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be quiet! Silent Base 600 - Red

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#1 ·
be quiet! Silent Base 600 - Red

Description:
Quiet operation oriented case.
 

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#2 ·
[OCN Labs] Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 - Red by Duality92

review by duality92

A big thank you to Be Quiet! for supplying me with this case for review.



General Specifications

  • PSU form factor: ATX PS/2
  • PSU Compatibility: 290mm without bottom fan, 160mm with fan installed.
  • Motherboard compatibility: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX
  • Graphic Card compatibility: 294mm with HDD cage installed, 413mm without
  • Dimensions 495 x 230 x 493 (mm) = 56.13L
  • Color options: Orange, Black, Silver, Red and Green
  • Weight (kg): 7.84
  • Front Panel: 2 * USB 2, 2 * USB 3, Front Panel Audio (microphone and headphone), Power and Reset switches
  • Expansion slots: 7
  • Materials: 0.7mm steel and ABS plastic
  • Drive Capability: 3* of each 5.25", 3.5" and 2.5".
  • Filters: Front, bottom and side.
  • Warranty: 3 years
Cooling

Fan mounting locations: 6 or 7 (2 top (120 or 140), 2 front (120 or 140), 1 rear (120 only), 1 rear side panel (120 only) and 1 front side panel (120 only)
(non-windowed version) (specifications say 7, but is 6 for the non-windowed version)

Air

The 2 top, 2 front fan mounts accept 120 and 140mm fans, while the rear, bottom and side panels accept 120mm only.
Maximum CPU cooler height is 167mm, which is great, the biggest air coolers are in the mid 160's so it's great.

Water

Accepts front 120/140mm radiator on the front and 240/280 on the top along with a 120mm rear radiator. No information on thicknesses given.
I think the front could hold 240/280 radiators with a bit of modding
Maximum without modding = 120+140+280, Maximum with minor modding = 120+2*280

Box Exterior

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The box is regular brown cardboard with diagrams explaining and listing the content, nothing special, but complete.

Case Protection

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The case is well protected by thick foam that covers both ends of the case and fits snuggly inside the box. There is also a thin white cloth bag that protects the case from dust during shipment.

Case Exterior

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The outside of the case is very clean, we can right away see all ventilation points and its clean look. From the outside we see the top grill vent, which seems rather restrictive, the front grills, which is both sides of the front panel. The red front accent is a nice touch and a new color (along with green) for the Silent Base 600 lineup.

Front 5.25" bay door

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The front 5.25" bay door is swappable to open from both sides and blends with the case really well. It opens easily and stays closed properly too.

Interior first looks and side panel window

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Here we take a first look at the interior of the case. We can see right away red rubber grommets which complement the front red accent well. We also see the rear side panel dampening material. The window mounting seems odd, I'll cover more of it later!

Rear side panel and a view from the back side

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We take off the rear panel and look at the optional 120mm fan mount along with the sound dampening material. On the back side of the case we can see two 2.5" caddies which sit behind the motherboard. These are removable with each one single thumb screw.

Front panel connections and buttons

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At first we see this case with a simple big square power button, mic and headphone port along with both of USB 2.0 and 3.0. But after we disassemble it, we realize there is also a reset switch, which is hidden behind the HDD LED. Smart move Be Quiet! The front panel can also be removed without affecting the ports for easy maintenance. The cables are long enough to be hidden and are mostly black (Looking at you USB2 and Audio).

Cable Management

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As you can see, the case provides about 3/4" inch (13/16" actually if you want to be fancy and 20.6mm for even fancier! (kidding of course) This is a decent amount that will be able to hold that 24-pin cable easily.

Included Pure Wings 2, 120mm and 140mm

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On this case, we find included Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 120mm and a 140mm fans. The 120mm is installed on the front with anti-vibration mounting and the 140mmm on the top slot of the front panel with the same anti-vibration mounting.
120mm Product Page
140mm Product Page

I think case manufacturers can give up the external tube routing holes now...

Top vent grill

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The top vent grill seems very restrictive especially if you're using it as exhaust with two 120mm or 140mm fans, but this is to be expected with a case aiming for silent operation.

Fan Mounts

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Here are the various fan mounting solutions found on the case. We can see the front fan mount can be quiet restrictive, especially when adding a radiator. the top, regardless of the restrictive top bezel, the case itself is totally open to help with the restrictivity of the aforementioned top bezel. The bottom accepts 120/140 fans.

Dust filters

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The bottom dust filter is removable from the back of the case. It has a convenient tab for pulling it out. The mesh used doesn't see too restrictive, but enough to keep all but the fine particles out of the case

Sound Dampening

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For a case aiming at silent (even has it in the name) you need to take extra steps. Be Quiet! too quite a few to make this case quiet. The window is actually two windows with an accent color matching gasket to prevent vibrations. The PSU sits on large rubber mounts and the feet are four big square rubber inserts. The hard drives are mountable on the supplied (accent color matching) silicon anti vibration mounts.

Motherboard mounting

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Be Quiet! choose to put raised steel standoffs instead of the regular kind of stand off. This is an odd choice now, but it works none the less. The middle standoff is different and helps with alignment.

Hardware content

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Individually packaged screws is nice. All contents are detailed in the manual along with their use.

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Over all this is a great case, I really enjoy taking it apart and looking inside. This case has all the right steps to help reduce sound. I would recommend this case to someone who is planning to air cool a build and aims to keep things quiet, it fills in that role perfectly.

The discussion thread can be found here

ProsCons
Lots of steps to reduce sound levelsRestrictive top bezel

Ratings
Overall4
 
#3 ·
[OCN Labs] Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 - Red by Duality92

review by duality92
Hey, I got this case for my new computer and I'd certainly recommend it if you are going for a silent build. The two fans that come with it are almost inaudible even at highest speeds. I've installed some others controlled by PWM and the ones mounted on the top add a bit of noise. It is not as sturdy there, the top cap is just plastic. It might be mitigated with some foam or weight inside that top compartment, but it's still quiet, so I will probably not bother.

There are two problems with this case:
1) The place behind the backplate is quite narrow, especially because the dents of the "be quiet" lid part reach too far inside, essentially blocking the mounting spots for units such as SSDs there. I've had serious problems with my NZXT Hue+ there and can only use that lid part on the outermost setting. It still looks okay, but not as neat as if it was directly on its intended spot.

2) The manual is awful and does not detail anything. As you have to dismantle the front panel to dismantle the top panel (actually the 3rd problem), I had to go there and find out how. After pressing around with variable force, I managed to peel it off a bit, but only by a slight margin. Even more force wouldn't really help to get it far. Only then I noticed that my installed BluRay drive might be blocking it and after uninstalling that, it finally worked, BUT: The front panel is now slightly skewed, although I really didn't use excessive force. The build quality of the panels is not really optimal imo.

Other than that, it's a good product that delivers on its promise of being really quiet.
 
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