be quiet! Silent Base 601 Case Review

Another year since we have seen a case from be quiet! and we have the functional and stylish Silent Base 601 review for you to tuck into. be quiet! avoids the RGB crowd and focuses on the natural ability to wow. The biggest features on offer include a tempered glass side panel and superb noise dampening in the vents which as a result, is something we’ve come to expect from a product aimed at silence.

Let’s take a look at the specifications and then deep dive right into the Silent Base 601 itself.

be quiet! Silent Base 601 Specifications

be quiet! Silent Base 601 Closer Look

Starting with the design of the Silent Base 601, the model we have been sent has orange accents around the front panel vents. The Silent Base 601 is also available in all-black, but we love orange here at Play3r. This new model takes shades from other cases in their range including the be quiet! Dark Base 700 we reviewed last time out.

The Silent Base 601 has a tempered glass side panel with a smooth plastic front which looks stylish, rugged and sets the standard for be quiet!’s base look.

To make a point, the Silent Base 601 is slightly larger in size than the Silent Base 600 model. The case has a depth of 240mm with a height of 514mm and an overall length of 532. This makes the Silent Base 601 which is a great size for a desktop PC, especially if you’re planning on using multiple graphics cards.

On the front of the case at the top is the front panel I/O which includes two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, front panel audio, a fan controller, a reset switch and a power button.

The front panel has the be quiet! logo at the bottom and surrounding this are two vents to provide airflow to the internal chamber. On this model, this is where the orange accents make the case stand out visually, but this case is available in all-black.

At the rear, we have one of two preinstalled Pure Wings 2 140mm case fans which are optimised for high airflow for better cooling capabilities. The Silent Base 601 has a total of 7 PCI blanking plates and an additional 2 for mounting graphics cards vertically. There’s room for an ATX sized power supply and a space for the motherboards rear I/O. Right at the top on either side of the case, there’s a switch which when pressed releases the side panels.

Internally there’s plenty of space for anyone looking to build a high-performance desktop system, whether the purpose is gaming or for more professional reasons. The main centrepiece is the full cover PSU shroud which is handy for hiding garish looking power supplies. Around the PSU area is ventilation for the power supply to breathe and to the right is the other 140mm Pure Wings 2 fan that is preinstalled into the front.

The Silent Base 601 has space for E-ATX motherboards and can also accommodate boards as small as mini-ITX. Inside are orange rubber grommets to help with cable management and there’s a cut out in the motherboard tray which has space to mount up to two 2.5″ SSDs. The HDD bays are accessible in the rear and side at the front underneath the PSU shroud. You can mount more HDD bays into the case with additional HDD cages. Even the largest graphics cards can be installed as the Silent Base 601 has ample wiggle room due to the option to use the HDD bays being left up to you.

be quiet! Silent Base 601: The Build

We installed one of our test benches into the case to showcase what a full system using the Silent Base 601 could look like. Here is a list of the hardware used:

• CPU – AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
• Motherboard – ASRock X470 Taichi
• GPU – ASUS ROG GTX 1060 STRIX 6GB
• Cooler – Cooler Master ML240R 240mm
• RAM – Ballistix Elite 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
• Sound – ASUS Essense STXII 7.1
• PSU – be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1000W

We had no issues building inside the Silent Base 601 and as a result of ample cable management, all the excess cables were easily hidden within the PSU shroud. Even with our test system and without HDD bays installed, the case does look quite bare. We installed the 240mm AIO in the front of the case and when using the case for a few weeks, it was notable that the noise was significantly lower than when not installed into this case.

This is a significant consequence of having thick noise dampening into the rear side panel, but it does nothing for the tempered glass panel and if any noise is going to escape, it’s going to be here.

The be quiet! Silent Base 601 Review: The Verdict

The be quiet! Silent Base 601 sits at £105 currently at Amazon UK and $139 at Amazon US. This is a fair price for a midi tower case of this calibre, but let me explain why!

What’s hot:

• Solid design – It shows you don’t need RGB to look good
• Great build construction overall
• Sound dampening materials actually do work
• Plenty of internal space and compatibility with E-ATX motherboards
• Supports horizontally and vertically mounted GPUs (riser cable not supplied)
• Is priced competitively against other brands offerings

What’s not:

• Would be better with more than 1 fan installed into the front as standard – Other brands include 3+ fans RGB fans with a cheaper price tag

With a case like the be quiet! Silent Base 601, you can expect that it’s geared more towards function over fashion. Its main appeal is in the specifications and the lack of RGB, which in reality is a good thing. It gives people that don’t want RGB a solid quality option as let’s face it, not EVERYONE wants their PC to look like a tarts handbag with rainbow LEDs.

There are no optical drive bays because CDs suck and we live in 2019, and the optional hard drive bays is something I really like. You can build a cool running air cooled system or a beasty gaming system with pro components with this case, it’s very versatile. As a result of the design, you can install up to a 360mm or 280mm radiator in the front and up to a 360mm radiator in the top. There’s plenty of support for water coolers and enthusiasts.

All in all, the Silent Base 601 at £105 at Amazon is a great price for a great case. From the side panel release mechanisms, the tempered glass window, oodles of sound deadening in the panels and a classy looking PSU shroud, I really like this case. I believe it deserves our gold award. If you’re looking for a solid case without RGB and you actually care about the noise of your system, then this is one of the best mid-tower cases from the company who actually cares about noise, be quiet!

Thanks to be quiet! for sending a sample of the Silent Base 601 in for review.

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