be quiet! PURE Loop: Improve your cooling performance

Four years ago, be quiet! released their first all-in-one water cooler — the Silent Loop. Fast-forward to now, be quiet! has come out with their second model, the PURE Loop. As a first-timer with all-in-one water coolers, I’m impressed with the performance considering what I threw at it.

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be quiet!’s PURE Loop Aesthetics – Cooling in Style

The be quiet! PURE Loop is an all-black water cooler with a silver water block cover and a white LED bordering the logo. Although the look is slick, the block cover feels a little too plastic in contrast to the overall texture and look of the rest of the unit. But the cooler isn’t physically handled every day, so that doesn’t ruin the presentation.

The pump is in between the two tubes near the radiator. The tubes bend enough, but get unwieldy depending on how you mount the radiator. Of course, the NZXT S340 Elite case’s design did only allow the radiator to be installed in an upright position. This required the tube to bend more than I wanted in order to fit nicely in the case. One of the downfalls with all-in-ones, in my opinion, but it serves its purpose.

Capabilities

The be quiet! PURE Loop comes in variations of 120mm, 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm sizes. Also included are up to three Pure Wings 2 fans, each with nine fan blades. The Pure Wings 2 can ramp up to 1500 RPMs. The fans push air at 51.4 PWM at 100%, with up to 19.2 decibels in noise level. Although that’s a bit loud, the fans do keep temperatures at a moderate level when dishing out work to the CPU.

As with be quiet’s first AIO, the PURE Loop has an easy-to-access refill port at the top of the radiator. One nice perk is that be quiet! provides coolant to refill your radiator.

Installation

Granted, this was only my second time installing an all-in-one water cooler. But my amateurish ways did cost me some time in fitting the PURE Loop into the S340 Elite case. It did fit, but I didn’t think thoroughly about installation methods.

That said, the 280mm model I received fit in only one direction, but this can vary case by case. Since the PURE Loop uses the manufactured CPU plate, make sure you have the original, if this is an upgrade from a previous cooler. Following the manual, I mounted the brackets easily.

Be quiet! includes a thermal paste tube, instead of pre-application. So if you want, you can use your preferred brand instead. I installed the water block with ease compared to CPU air coolers. So with little to no fight, I was on my way to better temperatures.

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I did notice that in order to power the LED lighting and pump you need to connect each 2-prong power cable to a SATA power adapter. This makes the cooler universal. The other splitter cable (seen below) is for the fans.

On Your (Bench)marks

I took my main computer and set it up with the be quiet! PURE Loop. Here are the specs for the machine:

• AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT, 3.8Ghz 6-core
• AMD Radeon VII
• G.Skill Trident Z 48GB (2x16GB, 2x8GB) 3600Mhz
• 650W Corsair

I configured the CPU to lock in at 3.8Ghz with 1.18V and tested it with various games and programs like Unigine, Farcry 5, Red Dead Redemption, and Cinebench, running each of their benchmarks available. Then, I enabled Precision Boost Overdrive and let the CPU do its thing, pushing the speed to 4.4Ghz and at an average voltage rate of 1.45V. I recorded the ambient temperature at 23.6 Celcius and idle temperatures at 30.

Gaming Performance

It’s obvious that if you can push the processor to higher speeds, you’re going to get better performance in games. And the performance difference was noticeable in games such as Red Dead Redemption. At 3.8Ghz, I received a minimum FPS of 57.9, a maximum of 71.5, and an average of 68.6. The 4.4Ghz hit frame rates of 33.1 min, 131.2 max, and 89.8 average.

Final Thoughts on the PURE Loop from be quiet!

At the time of this review, the be quiet! PURE Loop is priced on Amazon at between $85 and $120, depending on the size:

120mm	$84.90
240mm	$94.90
280mm	$104.90
360mm	$119.90

If you’re on the hunt for an all-in-one cooling system, don’t overlook the be quiet! PURE Loop. On top of the performance, slick look, and static LED lighting, you can add more coolant. Based on what be quiet! has mentioned in the manual, refilling after two years of use will extend the cooler’s life. If the pump holds up, I’m definitely going to enjoy that feature two years from now.