be quiet! Pure Loop 2 in test – sleek looks, smart technology, good performance

Methodology

An AMD Ryzen 9 3950X has to be cooled at various levels of power consumption, joined by 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (2x8GB) DDR4 memory on an MSI B550 Tomahawk (BIOS 7C91vAB). The Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB runs in zero-fan mode for the CPU stress tests only, and a Fractal Design Ion Gold 750W serves as the power source. The whole thing is housed in the Thermaltake Core P3 as an open benchtable.

The test system runs Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (build 19045.2251). All data sets are captured with HWInfo64 v7.34-4930 – 5000ms logging, the specified temperature is derived from the sensor CPU Die (Average). Since I don’t have air conditioning, the values in the graphs are the delta between room temperature and CPU temperature. This allows a fair comparison of all cooling systems, even if the ambient temperature is different. The thermal paste included with the cooler or pre-applied is used in each case.

I determine the sound level with a Voltcraft SL-200 meter at a distance of 40cm, which operates in 125ms cycles in Lo mode. The room was measured at 33.2 dB(A), an external sample table helps with the breakdown.

Benchmarks

In the first test run, a loudness of 40 dB(A) was set at 40cm from the center of the pump and fans on the radiator, in my setup that’s 67% PWM on the radiator fans and 100% PWM on the pump:

And after that, this cooler still gets to show what it can do in terms of cooling performance at the highest speed, regardless of volume. A maximum of 48.9 dB(A) was achieved at 100% PWM and 40cm distance.

A full comparison to other coolers can be found here:

Roundup und erneute Messung aller getesteten CPU Luft- und AiO-Wasserkühler

 

Summary and conclusion

In the press material, be quiet! is particularly proud of the fans’ new closed-loop technology, and I’ll explain it again here in summary: this control is a feedback loop that continuously adjusts the fan speed. In contrast to the PWM fan control of a motherboard, which usually works with an open loop, this allows for a more stable speed and noise.

A smart move, because most people find a constantly changing noise more annoying than a louder one, which is however steady. Not that you have to worry about the volume here, because the manufacturer can once again live up to the name.

The title has already announced it, with a sleek look, quiet operation and still good results, be quiet! could offer an enticing proposition for many customers here. However, the 3-year manufacturer warranty is then again rather in the midfield. Shortly before the release, the first retailers already had a total of four variants of this complete water cooling in pre-sale, my version 360mm radiator tested here currently costs 129€. Not a bad price for the performance offered and a placement in the upper third of our ranking, but I had hoped for a product with “Pure” in the name for something closer to the 100€ mark.

The test sample was provided by be quiet! without obligation. There was and is no influence on the tests and results. There was also no compensation for expenses and no obligation to publish.