Review: Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280 Liquid Cooling Review

#5339147 Posted on: 09/27/2016 01:28 PM

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Thank you for the review! The cooler looks good although a bit underperforming if I may say.

Getting beaten by a H80i GT? I wonder if it might be the fans fault for its low-ish performance?

#5339153 Posted on: 09/27/2016 01:51 PM

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Thank you for the review! The cooler looks good although a bit underperforming if I may say.

Getting beaten by a H80i GT? I wonder if it might be the fans fault for its low-ish performance?

What are you expecting from LCLC(Low Cost Liquid Cooler),plus their fans are not best on radiators,they're quieter than Corsair fans,performance is somewhere better than Corsair at same RPM and they're quieter at same RPM,but still at full RPM they're loud

Probably best rad fans I think still are Gentle Typhoons with EK Vardar and Phanteks,I like Thermalright TY series fans

Been there,got shirt with AIO/LCLCand right now I'm happy with air cooling,but still looking at custom loop to do this year

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

#5339156 Posted on: 09/27/2016 01:57 PM

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What are you expecting from LCLC(Low Cost Liquid Cooler),plus their fans are not best on radiators,they're quieter than Corsair fans,performance is somewhere better than Corsair at same RPM and they're quieter at same RPM,but still at full RPM they're loud

Probably best rad fans I think still are Gentle Typhoons with EK Vardar and Phanteks,I like Thermalright TY series fans

Been there,got shirt with AIO/LCLCand right now I'm happy with air cooling,but still looking at custom loop to do this year

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

€149 MSRP for a 280mm is consider low cost? That would put in good/premium 360mm AiO price range afaik.

#5339163 Posted on: 09/27/2016 02:07 PM

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Low cost means they still use same pump as many coolers Asetek and this pump is not known for being as expensive ..

As many companies in this market,they use high FPI radiators and weak pumps,only EK or Swiftech are known for bit better AIO,but they too have own issue

Premium price €149,not sure if I would say this is premium price..

Thanks,Jura

#5339170 Posted on: 09/27/2016 02:23 PM

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In my lowly experience, I've found just about every self-contained liquid cooler including the H80i, H110i GT and Kraken X41 (the loudest thing I've ever had in a PC aside from a failing HDD) to be leaps and bounds louder than an NH-D15 (dual fan) at load.

#5339179 Posted on: 09/27/2016 02:37 PM

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Low cost means they still use same pump as many coolers Asetek and this pump is not known for being as expensive ..

As many companies in this market,they use high FPI radiators and weak pumps,only EK or Swiftech are known for bit better AIO,but they too have own issue

Premium price €149,not sure if I would say this is premium price..

Thanks,Jura

I doubt the pump is the culprit or not enough but I could be wrong.

Premium as in "best" non expandable AiO(Triton, TT Ultimate, Kelvin, Captain etc) you can get. Not many choices anyway.

The Corsair H110xx kits are around 3/4 of its price and outperform it and all those 360mm kits above can be bought for same or lower price.

Even an Alphacool Eisbaer 360 kit is cheaper and its expandable if I'm not mistaken.

And the custom/expandable 280mm/360mm kits are not much more.

I just think this kit asks an unreasonable 20ish% price premium. That all.

But I get it. It's new. It will come down soon probably. Cheers.

#5339189 Posted on: 09/27/2016 03:08 PM

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In my lowly experience, I've found just about every self-contained liquid cooler including the H80i, H110i GT and Kraken X41 (the loudest thing I've ever had in a PC aside from a failing HDD) to be leaps and bounds louder than an NH-D15 (dual fan) at load.

Hi there

I switched from AIO/CLC to Noctua NH-D15 and I'm finally happy with my temps and finally PC is quiet under heavy load

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura



I doubt the pump is the culprit or not enough but I could be wrong.

Premium as in "best" non expandable AiO(Triton, TT Ultimate, Kelvin, Captain etc) you can get. Not many choices anyway.

The Corsair H110xx kits are around 3/4 of its price and outperform it and all those 360mm kits above can be bought for same or lower price.

Even an Alphacool Eisbaer 360 kit is cheaper and its expandable if I'm not mistaken.

And the custom/expandable 280mm/360mm kits are not much more.

I just think this kit asks an unreasonable 20ish% price premium. That all.

But I get it. It's new. It will come down soon probably. Cheers.

Hi there

You can have look on OCN or over here how many pump has failed on Corsair or any other CLC/AIO failed,usually pumps are failing and in many cases air lock can cause that too

My H100i V2 failed as first and then EVGA Hybrid AIO failed,pump started to leak

Most of those Premium brands using same pump from Asetek,previously few companies used CoolIT which I think has been more reliable,but maybe I'm wrong

Those prices are not bad and really I understand who wants this,been there,will look lot cleaner in PC I agree,but after my experience I will stay away from any AIO/CLC

Most of all those companies using same pump from Asetek and difference are small and main difference can be in fans and how they perform and who is reviewing this

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

#5339197 Posted on: 09/27/2016 03:24 PM

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I still don't really get why AIOs are a thing. They're marginally better than high end air coolers, equally as loud or louder, and more expensive. Why not just have the guaranteed reliability of a big metal heat spreader? No pumps to break there...

#5339198 Posted on: 09/27/2016 03:26 PM

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Cooling capacity, looks, aesthetics, the fact that AIO exhausts outside the chassis not inside and sure, a bit more boom-boom-pow / x-factor inside that chassis. But you are right, air-coolers are a proven concept and can be as good as AIO coolers performance and noise wise.

#5339200 Posted on: 09/27/2016 03:30 PM

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That's true HH, I forgot about looks. They're definitely look better.

#5339204 Posted on: 09/27/2016 03:43 PM

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Hilbert,
Got a question, at the start of the review you mentioned it had a fill port? and from the product pictures it looks like it has screw on compression fittings as well.

Can you confirm this, as if its upgradable that's a decent plus in its favor.

Thanks

#5339287 Posted on: 09/27/2016 08:21 PM

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Pass, i have had 3 AIO watercooling including the Corsair H110 and they have all been total junk they provide around the same cooling performance as my TR silver arrow but are 3x louder i even disconnected fans and it's the pumps that are damn loud won't touch anything with Asetek inside.

I did have a swiftech 220 which was good a little louder than my SA but slightly better performance but then had a leak in the block that i had to send the block to the States to get replaced which took 2 months to get back at which point i got an enthusiast Apogee and a res with pump from XSPC which had 2 leaks and a pump fail won't touch XSPC anymore they are crap made in china and ended up going back to my SA, fans run at 400-500rpms typically and get around the same performance as these AIO. Fell for it 3 times now with people saying they are real quiet are they not they are more like a jet engine to me got rid of them after 2 days cause they where completely unbareble. I have sensitive hearing and could hear the pump from the computer room to the bed room.

I want to get back into watercooling again but the products on the market are just rebranded garbage. Guess i will have to go back to a custom loop again maybe a tripple rad this time round but i need to really look into a good pump as thats what i find to be the loudest part.

#5339385 Posted on: 09/28/2016 04:06 AM

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I'm with these guys. I've used the h80 and h100i, and they are a bit overhyped. The cooling performance was decent but they were cumbersome to install and limited on where they could be mounted. They were also much louder than my current setup.

I switched to the NH-D15 and couldn't be happier. While it may seem cumbersome to some, it fit easily in my Fractal R4 and was much easier to install. It is also silent with the included in line voltage reducers and the performance is slightly better than I was getting from the corsair aio's. I'm using a 4790k@4.5 Ghz

#5339419 Posted on: 09/28/2016 08:34 AM

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That really is mainly the thing. Sure old school air coolers are good an reliable, but they look pretty crappy when compared to modern motherboards/gpus etc. Not to mention a lot of them cover up half the motherboard anyway.

#5339435 Posted on: 09/28/2016 09:40 AM

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Low cost means they still use same pump as many coolers Asetek and this pump is not known for being as expensive ..

As many companies in this market,they use high FPI radiators and weak pumps,only EK or Swiftech are known for bit better AIO,but they too have own issue

Premium price €149,not sure if I would say this is premium price..

Thanks,Jura

According to a french website, they are actually using Alphacool hardware. Due to it's reverse flow the pump they are using is limited to 2200 rpm while other aio are in the 4000 + rpm. The pump itself is actually inaudible. I haven't seen any asetek labeled product do that kind of thing.