be quiet! Silent Base 800 Case Review

Promising “unique performance and usability,” the Silent Base 800 debuts the case line of power supply brand be quiet!

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

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Exterior Tour

A brushed finish on plastic doors resembles anodized aluminum under certain lighting conditions, while the remaining parts' fit and finish suggests that this model targets the enthusiast market's broad middle.

Ports are lined up along the right edge, near the front of the Silent Base 800’s plastic top panel. Enthusiasts who prefer desktop placement can drape their cables down the side, without blocking the doors. USB 3.0 (two ports) and 2.0 (two ports) are made available, along with headphone and microphone jacks. A lighted (when powered-on) power button and HDD activity LED finish the front-panel portion of the top.

A removable door covers three 5.25” drive bays, where the top (fourth) bay cover hides front-panel connectors. Removable hinges allow the door to be re-installed and hung from the right, if desired, while a foam panel inside the door potentially shields users from the noise of optical drives.

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Two 140mm intake fans rest behind a foam-dampened access panel and removable fan filter, while another filter slides in from the rear to cover the power supply inlet and a bottom-panel fan mount.

Around back, we find three ingress/egress holes for external liquid coolers or cables, in addition to the 120mm cooling fan and seven expansion slots. Both the top and bottom panels are extended far enough to hide fans mounted to the outside of the steel chassis. Given the proliferation of graphics card slots at the bottom of motherboards, an eighth expansion slot probably would have been more useful than a hollow base.

The extended top and bottom panels add about 5” to the Silent Base 800’s total height, allowing some sellers to advertise this as a full-tower enclosure, even though the chassis itself (the steel box) is only 17.75” tall. That's decidedly mid-tower. Today, it gets compared to something a little more like a full-tower, Corsair’s Graphite 760T.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dcunited
    Wait, stop. This thing looks exactly like the Fractal Design R4/ R5.
    Reply
  • PaulBags
    A shame it wasn't compared to the r5
    Reply
  • Shneiky
    I am a big be quiet! fan (no pun intended). Been using their power supplies for years and I am using their fans wherever I can. But what turns off from this case is the lack of cuts in the tray for attaching cables with zip-ties. This is a big miss from be quiet!. Wonder how they forgot about it. It is a vital point for descent cable management in the back.
    Reply
  • SinxarKnights
    Apparently this case is already out of stock on newegg.
    Reply
  • Anathemata
    Considering the Fractal Design R5 already beats out the 760T in my own experience, I don't know how this case can be competitive unless you are specifically looking for a case that has colored trim and a completely black interior (that you can't see, because no window).
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    Pros: ..... Full-Height

    That's a feature not a 'pro'.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Huh, as an R4 owner I don't see the similarities between that and this case. It looks pretty nice for the price, the only thing that would make it better would be a clear side window. Not a fan of the orange color though.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    15635311 said:
    Pros: ..... Full-Height

    That's a feature not a 'pro'.
    I don't think you understand how illogical many buyers are, that's why it says "combine the look and price of a full tower with the component space of a mid-tower" :)
    Reply
  • Calculatron
    A Noctua cooler in a Be Quiet! case? For shame! ;)
    Reply
  • synphul
    I think the whole point of the silent base was the sound dampening and while some people prefer windows it would defeat the purpose of a padded side panel for noise dampening. Not a bad review but why so late? Everyone else reviewed this case back in nov/dec 2014. This review is nearly 5mo later than the ones from techspot, techpowerup, hexus. I know sometimes reviews get held up but surprised the silent base 900 or something hasn't released already. Five months is a long time in this industry.
    Reply