GN ... your GPU reviews and tear downs are top-notch ... I used your videos to help me put a Corsair H90 & Kraken G12 on my Zotac 1080Ti AMP Extreme card. But I have to say this case review is underwhelming to say the least. As an owner of the black version of this I have quite a few things to say: 1) Why only test the inverted ? I Imagine most people will use it normally and not inverted like that. 2) Why only use the stock 3 fans that come with it ? Who buys 200+ cases and not add a more fans to improve airflow ? 3) I imagine this case to be for people wanting an elegant look while also keeping noise levels down and retaining functionality so why not do a watercooling build ? Show us what size(length&thickness) of radiators fit together in all the different locations. People who just want a good functional case for air should look to Fractal Design. They even have great case if noise is an issue for you. But what Fractal Design lacks and the be quiet 900 has is a certain elegance and it allows you to build a great looking system. From my own personal use of the case here are my findings: 1) You can use a 480mm radiator in the top (I'm using the EK 480 SE) if you mount the fans in a pull config and remove the two horizontal brakets at the top (the ones you move up/down depending on where you want your motherboard tray to sit height related). 2) Regardless of using a 480 or a 420(this one you can install in push with no problems as there is enough of case length) I think this case does not have great airflow on the top. There is not a lot of air leaving trough the side vents. Most of the air is exhausted trough those slots at the top and back of the top panel. And that is after I used some more sound foam to 100% isolate the area where air is exhausted to so that hot air won't recirculate back into the case compartment. 3) The bad airflow on the top of the case is with fans mounted inside the frame and not the top of the frame which would completely kill any kind of airflow since the roof is a solid piece with no vents like most cases. 4) Despite the ability to mount 3 140mm fans as intake in the front only the two in the bottom will have a filter and the fan in the top also won't have too great airflow - they just didn't build the case too well for 3 fans in the front. 5) My 1080Ti has pretty bad coil whine regardless of the game I play but of course the worst is when playing games with very high frame rates (take World of Tanks for example). The case is quite incredible at eliminating 100% of that coil whine. Even if you open up the front panel for more airflow, the noise is still gone. 6) The case if pretty great for modding. There is quite a lot of space behind the HDD trays (which I'm not using - HDD's are outside the case under the desk) and instead I built a midplate that's in line(parallel ?) with the motherboard on which I've installed the EK 140mm reservoir and pass trough for the CPU watercooling PETG tubes. I've also installed a midplate parallel to the floor that's pretty much a PSU shroud without actually covering the PSU (its an Thermaltake RGB PSU) since I wanted it to be visible. I've done the same pass troughs for the radiator and the pump on it. All the tubing runs are in straight lines and are connected on the back with normal soft tubing. My point is that this case allows for some very beautiful builds if you're willing to put in the work. Hope you will do future case reviews with watercooling in mind. Both soft tubing and rigid tubing :) ... regardless, keep up the good work - Paul, from Romania :)
We are definitely not adding liquid cooling to case reviews. We already go above and beyond by running all the thermal and noise tests that we do on these. We would lose money -- a lot of it -- by adding open loop testing. These tests already take days. The goal is to test thermal and noise performance of the cases as they ship, then we sometimes do extra tests as well (taping off ventilation, opening panels, etc.). This is a lot of work and takes a few days. We expect users to be able to read this data and understand how it affects their own use cases, as you can look at the thermals and determine which case is objectively the best from our charts. As for CLCs, they perform too well -- the differences don't get exaggerated as much. I'm sorry you found it underwhelming, but you also have to recognize when we do far more than most our peers in the thermal/noise department on cases. That is expensive in both time and money, and we use a standardized bench -- just like with GPUs -- to review cases. That means using the same parts so they are all comparable. You then must use your understanding of your build + our data to figure out what's best. There are infinite combinations. We're not going to start building every requested combination for case reviews.
I suppose you're right about actual watercooling builds. They would take too long and its not really what your channel is about. But I still think you should have a whole bunch of radiators on hand from 240 to 420/480mm with different thicknesses and just mount them without any tubing/water ... just the radiators themselves so that we know exactly what size fits where and in what combination (don't think it would take more than 1h to test what radiators fit starting with the largest ones first - if a 45mm 480rad its clear a 30mm one would fit as well ...etc). Its badly needed since case manufacturers all say its fits ex: 420top and 420front .. but they don't say that they won't both fit at the same time (you get my ideea...). Also .. how about adding 1080ti GPU's(about the hottest - worst case scenario for a GPU) in the testing for these case ? to see how much worse the temps are in the cases, both for the GPU and the other components. My Zotac 1080Ti used to get about 8-9*C warmer than what review sites said about it since most do open bench testing which is useless in real life usage, it was also louder by quite a bit. Also, how about using a standardized type of Fan ? Say, Noctua only ? and fill all slots with fans ... tha way we could get a better picture if the cooling abilities of different cases ? Cause if you test 1 case with X fans and another case with Y fans then that's not much of a comparison ? :)
ive got the Darkbase pro 900 orange/black its an amazing case. its massive but amazing and the first time you take the kind of bag its wrapped in off your just in awe at how amazing it looks. It is definately quiet and the only thing thats annoying if my room is quiet is hearing the damn hard drives churning away and it is finger print magnet for sure. one other downside is some of the screws were really small and tight in it i couldnt get them out when inverting but luckily the only one that was a sort of issue is the power supply one at the bottom so i couldnt flip the connector round to pull the PSU closer to the back but other than that is good.
I have the black and silver Dark Base Pro 900 RGB TG case and they never pit a boreder on the Tempered glass I had to do my own. Glad to see it remedied.
This is a great case. I'm building a new system in it shortly. Black, though. :) I actually think this case has great value, considering you're saving $70+ on fans. I never use stock fans, like ever, but in this case it can't get much better. Silent Wings 3 is an awesome fan that certainly lives up to the name of the company. I've had 3 of them in a Fractal Define S for two years now, and they're dead quiet while also performing very well.
Great review and great looking case. Just received mine and can't wait to move all my components into it. Did the inversion in half an hour, it's quite easy to figure out. I also improved the front door closing issue by switching out the metal washers they used in the door with magnets so they make a better connection with the magnets in the front frame. Love the fading animations in this video.
The one thing I think BeQuiet messed up with this case is by making the White version a limited editiom. I'm on the hunt for a new case for a TR4 build in the near future and this is on my radar, except that if I can't get a white one (which is unlikely, esp considering I'm in NZ) then this case slips down the priority list. Also: I'm heading to the written review now, but at least in the vid I was surprsed for no mention of watercooling options. For cases this size, I'd imagine that's more often than not the primary attractive. I know I'm hoping to fit a couple quads in whatever case I end up getting, for my best case scenarios
I've seen a triple rad config in it with fans mounted to the outside of the rad. Top rad I don't think that it is worth going over 360mm, because you will only be heating your front I/O electronics. There is no actual place for ventilation there. At the front you can get another 360mm (I have a 280mm). at the bottom it depends on the length of your power supply if you can get a 280mm in there or just a single fan one. i can confirm that the case is very nice to build in due to its big size. Thanks to the back not being tempered glass I'd suggest to hide the cables there. It comes shipped with some brackets for water cooling solutions.
+Chris Kay I'll keep an eye out. I expect them to be unsavoury priced for that reason, though.... But who knows, available in white does count several points =P
+Peter Pettigrew Hmmmm.... I haven~t looked too deeply at this case specifically, because it's a bit further down my priority list, though it looked really nice at a first glance. Currently it's looking like I might end up wth a TT Tower 900, but that's depending on a quote from my local supplier. My current fallback is looking to be the Enthoo Primo, that one seems to be pretty solidly there, I've got few complaints. Other interesting cases, on the huge side, seems to be Lian-Li's PC-V3000, shame it's a Lian-li and, as such, will end up costing about 60% extra for that fact alone. Also Zalman's X7 looks amazing, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere, so I'm not sure what's up with that... That is a case I'm in such love with that if I could get one, I'd downsize rads pretty much as much as I had to to build in it =P. More recently EVGA's DG-87;85 cases looked to be not as terrible as I first thought, but they'd be pretty far down and as an AMD fanboy it'd feel weird to have a case from them. But EVGA does a terrible job of marketing those so I ended up discovering they're apparently not crap much by accident, really. Additionally, I didn't manage to find out the difference between 85 and 87. On the possible plus side, a local retailer had some of them piled up in stock and they were pretty annoyed, because they're huge, expensive and kinda ugly. So they seemed to be wanting pretty actively to get rid of them XD
That's clever camera work, they took 2 videos from the same angle one with the panels put on and one with panels removed and put them on top of each other with the opacity of the 1st video set to low. Looks pretty good and is really easy to do.
Bought this case the year it came out, and I still have not seen another case that would tempt me to replace it. It's just so sturdy, modular, and slick to look at.
Great video Steve. I recently brought the black version. Solid case for someone with lots of drives. You can order more drive cages for a total of 9 3.5in bays (at great expense)
16:20 I'm actually surprised you never reviewed CM Storm Stryker or Storm Trooper over the years. Those were one of the best cases (imo) for their time period.
Gamers Nexus I just wait for a meshify s... the define s is pretty much the perfect case for watercooling. It can easily fit 2 very big radiators while still being very small for what it can fit. I just want tempered glass and all that good new stuff.
Yup and it fits 140mm fans instead of 120mm. I love my Define S for it's cooling and room, and I'd love an upgraded version with more mesh, tempered glass, and dust filter up top.
I feel like I am almost solely relying on Steve to fight the good fight on cases. Not too many people talk about thermals and cases for people who like hard drives. Still waiting for a good water plus HDs case.
Been using this case for 2 years now with a AIO CPU cooler and dual air flow 1080 GTX's. Noise and thermals have been great. The case has so much functionality, whenever I have added or removed certain parts the case can always accompany it. Only downside is I'm thinking of going full custom water cooled and would rather have the full 360 rad in the front. I may go 360 in the top and 240 in the front so I can keep the case.
I own one of these and it’s great but there’s a few points Steve missed but this is probably the most important Each of HDD trays are secured with 3 thumbscrews (2 bottom 1 top) and it’s almost impossible to stack 2 HDDs using right angle sata cables one bay on top of another due to the top thumbscrew of the tray below preventing a solid click in of the sata cable to the HDD, so to get round this I have a gap in which I've taken out 1 tray between each HDD. Also not all mobos (I’m looking at you gigabyte) recognise the case’s fan control hub for pwm
I can confirm my Gigabyte X370 Gaming K7 does not recognize the DBP 900's fan controller. Though to be fair that MB has so many fan headers you don't need it anyway.
What do you mean by 'recognize'? I have this specific case (in dark/orange, tho), AND a Gigabyte Mobo (x299 ultra gaming specifically), I set the fan controller on one specific fan header with PWM mode -> works fine to control all the case fans at once based on one temperature probe. I am not sure of you can control one specific fan attached to the case fan hub with any mobo.
i really love the white version, unfortunately its an LE. Also it costs 270€ in my area wich is about 330$ if im correct. A bit pricey but hey, the black version looks slick too, but not as good as the white one would with the ASrock Taichi Mobo. Great Review GN!
If you are filling up those drive cages or if you plan to stuff lots of fans, radiators and liquid cooling parts - great. If the builder has very little to put in a big case, than a big case will just look bare/barren/desolate/vacuous.
Dear Steve - Which is better? Normal orientation or inverted? I ask mainly because graphics cards - Do their coolers work properly when mounted the wrong way up in an inverted? is it better?
it works properly if there's enough air flow. my RX480 Nitro never reach 70C even on inverted mode. sure it should be better with normal orientation but ehh... not much different lah
Where can I buy this? Product page just takes me to Amazon with no results. I've been looking for all of today and yesterday. Is it because I live in Canada?
great video! Can you guys think about doing a video on your favorite pics for full tower cases both tempered glass and non tempered glass? If you could I would be greatly appreciative. Keep up the awesome videos!
It really looks like the Silverstone KL07 is a solid choice for both temperature and noise level. Not a single case can beat it in both cooling and sound. Every time you add a case to the comparison, it becomes more and more obvious.
I have this same case, except I have the black/silver one. Simply an outstanding case. I love it. But I did have one complaint about it. The back PSU plate on the case has the power switch to the right of the power plug connection (like on yours. I could see it in the video). On my build, I wanted to install a 140mm intake fan on the bottom, meaning I had to move the PSU closer to that backplate. But because of the position of the power switch it ended up interfering with the PSU position putting pressure on the backplate power switch terminals. I ended up accidentally snapping one of the terminals. Called BeQuiet and they immediately sent me a new backplate. But what surprised me is that BeQuiet also realized the issue and revised the backplate design, repositioning the power switch above the power cable connection instead of to the right of it, completely eliminating the issue. Now it doesn't matter how I position the PSU, no more clearance issues. I really can't fault this case and BeQuiet's customer service was simply outstanding. They not only dealt with the issue very quickly, but even went a little further to make sure this issue never happens again. Very happy with it.
@cl4ster17 - No. Mine came with the meshed versions of the 5.25 covers. I did request a replacement front filter for the front fans though because after several years, filters can tend to get to a point of grottiness that they become very difficult to nearly impossible to clean and are literally impossible to get replacements for if they no longer make the filters (proprietary filter mechanisms) because they no longer make the case. And proper filter material on it's own is extremely difficult to source in the UK. Which has been an issue with other cases I've owned. So I took the precautionary step of requesting a spare front filter replacement, which BeQuiet generously provided. I was surprised that they didn't even charge me for it. I didn't care about the bottom filter though since that's hidden inside the case's underbelly, so I didn't request one of those. It was the front filter I wanted since that's the one that's exposed when you open the front door. Although the first time I requested the big front filter, they accidentally sent me x2 5.25 bay covers instead. Ended up having to make the front filter request again and they sent the correct one out to me. I offered to send the bay covers back to them but they told me I could keep them either way. I really can't fault BeQuiet's customer service. One of the best I've seen in a very long time. Like Corsair used to be before they got too big for their britches.
2020 ya the rev2 got one and you can buy it for rev1 now... its 20 bucks and totally not worth it , it looks alright but it will test your sanity on every install
I know i'm a little late, but i got this case a few month ago, inverted it, put in an atx board, a dark rock pro and a 980ti strix + 1050ti zotac. And here comes the baffling thing: if i remove the front panel, my gpu's get hotter while the cpu goes down. About 5 degree each under load. I really did not expect that!
With regard to 'function focussed', the non-windowed version must surely be quieter with its damping foam. The windowed case is more expensive too, and price was repeatedly mentioned.
Hi, does anyone know if the motherboard tray slides up independently from the back of the case (where rear exhaust fan is)...the reason for asking is I am fitting an XL-ATX mobo in the DB PRO 900 and looks like the i/o and stand offs don't match :(. All hardware sites say it supports XL-ATX but on the mobo tray where the info is stamped for mini ATX and ATX-E there is no mention XL-ATX. Any ideas?. Cheers !
I own and have built in one of these. P9x79 mb, 3930k cpu, xfx rx480 BE gtr, ek 3x140mm rad in push-pull using ek vardars on top and a black ice 140 gtr in push pull on the floor as intake. The front has the three supplied fans as intake. The top case plastic cover think thst vents out the side does effect airflow a little, however cuts out noise a lot. Same goes for the front door, although this isnt as much of a difference since the supplied be quite fans are not very noisy, even when flat out. My only issues was the fan controller playing up but it sorted it self out a week after i completed installing my hardware, and one of the thumb nuts that holds the glass threaded somehow (still functions well enough) Since my pump died, ive added 5mm neoprene foam in the bottom plastic cavity that has the side vents. Fan filters work decently, easy to service. Would be nice if the two plastic thingos that cover front cd drive spots had finer mesh or the same material as the filters, on the back instead of thr courser mesh it has. Its heavy, but you won't be buying this of you intend to go anywhere with it. You will only move it to vacuum under amd behind it. Id recommended the case, seems to be well built. Have it in black and it looks cool as hell
hi man i love your videos keep up the good work. I cant seem to get ai suite working with my dark base pro 900 threadripper build :( any ideas or is it just buggy with zenith extreme
Have been hoping you'd review this case and add it to the charts! I just wish there was a version that included the solid dampened sidepanel of the non-pro version while retaining the awesome wireless charger on top. I contacted BQ and a couple retailers but it's not possible to do that without buying the 2 cases it seems.
Gamers Nexus A little request. Is it possible to put the noise levels and temperature in the same graph (two numbers, sorted on one of both) or maybe use a degrees Kelvin per dB parameter or something like that? After all, those two relate, the higher the noise level is the better the cooling has got to be for the noise to be tolerable. One of both parameters doesn't really say that much, we don't want a case which keeps the temperatures low but is noisy and vice versa. Only when combined with the other parameter you get useful information. It is not a big thing but if you would at some moment start a new graph or consider rearranging some graphs then maybe you could think about it? There is plenty of room left in the graph on the side to put an extra number and even an extra bar. This kind of topic might be nice for a video: best silence oriented cases for gamers (sufficient cooling).
Is this still a great case in 2018? Would appreciate if you guys can recommend some other options worth checking. FULL TOWER only recommendations, not looking for a mid tower :)
Is it me or inverting thentop fans should be done too? This way GPU would be cooler, PSU would be colled easier due to air flow and positive pressure , and yeah. You know. Case positive pressure
Also if some1 is thinking of buying this case there is non PRO version which should cost prox. 30€/$ less. I have the non pro version but later I got the tempered glass. Overally I could not be happier about my choice, the only thing I completely hated was putting my PSU in it because one of my screws fell won into the case and it was difficult to remove it from there, not to mention I had to take the PSU out with all the screwes already screwed, but that´s just me beeing lame. Oh, also, I like the black/orange version much more than the white one, but it is just personal prefference.
Great case. People buying $800 GPU's and multiple harddrives and what not, yet a $200+ case is the straw that broke the camels back? We need more stuff like this. Make it worth the price and all will fall into place. Doesn't need to be a race to the bottom.
i mean, an enthoo luxe tg would also be a great case for the tepmered glass/larger/enthusiast case, but someone won't acknowledge the existence of phanteks.
I wanted to go the way you have it but everything is upside down, so I just changed the front door to open to the left. I have the black version BTW ;-)
I would recommend ANYBODY that wants to build a bigger custom loop in this case to stay away from it. It's VERY tight on the inside, not a lot of rad space (even though the manual says so) and cable management is a nightmare. If you have a bigger PSU then it will not fit under the motherboard tray (if you want/need to lower the tray because of top mounted rads. My PSU (Corsair 1500W) could not use the onboard power outlet, I had to remove the whole back part. The PSU cover is an issue, but not as big as the other things. It took me over 10 hours to install everything and do a soft tube loop in this case. It was the worst building experience I've had so I feel like I need to warn you. It looks sexy and its quiet, but thats about it.
chrmez Had a silent loop 280 top mounted with push configuration and a RM850i Psu in the bottom with no problems. What kind of rad did you use that gave you problems?
But thats not a big loop. The specs of the case with the rad space that fits in it, only applies when you have one of them. Try filling the case with the max rads on top, front and bottom. You won't be able to. Not even close. I have a 420mm on top and 360 in front. I could only make this work by switching out one of the 140mm fans for a 120mm fan and even then it is down to the millimeter that they fit. And then I'm forced to have in/out at the back, and the front rad has to have it at the bottom. I have to use my MB tray on the lowest setting but then it sits on top of the PSU so it doesn't reach the holes where u mount the MB tray. I had to hang it up with wires so it is actually not mounted to anything. Take a look at the Phanteks Primo, a similar sized case that fits WAY more rads in a much smarter way. The PSU is also hidden from sight. It's not as sexy as this one but sure is better for bigger loops. I have a photo of my case while building it - i.imgur.com/8iFXqBz.jpg
Oh man I want this case! To replace my current S340 Elite Matte black edition. Can't find anyone near me that sells it though (Not enough money either, but I have a spare kidney)
In my country there are only 100 of those, and not a small one, 40 million people. Ps. the majority of PSU, have half of it fan clearance blocked, for directional air flow inside the PSU.
Okay stop the presses! That magnetic pad you used, that looks killer, I use magnetic trays all the time, but a magnetic pad that looks like you could label items for me would be phenomenally useful.
We like that one. It's the iFixit mat - they ran ads with us a while back and sent over a few of those. www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Magnetic-Project-Mat/IF145-167-4
Thank you I'm sold! I can see it easily organizing a disassembling project, and enabling me to put it back together with the right screws "which is more important".
My Dark Base Pro 900 had my Dark power pro 1200W PSU over heating and shutting down due to the airflow problems you have pointed out. As well as the lack of air flow for the PSU the front SW3 fans are very weak. They have low air flow and low static pressure even at full speed meaning the front intake fans were not moving enough air past the mesh and door. It did not surprise me at all that you had such a temp reduction with the door open. The SW3 fans are just not strong enough for a high restriction case like the DBP 900. This was with 3 F3 vardar 120mm fans at full speed exhausting air out the top through a 360mm radiator and and SW3 as exhaust out the back as well as a fourth SW3 as intake in the front bottom position. Once I put in Noctua Industrial 140mm fans with much higher static pressure even at similar RPMs instead for intake all my over heating problems went away. They are barely audible when running them at 1200 rpm and at that speed they move noticeably more air into the case vs the SW3 fans at full speed.
Can the power supply be move/rotated and/or case inverted to fix that problem. I just bought this case and am considering returning it if I'm likely to have cooling problems. I have a i7-8700K / !080Ti / 360mm rad + fans ready to be installed. Do you have any more advice or photos of your setup?
Well first of all the problem only happened during heavy gaming or stress testing most of teh time even when gaming it was fine. I am also now not 100% sure the overheating PSU was the problem it may have been the VRMs which my motherboard has terrible heat sinks for and it's an X370/Ryzen setup which is known for hot VRMs with OCing. All I know is once I got better air flow in the case the problem went away. Something was overheating for sure I'm just not sure what. The VRMS+gpu dump a lot of heat into the system once you OC on Ryzen so might be different for an 8700K. That said I would just use the case. It's very nice and is quiet and you really don't see much internet chatter about real bad temps with it. So I wouldn't worry too much. You can set it up so the glass is on the right instead of the left but that wont change the airflow of the case. It's a high restriction case. Its the trade off for not sounding like a wind tunnel. Just make sure you keep the filters and mesh on the front,top, and bottom panels clean. Overall I still love the case. It's worth keeping even if you decide to switch to higher static pressure fans like I did. The only other complaints I would have about it is no USB type C on the front I/O wich is mind boggling considering the were foreword thinking enough to give it a Qi charger, and the fan hub wasn't recognized by my Gigabyte X370 Gaming K7 motherboard.
So In my I got top mounted a 420 rad and front 240 rad to cool an stinky I7 6600K and 1080ti, both non OCed, all stock. Mounted are all over SW3 fans, two 140s take in plus the two 120 in the front mount. The three 140 on the top rad take out the air. In idle all works fine the fans never come over 600rpms and i hit 28-30C water temp, depending on roomteperature. But while Gaming from newest ACO down to world of warships, Temps running Wild if the fans arent cranked up to max. Running that low, water can hit 50C easily. So for me the questions are, ist it the cancelling of the case itself that cuts all the silent thing? Cuase 100% SW3 are still loud. And can i achieve better Temps with other fans? Cause on 50c Watertemp, my GPU i.E. runs at nearly 68C and throttles. Its is silent though, but not cool as i hoped after installing an CLC... On 100% Fans its cool as fu..., but loud as hell. As it was before on Aircooling. Cooling my PC an water was literally the coolest thing i ever does and it looks stunning, it went quieter than any other built ever does... but its not not cool and dead silent at the same time as i hoped it would be -.- Whats wrong in my sys??
I'm also building a system on this case, and still waiting for some parts, but I think there's always a tradeoff between noise and cooling potential. You need good airflow through the radiators to make them effective, and this case doesn't really have enough cool air intake unless you open the front door of the case, or an effective way to vent the hot air from inside the case as there are no (large) vents on the top panel of the case. One 140mm fan on the back, some slots on top near the back, and the mesh around the edges of the case isn't enough imo. As an experiment, try taking off the top panel, then run the fans on a lower setting so the noise isn't too bad, see what the water temp (and GPU temp) does when you are gaming. Maybe that will take 10-15C off both temps. I only have a 360 x 120 x 45 radiator (with 3 fans) up top and the metal near the the front of the case looks like it will block a fair amount of airflow near that area. Maybe I can install some mesh ports on the top panel if that could vent enough of the hot air without becoming too noisy. It does kinda suck that you would need to do this though, and it has to look good too! I have a 280 x 140 x 45 radiator at the front as well which will run 4 140mm SW3 fans as push/pull, and I'm hoping they will be quiet enough and still give enough airflow (when the front door is open). I have a 6800K and a 1080Ti to cool (with waterblocks on both) so it is probably overkill unless I overclock the c**p out of both of them. Hopefully I can get 5.0Ghz and 2000Mhz without too much trouble.
BTW Thanks to josh885 for all the info you provided, its been really helpful, and I may end up trying the Noctua fans if the SW3's don't do enough to keep it cool. It is a great looking case and the others I looked at didn't seem to have the same build quality or they just cost way too much.
That's basically the case I was looking for. The only complaint I have: No USB3 Type C. Does anyone know if there is an option to upgrade the front panel to include a type C connector?
That would be a possibility but thats really less than ideal. After all thats a 200$ case. In my opinion at this price point is should really have the newest stuff in existance. Or at least should be upgradable to have the newest stuff without relying on what I would consider as workarounds.
Still a possibility to upgrade the frontpanel should be there. Everything in this case is a module, and coolermaster sells an upgrade for the mastercase series with which you can upgrade the frontpanel to include a type c connector. So why doesn't be quiet do it?
I get why BeQuiet has a solid front panel because of sound dampening, but does every fucking case need this? I miss the days of mesh front panels for better air flow. Forcing the air through even generously sized side vents comes at a cost to the cases thermal performance.
Hardly a sacrifice man, these vents are more than enough to compensate as this case is gigantic. I personally owned this since it first released and my case has been fine on thermals and still even silent under load. I would hardly say it's 'forcing' the air through
i just want a damn case that can rotate the motherboard tray (so the ports are up top), have ended up modding the crap out of a 750D (basically just that case cause i hate it and would love to rape it with my dremel for hours and i had it laying around). this way ive optimized air flow A LOT, made it support a double 140(280) rad in the back and a tripple 140(420) rad in the front with a straight airflow path (3 140 fans in the front, 2 in the back + the psu couts as an exhaust in the back so slightly positive but mostly well balanced airflow). i would not recommend this with an air cooler tho as the gpu is blocking the intake fans. all your cables are super easy to get to, doesnt need to pull out your computer to reach anything, just pop of a lil cover on the top. a really nice thing about this too is i realized i dont even need a front io at all except a power button (ant reset?) as all the rear io is now on top :P clean as heckley freckle
For those who have been looking for this case, it is available at www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-BGW13. I had to contact Be quiet!'s Facebook chat as none of the US retailers listed on their "Where to Buy" section of their website are carrying it yet (supposedly Amazon is supposed to have it soon). However, SuperBiiz does have it in stock at the moment.
I'd like to see a temp test of regular use of a case like this with holes all over vs taping off every hole to increase air pressure and direction. I like the air in my case to come in at the front and/or bottom and exit at the back and/or top since the heat wants to rise naturally. I feel like these cases built like vegetable strainers don't allow for air flow direction. I mean they work, but I feel like they could be better with less holes.
So I just built my Ryzen/1080ti PC and I'm coming from a dual-cores igpu laptop that laterally stutter when watching 1080p videos and barely plays normally @720p. I'm now watching this video @4k and MY GAWD WHAT A GLORIOUS HAIR 😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵
Article: www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3059-dark-base-pro-900-white-review-temperature-noise-benchmarks
Cosmos C700P initial review: th-cam.com/video/rVIPsxWwkCs/w-d-xo.html
Gamers Nexus pcpartpicker.com/b/8VFtt6 what do you think of my PC.
GN ... your GPU reviews and tear downs are top-notch ... I used your videos to help me put a Corsair H90 & Kraken G12 on my Zotac 1080Ti AMP Extreme card.
But I have to say this case review is underwhelming to say the least. As an owner of the black version of this I have quite a few things to say:
1) Why only test the inverted ? I Imagine most people will use it normally and not inverted like that.
2) Why only use the stock 3 fans that come with it ? Who buys 200+ cases and not add a more fans to improve airflow ?
3) I imagine this case to be for people wanting an elegant look while also keeping noise levels down and retaining functionality so why not do a watercooling build ? Show us what size(length&thickness) of radiators fit together in all the different locations. People who just want a good functional case for air should look to Fractal Design. They even have great case if noise is an issue for you. But what Fractal Design lacks and the be quiet 900 has is a certain elegance and it allows you to build a great looking system.
From my own personal use of the case here are my findings:
1) You can use a 480mm radiator in the top (I'm using the EK 480 SE) if you mount the fans in a pull config and remove the two horizontal brakets at the top (the ones you move up/down depending on where you want your motherboard tray to sit height related).
2) Regardless of using a 480 or a 420(this one you can install in push with no problems as there is enough of case length) I think this case does not have great airflow on the top. There is not a lot of air leaving trough the side vents. Most of the air is exhausted trough those slots at the top and back of the top panel. And that is after I used some more sound foam to 100% isolate the area where air is exhausted to so that hot air won't recirculate back into the case compartment.
3) The bad airflow on the top of the case is with fans mounted inside the frame and not the top of the frame which would completely kill any kind of airflow since the roof is a solid piece with no vents like most cases.
4) Despite the ability to mount 3 140mm fans as intake in the front only the two in the bottom will have a filter and the fan in the top also won't have too great airflow - they just didn't build the case too well for 3 fans in the front.
5) My 1080Ti has pretty bad coil whine regardless of the game I play but of course the worst is when playing games with very high frame rates (take World of Tanks for example). The case is quite incredible at eliminating 100% of that coil whine. Even if you open up the front panel for more airflow, the noise is still gone.
6) The case if pretty great for modding. There is quite a lot of space behind the HDD trays (which I'm not using - HDD's are outside the case under the desk) and instead I built a midplate that's in line(parallel ?) with the motherboard on which I've installed the EK 140mm reservoir and pass trough for the CPU watercooling PETG tubes. I've also installed a midplate parallel to the floor that's pretty much a PSU shroud without actually covering the PSU (its an Thermaltake RGB PSU) since I wanted it to be visible. I've done the same pass troughs for the radiator and the pump on it. All the tubing runs are in straight lines and are connected on the back with normal soft tubing.
My point is that this case allows for some very beautiful builds if you're willing to put in the work.
Hope you will do future case reviews with watercooling in mind. Both soft tubing and rigid tubing :)
... regardless, keep up the good work - Paul, from Romania :)
We are definitely not adding liquid cooling to case reviews. We already go above and beyond by running all the thermal and noise tests that we do on these. We would lose money -- a lot of it -- by adding open loop testing. These tests already take days. The goal is to test thermal and noise performance of the cases as they ship, then we sometimes do extra tests as well (taping off ventilation, opening panels, etc.). This is a lot of work and takes a few days. We expect users to be able to read this data and understand how it affects their own use cases, as you can look at the thermals and determine which case is objectively the best from our charts. As for CLCs, they perform too well -- the differences don't get exaggerated as much.
I'm sorry you found it underwhelming, but you also have to recognize when we do far more than most our peers in the thermal/noise department on cases. That is expensive in both time and money, and we use a standardized bench -- just like with GPUs -- to review cases. That means using the same parts so they are all comparable. You then must use your understanding of your build + our data to figure out what's best. There are infinite combinations. We're not going to start building every requested combination for case reviews.
I suppose you're right about actual watercooling builds. They would take too long and its not really what your channel is about. But I still think you should have a whole bunch of radiators on hand from 240 to 420/480mm with different thicknesses and just mount them without any tubing/water ... just the radiators themselves so that we know exactly what size fits where and in what combination (don't think it would take more than 1h to test what radiators fit starting with the largest ones first - if a 45mm 480rad its clear a 30mm one would fit as well ...etc).
Its badly needed since case manufacturers all say its fits ex: 420top and 420front .. but they don't say that they won't both fit at the same time (you get my ideea...).
Also .. how about adding 1080ti GPU's(about the hottest - worst case scenario for a GPU) in the testing for these case ? to see how much worse the temps are in the cases, both for the GPU and the other components. My Zotac 1080Ti used to get about 8-9*C warmer than what review sites said about it since most do open bench testing which is useless in real life usage, it was also louder by quite a bit.
Also, how about using a standardized type of Fan ? Say, Noctua only ? and fill all slots with fans ... tha way we could get a better picture if the cooling abilities of different cases ? Cause if you test 1 case with X fans and another case with Y fans then that's not much of a comparison ? :)
ive got the Darkbase pro 900 orange/black its an amazing case. its massive but amazing and the first time you take the kind of bag its wrapped in off your just in awe at how amazing it looks. It is definately quiet and the only thing thats annoying if my room is quiet is hearing the damn hard drives churning away and it is finger print magnet for sure.
one other downside is some of the screws were really small and tight in it i couldnt get them out when inverting but luckily the only one that was a sort of issue is the power supply one at the bottom so i couldnt flip the connector round to pull the PSU closer to the back but other than that is good.
Love still being able to pop back in time a few years and find such thorough review of something that's still around today. Thanks, Steve.
That "see through" imaging at 3:55 is awesome. Very nice touch.
Gotta give props for that rotating composite job. Really well done.
This is an amazing review. So much time went in to testing so many different things, and that is great.
I have the black and silver Dark Base Pro 900 RGB TG case and they never pit a boreder on the Tempered glass I had to do my own. Glad to see it remedied.
This is a great case. I'm building a new system in it shortly. Black, though. :)
I actually think this case has great value, considering you're saving $70+ on fans. I never use stock fans, like ever, but in this case it can't get much better. Silent Wings 3 is an awesome fan that certainly lives up to the name of the company. I've had 3 of them in a Fractal Define S for two years now, and they're dead quiet while also performing very well.
osgrov Such a nice feeling just spinning them by hand and seeing how long they turn, isn't it?
Great review and great looking case. Just received mine and can't wait to move all my components into it. Did the inversion in half an hour, it's quite easy to figure out. I also improved the front door closing issue by switching out the metal washers they used in the door with magnets so they make a better connection with the magnets in the front frame. Love the fading animations in this video.
The one thing I think BeQuiet messed up with this case is by making the White version a limited editiom. I'm on the hunt for a new case for a TR4 build in the near future and this is on my radar, except that if I can't get a white one (which is unlikely, esp considering I'm in NZ) then this case slips down the priority list.
Also: I'm heading to the written review now, but at least in the vid I was surprsed for no mention of watercooling options. For cases this size, I'd imagine that's more often than not the primary attractive. I know I'm hoping to fit a couple quads in whatever case I end up getting, for my best case scenarios
If you want to know more about watercooling options you should look up the numerous reviews for the black version of this case.
The cases are heading down to MightyApe though
I've seen a triple rad config in it with fans mounted to the outside of the rad. Top rad I don't think that it is worth going over 360mm, because you will only be heating your front I/O electronics. There is no actual place for ventilation there. At the front you can get another 360mm (I have a 280mm). at the bottom it depends on the length of your power supply if you can get a 280mm in there or just a single fan one. i can confirm that the case is very nice to build in due to its big size. Thanks to the back not being tempered glass I'd suggest to hide the cables there. It comes shipped with some brackets for water cooling solutions.
+Chris Kay
I'll keep an eye out. I expect them to be unsavoury priced for that reason, though.... But who knows, available in white does count several points =P
+Peter Pettigrew
Hmmmm.... I haven~t looked too deeply at this case specifically, because it's a bit further down my priority list, though it looked really nice at a first glance. Currently it's looking like I might end up wth a TT Tower 900, but that's depending on a quote from my local supplier. My current fallback is looking to be the Enthoo Primo, that one seems to be pretty solidly there, I've got few complaints.
Other interesting cases, on the huge side, seems to be Lian-Li's PC-V3000, shame it's a Lian-li and, as such, will end up costing about 60% extra for that fact alone. Also Zalman's X7 looks amazing, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere, so I'm not sure what's up with that... That is a case I'm in such love with that if I could get one, I'd downsize rads pretty much as much as I had to to build in it =P.
More recently EVGA's DG-87;85 cases looked to be not as terrible as I first thought, but they'd be pretty far down and as an AMD fanboy it'd feel weird to have a case from them. But EVGA does a terrible job of marketing those so I ended up discovering they're apparently not crap much by accident, really. Additionally, I didn't manage to find out the difference between 85 and 87. On the possible plus side, a local retailer had some of them piled up in stock and they were pretty annoyed, because they're huge, expensive and kinda ugly. So they seemed to be wanting pretty actively to get rid of them XD
love those animations around 3:57 !
That's clever camera work, they took 2 videos from the same angle one with the panels put on and one with panels removed and put them on top of each other with the opacity of the 1st video set to low. Looks pretty good and is really easy to do.
Bought this case the year it came out, and I still have not seen another case that would tempt me to replace it. It's just so sturdy, modular, and slick to look at.
I don't know how new they are, but I love the new animations for highlighting a result on the graphs, so slick
This looks like the case I may want to get as it has pretty much everything I am looking for in a new case. thank you for the review
Great video Steve. I recently brought the black version. Solid case for someone with lots of drives. You can order more drive cages for a total of 9 3.5in bays (at great expense)
I'm buying this case because I'm doing a white build and this is the only no-compromises case out there that is fully white inside and out.
Just got this in white. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Shouldn't this be called the light base pro instead of the dark base pro white version?
16:20 I'm actually surprised you never reviewed CM Storm Stryker or Storm Trooper over the years. Those were one of the best cases (imo) for their time period.
The transparent overly you are doing in post looks pretty cool.
Patiently waits on the Meshify C video you promised with the rest of your subscribers.
We just finished writing the review today.
I'll try not to break my F5 key.
Gamers Nexus I just wait for a meshify s... the define s is pretty much the perfect case for watercooling. It can easily fit 2 very big radiators while still being very small for what it can fit. I just want tempered glass and all that good new stuff.
Yup and it fits 140mm fans instead of 120mm. I love my Define S for it's cooling and room, and I'd love an upgraded version with more mesh, tempered glass, and dust filter up top.
I feel like I am almost solely relying on Steve to fight the good fight on cases. Not too many people talk about thermals and cases for people who like hard drives. Still waiting for a good water plus HDs case.
This may sound silly but have you guys ever considered doing tests/reviews of case fans to see the best options in terms of value or silence?
Why am I watching, this, I already bought the black & silver version last year and I love it
re-affirmation of a good purchase, I have the black and orange one. Pat on the back for us.
Imagine if Noctua released their industrial PPC case
Excellent review as always, thanks.
Been using this case for 2 years now with a AIO CPU cooler and dual air flow 1080 GTX's. Noise and thermals have been great. The case has so much functionality, whenever I have added or removed certain parts the case can always accompany it. Only downside is I'm thinking of going full custom water cooled and would rather have the full 360 rad in the front. I may go 360 in the top and 240 in the front so I can keep the case.
I own one of these and it’s great but there’s a few points Steve missed but this is probably the most important
Each of HDD trays are secured with 3 thumbscrews (2 bottom 1 top) and it’s almost impossible to stack 2 HDDs using right angle sata cables one bay on top of another due to the top thumbscrew of the tray below preventing a solid click in of the sata cable to the HDD, so to get round this I have a gap in which I've taken out 1 tray between each HDD.
Also not all mobos (I’m looking at you gigabyte) recognise the case’s fan control hub for pwm
I can confirm my Gigabyte X370 Gaming K7 does not recognize the DBP 900's fan controller. Though to be fair that MB has so many fan headers you don't need it anyway.
yup.. my Prime X370 Pro doesnt even recognize the fan controller.
This is true.
What do you mean by 'recognize'? I have this specific case (in dark/orange, tho), AND a Gigabyte Mobo (x299 ultra gaming specifically), I set the fan controller on one specific fan header with PWM mode -> works fine to control all the case fans at once based on one temperature probe.
I am not sure of you can control one specific fan attached to the case fan hub with any mobo.
"Help us out rectally" -Steve Burke (2017)
i really love the white version, unfortunately its an LE. Also it costs 270€ in my area wich is about 330$ if im correct. A bit pricey but hey, the black version looks slick too, but not as good as the white one would with the ASrock Taichi Mobo. Great Review GN!
If you are filling up those drive cages or if you plan to stuff lots of fans, radiators and liquid cooling parts - great. If the builder has very little to put in a big case, than a big case will just look bare/barren/desolate/vacuous.
I love GN's game optimisation guides and love racing games! Will you be doing a guide for Project CARS 2?
I'mEnergyEclipse it would be a perfect game for some experts optimisation guide hey?
Beautifully crafted
Why wasn't the DB/temp-ratio of the fan controller tested? - Liked that in some of the other tests you did
Dear Steve - Which is better? Normal orientation or inverted? I ask mainly because graphics cards - Do their coolers work properly when mounted the wrong way up in an inverted? is it better?
it works properly if there's enough air flow. my RX480 Nitro never reach 70C even on inverted mode. sure it should be better with normal orientation but ehh... not much different lah
Where can I buy this? Product page just takes me to Amazon with no results. I've been looking for all of today and yesterday. Is it because I live in Canada?
great video! Can you guys think about doing a video on your favorite pics for full tower cases both tempered glass and non tempered glass? If you could I would be greatly appreciative. Keep up the awesome videos!
3:34
whoa, fancy
It really looks like the Silverstone KL07 is a solid choice for both temperature and noise level. Not a single case can beat it in both cooling and sound.
Every time you add a case to the comparison, it becomes more and more obvious.
💯💯💯 Animated graph visuals 💯💯💯
I have this same case, except I have the black/silver one. Simply an outstanding case. I love it. But I did have one complaint about it. The back PSU plate on the case has the power switch to the right of the power plug connection (like on yours. I could see it in the video). On my build, I wanted to install a 140mm intake fan on the bottom, meaning I had to move the PSU closer to that backplate. But because of the position of the power switch it ended up interfering with the PSU position putting pressure on the backplate power switch terminals. I ended up accidentally snapping one of the terminals. Called BeQuiet and they immediately sent me a new backplate. But what surprised me is that BeQuiet also realized the issue and revised the backplate design, repositioning the power switch above the power cable connection instead of to the right of it, completely eliminating the issue. Now it doesn't matter how I position the PSU, no more clearance issues. I really can't fault this case and BeQuiet's customer service was simply outstanding. They not only dealt with the issue very quickly, but even went a little further to make sure this issue never happens again. Very happy with it.
Did you also request the 5.25" covers with mesh? The early models had covers without the mesh.
@cl4ster17 - No. Mine came with the meshed versions of the 5.25 covers. I did request a replacement front filter for the front fans though because after several years, filters can tend to get to a point of grottiness that they become very difficult to nearly impossible to clean and are literally impossible to get replacements for if they no longer make the filters (proprietary filter mechanisms) because they no longer make the case. And proper filter material on it's own is extremely difficult to source in the UK. Which has been an issue with other cases I've owned. So I took the precautionary step of requesting a spare front filter replacement, which BeQuiet generously provided. I was surprised that they didn't even charge me for it. I didn't care about the bottom filter though since that's hidden inside the case's underbelly, so I didn't request one of those. It was the front filter I wanted since that's the one that's exposed when you open the front door. Although the first time I requested the big front filter, they accidentally sent me x2 5.25 bay covers instead. Ended up having to make the front filter request again and they sent the correct one out to me. I offered to send the bay covers back to them but they told me I could keep them either way. I really can't fault BeQuiet's customer service. One of the best I've seen in a very long time. Like Corsair used to be before they got too big for their britches.
I like that this case didn't get coerced by the PSU Shroud Industry.... And, it comes in white. And-and, a whole row of drive cages!
2020 ya the rev2 got one and you can buy it for rev1 now... its 20 bucks and totally not worth it , it looks alright but it will test your sanity on every install
I know i'm a little late, but i got this case a few month ago, inverted it, put in an atx board, a dark rock pro and a 980ti strix + 1050ti zotac.
And here comes the baffling thing: if i remove the front panel, my gpu's get hotter while the cpu goes down. About 5 degree each under load. I really did not expect that!
Kind of sucks now having USB-C, but then again I only have my phone that needs that and seeing as this has a Qi charger built in I'm covered. Neat!
With regard to 'function focussed', the non-windowed version must surely be quieter with its damping foam. The windowed case is more expensive too, and price was repeatedly mentioned.
Thank you! About the last test (noise levels), would it be relevant to test in both idle and load modes?
Hi, does anyone know if the motherboard tray slides up independently from the back of the case (where rear exhaust fan is)...the reason for asking is I am fitting an XL-ATX mobo in the DB PRO 900 and looks like the i/o and stand offs don't match :(. All hardware sites say it supports XL-ATX but on the mobo tray where the info is stamped for mini ATX and ATX-E there is no mention XL-ATX. Any ideas?. Cheers !
8:05 You can rotate the PSU shield by 180° and push the PSU further back.
God bless you, Steave.
Great review. Wondering what other inverted cases are out there. Seem,s to be slim pickings...
Wait does the power supply have bad ventilation only when inverted or regular too?
I own and have built in one of these. P9x79 mb, 3930k cpu, xfx rx480 BE gtr, ek 3x140mm rad in push-pull using ek vardars on top and a black ice 140 gtr in push pull on the floor as intake. The front has the three supplied fans as intake.
The top case plastic cover think thst vents out the side does effect airflow a little, however cuts out noise a lot.
Same goes for the front door, although this isnt as much of a difference since the supplied be quite fans are not very noisy, even when flat out.
My only issues was the fan controller playing up but it sorted it self out a week after i completed installing my hardware, and one of the thumb nuts that holds the glass threaded somehow (still functions well enough)
Since my pump died, ive added 5mm neoprene foam in the bottom plastic cavity that has the side vents.
Fan filters work decently, easy to service. Would be nice if the two plastic thingos that cover front cd drive spots had finer mesh or the same material as the filters, on the back instead of thr courser mesh it has.
Its heavy, but you won't be buying this of you intend to go anywhere with it. You will only move it to vacuum under amd behind it.
Id recommended the case, seems to be well built. Have it in black and it looks cool as hell
Thanks Steve
hi man i love your videos keep up the good work. I cant seem to get ai suite working with my dark base pro 900 threadripper build :( any ideas or is it just buggy with zenith extreme
i don't even like white except as monochrome contrast highlights on black, but this looks pretty nice
NZXT H700i vs Be Quiet 900 pro rev.2?? What the best buy?
The white version appears to be sold out. Its limited run i over. I was going to buy it, but it is what it is.
Which one is better, this case of Cosmos C700P ? I want to use a 420 Rad at top and Front.
Does this work with the new ASUS Zenith Extreme? E-ATX board whixh is 277 mm?
Would you be able to use 120mm fans for the front of the case?
Have been hoping you'd review this case and add it to the charts! I just wish there was a version that included the solid dampened sidepanel of the non-pro version while retaining the awesome wireless charger on top. I contacted BQ and a couple retailers but it's not possible to do that without buying the 2 cases it seems.
Thats strange I contacted Bequiet a few months back and they sold me a second solid panel for like $20 shipped
Shit, really? I might have to ask again, maybe word it differently this time. Thanks very much!
Say you damaged your panel while it was off when you were working on the pc and want to buy a replacement haha
I just told them I preferred two solid panels over a glass one and they had no issues sending me another I dont know why they would tell you no.
Gamers Nexus
A little request. Is it possible to put the noise levels and temperature in the same graph (two numbers, sorted on one of both) or maybe use a degrees Kelvin per dB parameter or something like that? After all, those two relate, the higher the noise level is the better the cooling has got to be for the noise to be tolerable. One of both parameters doesn't really say that much, we don't want a case which keeps the temperatures low but is noisy and vice versa. Only when combined with the other parameter you get useful information. It is not a big thing but if you would at some moment start a new graph or consider rearranging some graphs then maybe you could think about it? There is plenty of room left in the graph on the side to put an extra number and even an extra bar.
This kind of topic might be nice for a video: best silence oriented cases for gamers (sufficient cooling).
Is this still a great case in 2018? Would appreciate if you guys can recommend some other options worth checking. FULL TOWER only recommendations, not looking for a mid tower :)
from the temps, it appears the front intakes are horrible choked by the front door?
Nice animations!
What is the mat that your using for the screws called?
Is it me or inverting thentop fans should be done too? This way GPU would be cooler, PSU would be colled easier due to air flow and positive pressure , and yeah. You know. Case positive pressure
Also if some1 is thinking of buying this case there is non PRO version which should cost prox. 30€/$ less. I have the non pro version but later I got the tempered glass. Overally I could not be happier about my choice, the only thing I completely hated was putting my PSU in it because one of my screws fell won into the case and it was difficult to remove it from there, not to mention I had to take the PSU out with all the screwes already screwed, but that´s just me beeing lame. Oh, also, I like the black/orange version much more than the white one, but it is just personal prefference.
Great case. People buying $800 GPU's and multiple harddrives and what not, yet a $200+ case is the straw that broke the camels back? We need more stuff like this. Make it worth the price and all will fall into place. Doesn't need to be a race to the bottom.
i mean, an enthoo luxe tg would also be a great case for the tepmered glass/larger/enthusiast case, but someone won't acknowledge the existence of phanteks.
I wanted to go the way you have it but everything is upside down, so I just changed the front door to open to the left. I have the black version BTW ;-)
I love this case :D
Can only find this case online in Germany wonder how much shipping is
I would recommend ANYBODY that wants to build a bigger custom loop in this case to stay away from it. It's VERY tight on the inside, not a lot of rad space (even though the manual says so) and cable management is a nightmare. If you have a bigger PSU then it will not fit under the motherboard tray (if you want/need to lower the tray because of top mounted rads. My PSU (Corsair 1500W) could not use the onboard power outlet, I had to remove the whole back part. The PSU cover is an issue, but not as big as the other things. It took me over 10 hours to install everything and do a soft tube loop in this case. It was the worst building experience I've had so I feel like I need to warn you. It looks sexy and its quiet, but thats about it.
chrmez Had a silent loop 280 top mounted with push configuration and a RM850i Psu in the bottom with no problems. What kind of rad did you use that gave you problems?
But thats not a big loop. The specs of the case with the rad space that fits in it, only applies when you have one of them. Try filling the case with the max rads on top, front and bottom. You won't be able to. Not even close. I have a 420mm on top and 360 in front. I could only make this work by switching out one of the 140mm fans for a 120mm fan and even then it is down to the millimeter that they fit. And then I'm forced to have in/out at the back, and the front rad has to have it at the bottom. I have to use my MB tray on the lowest setting but then it sits on top of the PSU so it doesn't reach the holes where u mount the MB tray. I had to hang it up with wires so it is actually not mounted to anything. Take a look at the Phanteks Primo, a similar sized case that fits WAY more rads in a much smarter way. The PSU is also hidden from sight. It's not as sexy as this one but sure is better for bigger loops. I have a photo of my case while building it - i.imgur.com/8iFXqBz.jpg
You can also see how it's not really possible to hava any rad in the bottom.
280mm on top should not cause any issues, but thats also not what I meant with a big loop. i.imgur.com/8iFXqBz.jpg
You can mount dual 420 rads but they need to be 30mm thin. www.be-quiet.net/forum/showthread.php?1763-Dark-Base-900-dual-420mm-radiators
Oh man I want this case! To replace my current S340 Elite Matte black edition. Can't find anyone near me that sells it though (Not enough money either, but I have a spare kidney)
Anyone know when this white edition case is coming out?
Hello. Are you going to review fractal's meshify c?
In my country there are only 100 of those, and not a small one, 40 million people.
Ps. the majority of PSU, have half of it fan clearance blocked, for directional air flow inside the PSU.
Okay stop the presses! That magnetic pad you used, that looks killer, I use magnetic trays all the time, but a magnetic pad that looks like you could label items for me would be phenomenally useful.
We like that one. It's the iFixit mat - they ran ads with us a while back and sent over a few of those. www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Magnetic-Project-Mat/IF145-167-4
Thank you I'm sold! I can see it easily organizing a disassembling project, and enabling me to put it back together with the right screws "which is more important".
I just ordered one. I have the iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit, so I'm aware of the quality of what the company sells.
white? i effin want it! :< damn, BQ.. damn you! it wasnt available when i bought this thing back then :
My Dark Base Pro 900 had my Dark power pro 1200W PSU over heating and shutting down due to the airflow problems you have pointed out. As well as the lack of air flow for the PSU the front SW3 fans are very weak. They have low air flow and low static pressure even at full speed meaning the front intake fans were not moving enough air past the mesh and door. It did not surprise me at all that you had such a temp reduction with the door open. The SW3 fans are just not strong enough for a high restriction case like the DBP 900. This was with 3 F3 vardar 120mm fans at full speed exhausting air out the top through a 360mm radiator and and SW3 as exhaust out the back as well as a fourth SW3 as intake in the front bottom position. Once I put in Noctua Industrial 140mm fans with much higher static pressure even at similar RPMs instead for intake all my over heating problems went away. They are barely audible when running them at 1200 rpm and at that speed they move noticeably more air into the case vs the SW3 fans at full speed.
Can the power supply be move/rotated and/or case inverted to fix that problem. I just bought this case and am considering returning it if I'm likely to have cooling problems. I have a i7-8700K / !080Ti / 360mm rad + fans ready to be installed. Do you have any more advice or photos of your setup?
Well first of all the problem only happened during heavy gaming or stress testing most of teh time even when gaming it was fine. I am also now not 100% sure the overheating PSU was the problem it may have been the VRMs which my motherboard has terrible heat sinks for and it's an X370/Ryzen setup which is known for hot VRMs with OCing. All I know is once I got better air flow in the case the problem went away. Something was overheating for sure I'm just not sure what. The VRMS+gpu dump a lot of heat into the system once you OC on Ryzen so might be different for an 8700K. That said I would just use the case. It's very nice and is quiet and you really don't see much internet chatter about real bad temps with it. So I wouldn't worry too much. You can set it up so the glass is on the right instead of the left but that wont change the airflow of the case. It's a high restriction case. Its the trade off for not sounding like a wind tunnel. Just make sure you keep the filters and mesh on the front,top, and bottom panels clean. Overall I still love the case. It's worth keeping even if you decide to switch to higher static pressure fans like I did. The only other complaints I would have about it is no USB type C on the front I/O wich is mind boggling considering the were foreword thinking enough to give it a Qi charger, and the fan hub wasn't recognized by my Gigabyte X370 Gaming K7 motherboard.
So In my I got top mounted a 420 rad and front 240 rad to cool an stinky I7 6600K and 1080ti, both non OCed, all stock.
Mounted are all over SW3 fans, two 140s take in plus the two 120 in the front mount. The three 140 on the top rad take out the air.
In idle all works fine the fans never come over 600rpms and i hit 28-30C water temp, depending on roomteperature.
But while Gaming from newest ACO down to world of warships, Temps running Wild if the fans arent cranked up to max.
Running that low, water can hit 50C easily. So for me the questions are, ist it the cancelling of the case itself that cuts all the silent thing?
Cuase 100% SW3 are still loud.
And can i achieve better Temps with other fans?
Cause on 50c Watertemp, my GPU i.E. runs at nearly 68C and throttles. Its is silent though, but not cool as i hoped after installing an CLC...
On 100% Fans its cool as fu..., but loud as hell. As it was before on Aircooling.
Cooling my PC an water was literally the coolest thing i ever does and it looks stunning, it went quieter than any other built ever does... but its not not cool and dead silent at the same time as i hoped it would be -.-
Whats wrong in my sys??
I'm also building a system on this case, and still waiting for some parts, but I think there's always a tradeoff between noise and cooling potential. You need good airflow through the radiators to make them effective, and this case doesn't really have enough cool air intake unless you open the front door of the case, or an effective way to vent the hot air from inside the case as there are no (large) vents on the top panel of the case. One 140mm fan on the back, some slots on top near the back, and the mesh around the edges of the case isn't enough imo. As an experiment, try taking off the top panel, then run the fans on a lower setting so the noise isn't too bad, see what the water temp (and GPU temp) does when you are gaming. Maybe that will take 10-15C off both temps.
I only have a 360 x 120 x 45 radiator (with 3 fans) up top and the metal near the the front of the case looks like it will block a fair amount of airflow near that area. Maybe I can install some mesh ports on the top panel if that could vent enough of the hot air without becoming too noisy. It does kinda suck that you would need to do this though, and it has to look good too! I have a 280 x 140 x 45 radiator at the front as well which will run 4 140mm SW3 fans as push/pull, and I'm hoping they will be quiet enough and still give enough airflow (when the front door is open). I have a 6800K and a 1080Ti to cool (with waterblocks on both) so it is probably overkill unless I overclock the c**p out of both of them. Hopefully I can get 5.0Ghz and 2000Mhz without too much trouble.
BTW Thanks to josh885 for all the info you provided, its been really helpful, and I may end up trying the Noctua fans if the SW3's don't do enough to keep it cool. It is a great looking case and the others I looked at didn't seem to have the same build quality or they just cost way too much.
does the mesh at the sides and top have dust filters?
no, but the side at the front of the case lead to the front fan and there is a filter there. As for the top it's meant to be an exhaust, so no dust :)
i think the phantek elite is the shit...but that pricetag is nuts.
8:44 did Tommy Bahama sneak into the studio?
That's basically the case I was looking for.
The only complaint I have: No USB3 Type C. Does anyone know if there is an option to upgrade the front panel to include a type C connector?
Melvin Klein you can buy external drive bay on Amazon with USB type c
That would be a possibility but thats really less than ideal. After all thats a 200$ case. In my opinion at this price point is should really have the newest stuff in existance. Or at least should be upgradable to have the newest stuff without relying on what I would consider as workarounds.
www.lian-li.com/en/products-chassis-accessories/#99/1/list
-> www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pw-ic01nh45/
as an example
Melvin Klein usb 3 type c isn't really that common, this case came out before it was even a thong really
Still a possibility to upgrade the frontpanel should be there.
Everything in this case is a module, and coolermaster sells an upgrade for the mastercase series with which you can upgrade the frontpanel to include a type c connector. So why doesn't be quiet do it?
I get why BeQuiet has a solid front panel because of sound dampening, but does every fucking case need this? I miss the days of mesh front panels for better air flow. Forcing the air through even generously sized side vents comes at a cost to the cases thermal performance.
Hardly a sacrifice man, these vents are more than enough to compensate as this case is gigantic. I personally owned this since it first released and my case has been fine on thermals and still even silent under load. I would hardly say it's 'forcing' the air through
Alex Cooper I have the cm MasterCase pro 5, she's a beauty and she gets the job done,. pcpartpicker.com/b/8VFtt6
Enjoy
Has anyone seen this for sale yet? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
i just want a damn case that can rotate the motherboard tray (so the ports are up top), have ended up modding the crap out of a 750D (basically just that case cause i hate it and would love to rape it with my dremel for hours and i had it laying around). this way ive optimized air flow A LOT, made it support a double 140(280) rad in the back and a tripple 140(420) rad in the front with a straight airflow path (3 140 fans in the front, 2 in the back + the psu couts as an exhaust in the back so slightly positive but mostly well balanced airflow). i would not recommend this with an air cooler tho as the gpu is blocking the intake fans. all your cables are super easy to get to, doesnt need to pull out your computer to reach anything, just pop of a lil cover on the top. a really nice thing about this too is i realized i dont even need a front io at all except a power button (ant reset?) as all the rear io is now on top :P clean as heckley freckle
Have you guys ever taken a look at Xigmatek's Elysium?
For those who have been looking for this case, it is available at www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-BGW13. I had to contact Be quiet!'s Facebook chat as none of the US retailers listed on their "Where to Buy" section of their website are carrying it yet (supposedly Amazon is supposed to have it soon). However, SuperBiiz does have it in stock at the moment.
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Tempered Glass!
I like filter vents at least for intakes. I prefer filters on everything though. That material here looks nice.
it's a nice case. But, you need to maintain the exterior regularly. they're fingerprint magnet!
7 drives + optane?
I'd like to see a temp test of regular use of a case like this with holes all over vs taping off every hole to increase air pressure and direction. I like the air in my case to come in at the front and/or bottom and exit at the back and/or top since the heat wants to rise naturally. I feel like these cases built like vegetable strainers don't allow for air flow direction. I mean they work, but I feel like they could be better with less holes.
Type-C USB on front of case? Plus, who needs so so so soooo many hard drive bays now-a-days?
Sparky Me. I need them :)
Plex..... these hard drive bays are amazing for it
each hard drive bay can be used for two SSD or you can simply remove them all one by one
I don't get it. I guess someone has a need for this case. I do like my be quiet! fans. Best I have ever used.
Full tower >mid tower
So I just built my Ryzen/1080ti PC and I'm coming from a dual-cores igpu laptop that laterally stutter when watching 1080p videos and barely plays normally @720p.
I'm now watching this video @4k and MY GAWD WHAT A GLORIOUS HAIR 😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵😵
Ali A no you didnt
OZproductions why are you accusing him/her of lying?
Still rocking this but my god the fucking 0 top exhaust ability is making it toasty with a gpu radiator for exhaust
do u think its worth getting the Rev 2 instead? its 75$ difference
@@Mewzyc Haven't tried the rev 2 but pretty sure the only thing it has above rev 1 is psu shroud, which I don't think is worth 70 but you can decide
It's not Shogan it's Shogoon ... *Triggered*
I don't get inversion. The upside down logos look bad to my OCD/ADHD mind.
Great thing this inversion is an option................