By Julian Duque
Manufacturer: Listan GmbH & Co. KG dba be quiet!
Product Name: SILENT BASE 600 WINDOW ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Model Number: BG005
UPC: 4260052184424
Price As Tested: $119.90 (Newegg| Amazon)Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by be quiet!.
be quiet! is a German company dedicated to making desktop products with exceptionally quiet operation. They are mostly known for their ventures into extremely quiet power supplies and CPU coolers from which they have had a lot of success among silent desktop enthusiasts. Last year they announced the Silent Base case line, their first attempt into entering the case market. Today, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at the second case release from be quiet!, the Silent Base 600.
The Silent Base 600 is the smaller brother of the Silent Base 800, the flagship full tower that was released earlier this year and many encountered with positive reviews despite it being be quiet!’s first case. The Silent Base 600 follows many of the principles of it’s predecessor, but it comes with some hefty changes. Most notably, the 600 has a smaller footprint, making it closer in size to a mid tower than to a full tower. The Silent Base 600 still manages to pack a lot with compatibility for up to ATX motherboards, 7 expansion slots, up to 6 hard drives, and the ability to mount a 240 mm AIO water cooler on the top.
Courtesy of www.bequiet.com
| Form Factor | ATX Full Tower | ||||||
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 495 x 230 x 493 (mm) | ||||||
| Weight | 8.05 (kg) | ||||||
| Front I/O | 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB3.0, 1x HD Audio I/O | ||||||
| Expansion Slots | 7 | ||||||
| Fan Mounting Locations |
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| Max CPU Cooler Height | 170 mm | ||||||
| Max PSU Length | 290 mm without bottom fan, 160 mm with bottom fan | ||||||
| Max GPU Length | 413 mm without upper HDD cage, 294 mm with upper cage | ||||||
| Warranty | 3 years |
be quiet! offers various options for users looking to buy the Silent Base 600, including versions with silver, black, and orange accents all with window and non-window variants. For this review we will be taking a look at the version with orange accents and a windowed panel. Let’s start by exploring the exterior of the case.
Although the Silent Base 600’s body is made of steel, the front and top covers are made entirely of ABS plastic, a very common thing with cases nowadays. Luckily, the front cover has a brushed aluminum finish, which makes it very pleasant to look at, while not being a fingerprint magnet. At the front we also find I/O bay, which is made up of two USB 3.0 ports, two USB ports, a headphone, and a microphone jack.
Just like the front panel, the top cover is also made from ABS plastic, but it has a black matte finish. There are some openings to allow hot air for exiting the case as well, but yet are small enough to channel noise from the user. Not being so open also helps in preventing dust from settling inside the case. The panel is not thick enough to allow for a radiator or fan to be installed between it and the chassis.
Given that the be quiet! Silent Base 600 has 7 expansion slots, it is interesting that it is being categorized as a full tower. Other than that anomaly, the back has a a fairly standard layout, with a bottom mounted power supply, and a 120 mm fan mount. There is also three rubber grommets on top of the expansion slots, which is also weird considering that the top cover has no holes to allow tubing to come through, but should still allow for a small radiator or reservoir to be mounted on the exterior of the case.
The most important feature of the Silent Base 600 is that all of the panels were made as to avoid noise from getting to the user. The top panel has very few and small openings while the front and right side panels are covered by a noise dampening material, which really puts this case as a direct competitor to other silent cases like the SilverStone Kublai KL05B-Q, the NZXT H440, and the Fractal Design R5. What sets the Silent Base 600 apart is the use of a double glazed side panel window, which be quiet! claims to further channel noise away from the user.
Given that the Silent Base 600 has a side panel window, I expect it’s interior to be as aesthetically pleasing as it’s exterior. In this section we will take a look at the guts of the be quiet! Silent Base 600 Orange Edition, which should be similar to the other variants of the Silent Base 600, with some minor of exceptions.
Going inside the case there are some small things that I feel be quiet! sacrificed in order to keep the price of the Silent Base 600 down. Starting with the layout, there are only 7 expansion slots and with the power supply seating right below the motherboard there is no compatibility for E-ATX or larger motherboards.I see this being a problem, as be quiet! markets the Silent Base 600 as a full tower, and seeing how there is a 64 mm height reduction when compared to the Silent Base 800 (a real full tower), I would rather call the silent base 600 a mid-tower. As expected with all cases at this price category, there are several rubber grommets, all the front panel cables are black, and there is a large cutout hole to install coolers without removing the motherboard.
Water cooling compatibility is not a feature of this case as be quiet! expects you to use it with one of their own air coolers. As it is, you can install a cooler with up to 170 mm in height, however there is space to install a 240 mm cooler at the top depending on radiator thickness and the heatsinks on your motherboard as we did when testing the case. At the front there is space for two 120 mm or one 140 mm fans, while at the top there is space for dual 120 mm or 140 mm fans but no radiators in both of these areas.
be quiet!’s lack of experience seems to show off with the mechanism used to remove and install the panels on the Silent Base 600. The top and the front panels are held by plastic tabs that need to be pushed from the inside, with the front having to be removed first prior to removing the top panel. The side panels are held in place by four metal indents, which makes closing the case a lot harder as you have to line all eight of them each time you try to close it. On a more positive note, I am glad that the I/O panel is not attached to any of the panels but rather to the chassis itself, which seems to be a common error with many cases.
At the back of the motherboard tray we still have a bit of a mix between the good and the bad. Starting with the good, there are two “tool-less” SSD trays, which along with the three 3.5″ drive slots, and the 2.5″ drive mount on the drive cage should be more than enough for a system by today’s standards. Cable management’s holes are pretty well distributed around the motherboard tray, although it could be improved if the case was taller and there were more holes at the top. In terms of cable management there seems to be a lack of cable management tie-down points, and most importantly there is less than an inch of space for cables to be routed.
The Silent Base 600 is made for air cooled setups, mainly because there is only one spot for a radiator at the top. However, I decided to try to install a “custom” water cooling setup inside the Silent Base 600. With pumps becoming more reliable and silent than ever before (specially in All in One water coolers), it is very common to find them in silent enthusiast setups. It could also be argued that since water cooler setups are more efficient, fans don’t need to run at really high RPMs, allowing for even quieter performance.
The first surprise was that although our power supply was 160 mm long, there was still space for a 120 mm fan at the bottom. Removing the drive cage allows for GPUs of up to 413 mm to be installed, but it does not allow for a radiator to be installed at the front like I initially thought it would. This is due to the bracket that allows the drive cage to stay in place is unfortunately riveted onto the chassis, so there is no space at the front for a 240 mm radiator unless you remove the rivets.
Curiously, the 3.5″ drive cage can be moved so that it hangs right below the 5.25″ drive tray, which is also riveted. The 3.5″ cage features an open frame which is not very restrictive in comparison to the front panel which has little to no ventilation for the front 140 mm included fan. Overall, there seems to be plenty of storage space within the Silent Base 600, however the inclusion of three 5.25″ drive bays seems overwhelming nowadays and should be limited to only one to allow for further space at the front for better cooling compatibility.
Putting everything on place, I was only able to fit a 240 mm radiator at the top like we expected. There is not enough clearance on the fan mount at the back to mount a radiator inside, but there are rubber grommets right below the mount to install a radiator on the exterior of the case. The radiator I used is a XSPC EX240 which is around 36 mm thick. It should be noted that if our motherboard had tall heatsinks at the top of the CPU socket, this setup would have not fit. As a pump / reservoir / CPU block combo I used the Raijintek Triton unit, however you shouldn’t have any trouble fitting any Top-reservoir combo by removing the 3.5″ drive cages.
If you decide to buy this case, I would highly suggest buying a modular power supply, as the cables I did not use were hidden in a very unfashionable way. This in turn made closing the side panel a lot harder than it had to be and added to the hard task of cable managing inside the Silent Base 600.
be quiet! certainly have made a lot of things right with the Silent Base series. There seems to be a great attention to detail, and the quality and construction of the Silent Base 600 was phenomenal. First impressions were great, with ample support for large graphics cards, some water cooling, and a very complete manual. The case is flashy, but not tacky. However, there is some improvements to be made. At the price point of the Silent Base 600, I was expecting a full tower as to include support for 8 expansion slots, and more room at the top for better water cooling compatibility. be quiet! would also benefit from taking away at least one of the 5.25″ bays, and making the hard drive bracket at the bottom of the case removable to allow for better water cooling. There should also be more consideration for cable management with more cable tie down points, and further spacing at the back.
The scoring for performance is a bit different here than it is with other cases. The Silent Base 600’s main performance metric should be silence, and not performance by itself (although we were able to construct a semi “custom” water cooled setup inside of it). There are plenty of features that allow the Silent Base 600 to be extremely quiet, including a double glazed side panel window, a top cover made to channel air away from the user, soundproofed front and side panel, and rubber sleds for your hard drives. In terms of actual cooling performance, it is acceptable, although it could be improved by removing the bottom hard drive bracket.
I really liked the exterior design of the be quiet! Silent Base 600. It is flashy, and it calls for attention, but it is not tacky although orange is not my favorite color. There are other options with silver and black accents, which goes accordingly with the whole minimalistic movement on modern ATX cases. This also applies to the front panel with a brushed aluminum finish. Overall, it is a very good combination of a gaming look with a touch of modernism.
An all steel construction is pretty common nowadays. This comes as no surprise as steel has gone down in price and it is really sturdy. There were also no small mistakes as we expect from be quiet! The entirety of the chassis didn’t have any noticeable flex, as did the side panels and the motherboard tray. The exterior finish is not easily scratched and overall it seems like a quality case.
At the end of the day, we have to ask one question. Is it worth it? I think that depends. If you work in a recording studio, and need the best quiet case without having to buy the more expensive Silent Base 800, it is. But there are certain limitations that you need to cope with. The lack of water-cooling features may be a red flag for many of our readers, as well as the lack of cable management. But these are all things that certain people do not overlook, and would rather look at the quiet capabilities of the Silent Base 600, including the innovative double-glazed side panel. Selling for $119.90 (Newegg| Amazon), I will recommend it but only for those who are looking for a truly quiet case and don’t mind the limitations.
+ Soundproof material along the side and front panels.
+ Fully dust proof.
+ Double glazed window.
+ Very strong construction.
+ One 120 mm fan, and one 140 mm fan included.
– Poor cable management.
– Expensive compared to similar products from competition.
– No front radiator compatibility.
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Performance: 8.5
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Appearance: 9.0
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Construction: 9.5
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Functionality: 8.0
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Value: 6.5
