Introduction
When it comes to the powerful yet silent cooling solutions for the PC market, be quiet! need no introduction. They are in the business for over 15 years and have made quite a way into the hearts and minds of the customers. Their major product lines are Power Supplies, Fans, Coolers, and Chassis. Designed in Germany, the Be Quiet! products deliver exactly what they are designed for; utmost performance with silent operations. Not only their products are designed in Germany but quality-control is also ensured in Germany. The products of bequiet! offer legendary quiet operation and first-class performance thanks to the passion for quality and precision. Attention to detail is the key to perfection and this is where the company excels.
We recently did a round-up content on the high-end air coolers. It was quite a success and based on the community’s feedback we are planning another round-up content. This time the round-up content is on the best 240mm AIO coolers. We have chosen this size of the liquid cooler as it is still the most commonly used size in the liquid cooler category out of other available sizes which are 120mm, 280mm, and 360mm. We have reached out the over 30 brands and set ourselves a minimum of 15 coolers for the test. We are nearing our mark as the deliveries have started. We reached out to be quiet! and the next we know, the Pure Loop 240 was on our doorstep!
bequiet! has ventured into liquid cooling as they have launched their Pure Loop series AIO coolers for the CPU. These coolers are available in the 120/240/280/360mm sizing. We are taking a spin on Pure Loop 240 CLC. This cooler features a neutral look to my personal liking and features a doubly decoupled pump with low permeation tubing. Since the pump is integrated on the tubes, there is no vibrational element on the CPU socket and we have a backlit designed water block with an aluminum faceplate for some killer looks. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA 1200/115x/2066/2011(-3) Square ILM sockets and AM4/AM3/AM3+ sockets in the AMD camp. The salient features are:
- Very high cooling performance
- Doubly decoupled pump for quiet operation and minimal vibration
- Pure Wings 2 120mm PWM fans combine quiet operation with high air pressure
- White LED illumination, all-black design, and aluminum-style for an unmistakable and stylish look
- Easy-to-access refill port and included coolant bottle guarantee a long lifespan
- Flexible sleeved tubes and a convenient mounting ensure easy handling
- The nickel-coated cold plate allows optimum use of liquid metal thermal compound
- 3-year manufacturer’s warranty
Product: Pure Loop 240
Manufacturer: be quiet!
Price:
| Listed Price | Buying Links |
| US $94.90 | AMAZON |
| £92.99 | SCAN UK |
The prices are taken at the time of the review.
Specifications
Dimension
Packing and Unboxing
The product is shipped inside a cardboard box in a black color theme.
We have a picture of the cooler along with its model printed.
The features highlight of the cooler are:
- Doubly decoupled pump
- Pure Wings 2 120mm PWM High-Performance fans
- Refill port on the radiator
- Stylish aluminum faceplate with backlit lighting in white color
The specifications of the cooler are printed in the tabular format. There is a 100ml coolant provided in the bottle to refill the unit for the longevity of the operations.
There is a “scan label” for the product page on their website.
The contents are placed inside the egged carton which has to be slide out of the main packing box. I think after Reeven Naia 240, this is the second AIO with this packing style which I have seen.
Contents
Let’s take a look at what is provided in the box.
bequiet! has provided a 100ml coolant bottle with the cooler. The coolant is made of Water and Propylene Glycol and supports anti-freezing to -5°C. This is there as we have a refill port on the radiator which allows the user to refill the unit if the coolant level drops. This is too good an approach and after Reeven Naia which was launched in 2017, this is the second AIO in my personal experience to have shipped with a refill port and the coolant.
There is a brown color accessory box provided in the main packing box.
bequiet! has provided:
- Intel Mounting Brackets
- AMD Mounting Bracket
- Backplate
All of these are in black color.
We have
- 4x Standoff Screws for Intel LGA115x
- 4x rubber washers for Intel LGA115x
- 4x Screws for Mounting Brackets
- 4x Metallic Nuts
- 4x Standoff Nuts
We have
- 4x AMD long screws
- 4x AMD plastic spacers
- 4x washers
bequiet! has provided 8x long screws for the fans and 8x short screws for the radiator.
bequiet! has provided a syringe of the thermal paste (may be useful for 1-2 applications). There are 3x zip ties provided as well for cable management.
There are Y-cables provided with the cooler. bequiet! has given the user to connect both Pure Wings 2 120mm PWM fans to the bundled y splitter cables and connect the cable either to the fan header or to the SATA cable of the PSU. The SATA based y splitter cable is definitely handy in case the user is running short of the fan headers though that way, the fans will run at full speed without any control.
There is a comprehensive user guide for the installation of the cooler.
Closer Look
It is time to take a closer look at the components. Before that here is what bequiet! is saying about the cooler. “Pure Loop 240mm is the new very high-performing and silent All-in-One water cooling unit of bequiet! for price-conscious users with slightly overclocked systems.” This statement is almost like the concluding part of any review in itself. They have defined the target market in the statement and the potential use and the user of the cooler. One can’t be more precise than this!
RADIATOR
The bequiet! Pure Loop 240 is a 240mm CLC cooling solution. It has a 240mm radiator with 2x Pure wings 2 120mm High-Performance fans.
The dimension of the radiator is 277 x 120 x 27mm. The thickness of the radiator is 27mm. With 25mm fans, the overall thickness would be 52mm. The total thickness would be ear 53mm including the heads of the mounting screws. The radiator has a 20 fins per inch one (FPI). There is a gap of 105mm between any two fan mounting holes on the radiator. The assembly is in the black color finish (spray painted) and the build quality is fine.
The radiator is made of aluminum hence it is lightweight. This is not an Asetek design and I am not yet confirmed regarding the OEM. The blocks on both ends of the radiator are rectangular. The fin stack is dense with 20 FPI and taking into account the left and right side channels, it has a total of 12 channels for water flow.
There is no protective plating under each mounting hole to prevent damage to the fins from excessive screwing. Take a note of that and it is suggested to use the bundled long screws only for the installation of the fan.
There is an inset design on the sides with PURE LOOP branding in the white color which looks good in person.
The far block has a rectangular design with sharp-looking edges though they are not sharp. There is no sticker pasted here.
There is a screw on the top of the far end side of the radiator. This is a refill port. The idea is simple. If the coolant level drops in the longer run, then the user can simply open this port and use the bundled coolant filled bottle to add more coolant in the loop. This is a true maintenance-free cooling solution!
The tubes are installed using straight barbs in aluminum covers to give one clean look on the fittings point.
There is a sticker pasted on the blockhead showing the serial no of the unit.
The bequiet! is using low-permeability rubber tubes. These tubes run to approximately 400mm in length and have braided nylon sleeve on them. In case you are wondering, what is that black color bulky thing on the tubes, we are coming to address that now.
Pump
bequiet! has taken a different approach like the Raijintek cooler which I reviewed earlier and integrated the pump on the tubes by decoupling it from the block. This is a doubly decoupled pump with low vibration and low noise levels. Bequiet! has done a clean and nice integration job. There are anti-vibration pads inside the pump housing to reduce further vibration effect on the tubes.
The pump housing is in the same black color and it has the same design all around. The pump is rated for 55000 RPM and uses a 3-pin flat cable to power it up. I am not sure about the bearings of the pump.
The 3-pin flat cable is coming out of the base of the pump housing. There are two screws on the side to open the pump housing/shell.
The 3-pin flat cable runs to approximately 420mm.
BLOCK
We have taken out the pump from the water block so we are left with a smart and stylish block with no vibrational effect. The block’s housing is made of plastic and is in the same black color finish. There is a beautiful aluminum sandblasted face plate on the top which is white LED-backlit and man o man, it looks that damn good in person! The color diffuser runs on the border of the aluminum plate. There is bequiet! branding in the center of the plate.
Why I am praising the block’s looks? Take a look for yourself.
The block is secured using two screws. This is again the similar mounting concept which we saw on the Reeven Naia 240 though, in my opinion, the 4-point screw mounting provides a better and equal mounting pressure.
The tubes are installed on the 90° rotary barbs and we have the same aluminum covers on the joints here. I a loving the attention to the details and clean look with some fine tooling here. There is a 3-pin cable coming out from here.
The 3-pin cable is to power the white LED light on the block. Though this will take another fan header on the motherboard. I like the idea.
The left and right sides of the block are similar. The middle clamp design is protruding a bit on both sides with screws on both ends. These screws will go inside the mounting brackets on the socket.
bequiet! Pure Loop 240 has a nickel-plated copper baseplate. The base measures 54x54mm. There is a protective sticker pasted on it cautioning the user to peel it off before using it.
We have a mirror finish on the flat base.
FAN
bequiet! has provided two pure wings 2 120mm high-performance PWM fans with the cooler. Both fans are in the black color finish which goes hand-in-hand with the overall neutral/stealth look of the cooler. Each fan has 9 blades. Each blade has a layered design for even an enhanced airflow and reducing air turbulence. There is a sticker in the center with bequiet! branding on it. The fans have a circular frame that is rigid. There is no anti-vibration pad on the mounting corners. The fan is using a 4-pole motor.
One side of the frame has two arrow symbols. These help the user in identifying the direction of airflow and blades’ spin direction.
The backside of the fan shows the 4-arms assembly on the mainframe with one arm having a wider area. The cables are routed on this wider arm towards the exterior of the fan. There is a be quiet! branding on the sticker in the center.
There is a 4-pin connector cable coming out of the fan. It has an approximate length of 420mm.
The specification of the fans are:
| Dimension | 120x120x25mm |
| Type | 4-pin PWM Connector |
| Speed | 2000 RPM |
| Airflow | 65.51 CFM* |
| Air Pressure | 2.23 mmH₂O* |
| Noise | 36.9 dB(A)* |
| Bearing Type | Rifle |
| Lifespan | 80000 hours at 25°C ambient |
| Input Voltage | 12VDC |
| Input Current | 0.30A |
| Input Power | 3.6W |
*This information is not provided in the specifications of the cooler. I have taken this data from the Pure wings 2 12 PWM High-Performance page on the bequiet! website. This data is only valid if bequiet! did not tweak the fans for the cooler.
Installation
We have tested the cooler on the X99 platform using the Intel LGA 2011-3 socket. Installation is simple and as under:
Install the Intel LGA20xx standoffs.
Install the fans on the radiators.
Install the Intel mounting brackets on the standoffs using 4x screws.
Apply the thermal paste on the CPU. Peel off the protective cover from the base of the block. Place the block on the CPU by aligning the pre-mounted screws to the holes on the mounting brackets. While holding the block with a hand, screw in both screws. Connect the fans’ power cables to the fan headers. Connect the pump’s power cable to the header and the block’s 3-pin cable to the fan header on the motherboard. You would need 1 to 4 fan headers depending on the configuration. You can put the pump and LED cables to take power from SATA based Y-splitter cable and connect both fans to the other Y-splitter cable. This way you would need only one fan header.
There is no clearance issue concerning the DIMM slots and the first PCIe slot. Make sure your chassis has clearance for a 240mm radiator.
Here are a few pictures of the installed cooler:
Testing Methodology
Following test benches have been used: –
- Asus Rampage V Edition 10
- Intel i7 6850k
- CORSAIR VENGEANCE RED 16GB @ 2666MHz
- Colorful GeForce GTX 1050Ti Vulkan
- Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
- Cooler Master MWE 650W Gold
- Custom open-air test bench
The software used for testing and monitoring include:
- Asus Real Bench v 2.56 (Intel)
- Real Temp GT v 3.70 (Intel)
Here is the settings table for testing:
| OC Clock (MHz) | 4000 |
| OC Voltage (V) | 1.21 |
| Turbo Boost | Disabled |
| C-States | Disabled |
| Speed Step | Disabled |
| Thermal Paste | Noctua NT-H1 |
| Test Run Time | 60 minutes |
| Idling Time | 15 minutes |
| Fan Speed | Tested using Integrated Hub on the radiator at Auto/PWM
Manually set to run at 100% speed. Auto PWM using CPU Fan Header |
| Pump Speed | Connected to the AIO Pump header to run at 100% speed |
We are using Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste for coolers testing. Using the same thermal paste for all coolers would ensure standardization. Delta temperatures are reported on the graphs. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.
Not every run of the stress test may yield the same result. This could well be due to many factors like mounting pressure, thermal paste application, varying ambient temperature. Not to mention the silicon differences even among the same category of the chips. Hence, it is pertinent to mention the testing methodology along with the specifics.
Let’s take a look at the results.
100% PWM Duty Cycle
Auto PWM
The bequiet! Pure Loop 240 has performed admirably well. However, the fans seem to be not having tight PWM regulation as both fans on Auto PWM were operating in the 900 RPM range. I have noticed that after the last UEFI/BIOS update, the PWM controllers on the motherboard are not using the fan’s PWM range effectively hence all these coolers that we are testing are continuously being reported on the lower side of the PWM range.
Acoustic
The pure wings 2 fans are loud at 100% PWM duty cycle and we measured them to be making 52 dBA with an ambient sound level of 34 dB(A).
Conclusion
bequiet! has recently launched their CPU liquid coolers named Pure Loop. These coolers are available in 120mm/240mm/280mm and 360mm sizes. We have tested Pure Loop 240 in this content. The cooler is not an Asetek design though I am not sure about the OEM. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/2066 and 2011(-3) square ILM sockets and AMD AM4/AM3+/AM3 sockets.
The Pure Loop 240 has an aluminum radiator measuring 277 x 120 x 27mm. The thickness of the radiator is 27mm. The overall thickness would be 52-53mm after installing the fans. The radiator has 20 FPI. The radiator housing has black color spray paint on it and the overall finish is stealth/neutral. One of the salient features of the Pure Loop series coolers is the refill port. bequiet! has provided a 100ml bottle of the coolant comprising of water and Propylene Glycol. This gives the user the ability to refill the cooler should the coolant level drop, in the long run, making this a maintenance-free cooling solution. The bequiet! is using low-permeability rubber tubes running to approximately 400mm in length and has braided nylon sleeve on them.
The doubly decoupled pump has been integrated into the tubing. The pump is rated at 5500 RPM speed using a 3-pin connector cable. Since the pump is not in the water block, there is no risk of damage to the socket coming from the vibration. The water block has a beautiful aluminum-made face plate which is a white LED-backlit. There is bequiet! branding on the center of the faceplate and this makes one heck of a good look on the block itself. The cold plate is made of copper and is nickel coated in the mirror finish. The base is flat.
bequiet! has provided two pure wings 2 120mm PWM high-performance fans with the cooler. These fans are all black adding more to the overall neutral/stealth look of the cooler. These are rated for a maximum of 2000 RPM at 12VDC. There is no data like airflow, air pressure, and noise level mentioned in the specification of the cooler. From the product page of these fans, I gather their airflow rating of 65.51 CFM, air pressure of 2.23 mmH₂O, and noise level of 36.9 dBA. This data only holds true if the fans on the Pure Loop coolers are not tweaked or customized. These fans are using Rifle bearing and are rated for 80,000 hours at 25°C ambient temperature.
The installation is simple and having an experience with Dark Rock Pro 4’s installation, I found it no different than the air cooler. The mounting hardware is also in black color. The only thing not black is the aluminum face plate on the block and the White color illumination. The installation was easier and quicker. The block is installed using two screws which are pre-installed to the housing of the block. I would have liked to see a 4-point mounting mechanism for even mounting pressure of the block on the CPU. You would need 1 to 4 fan headers depending upon the configuration. bequiet! has also provided two y-splitter cables. One is SATA powered which will make both fans run at their full speed and the other has a 4-pin PWM connector that can be connected to the fan header on the motherboard. You can connect the pump and LED to the SATA powered Y cable and conmect both fans to the second Y cable and have them controlled using a single fan header.
The bequiet! Pure Loop 240 is listed at $94.90 (AMAZON pricing) and £92.99 (Scan UK pricing) at the time of the review. bequiet! is offering 3 years warranty. The bequiet! Pure Loop 240 has performed superbly on our test bench and based on the pricing, warranty, refill port provision with the coolant bottle, and good performance, the bequiet! Pure Loop 240 comes recommended for your daily driver cooling solution with mediocre overclocking support.
Many thanks to be quiet! for sending in their Pure Loop 240 cooler for our 2021 AIO cooler roundup comparison. We’ve reached out to most major brands in an effort to compare the best AIO coolers of 2020 against each other and let you know which ones come out on top. Please make sure to check out our 2021 AIO COOLER ROUNDUP and again, thanks to all the companies taking part. Below is the listing of the coolers confirmed so far.
| Brand Website | Cooler Review |
| AZZA | Blizzard 240 |
| SilverStone | IceGem 240 |
| Fractal Design | Celcius+ S24 PRISMA |
| CORSAIR | H100i RGB Platinum |
| Antec | Neptune 240 |
| XPG | Levante 240 |
| ARTIC | Liquid Freezer-II |
| EK Water Blocks | EK-AIO 240 |
| ID-Cooling | Aura Flow X 240 |
| Cooler Master | Master Liquid ML240L ARGB V2 |
| ASUS | ROG RYUO 240 |
| Enermax | Aquafusion 240 |
| DeepCool | Castle 240EX White |
| AeroCool | P7 L240 or Mirage 240 |
| Reeven | Naia 240 |
| Lian Li | Galahad |
| be quiet! | Pure Loop 240 |
