be quiet! Silent Base 601 Review: Does Foam Work?

The be quiet! Silent Base 601 casts thermals aside in favor of pure acoustic focus, instead leveraging thick foam paneling and steel.

The be quiet! Silent Base 601 is priced at around $130, landing it in a highly competitive realm of cases. At this price-point, be quiet! has to prove itself in multiple categories. We look at build quality, cable management, thermals, acoustics, and ease-of-installation in our Silent Base 601 case review.

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Host, Test Lead: Steve Burke
Editorial, Testing: Patrick Lathan
Video: Keegan Gallick, Andrew Coleman, Josh Svoboda

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[GamersNexus]

We're streaming tonight at 7PM EST on 11/5.

[mrjspeed]

I love it when a case video is sponsored by another case.

[DeSinc]

god the case rocking back and forth with its back left leg hanging off the table was just great I loved every second of it

[YungPixel]

Really looking forward to that low rpm open case vs high rpm silent case video.

[ytb]

what you want to know is at 15:09

summary: the case has lots of thick foam and is built well. the foam works. it makes the pc quiet at the expense of additional heat. adding an additional fan at the front makes the heat manageable.

[jubuttib]

Apart from pure noise level, the noise quality is really important too, and the foam can, when done well, help with that immensely. When I added a foam + bitumen kit to my old Antec case I don't think the actual noise level went down by much, but it became a much less annoying "hum" than it used to be. Unfortunately the noise quality is very user specific and not easily quantifiable, so would be really hard for you to test terribly well.


Oh well, I'll carry on with my Define R5 with a total of 7 Noctua fans, if you count the CPU ones, running at about 5-6V. =)

[McMeowFace]

More fans doesn't necessarily mean more noise, it's a similar tradeoff as open vs closed flow cases - the noise doesn't scale linearly as more fans are added. Adding a third 140mm fan might reduce the overall noise if it means fans spin slower under load. Additionally, would love to see analysis if high static pressure fans work better for cases with restricted flow front panels.

[WasabiNoise]

This is the best review on the internet. I have a home studio and I make music, record YT videos, and want a really silent case. But based on some experiments I made with other PCs and by positioning fans inside the case, I always realized that air flowing from bottom to top is better. That's why I struck me that this case has that PSU case at the bottom. Anyway, I'll keep looking. I see I'm the right channel :)

[TillBaum]

I really would like to see the same tests with an additional front fan installed. No one will use this case in stock configuration (at least i believe).

[excalibur]

Happy owner of not one, but two DarkBase 900s. Exceptional build quality, good features, nice design, and good noise suppression. I run the fans of a NH-D15 aggressively towards max and could go to sleep with greatly reduced noise. Of course the foam works. Goes without saying.

[shukterhousejive]

For the next case review I'd love to see the ratio between cooling and noise for the cases

[jessett]

The silent base 600 windowed black is still one of the most beautiful cases out there

[Pushing_Pixels]

It would've been great to see some results with 1 extra front fan. I'm pretty sure most people considering this case would be looking to add that extra fan.

[G.W._Cook]

One test that would be interesting to see is if covering as much of openings that aren't facing the fans has any impact on thermals. The goal would be to avoid recirculating internal air with the fans as much as possible, and suck in as much air from the outside as possible.

[tonkatoytruck]

Tempered glass is actually a very good insulator. Quieter than that steel panel with foam on it. And adding fans does not necessarily mean that it raises sound levels. More fans can move the same amount of air at lower speeds, actually lowering sound levels. I love my be quiet! 120mm Silent Wings 3 PWM fans. Much quieter than the Corsair and Cooler Master fans that the case and AIO came with.

[EposVox]

Man I'm pretty sold on this for my next case, but I don't plan on using water-cooling in it, just lots of quality quiet fans.
But the Silent Base 600 supports 5.25" drives, which I do use, but also doesn't fit my current motherboard most likely. HRMMMM
or I could just get another Fractal Define XL R2 lol

[iviaverick]

The question about silent cases with poor airflow, vs high airflow cases with low RPM fans is exactly the question I've been looking for for years now that no one seems to really want to answer. Really looking forward to that (hopefully before I buy my next case before Christmas).

[DJ_kbab]

Making the Window and Windowless version the same is probably simpler and cheaper in manufacturing

[voxelfusion]

Vertical GPU mount with a solid side panel.

German engineering at it's finest.
Edit: Or this may be their german sense of humor.

[Alexl]

Any plans about reviewing Silent Base 801? It's bigger and includes 3 fans, so maybe it will have better airflow.
Or at least would be interesting to see this case with 3 fans and/or different fans.