The Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 ATX Case Review

Conclusion

Be Quiet! designed the Silent Base 600 to be a high quality, cost-effective case focused on low-noise operation. In terms of quality, the materials used are very good and the overall build is durable enough for a typical ATX tower case. The core chassis however seems to be more of a retrofitted old design rather than a modern case, with low clearances and few usability features. Modern gaming systems, especially those designed with low-noise operation in mind, often make use of liquid cooling solutions in order to achieve acceptable thermal performance levels. The Silent Base 600 is incompatible with a very large percentage of the currently available all-in-one coolers, as well as being incompatible with very tall air coolers. The designer did install holes for the use of large external liquid coolers, but such a cooler defeats the core purpose of the Silent Base 600 by transferring a major noise source outside of the case.

Even though the core design of the chassis seems is what it is, the design does deliver excellent noise insulation as promised. The Silent Base 600 has excellent sound-dampening capabilities and the stock cooling fans are barely audible even at their maximum speed. With its stock cooling fans down at their minimum speed and a quality low-noise CPU cooler, the Silent Base 600 should be more than capable of providing seamless and completely silent operation with a medium-power CPU and GPU installed. For advanced gaming systems, especially multi-GPU systems or systems with significantly overclocked components, the cooling system of the Silent Base 600 should definitely be upgraded. The installation of more fans or loud components in the Silent Base 600 will certainly make the overall system audible, yet the acoustic insulation of the case will in any case dampen that noise, resulting to comparatively better acoustic performance. In extreme circumstances, where the inability of installing large coolers/radiators becomes an important factor and forces the user to compensate with additional airflow, the noise output of the Silent Base 600 can match or even exceed that of more spacious cases with greatly superior thermal performance.

In summary, we discovered that the Be Quiet! Silent Base 600 practically is a remodeled older chassis that is heavily balanced towards low-noise operation. The thermal performance of the Silent Base 600 leaves much to be desired, but the acoustic performance is truly exceptional. However, in North America Be Quiet! is fighting an uphill battle against the competition when it comes to value. The Silent Base 600 is the first case that we have seen to this date that is more expensive in the US rather than in the EU, and it already is expensive in the EU. With a retail price of $127 at the time of this review, the Silent Base 600 is going to face very steep competition, as much more advanced cases are available near this price point.