Contents
Measurement
The measured fan speed indeed is 1000 RPM for the 14cm fan and 1200 RPM for the 12cm one. With regulator set to medium speed the number of revolutions decreases to aprox. 820/930, and with the lowest setting the speed falls to just about 520 RPM for both. With 39.0 dBA ambient noise, the case with only fans on reaches noise level of 39.3 at low, 39.8 at medium and 41.1 dBA at full speed. With also my ball-bearing 15k enterprise hard drive the noise increases to 39.8, 40.2 and 41.1 dBA which is still quite reasonable. (The drive itself produces noise of 40.3 dBA outside the case). According to my subjective perception, the low and medium fan speed is just fine, the high speed however already makes them audible so it is nothing for silence-philes. The test equipment is the usual as for power supplies.
Conclusion
So how does the Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 stand against its midi-tower competitors? I think quite good, which may come little as a surprise (compared to their power supplies anyway). I mean, the quality of most Be Quiet! products is good, but the price is often a concern, at least outside Germany. There is no change with this enclosure which is still more expensive than many of the competing ones. But the Pure Base 600 is packed with features so – as long as you have some use for them – it makes sense to pay more. You pay more, you get more, I think this is how the natural order of things is, or at least used to be. But the difference is not really huge this time, especially when the Pure Base 600 series is pretty much the lowest model of Be Quiet!’s offering at this moment so they simply can not ask much of a fortune for it. Though I expect them to launch some “System Case” soon to compete in what Be Quiet! calls entry-level market (lower mainstream for most of the folks). Compared to the SilentiumPC Aquarius M60W which we found quite good, the difference in price is less than 30 %, on czech market at least, which I find still reasonable.
For such money you get a case of more of the ordinary configuration with no solid barrier in the bottom part, between motherboard and PSU/hard drives. That means that you may have to somewhat reconfigure the disk caddies in case you use long graphics card, on the other hand you acquire more hard drive positions in total. Such case is also more versatile with PSU positioning – you can turn the unit around, which is especially necessary for fanless models (which you just can not use with most of the enclosures with two independent compartments). But the greatest advantage of all is the presence of noise-dampening material and also the fact that the basic (Black) variant comes with no window. If you really need that, you can select a variant with side panel window as well as some with different color. Way too many manufacturers do not offer cases without windows at all these days, including SilentiumPC. So for me, this is definitelly a plus.
What may disappoint some is the lack of bottom fan, I would kinda expect at least a vacant fan position from case of such price. You also only get two fans with the case which are also not so silent on their stock speed. But there is the three-position fan speed controller embedded in the Pure Base 600 so you can easily lower their speed (and noise), plus their overall quality is good. But again, a small disappointment, there are up to 6 fan positions but only four connectors coming of the speed controller. There are some minor things which would bug me (though I am not sure if these would also bug the majority of users), like all the perforations or perforated slot covers on the back side. I also do not consider the front panel mesh so much of a dust filter so there is only a single proper fan filter in the Pure Base 600. Even than, they are still outweighted by small extras (like all the holders and tie points for cabling, or thumbscrews). It is not the most solid case I have seen, but still above average, together with all the already mentioned feature, I think the Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 Black is more than deserving of our bronze award!
 Pros |
+ 5.25″ positions + many configurable hard drive positions + two decent quality fans pre-installed, speed controller + easy to remove PSU dust filter + thumbscrews in side panels and accessories + reasonably sturdy + no window in basic variant (windowed versions available) + noise-dampening material + nice front I/O panel mounting solution + bottom-mounted power supply + three-year warranty |
 Cons |
− no tool-less drive installation − vacant top fan positions − no bottom fan position |
 Be aware of… |
/?\ kinda crude front dust “filters” /?\ combined 2.5″ and 3.5″ caddies |
Thanks
I thank the Listan company for providing the Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 Black case.
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