be quiet! Silent Loop 3 420 AIO – Impeccable Build Quality and High Performance

Ever since the release of Silent Wings 4 series fans, I have been wondering when will be quiet! come out with liquid coolers using these high-performance flagship fans. Well, it is finally happening and happening with a bold statement. Say hi to Silent Loop 3, a new generation of high-performance liquid coolers.

Following sizes are available in this series:

• 240mm
• 360mm
• 420mm

This is first time that be quiet! has released a 420mm version as well and rightly so. The market is filling with 420mm AIO coolers and competition is getting stiff in this category.

We have got our hands on Silent Loop 3 420 cooler and I am taking a spin of this cooler on my newly established AMD test bench using Ryzen 9 9900X and X870E NOVA WiFi. The 360mm and 420mm versions come with AMD Threadripper mounting as well. This goes to show the cooling potential of these coolers.

This cooler is compatible with Intel LGA 115x/1200/1700/1851 and AMD AM4/AM5/TR5/sTRXS4/TR4 sockets. Be quiet! has used a 3-chamber pump design with a large size cold plate having a large dense fin stack for enhanced cooling. The last puzzle piece towards delivering a powerful performance is the fan. This cooler comes with Silent Wings 4 PWM HS fans.

This cooler has an MSRP of USD 174.90 and Euro 174.90 with 3 years warranty.

Specifications

Radiator Dimension	457x140x27mm
Radiator Material	Aluminum
Base Material	Nickel Plated Copper
Pump Speed	3500 RPM
Pump Connector	4-Pin PWM
Lighting	5V, 3-Pin A-RGB Connector
Net Weight	2010 gm
Fan Dimension	140x140x25mm
Fan Speed	1900 RPM
Fan Airflow	78.4 CFM
Fan Air Pressure	2.36 mmH₂O
Fan Noise Level	34.3 dB(A) Max
Fan Safety Current	0.4 A
Fan Connector	4-Pin PWM
Fan Bearing	Fluid Dynamic Bearing
Fan Life Span	300,000 hours

Also Read: InWin AR36 AIO White Liquid Cooler Review

Packing and Unboxing

The Silent Loop 3 is shipped inside a be quiet! standard-themed cardboard packing box. There is an inner container in which the cooler and accessories are tucked safely.

The following are provided:

• 1x Intel Backplate
• 1x set of Intel Mounting Brackets
• 4x Intel Backplate Screws
• 4x Locking Washers / O-Rings
• 4x Intel Spacer Nuts
• 4x Mounting Brackets Fastening Screws
• 1x AMD TR4/TR5 Mounting Bracket
• 1x set of AMD AM4/AM5 Mounting Brackets
• 4x AMD Screws
• 4x AMD Spacers
• 12x Radiator Screws
• 12x Fan Screws
• 1x Thermal Paste Tube
• Zip Ties
• Refill Coolant
• 1x 3-way PWM Splitter Cable
• 1x User Manual
• 1x Safety Paper

The illustrative user manual provides guidelines on properly installing the cooler over the supported sockets.

Closer Look

Let’s take a look at the Silent Loop 3 starting with the radiator.

The Silent Loop 3 comes with an aluminum material radiator that is finished in black. It has a dimension of 457x140x27mm. Here 27mm is the height or thickness of the radiator. I am of the view that be quiet! could have increased the surface area of this radiator by increasing the thickness by up to 32mm or so which would have been easily handled by the bundled Silent Wings 4 PWM HS fans.

There are 12 channels for the coolant flow and FPI count is still 20. A gap between two opposite end holes on the main frame is 105mm. I did not see any bend or broken fin.

Looking at the tube side of the radiator, be quiet! has used black clamps to cover the tube connection with the fittings. You can see a sticker showing the serial number of the unit.

There is a refill port on the near block of the radiator. It has a screw plug that can easily be removed using a Philips screwdriver. There is also a 100ml coolant bottle provided in the box. This way, you can be sure to have a long life of the product. Should the coolant level drop in the long run, it can easily be replenished.

There is no branding on the side frame of the radiator. There are narrow gaps between the actual fin stack and the mounting holes on the frame. So take care and preferably use the bundled screws for fans and radiator.

be quiet! uses a rubber tube with a white nylon braided mesh sleeve. The length of these tubes is 410mm and they are somewhat flexible. The complete black assembly makes this cooler an ideal fit for neutral or black themed builds.

It is time to take a look at the Block.

A new and refreshing outlook of the block on the Silent Loop 3 is a welcoming addition. We have a distinctive, stylish yet bold and aggressive look on the pump housing. The complete assembly is made of ABS material and is black-finished. There is no branding on any side of the housing.

Looking at the top of the housing, you can spot a diffuser under the line pattern. This is A-RGB backlighting. There is a central cover that partitions the running of diffuser lines. It has be quiet! branding. This is where I have a gripe. This cover with be quiet! text is fixed. It means you can install this block in one orientation only so that be quiet! text remains upright.

Looking at the backside of the block, the tubes are installed over two 90ᵒ fittings. This means you can adjust the tubes to some extent as per the requirement. There are two single flat cables coming out of the housing.

There is a 4-pin PWM connector that powers the pump. The pump is rated for 3500 RPM speed. The other connector is a 5V, 3-Pin A-RGB one to power the A-RGB LEDs.

Two screws are pre-installed on the block. Be quiet! is still with a 2-point mounting mechanism on this cooler which is what I saw on the Pure Loop 2 360 and Silent Loop 2 360.

The copper base is nickel-plated and it measures 54x41mm approximately. You can see an offset design towards the base. There is a sticker pasted over the base. Don’t forget to peel it off. Be quiet! has used a three-chamber design for the pump housing. The cold plate has a large size now and it has a high-density fin stack that would help improve the cooling performance. The pump is dampened and uses a 6-pole motor.

It is time to check the Fans.

This cooler comes with three Silent Wings 4 PWM High-Speed fans. be quiet! has reduced the tip clearance of blades with respect to the frame. This would help maintain high pressure while delivering the airflow. Each fan has 7 blades with a textured surface in an altered layout.

The center of the fan has a large diameter. The main frame is circular with detachable mounting corners. The funnel design is now on the backside of these fans unlike the front provided on Silent Wings 3 fans.

The backside has 4-arm assembly. These arms are in a curve layout to direct the airflow. These fans use Fluid Dynamic Bearings with a life span of 300,000 hours. The Pro version of these fans comes with a speed slider.

These fans have a unique feature in which the user can swap the anti-vibration mounts depending on the required mounting. However, the fans with the cooler come with radiator corners. These complete the square outlook and serve the anti-vibration purpose.  

I am showing the fan with mounting corners removed.

The frame of the fans is sturdy. There are arrow markers showing the direction of airflow through the fans and the direction in which blades spin.

Each fan is powered by a 4-pin PWM connector. be quiet! has used standard connector housing, unlike the ones on the original fans that have enlarged housing for a better handling.

Installation

I am not covering the installation details any longer. Please refer to the user manual for that purpose. If you are used to be quiet! ecosystem then this cooler is no different than the other be quiet! coolers when it comes to the installation. In that sense, there is no observation about the installation.

Clearance

This unit has an overall dimension of 457x140x52mm with installed fans. Make sure your PC Case has a support for 420mm size cooler. There are still a few cases that support this size of liquid coolers.

A-RGB Lighting

This cooler uses a standard A-RGB connector on the pump housing making it compatible with RGB sync technology of motherboard manufacturers including:

• ASUS Aura Sync
• ASROCK-Polychrome Sync
• GIGABYTE RGB Fusion 2.0
• MSI Mystic Light Sync

The cooler is tested on ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi and it was responding well to the changes in RGB Polychomre app. Here are a few pictures.

Testing

The following configuration is used for thermal testing:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi
• GSkill TridentZ NEO RGB 32GB 6400MHz CL30 DDR5 kit
• ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7600 Graphics Card for Display
• WD SN850 500GB NVME SSD
• Be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
• Praxis Wetbench

Here is the settings table for testing:

Settings	Auto, PBO Enabled, Manual OC
Clock (MHz)	Auto, Auto, 5.3GHz All Cores
Voltage (V)	Auto, Auto, 1170mV
PBO	Enabled for one testing
Thermal Paste	Noctua NT-H2
Thermal Paste Application	Dots Method
Test Run Time	30 minutes
Idling Time	10 minutes
All Fans Speed	100% PWM Duty Cycle
Pump Speed
Stress Software	CINEBENCH R23.2
Monitoring Software	HWINFO64

I am reporting absolute temperature in the graph because room temperature was 22°C to 23°C throughout the day. 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.

Result

Our first run was on the auto and stock settings with no PBO or overclock. The CPU was operating at 160W power. The be quiet! Silent Loop 3 420 cooler has a 2.1ᵒC lead over the famous ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 420 cooler.

Next, PBO was enabled and the test was done again. This time the CPU did a whopping 243W load but at the cost of elevated temperature. Still, both 420mm liquid coolers did a fantastic job handling this load. Silent Loop 3 420 maintains a good difference here as well over the competition.

Next, I overclocked the CPU manually, It was all cores 5.3GHz using 1.17V VCore. This not only reduces the temperature and power draw but also increases the performance compared to the PBO. Silent Loop 3 420mm is a rocker.

The fans of Silent Loop 3 420 while operating at full speed were doing 42.5 dB(A) which is 1.5 dB(A) above the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 420 cooler. This is a win-win in my opinion for the be quiet! cooler given the performance difference.

Conclusion

Silent Loop 3 is a new generation from be quiet! that leverages the Silent Wings 4 fans. The new series uses a revamped pump design with cold plate to deliver high performance while the fans do the rest of the work on a standard radiator. This series has 240mm, 360mm, and 420mm size coolers available. I have tested the Silent Loop 3 420 cooler.

Speaking of socket compatibility, the 360mm and 420mm coolers are compatible with Intel LGA115x / 1200 / 1700 / 1851 and AMD AM4 / AM5 / TR5 / sTRX4 / TR4 sockets. There is no support for Intel LGA20xx. The radiator has a dimension of 457x140x27mm without fans. The radiator is made of aluminum material and has 20 FPI with1 2 channels. It has a refill port with a screw plug for easy handling and servicing the loop for durability.

be quiet! use rubber tubes with nylon braided mesh sleeves. These tubes run to a 410mm length. The connections use black clamps for concealment. The pump is rated for a maximum of 3500 RPM speed. It is PWM-regulated.

The pump housing has a different outlook. It has an enlarged rectangular look. There is a diffuser over the top under the line pattern. This design looks good in person. However, there is a catch. The center cover with be quiet! text is fixed which limits the orientation of the cooler. Keep that in mind. The diffuser is over the A-RGB LEDs. I am not sure about the count of these LEDs.

The unit has a nickel-plated copper base measuring 54x41mm approx. be quiet! has used three three-chamber design with a 6-pole motor for the pump. The cold plate itself has a large size with more surface area using high high-density fin stack combined with a new jet plate to improve the coolant flow and maximize the cooling performance.

This cooler comes with three Silent Wings 4 PWM High-Speed fans. These are flagship fans from be quiet! at present. The feature removable mounting corners as per the required installation and have a reduced tip clearance from the frame to provide sustained high pressure while delivering the airflow.

Their speed rating is up to 1900 RPM. The airflow rating is 78.4 CFM at 12VDC. The air pressure rating is 2.36mmH₂O at 12VDC. Be quiet! uses Fluid Dynamic Bearings with a life span of 300,000 hours. These fans are PWM regulated.

Now coming to the installation of this cooler, it is no different than the Pure Loop 2 360 or Silent Loop 2 360 coolers. I have tested this cooler on AMD AM5 socket. It requires 10 items to install the block over CPU in 3 steps.

Be quiet! Silent Loop 3 420 has MSRP of USD 174.90 | Euro 174.90. This is a steep price but bulk of it is coming from these fans alone. The performance of this cooler is fantastic. Although the ARCTIC cooler has maintained good thermals overall as well, but be quiet! cooler has done it a better way with a minimum 2.1ᵒC difference. The noise difference is not that huge as well and I can run the Silent Loop 3 420 at full speed throughout the day.

This cooler comes with a  3-year warranty.

Pros:

• Excellent Thermal Performance
• Refreshing Block design
• Vivid A-RGB lighting on pump top
• PWM regulated pump
• Compatible with Intel LGA1700/1851 sockets
• Compatible with AMD AM4/AM5 sockets
• Compatible with AMD TR5/sTRX4/TR4 sockets
• Refill Port
• Coolant bottle
• Noise

Cons:

• 3-Year Warranty
• Price
• Fixed be quiet! text on the pump top