INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Finding an affordable and strange/unique looking PC tower with plenty of features is not really hard nowadays mainly because there are many manufacturers out there that focus mostly on these three aspects whenever they get to release a new model. The hard part is finding a high quality PC tower with great looks plenty of features and almost noiseless operation whether that's when playing your favorite games or watching your favorite movies. Some manufacturers have introduced such PC towers in the past (most noticeably Antec and Nanoxia) but the small number of such models has left much room in the market for similar solutions by other manufacturers. Be Quiet! has been behind some of the top performing power supply units and CPU coolers to date so it wasn't really a surprise to see them enter the PC case market by releasing their very own Silent Base 800 midi tower.

   be quiet! is a premium brand manufacturer of power supplies and cooling solutions for your desktop PC. be quiet! products are convincing which is proved by reaching and defending the market leadership in PSU business in Germany for five consecutive years *. This is validated and accompanied by numerous awards for both power supplies and cooling solutions. be quiet! is awarded for five times in a row as manufacturer of the year in the power supply category by the readers of the well-known German hardware magazine PC Games Hardware. Another first and second rank in the categories “fans” and “cooler” underline the high acceptance of our products. be quiet! sticks to its name: Ten years’ experience in the field of noise reduction and silence make be quiet! products probably the most silent one on the market. Undoubted fans have a large impact of the noise levels of be quiet! products. Due we are using our specially developed Silent Wings fans in nearly all of our range. They are equipped with various noise reducing features. Thanks to these we ensure a really silent operation - our products reach the best balance between cooling performance and a virtually inaudible operation. If you choose be quiet! you can be sure to get premium quality and second to none silent operation from the quietness experts.

   The Silent Base 800 prototype was unveiled in last year’s Computex and according to be quiet! it took slightly over 12 months for them to develop so naturally we had much to expect from it. Now you may not be excited with the amount of color combinations available since they all have black as their base (the Silent Base 800 is currently available in black and orange, black and silver, and all-black) but as you can see from the above picture the black and orange version looks very good (not only because of the color combination but also because of its simple yet quite unique design). The Silent Base 800 also features space for up to ATX sized mainboards, sound dampening material on the interior, removable feet, 3 pre-installed SilentWings 2 fans (has a total room for up to 7 fans), several dust-filters, room for up to seven 3.5" and four 2.5" drives, space for a top 240/280mm radiator (and front/rear 120/140mm ones) and room for CPU coolers up to 170mm tall and graphics cards up to 400mm long (without the middle drive cage). As you can all see be quiet! didn’t choose to launch a model with never before seen features but rather something that packs "common" features way better than others.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be Quiet! has placed a small product picture at the front of the box right above the model name, color and main features.

 

 

The technical specifications and two extra available colors are listed on the right side.

 

 

On the left side we see the same list of features as the front this time however in 9 extra languages.

 

 

The features are also showcased at the rear with the help of two product pictures.

 

 

Inside the box the tower is wrapped inside a piece of cloth and sits between two foam spacers.

 

 

By default the Silent Base 800 is packed without its two feet/legs attached so you will find them inside one of the foam spacers along with 13 rubber adapters (for the two drive cages), user manual, 4 cable ties, cable holder and six small bags with all the necessary screws and standoffs.

 

 

THE SILENT BASE 800 EXTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By default without the two feet attached at the base the Silent Base 800 stands 543mm tall, 495mm deep and 240mm wide (you don't really have to use the feet as you will see later on).

 

 

With the two feet attached it goes up to 559mm tall, 495mm deep and 266mm wide.

 

 

The company logo is placed on two square cutouts placed at the center of both side panels (you can install 120mm intake fans behind them).

 

 

Only when you look at the front fascia do you see how well the orange and black combo looks.

 

 

There are also two long perforated sections on the two ends of the fascia which provide air to the 2 pre-installed fans inside.

 

 

The Silent Base 800 ships with a top door that opens from right to left but you can easily attach it on the opposite side.

 

 

There's a layer of sound dampening material behind the door.

 

 

As you can all see the Silent Base 800 has room for four 5.25" drives.

 

 

Right beneath we find a push to release door which also features sound dampening material on the inside.

 

 

There's also a large dust filter placed next to that door right before the two SilentWings 2 fans (can't mount 140mm ones here).

 

 

Just like with the rest of the tower the top I/O is very "simple" and includes the On/Off power button and LED, HDD activity LED, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and the usual microphone and headphones plugs.

 

 

The top panel has 4 intakes at the rear but unfortunately you can't access the interior from the outside.

 

 

At the rear we see a 120mm pre-installed SilentWings 2 fan, 3 rubber grommets, 7 PCI expansion slots and the PSU area.

 

 

Unfortunately you can't swap the 120mm fan for an 140mm one.

 

 

There's also a long dust-filter right beneath the PSU area and several exhaust holes right beneath it.

 

 

Unlike most towers there's no intake at the base of the tower so the two feet are basically there to add to its looks (the PSU sucks air from the tunnel placed between the metal frame of the case and the bottom panel).

 

 

THE SILENT BASE 800 INTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both side panels are covered by sound dampening material on the inside while the square cutouts also feature dust filters.

 

 

Orange is also present inside the tower but the interior is not what I’d call very spacious.

 

 

Seems that the top 5.25" is not really functional but the other 3 do feature tool-less locking mechanisms.

 

 

The tower comes with two drive cages mounted both of which offer space for up to seven 3.5" drives (strangely enough in the tower we found 13 and not 14 rubber mounts).

 

 

Since you may wonder what these two thumbscrews are doing on the side of the drive cages we will tell you. You can actually remove both cages and place one of them inside the 5.25" drive bays (if you don't plan on using 5.25" drives or devices).

 

 

To remove the cages you will first need to remove the two screws found at their rear as seen above.

 

 

After that just remove the three thumbscrews at the front (and the two holding those two cages together) and you're good to go.

 

 

There's also room for two 2.5" (7mm) drives ontop of the two drive cages although the designed in Germany engraving is equally nice to see.

 

 

If you remove the top drive cage you can install graphics cards up to 400mm long (with it you can fit cards up to 290mm long).

 

 

Be Quiet! has also placed two extra 2.5" mounting spots (vertical ones) right beneath the mainboard tray (remove the thumbscrews, mount the drive onto the bracket and then mount it back on the mainboard tray).

 

 

There's also a good amount of space beneath the mainboard tray for cable management purposes.

 

 

The mainboard tray also has 4 large rubber grommets for routing cables and a very large cutout beneath the CPU area.

 

 

All 7 PCI expansion slots feature regular thumbscrews.

 

 

Moving to the PSU area if you decide to use a regular PSU you will also have room for a 120/140mm intake fan.

 

 

Taking a look at the top of the tower from the interior we see that the top panel is held in place by 6 clips.

 

 

Remove those clips and you now have access to the top of the tower where you can place either two 120/240mm exhaust fans or a 240/280mm radiator.

 

 

BUILDING THE SYSTEM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always the purpose of this section is not to build a functional system but rather to showcase what you can expect from the case at hand in terms of interior space.

The Silent Base 800 is compatible only with mainboards up to ATX in size so that did “alarm” us about its interior space which although sufficient is not as much as I had hoped.

 

 

With enough room however for CPU coolers up to 171mm in height the Silent Base 800 should have no problem housing even the largest one.

 

 

By removing the top drive cage you have enough room for the longest graphics cards (up to 400mm long). If you don’t however there’s space for cards up to 290mm long.

 

 

There's enough room at the bottom of the tower for even the longest PSU's that is if you don't want to make use of the bottom 120/140mm fan spot.

 

 

NOISE LEVEL TEST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After giving it much thought we decided on performing noise tests with each PC Case we receive by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically ontop of each case to measure the noise levels emanating from the pre-installed fans at both 50% and 100% with the help of a fan controller (if the case doesn't have one we use our own).

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   The Silent Base 800 is most likely a "test" product by be quiet! designed to see if they can also succeed in the PC case market as they have in the PSU and CPU cooler ones and as far as we are concerned they seem to be on the right track. We're not saying that the Silent Base 800 is perfect (i doubt even be quiet! thinks so) but for a first try it has almost every single thing going for it. It looks great, build quality is very good, comes complete with noise-dampening coating and dust-filters, has enough room for seven 3.5" drives, four 2.5" drives, three 5.25" drives, seven 120/140mm fans (or 5 fans and a 240/280mm radiator) and can fit virtually any card and CPU cooler in the market today. Now i say almost every single thing because we'd all like to see a more spacious interior used and a few extra features like perhaps a richer I/O panel (docking station, fan controller), the ability to swap all the 120mm fans for 140mm ones and also to have room for more than just one 240/280mm radiator. Noise levels may also seem quite high for a tower filled with noise dampening material but it's actually the rear fan that's audible and not the two found at the front.

   As i type these lines the Silent Base 800 Midi Tower by be quiet! currently retails for USD146.95 inside the USA (Newegg.com) and for 125Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) so it's not really what we'd call cheap although we do feel that it's priced just right. That however doesn't mean much since the competition at around the same price point is large and so there are larger towers one can find (some of which cheaper) if a spacious interior is what you're looking for. Overall we've seen more feature-rich and much larger PC towers in the past and thus we expect something equally great by be quiet! in the near future. For now however the Silent Base 800 with its excellent build quality, plenty of features and elegant design is well worth our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Noise-Dampening Coating
- Good Stock Airflow/Cooling Levels (3x120mm Fans)
- Door Orientation Can Change
- Radiator Space (Top 240/280mm)
- Room For 7x3.5" and 4x2.5" Drives
- Removable Drive Cages
- Space For 170mm Tall CPU Coolers and 400mm Long Graphics Cards
- Removable Feet

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Overall Interior Space