooler for reasonable budgets
What’s even more impressive is the very competitive pricing that BeQuiet reserved for this series. The 120 mm one goes for 70€, although I don’t think that this model is a good value next to others, as this particular 280 mm model goes for 90€, the 240 mm one for 80€ and 360 mm only 100€. So many millimeters and euros. It’s not the lowest out there, but it’s definitely one that’s more interesting considering what it gives back in return, would be cool to see a comparison of it with the Arctics Liquid Freezer II series.
That’s it for this time, thanks for checking out my Pure Loop 280 review, if you have any question feel free to hit me in the comments section of my YouTube video listed above, you can contact me via my social media channels!
