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Noise Levels
True to the company name, Be Quiet’s Light Base 600 LX very noisy even at maximum fan speeds – at least not compared to other cases on the market. The maximum noise level is only 41.9 dBA, which is significantly quieter than most other cases I’ve tested.
Remember, the impact of noise levels is logarithmic, so depending on your sensitivity, a few dBA of difference can make a major difference.
Maximum Thermal Load – CPU Results
For this first test, I removed power limits from the Intel i9-14900K CPU and ran Cinebench R23 while also running Furmark 2 on the Radeon RX 7900 GRE GPU. This causes total system power consumption to reach around 600W.
This should be considered a “maximum performance” or “worst-case” scenario.
During this test, where both the GPU and CPU are pumping heat into the case, the CPU consumed an average of 245.6 Watts. I was a little disappointed with this result. While it isn’t the worst in terms of maximum cooling performance, it’s near the bottom of our charts.
Maximum Thermal Load – GPU Temperature Results
There’s no way to sugarcoat the poor showing of GPU thermal results here. While they’re certainly acceptable temperatures, and won’t cause throttling in real-world performance, our GPU ran hotter than any other pre-configured case that I’ve tested.
Maximum Thermal Load – Noise Normalized
For this next test, I’ve set the system fans to run at 40.3 dBA on cases with PWM control. I’ve also normalized the output of Akasa’s Soho H4 Plus cooler, setting it to 76% - 40.9 dBA from one meter away.
You can consider this a measure of the case’s efficiency when set to low noise levels. Usually this is an area that Be Quiet’s products excel in. However, these results were also disappointing – the second-worst I’ve recorded yet.
Intense Gaming Thermal Load
Lastly, I tested the cooling with a moderately intensive gaming workload. I set the Intel i9-14900K CPU’s power consumption to 150W while running a full load on a Radeon RX 7900GRE GPU, which consumes approximately 276W. This is similar to the peak power consumption that I’ve experienced with these components when playing Ubisoft’s Far Cry V – so this test should be slightly more stressful than what you’d actually see while playing that game.
GPU temperatures were again at the bottom of our chart here, reaching 67 degrees Celsius after ten minutes. The CPU’s temperatures weren’t quite as bad, but they were still unimpressive – especially when you consider the system fans are noise normalized, so the competitors I’ve tested this case against don’t have an advantage from running at louder noise levels.
Conclusion
I wanted to like Be Quiet’s Light Base 600, as it has a genuinely nice aesthetic design paired with the somewhat unique feature of having three different layout options. However, the thermal performance of this case wasn’t impressive – actually amongst the worst I’ve tested so far – and I find that hard to accept from a case that typically costs $184. However, the build quality is superb and the case really does have a nice look to it – so this case might be of interest to you if you’re not overclocking and just want a good-looking, high-quality customizable home for your components.
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