be quiet! Light Loop 360 CPU Cooler Review

Cinebench R24 Thermals – Intel CPU

OC3D CPU Cooler Stress Test

We want to push CPU coolers to their limit, and that requires a workload that will place maximum load on our i5-14600K CPU. Why didn’t we choose an i7 or an i9? The simple answer is that we want to test a variety of CPU Cooler options. If we put the hottest CPU we could in our system, only the best of the best CPU coolers would even past our testing procedures. Since not everyone uses such a power-hungry CPU, we decided to tone the wattage and thermal loads down by using an i5-14600K. Even so, this CPU consumes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat under all-core workloads.

For testing, we have used Cinebench R24. This is an all-core workload that places heavy strain on all available CPU cores. This load pushes CPU thermals higher than any other, and do so consistently. We use Cinebench R24 for 30 minutes to see how hot our CPU gets over that time. If CPU temperatures rise to 100 degrees Celsius or over, that CPU cooler has failed our testing. This is part of the reason why there are more coolers on our higher fan RPM cooler charts. Some coolers will pass our thermal testing at higher RPMs, but fail at lower fan RPMs.

1000 RPM Performance

At 1000 RPM, be quiet’s new Light Loop 360mm CPU liquid cooler performs well. It is a few degrees behind our top performers, though it is worth noting that this AIO is less expensive. Even so, it still beats Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III coolers.

Max RPM Performance

Moving this units fan speeds to their max, we can see that its performance deficit shrinks considerably. This is despite the fact that all higher performing units utilise faster fans. Overall, this is a strong result from be quiet, especially given their unit’s more budget-friendly pricing.