be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Review

By Jason Vaught

Manufacturer: Listan GmbH & Co. KG dba “be quiet!”
Product Name: Dark Base Pro 900
Model Number: BGW12
UPC: 4260052184981
Price As Tested: $229.99 (NewEgg)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by be quiet!.

The be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 is the newest member of the be quiet! mid-tower chassis family. This mid-tower case sports a tempered glass side panel, a fully modular design, and an abundance of water cooling support. The Dark Base Pro 900 also features filtered ventilation, RGB LED illumination, PWM fan hub, and three be quiet! SilentWings 3 x 140mm PWM fans pre-installed (two in the front, one in the rear).

The Dark Base Pro 900 comes in three trim colorss: Orange, Silver, and Black. Benchmark Reviews will be reviewing the Silver trimmed variant of this case.

The be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 is marketed as a mid-tower computer case that features water cooling support without sacrificing air flow and without sacrificing numerous configuration possibilities. Airflow is achieved through the fan mounting options. With this case, you can have; 3 x 140mm fans or 3 x120mm fans (w/o ODD cage) in the front, 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm fans on the bottom, and 3 x 140mm or 4 x 120mm or 1 x 180mm fans in the top. All intakes are filtered, as well as the top ventilation.

The front of the Dark Base Pro 900 features a reversible brushed aluminum door, filtered side intakes on each side of the bezel and a small be quiet! logo. The brushed aluminum is a bit of a fingerprint magnet though, so if you’re a little OCD about these things (as I am) then you’ll find yourself cleaning it often after you build the computer.

The Dark Base Pro 900 also features a wireless Qi charger! That’s right, you can charge your cell phone wirelessly by just simply placing it on top of the case. The front I/O ports include 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, microphone jack, headphone jack, an illuminated power button, a reset button, and an HDD status light. The front IO integrates seamlessly with the Qi charger and the top panel of the case.

The left side of the Dark Base Pro 900 features a filtered intake hidden behind the be quiet! logo. The cover is removable, revealing two 120mm fan mounting locations. Not sure why you’d mount two fans on the back of the motherboard, but it’s orientation in relation to the rest of the door indicates it could be used for additional HDD cooling if needed. You’ll also notice that there is ventilation running across the bottom, front bezel, and top of this case. These vents are filtered and of adequate size.

When you look above at the rear of the Dark Base Pro 900, what do you see? Well,what you won’t see is PSU mounting holes. The Dark Base Pro 900 utilizes PSU passthrough, this allows you to customize the height of motherboard tray inside the case. If you look closely, you’ll see 3 panels below the pci slots, two small, and one larger with a power button and power cord port. All three panels are removable, and the two smaller panels can be moved to the top, thus lowering the motherboard tray. The rear features plenty of ventilation, a 140mm/120mm fan/radiator mounting location (140mm fan pre-installed) and vented pci slot covers. I would have liked to seen some reservoir slits cut into the mesh adjacent to the pci slots, like that of the Phanteks Evolv Tempered Glass case.

Because of all the ventilation on the sides, top, and front of this case, there was no need for any vents on the bottom of the case. The feet are removable, this is accomplished by removing the bottom section of the case. Remember I said this thing is modular right?

The people at be quiet! built this case with flexibility in mind, while maintaining the wow factor. Modular function is the key to this case’s versatility.

be quiet! has included an assortment of screws, two LED strips, velcro cable straps, a pump mount, a fan bracket for mounting an extra fan in the front (with ODD removed), some extended motherboard standoffs (for e-atx), a HDD bracket rubber grommet, and of course a very detailed user manual. You can view an online copy of the manual on be quiet!’s website here. They did not include, however, any extended radiator screws.

Once we open the reversible door, you’ll notice sound dampening material on the door, a filtered front intake, some 5.25″ bay covers, and a fan speed controller, and an LED button. The LED button switches the lights on and off, and allow you to select which color to display. The available colors are red, green, blue, white, orange. The fan controller slider has two modes, automatic and manual. Automatic allows the pwm hub to be controlled by the motherboard’s signal. Manual allows you to control the fans yourself. The door is held shut by a rather weak magnet. This magnet, while it works fine when the case is just sitting on your table, will allow the door to fling open during transport rather easily. Make sure to secure the door anytime you’re moving this case.

Here you can see the front fan filter being removed easily, revealing two be quiet! SilentWings® 3 140mm fans. It is worth noting, that if you remove the 5.25″ bay to utilize a 3rd fan, it will not be filtered.

Below the front fans is a small handle that is connected to a large filter that runs the full length of the case on the bottom.

Here you can see the left side panel, with the be quiet! cover removed, revealing 2 x 120mm filtered fan mounts.

This case is loaded with so many features, we needed to extend the Detailed Features onto another page.

With the left side panel removed, you’ll see a copious amount of sound dampening. This sound dampening is only on the front and left side panels, but it is a welcomed addition as glass paneled cases generally tend to be loud.

Now we get to one of the oddities about this case, the PSU mounting bracket. To mount a PSU properly in this case, you’ll need to loosen 4 screws on the bottom of the bracket, 2 screws on the side, pull the bracket out and mount the PSU with another 4 screws, then place it back in. The PSU bracket is adjustable for left and right depending on if you use this case in the default ATX configuration or a reverse ATX configuration. The PSU bracket is also adjustable front to back, though I cannot figure why you’d need to space it further away from the rear of the case.

Inside the Dark Base Pro 900, you’ll see the grommets are silver, matching that of the trim on the outside. You’ll also notice seven 3.5″/2.5″ drive bays. Each drive bay is removable via three thumb screws and can accommodate two 2.5″ drives (top and bottom). If you choose to utilize the pump mounting bracket, it mounts to the top of one of the drive bay cages.

With the left side panel removed, you’ll see the cable management, the thumbscrews for removing each of the seven 3.5″/2.5″ drive bays and a single SSD mount behind the motherboard. There is plenty of room behind the motherboard to accommodate your cable management.

The PWM fan controller is also the LED controller for the included LED strips. Be mindful of which ports you plug it in to as they are specific for either fans or LEDs. The SSD mount is made in a slightly odd way, instead of mounting the SSD between the bracket and the motherboard, you actually mount it on the outside of the bracket. This does leave room to run cables through the bracket for cable management and/or for the SSD power and data cables.

Custom water cooling loops in this case should be fairly easy to accomplish. With the various radiator options in the front, top, and rear, you should be able to easily cool a CPU and a pair of GPUs. be quiet! clearly had this lined up to allow for seemingly endless internal configurations and the ability to truly make it your own.

Given the number of fan mount locations and options, options for radiators and pumps, and the sheer amount of configuration options, this case can easily perform as your daily driver or gaming PC. The only thing that perplexed me is the really odd PSU mount, I get they wanted to “make it modular”, but I’m just not sure they should have.

The appearance of this case is somewhat minimalistic with a slight bit of wow factor. Add in some lighting and that wow factor increases exponentially thanks to the tempered glass side panel. The only thing that would have made this case a bit sleeker would have been to not have the be quiet! logo on the front door. I know branding is a must, but it’s already quite large on the left side panel.

The construction of this case is solid. Though you’ll find yourself working a lot of screws, the end result is a solid unit. The motherboard tray is secured entirely by user removable screws that each feature rubber grommets for sound dampening. The HDD/SSD drive cages are secure with 3 thumb screws each at the back of the motherboard tray. You’ll be working at roughly double the number of screws to the average case, but at that cost comes the ability to truly make this case your own. The only downside to the construction is the odd PSU mounting.

The case functions perfectly for a water-cooling enthusiast and/or an air cooling person, though function of this case is clearly for the water-cooling crowd. If you utilize the water-cooling features of this case, you might want to consider hard line tubing for a cleaner build and more aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Value is where I had to knock some points off. Available online for $229.99 (NewEgg), the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 becomes a real investment. Although the configuration possibilities and the tempered glass window makes it very worth it, to some it’s not very practical. The lack of a more advanced RGB LED lighting (such as the NZXT Hue+), and the fact that there is no option for a larger filter on the front if utilizing the extra fan mount, drops the value of this case slightly.

I would recommend this case to anyone wanting a decently sized mid-tower that offer excellent customization and the ability to light up the insides and be seen. The built in wireless Qi charger is also pretty cool. Be that as it may, the $50 premium the “Pro” version demands over the standard Dark Base 900, is easily understood when accounting for the tempered glass, the Qi charger, and the LED lighting. To some though, $229.99 is a little steep, but if you’re accustomed to the price that premium cases draw, then this mid-tower should be a very good contender for being your next case.

+Fully modular
+Tempered glass side panel
+Reverse ATX capable
+LED lighting
+Sound dampened side panel and front door
+Filtered intakes
+Multiple trim options
+Built in wireless Qi Charging

-Weird PSU mounting
-Lack of additional filter when utilizing 3rd front fan
-Fingerprint magnet
-Screws, everywhere, but are better than clips

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 9.50
• Construction: 8.50
• Functionality: 9.50
• Value: 8.00

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

COMMENT QUESTION: ?