Review: Be Quiet! Silent Loop 280 Liquid Cooling Review

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Sep 27, 2016.

  1. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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  2. Koniakki

    Koniakki Guest

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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?
     
  3. jura11

    jura11 Guest

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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
     
  4. Koniakki

    Koniakki Guest

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

  5. jura11

    jura11 Guest

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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
     
  6. ubercake

    ubercake Master Guru

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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.
     
  7. Koniakki

    Koniakki Guest

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    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.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2016
  8. jura11

    jura11 Guest

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    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



    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
     
  9. scoter man1

    scoter man1 Ancient Guru

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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...
     
  10. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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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.
     

  11. scoter man1

    scoter man1 Ancient Guru

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

    Ridiric Guest

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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
     
  13. Dazz

    Dazz Maha Guru

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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.
     
  14. AngelOfHavoc

    AngelOfHavoc Guest

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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
     
  15. Solfaur

    Solfaur Ancient Guru

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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.
     

  16. dyonoctis

    dyonoctis Guest

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    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.
     
  17. jura11

    jura11 Guest

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    Hi there

    I've went via few AIO on my PC and last straw has been failure of the H100 on my PC,after that went with NH-D15 and me too I couldn't be happier,running i7-5820k OC to 4.5GHz and temps are nice and cool,my H100i struggled with 4.5GHz OC as temps has been too high..

    Thanks,Jura

    Depends which one are you looking,like Noctua they don't look awesome plus their fans are not best looking fans,but still you can replace them for better looking fans like are Thermalright TY-14x or Phanteks fans

    Best looking coolers this should be personal opinion,but I like those from Phanteks PH-TC14PE or Cryorig R1 Ultimate or Universal plus Thermalright and many others

    If they cover a lot from motherboard,yes they cover a lot,bjt at least have better performance and they're quiet which is most important for me

    Finding quiet and reliable AIO is hard and almost impossible,but fiding quiet and reliable air cooler is not such problem

    Hope this helps

    Thanks,Jura


    My mistake,I thought so BeQuiet! using too Asetek pump and didn't know Alphacool making too AIO/CLC pumps

    Yes I've read too other reviews few minutes ago and loks like as you are said,they're using same HW as Alphacool and I think they using cooper radiator and alu water block etc but in this case I still think with better fans like Gentle Typhoon AP15 or EK Vardar or TY-143SQ and Phanteks or Noiseblockers fans temps will be bit better

    I would recommend have look on Thermalbench website,great website with in depth reviews of fans,cooling etc

    From what I know,Asetek pumps are weak as they don't flow as should,those Alphacool flows bit more,EK with Swiftech flows enough for cooling CPU and GPU

    Thanks,Jura
     
  18. Maye

    Maye Guest

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    Be-Quiet clearly states that you will void waranty if you try to customize the AIO in any kind. Even the Pump has to be run at 12v at any given time.

    They also say that you should refil about 100ml after ~2years
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2016
  19. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    That's correct yes. At a mighty inconvenient location though. Look to the left of the wire on the cooling block, there you can see the fill port:

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Ridiric

    Ridiric Guest

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    Ahh, yep i see it now... thats inconvenient alright.

    And if its as Maye said, and you void the warranty if you customize it i can see why you didn't say any more then that quick mention of the fill port in the review.

    Guess ill stick to the 240 or 360 EK Predator for my new build. (though... frustratingly the aussie PC stores both online and bricks and mortar ones often get out of stock of those kits and take forever to restock them)
     

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