Gadgetory

for roughly 120 USD there's quite a lot to choose from the case Department aleem the PCO 11 dynamic case that I really loved the NZXT s340 elite the Kula Master H 500 it's a crowded field perhaps the case most similar to the silent base 601 from be quiet that I'm showing right here is the fractal design to find r6 I won't actively compare it in this review but I do want you to keep it in the back of your mind because it's another case that's very similarly price actually similar in terms of its dimensions but it offers a very different set of features you can watch this video right here for a refresher both cases again take vastly different approaches in both form and function and with one big exception the silent base 601 actually nails it the name suggests a silent profile and it's literally in the name of the case so much of my review will revolve around this claim the 601 is an elongated mid tower with seven PCI slots two vertical slots for optional mounting and support for an array of hard drives tore to the front this model is black and orange that you can buy this in black and gray or black with black trim so you'll find the orange trim over the front intake in this case of the grilles as well as the rubber grommets I love seeing subtle differences in color options and again if you want a fan of orange you can buy the gray or black trim models starting with overall stance and support the 601 fits all the way up to e ATX motherboards if you're willing to remove these drive covers there is no intention toward the front as with some other cases for extra cable management headroom but you aren't likely to miss it anyway seeing as though the entire right side of this case protrudes an entire three or so centimeters actually about an inch and maybe a quarter behind the motherboard tray that means that you'll have extra space back here for remaining cables hard drives and anything else you want to really fit back on the right side so under almost any circumstance I can imagine securing the right panel is pretty easy speaking of which how does that work so the sound base 6:01 deploys a pair of trigger release buttons toward the back that unlatch both the right and left panels in identical fashion this is a very simple solution similar in design to the NZXT h 700 right panel latch and it works very well in this case and another thing at least in my case no pun intended pushing the button doesn't mean that the panel falls over and slams on to your desk it's actually held firmly in place until intentionally removed from the grooves at the base of the chassis so no one wanted destruction there so great construction and implementation I actually think that this might be slightly over engineered although it is beautifully constructed I'm not trying to stereotype German design but it could probably be a little simpler I'm not gonna complain though because it works really well as is but speaking of these panels you can see how beefy they are there's like little ventilation slits up top although they don't look very functional you can see the glass itself is actually slightly tinted I'm happy about it you'll actually be able to see inside your case if you choose the window version of the 601 which means that your gonna have to light it up with LEDs if you really want to see through a dark tint in any other case again no it's a really thick panel it's not necessary especially this stuff up top but it's very sturdy and I mean that kind of fits into the price tag right you're really paying for quality and this reliable construction here I really like the way it looks the right panel has no glass but instead sports super thick damping mat at 10 millimeters it's actually one of the thickest I've ever seen in a case and extends to both the top and front of the case as well if you opt for the non windowed version you'll also have this mat on the left side so this plays a huge part in keeping things quiet inside and when paired with the right mix of hardware results in a super stealthy profile overall hearing anything from inside this case would be a major pain because you'd have to really try hard to hear anything I'm serious even with the glass panel version that I have here it's a very silent case even when things are under full load I'm not talking about this specific build here Oh visas for water cooling but any bill that you have in here even when you run fans at full rpm which we'll talk about later it's just it's an overall very silent case and that's again what you're paying for right silence in the name you expect it to be silent and I was blown away by just how suppressed everything was from a noise standpoint in this case now an important point to keep in mind though about the non windowed version is that it will be quieter with that extra mat on the Left panel tempered glass is pretty terrible in general it's sound damping so if you're into buying silent basic so one for it's a low audio profile make sure you forgo the tempered glass version the top of the case is pretty bare saved this removable radiator and fan bracket it doesn't require any screws to remove which is actually really nice and it spans the entire top section of the case for a full triple fan support though you may want to shy away from using this all together and we'll talk about why later in the video so the back of the case is pretty standard or removable PSU bracket supports the rear PSU mounting that we've seen on many cases to date though this one is a very tight fit with certain power supplies including the one I have in here from enter max a large dust filter spans the entire base of the case by the way and can be removed from the front if you're worried about cleaning anything that your power supply might pull through it vertical graphics card mounting is supported like I said earlier but it places the card right against the glass so if you don't plan water cooling I'd stay away from this for now maybe include like a third party a vertical kit that can be you know used as a replacement for the horizontal brackets but this thing back here is no good for air cooled cards in my opinion and I mean to be honest it's not like you get a riser cable or bracket anyway with the purchase of the case now I really love the basement inclusion in 601 I'm glad that be quiet has actually caught on to the basement craze it was something that we saw in the dark base 700 and I really like the aesthetic what they've done here by kind of indenting the be quiet logo on the bottom it's very subtle but you know it to be quiet case when you see it not only because of the orange accents but because again of this logo which isn't gonna stand out from a crowd but if you're really looking forward trying to figure out who designs the case then there you go it's actually one of only two I think locations where you'll find that the name of the company manufacturing the case is here on the side of the power supply and up front now the basement is slightly modular referring to the two removable pieces toward the front one provides access for a 360 mm meter radiator or something similar that's a change from the original silent base 600 of which this case is kind of like the I guess younger brother and the other acts as an optional fan mount for added ventilation from below if you're really into that sort of thing though I'm sure you could probably turn this into a makeshift pump res mount or something like that with a few added little tweaks to it with respect to custom water cooling though there appears to be ample room I'll actually be throwing a custom move build into this case soon which is why you're seeing all these custom live gear in here - the tubing and the reservoir and the pump so I'll be able to speak more to that application in the future but for now it looks like there's ample room there's plenty of space between the motherboard the edge of an ATX motherboard and where the radiator sits currently and that's where originally all the hard drive trays would go so you are foregoing that aspect of the case when you choose to throw a custom loop in here though I mean most people I know aren't filling their cases with tons of hard drives so it's a nice addition for those who really need it but the modularity this case keeps it at bay if you aren't interested in filling it with hard drives you can turn this into a very water cooling friendly case I'm almost certain of it just sing from the stuff that I've thrown in here how easy it is to arrange it all I was a little disappointed though that the front radiator cut out is about five millimeters too short for a 60 mil thick rats if you get a really beefy rat it's not gonna fit in this case because that indention actually narrows into that next removable panel and that makes it too narrow for a standard you know form-factor radiator so you're only gonna fit up to maybe 40 mil thick rads in here 60s again are not gonna fit just by a hair or two I wish they would have made it just a little larger and then putting a beefy right up front would really that would have been awesome I actually had one I wanted to use couldn't use it because again that's small difference between the size of the cutout and the thickness of the rat now I touched on this earlier but I want to quickly dig into the right side of the case with the three or so centimeters you won't have trouble routing cables or even using extensions tie points litter the tray and be quite includes velcro straps in the box to keep things nice and clean you can mount up to two hard drives by default or the front the entire cage is removable and the orange rubber vibration mounts are a welcomed addition as the case is very long from front to back you'll find more than enough room for a really thick power supply even with the large extended ones you can find plenty of space for remaining cables and extra things like extensions or you know you can like tape SSDs down here if you really want case in point there's a lot of space at the bottom because the case is so long or depth-wise thick that's what's the dimension I'm looking for anyway it's longer than normal a removable SSD tray sits behind the motherboard tray and serves as an excellent use of otherwise wasted space this is not new by any means it's what we've seen quite a bit from fractal design cases in the past but I really like the inclusion I don't mind copying at all on anything direct design came up with the idea but it works really well in this case because otherwise you're gonna have to mount SSDs into the hard drive trays below and if you have two hard drives already you're gonna have to add something up top or tape it to somewhere else in the case so having that extra little bracket there behind the motherboard is actually a really nice inclusion given all the other support this case already has but at this point I have to point out the one to compromise for this case if you can already tell that's air flow so the entire chassis is actually closed off and that's part of the reason why it's so quiet not only thanks to the sound damping mats but also because it is literally a shell that has very few access points to the atmosphere I mean the reason why I told you to avoid the top fan rad bracket whatever you wanna call it earlier is because the potential for airflow either in or out of the case up here is super limited so just looking up into the case now you see the sound damping pad it spans the entire top section the whole ceiling if you will of this case there are few tiny slits back here at the rear these will work kind of but only for the rear fan so if you place let's say two fans one here and one toward the front this one over here is either gonna be pushing air into a sound damping pad which does nothing it's gonna make your system sound louder and that's about it or it's gonna try to pull air from a sound damping pad at which point why do you even have the fan there to begin with so I'd like this I like the bracket itself but I think that the design choice especially given how restrictive airflow is with the top section of this case it's just a little confusing to me because this would've worked great if they had like a mesh top panel or something that had just a little more breathing room but this is entirely closed off again attributed to the silent factor of the case but then it hinders airflow and then if your system gets a louder because components are running hotter then it's not a silent anymore and doesn't that defeat the purpose the front panel is arguably worse from this perspective the tiny metal holes up front are already restrictive enough but the air must then turn get this 90 degrees inward and then 90 degrees back toward the cases rear at which point passes through a dust filter that's more resistance before hitting the fan blades assuming you have a couple fans up front this creates a strong negative pressure zone between the front panel and chassis as exhibited here I tied a few thin strips of paper to one of the included peer wings two fans there are two by the way included with this case and mapped airflow patterns with the front panel off versus on what you're seeing here is the fan operating at max rpm with the panel on this is what it looks like with the front panel off I'll put it back and forth a few times just so you can see there's a huge difference here and it's something to strongly consider when buying this case and that's ultimately where I struggle with the entire point of this chassis like I think it looks really good I love the silent aspect of it but it's really limiting itself in terms of who would buy this because for overclocking enthusiasts or just people who have you know hot components they even r9 390 or 290 or to 90 X you know that things are gonna run really hot right so you want as optimal air flow as possible you're not gonna get that from the front you're not gonna get that from the top you're not gonna get that from the left side panel unless you turn this thing to an intake at which point I mean you and then I'm gonna question how you're gonna get the air out of your case this it's just so closed off in here you're not gonna have a good time with those you know toasty components so overclockers definitely want to be weary of this one so I guess this is supposed to be silent and it certainly is but only up to a certain point right where temperatures inside heat up Hardware past a certain point then those fan cards need to be ramped up meaning the entire build would effectively operate louder as a result making this build not silent anymore right so from an overclocking enthusiast perspective in my opinion this is a no-go plain and simple the you know systems just gonna get way too hot you're gonna be starved for air and it's gonna run pretty loud the top panel actually inhibits natural radiation upward by the way because there's minimal ventilation up top so it's just I'm just questioning why they didn't put some kind of mesh material up here I know they wanted to keep it quiet but it's really hard to go for a very silent oriented chassis without compromising on airflow capabilities because in order to have you know airflow maximized you have to have kind of like a very thin membrane right between the interior of the chassis and the atmosphere that means that any component inside your system running pretty loud will be heard by people around the case and then it's no longer silent so they definitely are trade-offs but at which you know at what point do you end up sacrificing so much airflow that your system becomes so much hotter as a result that it's just as loud as it would have been before and that's what I'm struggling with this case I'm not sure yet I have to run more tests but for now I can say for certain this front panel is extremely restrictive when it comes to air flow and that the top certainly doesn't help anything by the way I did include an extra sign that links three fan with this build the two fans that you get included with the case are pure wings two fans and they're still pretty good but these stay really silent so that's why I threw one in here it's gonna probably have to work overtime to get whatever heat is in here out of the system so that's why I threw back there I move the two peer wings two fans up front and that's what I recommend you do as well you're gonna want to pull as much air as you possibly can through this restrictive front panel so my conclusion for this case is this if you're running a low profile setup don't plan on overclocking maybe have relatively quiet hardware maybe be quiet or knock to a fans coolers and a large graphics card with plenty of cooling potential then you're fine your system will run several degrees hotter depending on your configuration over that up like an airflow optimized case but you'll still be able to keep the noise level down under load at the expense of slightly higher thermals now if you're overclocking running an r9 290x let's say sticking with a two-two chassis fan default setup whatever overclock your cpu to five gigahertz the thing is we get hot loud and at that point I would question the viability of buying a silent case to begin with anyway so it really depends on who's in the market for what I can certainly see a use case for this case but it isn't for everyone we'll see how well a custom loop holds up in it in the coming weeks if you guys like this video thumbs up you know what to do thumbs down for the opposite let me know what you think about the case in the comment section below and I'll catch you in the next video this is science studio thanks for learning with us