Today I’m looking at a bit of an older case from be quiet! As you may know be quiet! is well known for producing low noise power supplies, cases as well as quiet fans and coolers.
be quiet! has developed a very strong fan base in the PC enthusiast community and today we have one of the higher end cases the Dark Base 700. This is definitely a more premium case, priced is in the upper end of most mid tower cases at $200, and some can even find full towers for around this price, however there is a lot to offer here and isn’t the most expensive case out there.
Taking a look at the exterior it measures up at 21.4in/544mm x 9.4in/241mm x 20.4in/519mm which puts it in the upper sizes of mid tower cases. The case is made of mostly aluminum with some plastic and has a steel frame. The case is all black and weighs just under 30 pounds.
The front of the case is simple and sleek with a lack of handles, fan grills or flashy logos. It uses everyone’s favorite finish a brushed aluminum that is sure to attract hand prints, so be sure to keep a microfiber cloth for that and the side window.
The top panel is flat with the exception for these rear ventilation holes. it also features a square large power button a single USB 3.1 type-C port, two USB 3.0 ports, a fan control switch, RGB button, reset and headphone and microphone jacks.
For the rear you have the PSU shroud, the ability to mount your graphics card vertically, along with 7 PCIe slots on the rear to accommodate just about every motherboard you’d likely put in it.
As for the side panels you can see in the image slider the nice larger thumb screws it uses, as well as the thick tinted glass which looked quite nice and has a black lining to complete the look. This also nice because there is no rubber sticking out of the case awkwardly just on the glass itself, however on the other side you see a sound dampening mat to keep things as silent as possible.
removing the front panel we see a full dust cover that can be removed easily and can accommodate 3 140mm front fans, however on the front side be careful how you lift up the case as its not particularly secure to the frame. It’s best to lift from the bottom on the middle part of the case.
Opening the dust cover involves you pulling down on the tab from the top, which is easily missed. Also on the bottom the connector for the RGB lights are these pins which line up to the frame and sort of snap in. I can see these being prone to being bent so if your RGB seems a bit off this might be why.
