Be Quiet Dark Base 700 Build

A Fresh Have on the Dark Base 700

Is this special edition white case an instant archetype?

The be quiet! Dark Base 700 White Edition is a limited-edition enclosure of simply 3,000 units, and it is non but one of the first white cases from be quiet!, but also joins the Dark Base 900 (rev. 2) in featuring RGB lighting – though as tastefully implemented as one might expect from be tranquillity!.

So what tin can you await from a case that – at first glance – appears to be another white mid-belfry with a tempered glass side panel and RGB lighting? Quite a bit more than you might think, unless yous have commencement-hand feel with a be quiet! enclosure. My impressions of their products to this signal has shown them to take characteristically superior material selection, build quality, overall fit and finish, and attention to item. In curt, a level of perfectionism must surely be within this German visitor, and information technology is impressive to behold.

While this version might simply be available for a cursory menstruation of fourth dimension (as long every bit the 3000 manufactured may last), that does not hateful that one cannot buy the standard black version, which will be identical to this one other than appearance and costs $20 less. Tastes on these matters vary, but from the moment I spotted this at CES in January I really liked this white version with its bright advent, crystal-clear glass, and subtle lighting effectually the edges of the front end panel.

Features from be quiet!:

Motherboard tray and HDD slots with enhanced possibilities for individual requirements

Two Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM fans

iv-step dual-rail fan controller is switchable between Silence and Functioning Mode

Ready for radiators up to 360mm

PSU shroud, ingenious cable routing and HDD slot covers for a neat interior

Fully windowed side console made of tempered glass

Outside RGB LEDs with six switchable colors and motherboard control option

Specifications

Color choice: White, RGB LED front panel (white, ruby, dark-green, blue, orangish, royal)
Material:
- Height embrace: Aluminium
- Side console: 4mm tempered glass, steel (rear side panel)
- Front console: ABS, Aluminium
Motherboard compatibility: E-ATX (thirty.5 x 27.5cm), ATX, M-ATX, Mini-ITX
Expansion slots: seven+two
Bulldoze Bays
- 3.5 slots (max.): 7
- three.5 slots (scope of delivery): iii
- 2.5 slots (max.): 17
- 2.v slots (scope of commitment): 9
PSU form cistron: ATX PS/two
Fan mounting locations: nine
Pre-installed fans
- Front: 1x exist quiet! Silent Wings 3 | 140mm PWM
- Rear: 1x be quiet! Silent Wings 3 | 140mm PWM
Optional fan installation
- Front: 2x 140 mm
- Top: 3x 140/120 mm
- Bottom: 1x 140/120 mm
Optional radiator installation
- Front: 120, 140, 240, 280, 360 mm
- Top: 120, 240, 360 mm
- Rear: 1x 140/120 mm
- PSU shroud: 1x 140/120 mm
Fan controller: Dual track iv-pace fan controller (6x iv-pin), PWM hub
Airflow channel: Front, Top, Rear, Bottom
Removable dust filters: Front, Bottom
Component Clearance
- CPU cooler pinnacle: 180 mm
- PSU length: 285 mm (excl. bottom fan), 240 mm (incl. lesser fan)
- Graphics card length: 430 mm (286 mm with HDD cage at GPU top)
- Installation of motherboards with backplate: Yes
Example I/O: USB 3.0 x2, USB three.i Gen ii Type C x1, HD Audio I/O: 1
Instance size incl. stands (50 x Due west 10 H), 544 10 241 x 519 mm
Weight: 13.25 kg

Pricing and Availability:

Nighttime Base 700 White Edition: $199.90, Amazon.com
Night Base 700 (standard blackness version): $179, Amazon.com

Case Exterior

The Nighttime Base of operations 700 White Edition has a very clean appearance out of the box, and the front and meridian aluminum panels give it a more refined look and experience (especially in person).

The front panel is surrounded by a light strip that is quite understated compared to most current RGB cases. The blackness metal mesh next to this panel on either side provides a stark dissimilarity to the white metal and provides air intake for the front fans.

Front end console case I/O includes a fan control and RGB lighting selector along with a pair of USB three.0 ports, one USB iii.i Gen 2 Blazon C, and the usual 3.5 mm audio jacks.

And at present a look at the side, which features a total tempered glass console that is not tinted equally we mostly meet:

A crystal-clear console that might convince you it isn't there depending on reflections. And yes, it might seem silly to talk about the fact that glass is clear, but panels on all previous cases I've reviewed accept been tinted to some degree (some with a very night tint) and it'southward a very dissimilar look to see ane that does non seem to have whatever tint at all. It'due south a very fresh await on this white case.

Effectually back we have the default layout out of the box (this can be inverted as well – more on that later on):

There are a pair of vertical expansion slots back here as well in case you would like to add a PCIe mounting kit for your GPU and show it off through the front end console.

Equally to the pinnacle and bottom of the case, the tiptop panel – which is aluminum like the front – offers vents at the back:

And the bottom panel is also fully vented and offers a screen filter which slides out from the front:

Earlier moving on to the interior, here's a look at the included accessories:

Along with a rather deluxe manual there is an extra 3.5-inch difficult drive cage (upwards to 7 hard drives can exist installed, and this is one of three total cages included). Each type of screw is helpfully in its ain small bag, and in that location is a bundle of velcro ties to aid in cleaning up the cables during the build procedure.

Instance Interior

This is a exist quiet! example, so as expected information technology features a number of racket damping and anti-vibration measures, including (via exist quiet!):

Top console insulation mats
Front end console insulation mats
Side panel insulation mats
Anti-vibration decoupled HDD
Anti-vibration decoupled fan
Anti-vibration decoupled PSU
Anti-vibration decoupled motherboard-tray

With all of these measures we can assume that this exist placidity! instance will be, well, quiet. So here's our get-go await inside with a view towards the forepart:

A unmarried 140 mm Silent Wings 3 PWM fan is pre-installed, and radiators of upwardly to 280 mm or 360 mm can be installed in this front intake if desired. The plastic covers over each of the optional 3.5-inch hard drive mount can exist removed to allow for an addition cage to be installed:

And the covers are also constructed to be installed at three different depths, allowing for added spacing for potential airflow enhancement:

Moving on to the rear of the case, we encounter that this offers another of the 140 mm Silent Wings 3 PWM fans pre-installed for exhaust:

The bottom of the interior compartment includes some additional ventilation as well, with an air gap along the meridian of the shroud that covers the PSU beneath:

The rear panel is steel, held fast by a pair of captive thumbscrews. This panel is fully lined with the same noise damping material as the top and front:

And now we'll take a wait behind the motherboard tray:

On the right side we take spaces for iii ii.five-inch drives with a pair of mounts on removable subclass attached to the rear of the motherboard tray with a thumbscrew, and a second single-bulldoze mount below this. There is as well a control hub positioned next to this unmarried SSD tray:

This "4-step dual-runway fan controller" offers both "silence" and "performance" modes, and there is too the selector on the front of the enclosure which offers settings of auto/i/ii/iii for fan speeds. For this review I left the controller at its default "silent" style and the control at "auto" on the front panel, with my motherboard's standard PWM fan speed profile.

Access to the front fan mounts is equally easy as gripping the front panel and pulling information technology off, and it is held by plastic clips that seem pretty durable.

The panel itself is lined with sound damping material, and the RGB lighting connection is made via a nicely-implemented connector at the lesser that presses into place automatically every bit the cover is re-installed:

And at present with the panel removed nosotros take access to the forepart screen filter and the fan/radiator mounts themselves:

This filter is clipped in at the top and is easily removed:

And with the front panel off information technology's likewise easy to slide out the bottom screen filter:

Finally, the Dark Base 700 blueprint is quite extensible thank you to the modular motherboard tray which tin can be flipped to back up an inverted layout if desired. This tray is held in place on all sides with rubber washers for each spiral, creating a fully decoupled mount.

You tin can besides meet one of the rubber feet at the top of this photo, as the tray actually has its ain non-skid base to make the build process that much better – should yous choose to gather the system outside of the case.

The tray and expansion slots come out as i unit of measurement in a style similar to some older OEM cases I've worked with, and I always liked this design since I could fully install expansion cards outside of the instance – though doing so here would get cumbersome every bit y'all have to bending the tray to become it back in and the added majority and weight of add-in boards would make that less convenient.

Organisation Build

The system tin can be assembled outside of the enclosure if you wish

The build process begins with an unusual selection for an enclosure: standard or inverted build. If you removed the motherboard tray you lot are presented with this option when replacing it, and I chop-chop tested the inverted layout before switching information technology dorsum for my conventional test build. An inverted layout does reverse the side panels, so with a case that is built with a drinking glass side it makes sense to leave this as shipped.

I flipped it dorsum later testing the process, and the tray fit back into the normal position without too much fuss, though it would take taken less finesse without the motherboard and libation installed. The system can be built inside the example without removing the motherboard tray, of form, and a full-size ATX motherboard still has a lot of room around it to make this a simple procedure, with East-ATX boards also supported.

I used a tower air cooler for the terminal build just liquid coolers are very easy to install, peculiarly on the top of the instance. This is thanks to a slide-out upper fan bracket, which is secured with a single screw on each side:

And to a higher place this surface area we see that the acme console does indeed take a damping panel installed:

Moving on to storage, the included hard drive trays accept the same attention to detail as the rest of the case, with rubber cushions at each mounting point for the HDD:

Once installed the lower two drives are hidden from view behind the lesser shroud, and adding additonal drive cages will occupy space inside the primary compartment and exist visible through the glass panel.

SSDs mount with screws to i of the included brackets on the back of the motherboard tray, and here I installed a drive to the single-drive bracket. Afterwards adding a power supply (also a decoupled mount with cushions at each point) and routing the cables the build was consummate, and we brainstorm with a look at this from the dorsum:

And now our finished build from the front:

The finished result is a very clean build without extra effort thanks to the aplenty routing openings, each with a rubber grommet. The white interior helps enhance any RGB lighting you may have, and the covers for the unused 3.5-inch trays to the right exercise keep things very polished. Of grade if you do install additional trays and hard drives the clean await volition be lost to some degree, and if your priority is additional hard bulldoze storage I think the blackness version might be a better choise as the hard drives would blend in better agains the dark background.

Temps and Noise

PC Perspective Enclosure Examination Platform
Processor	Intel Core i7-8700K
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO
Retentivity	CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4-2800
Graphics Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 2070 SC2
Storage	CORSAIR Neutron XTi 480GB SSD
Power Supply	CORSAIR RM1000x 1000W
CPU Cooler	Cooler Chief Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition
Operating System	Windows x 64-bit

Temperatures inside the Night Base 700 were first-class, and that was with the default "silent" profile on the fan command hub and the "auto" setting on case front panel.

Even lower temps could probable be extracted with a more than aggressive profile selection ("operation" mode plus the "3" setting on the front panel would be the highest fan setting), but these were just fine and the case was very serenity.

Noise levels were very good (in a room with an approximately 31.viii dBA noise flooring), with an idle of just 32.5 dBA with the previously mentioned silent/automobile combination. To provide an example of what a higher setting might do to organisation dissonance, I switched the forepart setting to "3" (the highest) and only this took idle noise up to 33.0 dBA (the fan hub was left at "silent"). Regardless, the included 140 mm Silent Wings three PWM fans are very quiet so these settings should not bear upon overall racket to any great extent. The CPU libation and EVGA GPU cooler were both very tranquillity, and not the all-time test of how effective the noise suppression of the case may be; but these numbers are still excellent.

Conclusion

Over the last 5 years I have congenital systems in cases besides numerous to count, with prices ranging from under $50 to nearly $500, and this Dark Base 700 White Edition is one of the best I have ever experienced. It has an exemplary level of quality that is quite rare in the PC enclosure space, and information technology really feels premium enough to justify the cost tag. The aluminum top and front are perfect examples of the attention to detail here, equally these panels could easily accept been left to rolled steel, simply their lighter construction and smooth premium experience actually add together to the feel and keep the case much lighter than it might otherwise take been.

The White Edition is limited to 3000 units and includes a numbered plaque

True to the exist quiet! idiom the RGB lighting is understated; eschewing the glitzy and ostentatious treatment of so many modern enclosures. Even the drinking glass side panel adds a certain level of composure every bit it is utterly devoid of tinting, leaving your build totally unfiltered and rewarding your efforts (and showcasing whatsoever lighting you may choose to implement on the component side of things).

In recent weeks this White Edition has been discounted slightly on Newegg for $189, and the standard black version retails for $179, so if white is not your preference the Dark Base 700 is a dandy option. In short, though the Dark Base of operations 700 is obviously non targeting the budget segment, if you can spend the $179 – $199 this should be on your short list. I can find no fault with the design or implementation, and information technology has become an instant classic in my stable of enclosures.