be quiet! are a company that are known for their fantastic air coolers & fans, but not so much their AIOs. When we initially approached be quiet! for some review samples we asked for a couple of air coolers but they offered the AIO too, so here we are! We knew that be quiet! made AIOs, but the press on them is minimal so we assumed they weren't fantastic, so it's safe to say we were very surprised when we put the Silent Loop 280 through it's paces.
The Silent Loop 280 is different to most other AIOs, unlike the big players in the AIO market (Corsair, NZXT etc) be quiet! don't use Asetek as the OEM to make the coolers for them, in fact they are made by Alphacool, yes the same Alphacool that make high end custom loop components. There are many reasons why this is much better than the more standard Asetek made AIOs, the first being that they use a copper radiator like you'd find in an expensive custom loop, if you look at the Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 280mm radiator you'd see that it looks very similar to the radiator used in the Silent Loop 280. Another benefit is that the although this is an all in one cooling unit, the CPU block and radiator do use standard G1/4 threads so if you did want to expand it, or reuse the components for a custom loop there is nothing stopping you!
Being a be quiet! component, you can be sure that it comes with some pretty good fans as standard. Specifically two be quiet! Pure Wings 140mm PWM fans, these do a sufficient job of pushing air through that 30mm thick radiator, and keep very quiet while doing so, more about the performance and acoustics later on in the review.
Tech Specs
- Radiator Size – 280mm
- Radiator Thickness - 30mm
- TDP – 400W
- Weight – 1600g
- Socket Compatibility - Intel®: LGA 775 / 1150 / 1151 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011(-3) Square ILM / 2066 AMD™: AM2(+) / AM3(+) / AM4 / FM1 / FM2(+) / TR4 (+ mounting kit bz007)
- Included Fan(s) – 2 x be quiet! Pure Wings 140mm Fans
What’s in the box?
- be quiet! Silent Loop 280mm CPU Cooler
- 2 x be quiet! Pure Wings 140mm Fans
- 2 way fan splitter cable
- be quiet! Thermal Compound
- Mounting installation instructions
- Warranty information leaflet
- Mounting hardware for all above sockets
Mounting
The be quiet! Silent Loop 280 is very easy to install, you start by assembling the mounting hardware around the CPU block, which then screws through the motherboard into the included backplate. Screwing fans to a radiator can be a recipe for disaster, if you screw too far into the radiator you risk puncturing the internal channels, causing a leak. The Silent Loop 280 has a fantastic feature that completely eliminates this risk, by simply having metal tabs underneath the screw holes so it isn't possible to screw in too far as the screws would just bottom out on the metal tabs. It also helps that the screws that are included are the perfect length for any fan layout (push/pull etc).
The final step in the mounting is screwing the radiator to your case, due to this being a 280mm radiator there are compatibility issues with some cases, so make sure to check your case does support a 280mm radiator before buying this AIO! The tubing also makes the radiator placement very easy as it is more flexible than other AIOs, and has anti-kink coils so you are able to have the tubing at tighter angles without issue.
Aesthetic
The be quiet! Silent Loop 280 looks great, every part of the AIO is black aside from the be quiet! branding on the CPU block and on the fans. Speaking of the CPU block, it is a simple design with the black plastic around the edges and the brushed aluminium top plate with the be quiet! logo nicely implemented into the top. Everything used to mount the CPU block is black too, including the bracket, springs and screws which adds to the stealthy look of the cooler. Oh and the single cable coming from the CPU block is braided in a nice black braid too.
The radiator and fans sport the same stealth look, I can also appreciate the lack of branding on the radiator which can look a bit tacky in some cases.
There is one thing I do not like about the look of the cooler, and that is the anti-kink coils. They look very dated and aren't really too necessary, in fact the only other AIO I've seen with anti-kink coils is the Fractal Design Kelvin series, which are also made by Alphacool. If the tubing was braided like many of the popular AIOs nowadays I would not be able to fault the aesthetics of the Silent Loop 280, but overall be quiet! have done a fantastic job.
Performance
Now, to the bit that everyone is here for, the performance! We've tested a lot of AIOs over the years, and this is definitely one of the best, even topping some that have massive 360mm radiators!
Test System Specs
- Processor - Intel i7 8700k
- Case - CoolerMaster H500P
- RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR4 16GB 3000Mhz (2x8)
- Motherboard - Asus Rog Strix Z370-F
- SSD - Samsung 860 EVO 250GB
- PSU - Corsair RM750x
- GPU - EVGA GTX 1050Ti
We performed different tests using different pieces of software for a broad range of results. The software used for stress testing was 3DMark Time Spy CPU Test, Prime95 with the Blend preset and AIDA64 CPU+FPU which really tests the CPU Cooler to it's limits. Temperatures were logged using AIDA64's temperature logging function.
Both of the tests were ran and both stock voltages and clock speeds, and overclocked at 5.0GHz with 1.35V, in the results anything marked "OC" uses these settings.
All of these tests were performed in out climate controlled test room at a constant 21°C. All fan speeds were set to normal in the BIOS, which worked fine and none of the coolers we tested had excessive noise levels.
The graph below shows they average temperature over a 20 minute stress test using Prime95's blend preset. This test was by far the best at showing the performance of these air coolers visually due to the range being much higher than other tests.
Now we've ticked one of the requirements for a top notch closed loop liquid cooler, the performance, but what good is it if we don't tick the second box, the acoustics. Well, being a be quiet! product you can be sure that the noise levels are more than acceptable, we left the default motherboard fan curve and it was basically silent. No over the top fan whirring, no buzzing from the pump and very surprisingly no sound of air bubbles circulating through the loop.
Conclusion
Quite simply, out of all of the coolers we tested, this one is the best. It can handle extreme processors and even more extreme overclocks without breaking a sweat, all whilst keeping quiet and looking great (aside from the questionable looking anti-kink coils).
Pros
- Very impressive performance
- Not massively expensive at £120
- Very simple mounting mechanism
Cons
- 2008-esque anti-kink coils.
- No RGB (or LEDs at all)
