be quiet! Dark Base 700, BGW23, Midi Tower ATX, 2 Pre-Installed Fans review

be quiet! Dark Base 700, BGW23, Midi Tower ATX, 2 Pre-Installed Fans review

be quiet! Dark Base 700, BGW23, Midi Tower ATX, 2 Pre-Installed Fans review

FOR
Good thermal performance
Great looking chassis
Embedded lighting
Tempered-glass side panel
Low noise
Excellent filtration system

AGAINST
Price
Only two 140mm fans (three would be ideal at this price).

Highlights at a glance

The be quiet! Dark Base 700 midi-tower case offers unrivaled flexibility with impeccable cooling and silence features
Motherboard tray and HDD slots with enhanced possibilities for individual requirements
Two be quiet! SilentWings 3 140mm PWM fans
4-step dual-rail fan controller is switchable between Silence and Performance modes
Ready for radiators up to 360mm
PSU shroud, ingenious cable routing and HDD slot covers for a neat interior
Fully windowed side panel from tinted and tempered glass
Exterior RGB LEDs with six switchable colors and motherboard control option
Three-year manufacturer’s warranty
German product conception, design and quality control

SUPER VERSATILE MOTHERBOARD TRAY

Adapts to your specific needs

The motherboard tray can be installed alongside the left panel in an inverted layout with an amended airflow. It is also removable for use as a bench table.

MODULAR HDD SLOTS

Generous space for your setups

Very flexible installation options thanks to three repositionable single HDD slots. You have seven possibilities for installing the HDDs – two of these hidden behind the PSU shroud. The practical slot covers serve to hide any unused HDD slots and keep the inner workings neat and tidy. This enables you to create systems that are just as individual as you are yourself.

EYE-CATCHING FROM INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

Multi-mode RGB LEDs and elegant side window

The case is equipped with an elegant, fully windowed side panel that is made of tinted and tempered glass. The eye-catching exterior RGB LED illumination on the front panel comes in six switchable colors and three modes. LED synchronization with your motherboard or RGB controller is also an option.

SILENT WINGS 3

Impeccable cooling and silence

The two virtually inaudible SilentWings 3 140mm PWM fans are equipped with a smooth-running 6-pole motor, durable fluid-dynamic bearing and an airflow-optimized fan blade. The frame has funnel-shaped air inlets that generate high air pressure. When set to Performance Mode the fans are able to achieve an impressive 1,600rpm.

DUAL RAIL FAN CONTROLLER

Creating separate cooling zones

The six PWM fan connectors are divided over two rails, and each is switchable between Silence and Performance Mode. This makes it possible to create two cooling zones that can be controlled by just the front panel switch. If you want all fans to run at the same speed, you can switch both channels to the same mode.

INGENIOUS COOLING CONCEPT

Optimized for overclocked and water-cooled PCs

The Dark Base 700 creates an effective airflow with noise dampened vents that may be boosted by up to seven additional fans. There are also three areas provided for water coolers up to 360mm. A clever feature is the detachable top bracket on which you can install radiators and fans before mounting them as a complete unit into the case.

VERY FUNCTIONAL PSU SHROUD

Offering unexpected possibilities

The PSU shroud offers you a variety of solutions – not just for hiding the PSU and to keep the system neat and tidy. The cover plates are separately detachable, making it possible to install fans at the bottom of the case or the top of the PSU shroud and leave enough space for a radiator in the front.

Learn more about the be quiet! BGW23

ModelSeriesDARK BASE 700ModelBGW23
DetailsTypeATX Mid TowerColorBlackCase MaterialSteel / ABS / Aluminium / Tempered GlassWith Power SupplyNoPower Supply MountedBottomMotherboard CompatibilityMicro ATX / ATX / Mini ITX / E-ATX (30.5 x 27.5cm)Side Panel WindowYesRemovable FilterYes
ExpansionInternal 3.5" Drive Bays3Internal 2.5" Drive Bays9Expansion Slots7 + 2
Front Panel PortsFront Ports2 x USB 3.0 / 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C / Audio
Cooling SystemFan OptionsFront: 2 x 140mm fan (1 x 140mm fan pre-installed)

Top: 3 x 120mm or 3 x 140mm fan

Bottom: 1 x 120mm / 140mm fan

Rear: 1 x 140mm fan (pre-installed)

PSU Shroud: 1 x 120mm / 140mm fanRadiator OptionsFront: 120, 140, 240, 280, 360mm
Top: 120, 240, 360mm
Rear:120, 140mm
Dimensions & WeightMax GPU Length Allowance430mm (HDD Cage Removed)
286mm (HDD Cage Installed)Max CPU Cooler Height Allowance180 mmMax PSU Length285mm (Bottom fan Removed)
240mm (Bottom fan Installed)Dimensions (H x W x D)20.43" x 9.49" x 21.42"Weight29.21 lbs.
Additional InfoFeaturesMotherboard tray and HDD slots with enhanced possibilities for individual requirements

Two virtually inaudible Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM fans with funnel-shaped air inlets for high air pressure

Effective airflow system with noise-dampening vents

4-step dual-rail fan controller is switchable between Silence and Performance modes

Ready for radiators up to 360mm on top, front and back

Install fans and radiators on a provided bracket before installing it as a complete unit

Completely sound insulated with decoupled motherboard, PSU and drives

PSU shroud, ingenious cable routing and HDD slot covers for a neat interior

Fully windowed side panel from tinted and tempered glass

Exterior LEDs with six switchable colors and motherboard control option

Product conception, design and quality control in Germany.

the dark bass 700 ever since the launch of the dark bass 900 Pro they kept telling me that they have some new exciting things coming up and it slightly smaller footprint so that is exactly what we have here now the thing is for a mid tower it is quite expensive so let's see what this case brings to the table and the very overly crowded marketplace in late 2017 right after this invest in storage that makes a difference choose toshiba Rd 400 and vme SSDs that are incredibly fast and reliable backed by advanced warranty programs so you

can focus on what matters Rd 400 check it out in the description below alright so the new dark base 700 feels like a refinement in many ways versus the larger dark base 900 and puts the company on the competitive track within the mid-range tower category it's about the same height as the NZXT H 700 but it's longer and I wish they would shorten the body a little bit because in many instances the interior space is left unused and feels empty another point of feedback for be quiet is to stop using brushed aluminum fantex has proven that sandblasted

textures look far superior and don't leave any finger marks something that plagues the front and top panels of this case the tempered glass panel has now received black out top and bottom strips to hide the mounting locations the amount is standard with four thumb screws with a small lip at the bottom to hold the panel but unlike many cases with TG there are no rubber bits on the frame itself only on the mounting pegs and none on the glass either and I would like to see padding added in their future case but the glass is generally scratch resistant unless you intentionally try to do something with it so with general handling don't worry about creating

any scratches one thing I don't like about the front panel is this continuous facade because it's not comfortable to pick up the case in this spot and if you do finger oils will be spread all over the front doors pretty loaded with all the standard goodies like USB 3 power and reset buttons audio jacks and finally a type C port on a mid tower that needs that 20 pin connector on your motherboard for the gen 2 speeds and then we have one of the best integrations for a fan

controller with three speed settings plus auto in which the motherboard controls this speed via the PWM connector the controller hub is at the back and I wish it was more discreet with better wiring but here we have two fan rails with three fans each that can be set to either performance or silent modes individually that means you can have let's say one rail handling the intake and another exhaust for that smart airflow control and lastly we have built in RGB lighting and the front of the chassis with those really nice ambient side strips that wrap around the bottom I actually quite like this look they're not too bright and there's some spill into the

exhaust vents and it's all uniform plus the hub has an additional 12-volt RGB connector for more LED strips and a motherboard connector to control the lighting through the software on your motherboard I love this flexibility the problem however is the removable mid plate that if not aligned properly will not light up in the correct colors in whatever channel is misaligned and this can be fixed by pushing the panel in a bit so this is how the panel is removed you pull it out by the edges the contact points are at the bottom of the frame and this Wireless approach to

lighting is pretty awesome as long as the connectors are not bent and I'm not sure if the panel arrived like this or I accidentally touch the bottom of the panel while removing it so be careful and if the lighting does not match you know why at the front we have a large dust filter and an excellent 140 member silent wings three fan airflow has never been a strong suit for be quiet and it really shows here with an incredibly restrictive front paneling on the inside and on the exterior to now it's weird because their fans move a lot of air and they're very quiet so they

need to open up the front on the case to allow more air to enter at lower rpms on the fans and this is also where we access the bottom dust filter the top panel is pretty much completely closed except for the tiny exhaust strips at the back now it's great for noise isolation and placing objects on top of the case but what's confusing is this excellent removable top fan bracket that accommodates 280 and 360 million radiators with triple 140 Miller fan support as well but no ventilation room for those fans to actually exhaust air the spacing between the bracket and the panel is available but aside from the rear exhaust ports and the top openings there's nowhere

for that air to go but balance back inside so I love the airflow options at the front the top but the exterior paneling shuts down the cooling potential now the interior layout is by far the best be quiet has put out yet they are pushing forward better modular elements than most cases especially since you can actually invert the motherboard tray without any sacrifices so for one I love these plastic covers on the hard drive slots they add some character to an otherwise boring panel and then total we have three of these metal drive cages that you can mount on any of these five slots and two of them are hiding at the bottom but can be removed easily the interior

ones limit your spacing from the front so push-pull is not possible but it is an option with enough spacing allocated in that bottom opening and to come back to these plastic covers they can be extended out to pass the cables since the motherboard tray is flat and so are the rubber grommets I really like the new modular approach of the bottom section with four top panels to reveal ventilation above the power supply and extra fan slot near the drive cage and the spacing for the front plus the side plate is removable to access everything from either side so my only

complaint is with the rear section it's pretty average and form of cable management and I was expecting a bit more from such an expensive meant hour although we do have three more SSD slots on these two brackets so storage options are adequate and finally this is one of the only few mid towers to feature in the vertebral motherboard tray and 11 screws later and unplugging the front of your cables we have an empty frame for either modding or repainting and you can do all the hardware installation outside of the case which has its benefits and a nice touch for be quiet to install these rubber feet so the tray does not wobble and resuming with the inversion

process is super simple it took me like three minutes to secure everything and now you have this orientation swapping the glass panel is taken into account by remounting the pegs on to the other side so the procedure is pretty much flawless but I do wonder how much interest there is with this inverted layouts hardware does not look good when flipped so unless you really need your system on the left side this feature may be unused by many if you decide to go with dark base 700 and finally this is the system I've settled on and much cleanly result versus the dark base 900 but here you can see if those drive slots are not used on the side we have too much

open space I've got a 360 rad at the front so that helps to fill some room and doing a custom loop in here should definitely be a nice experience although the front airflow is heavily blocked one of the panels on the shroud had to remain off because there's no way to mount it back with the cables coming out and there's also no way to route the eight pin CPU cable at the top unless you pull out the fan bracket first as the spacing is not large enough for that connector to fit but I really like the extra functionality of the side covers throughout my GPU cable and in case you need to access anything at the bottom it's a simple panel away.now cable management is fine

because we have a lot of room but organization is not made simple I think NZXT said really and you stand it with the H 700 I and all those plastic channeling that is no effort at all when it comes to cable management so in total we have 5 fans in the system right now they are in the setting one in the performance mode for both rails and it's audible obviously the system is audible to go it to silent then it's fine but right now let me switch back between setting 1 & 3 so maximum speed that you can expect from this case it does block out some noise but of course 5

fans going full speed is going to be audible all right so dark bass 700 I like it but it's not perfect I do appreciate the direction that the choirs taking in terms of those module elements and now they're better than ever in terms of that reconstructing that entire bottom shroud or being able to seamlessly invert your motherboard tray without any sacrifices that's awesome I like the lighting integration but because there's nothing on the back there it kind of looks odd like it's incomplete so perhaps if they were to add an additional lighting strip at the back that's what

have been nice and the price point from in towered that is expensive but perhaps big wires trying to meander their way into that niche market for people who want to have the option for the inverted motherboard layout in terms of acoustic isolation I mean I have five fans in there but it's only quiet in the silent presets at like one or two so lower rpm fans but in that case we're really kind of choking the system with airflow because our really restrictive front panel and so the next thing I would like to do is do proper temperature

testing and compare that to other restrictive cases that I have in the studio and perhaps just see where the case industry is going because I don't see any innovation in terms of airflow and opening up that those you know front intakes and top exhaust without sacrificing on acoustics you could lower rpm and maybe set some standards in terms of how quiet your system should
be in form of rpm and not side paneling that doesn't let any air flow or air to exit at all.

be quiet! Dark Base 700, BGW23, Midi Tower ATX, 2 Pre-Installed Fans review

Be Quiet! Dark Base 700 Specs

Dimensions (W x H x D)	241 x 519 x 544mm
Case Type	Midi Tower (mid tower)
Material	0.7-0.8mm SECC steel, 0.8-1.2mm aluminum, ABS plastic, 4mm tempered glass
Motherboard Support	E-ATX (30.5 x 27.5cm), ATX, M-ATX, Mini-ITX
Front I/O	2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.1 Type C, HD audio (mic + headphone jacks), RGB control switch, 4-step fan controller
Fan Speed Controller	6x 4-pin, Step Controller, PWM hub
Max Cooler Height	180mm
Max Graphics Card Length	286/430mm (w/o HDD cage)
PSU length	150-285mm
PCI Slots	7 + 2
3.5” Bay	7
2.5” Bay	3 + 6
Cooling Fans	Front: 1x SilentWings 3 140mm (1600RPM) Rear: 1x SilentWings 3 140mm (1600RPM)
Optional Cooling Fans	Front: 2x 140/120mm Top: 3x 140/120mm PSU shroud: 1x 140/120mm Bottom: 1x 140/120mm
Radiator Support	Front: 120, 140, 240, 280, 360mm Top: 120, 240, 360mm Rear: 120, 140mm
Additional Features	Switchable multi mode, multi color RGB LED lighting at the front panel (white, red, green, blue, orange, purple), support of motherboard LED control

new be quiet dark bass 700 already I really like this case it's very simple yet stylish classy looking what do you think Jacques well from a pure aesthetic view it is amazing especially on the inside it's just so clean and so well thought-out alright Jacque why don't you turn it on since we've got a system installed it in already hmm very discreet simple RGB lighting in the front yeah so one of the nice things we have is not only the front ventilation that's on the side and the front bezel here is just a Harbison flat which is quite striking because it's all brushed the

downside is that we just have a fingerprint magnet for it so it is great to look at not so great to to touch all over the time we do have full RGB controls of the exterior lighting on the top if we don't want it to be synchronized with our motherboard as well as USB 3 headphone and mic reset button changing our RGB lights and 3.0 as well as a fan controller if we rotate around to the side we'll see that same glass panel that were accustomed to seeing many places nowadays where we're held in by the 4 thumb screws this one is nice because it is reversible you'll notice that the bevel on the top edge and bottom edge is identical and that's so we can flip it to the

other side if need be and then once we sneak our way around to the back here is basically things being mostly status quo except for the fact that you'll notice that we have built in vertical GPU support right out of the box and then our last side is our plain-jane side and that's ok because this is after all a be quiet case it is designed to not make the noise it's not designed to be hyper flashy so taking a tour of our iOS here we have 2 be 3.0 so we have a RGB color switch or reset switch which also doubles as a hard drive activity light our power switch headphone and

microphone jacks a USB 3.1 C port and then one of the more interesting features to me is that built-in fan switch we can override fan profiles or we can have them automatically controlled by the motherboard taking off the front bezel here we're gonna see something fairly interesting that I've never seen in another case before and that's actually a quick disconnect for the RGB lighting as well as soundproofing on the front panel another nice touch is of course our removable dust filter and this guy actually clips in with a decent amount of force and is full-size here at the bottom we can see one of our included be quiet 140 millimeter fans and our front

filter actually is fairly rigid so that makes me confident in its kind of performance over time even putting a lot of strengthen into this it just has a very little amount of wiggle in order to remove our bottom filter we also have to remove this front bezel which is nice because we're usually going to be cleaning both of these filters at the same time and it gets pulled out just right next to where the RGB is connect in moving our way across the top of the case we see in the back quarter we have these aggressive thin design for ventilation as well as the top section

in the very back for exhaust from our top mounted radiators we have our second be quiet fan that is 140 millimeters included and we can either place that or 120 millimeter fan there moving on down we have two vertical PCI slots designed for our graphics card or seven standard slots and our power supply this is where I come in with my first issue with the case I would have loved this scene today standard of having a removable bracket in the nice higher-end case so that I can slide my power supply in from the back what we do have however is these adjustable screw holes so in case your power supply needs to shift very slightly one way another this that

will accommodate that a little bit better moving over to our tempered glass panel it is held in by the standard four thumb screws and rubber grommets around those we're gonna touch base here again on the design of this panel which is a nice black out painting on the inside so it has a very clean look and we're hiding all of the parts of the case that we do not want to see as well as the double beveled edges and again this case is designed so we can pull out that motherboard tray invert it and this tempered glass side could go on the other side of the case so you'll notice at the bottom here we have this massive wall and this entire wall is removable as well as four

individual plates above it and they just snap in and out and it makes it look for a very nice clean aesthetic and still allows you that functionality of being able to build the system with ease we have another discreet mounting bracket here at the top this will allow us to mount either top radiator or fans up to 360 or up to 340 millimeter fans directly below that we'll see even more options for customization we have the five back panels here these can either be snapped out hard drive kids placed in horizontally or we could snap them out and put in a reservoir for our water cooling system popping this bracket out we're going to mount whenever a vertical or

sorry horizontal mounts into here and this will slide in from the backside of the case and allow us to mount another three and a quarter inch drive Bay snapping these guys back into place while difficult isn't impossible and I don't mind the difficult nests because how often are you actually going to be doing the six effort during our build I didn't lie it was difficult and it's backwards its be quiet not be confused as we follow our front and Buzzle all the way down we'll see that the material nicely wraps all the way around the bottom of the front foot this is still the same brushed aluminum as the bezel on the top this way we can also see that we have amply

large rubberized feeding and we can take off of this entire front foot by screw if need be for Mahdi as we go on we see our dust folder which was removable when we had the front bezel off and our rear feet on the back here we're going to see hard drive mounts for three SSDs and a fairly fancy fan controller and RGB controller so this fan controller will both take the speeds from the motherboard with being able to be overridden as well as RGB coming in from the motherboard to control the RGB lights that are built into this case again these settings can always be overwritten by the front button we're gonna see a plethora of standoffs all the way

around for cable management which is something very nice to see the one downside here or upside depending on how you want to look at it is our rubber grommets a rubber grommets unlike typical grommets are cut on the ends rather than down the center so that means when you have a cable going through it you're taking out the entire flap from being in line the plus side is when you don't have something going through it it is a very clean and sleek look these brackets that we're going to see on the far left here or what we would remove to put in those

extra hard drive cages they would protrude into the center of the system but otherwise on the flip side of these is the five black plates that we saw even though in this build it wasn't needed we have more than ample space here at about an inch and a half of a gap which will allow us plenty of cabling management to get up to our hard drives above or routing up to our front radiators you can potentially even run a water cooling loop through here okay Jacques final thoughts but before we get into final thoughts how many times have I gone around cleaning the fingerprints off the exterior tonight it has to be at least half a dozen and that's both good and

bad as we're talking about that means that the case is beautiful enough that you care to clean the fingerprints off of it the downside is that means this guy is a fingerprint magnet so anytime that we tried to articulate the case we basically had to go back and wipe it down two words so if it's gonna be a showpiece in your house and you're not utilizing it very often it's gonna be perfect but if you're one of the people who wants to be in your system tinkering around swapping pieces out from now and then this is not something of a finish that I would

recommend for you unless you're going to be willing to clean it every time you use it and the same thing with the tempered glass panel it's gonna be right up there as in it's gonna be fingerprint and dust magnets that being said the build quality on the system is fantastic everything feels rock-solid the case is heavy enough to be tossed and I don't feel like it's going to shatter the part I dislike is the price point so we're sitting for this case and while it is a beautiful case I think that's a little bit steep but that's also our

entry point I think we might see that come down over time the interior where we have the flat panel design throughout it I think is very aesthetically pleasing it allows it to have this minimalist look especially with the flat black motherboard that we have in here at the moment the addition to having RGB lighting that is linked throughout the Front Plus that RGB quick disconnect in the front which is the first I have ever seen me too is kind of a very nice touch as far as cable management goes and overall system built I think it's right up there with exactly what I'm looking for in features especially when we're talking about water cooling we're not going to be going nuts in this case with water cooling because we have all of these panels in

place and we like that clean straight look but there's enough flexibility to putting in that 360 in the front or 360 in the top to basically let our hearts go crazy I put the system in it and the overall experience was nice there wasn't any gripes or frustrations plenty of space for tucking wires away and if you look at it right here I mean I probably put about an hour and a half into doing the cabling with the system install and it looks great it's super clean ready to go how many other cases can I say that about right now although I have to agree with Jacque about the price of one it is a bit rich I think even though you're getting all these features in it only

because the market right now is really battling at that oh say a price point for mid towers but in be quiets defense they've got some features here that other cases don't have like that socket RGB front bezel I thought that was really slick and how you can mount the three-and-a-half inch drives on the wall alongside the motherboard and I understand that be quiet has a serious enthusiast following and it is growing so it is I guess you could say be quiet is like the bespoke case on the market right now and I know that they're

doing very well and maybe we'll see a case in a lower price bracket come out from be quiet within the next year but I'm sold I like the case it's nice it looks great yeah I would have to agree and and maybe we will see one come out of a slightly lower price point that doesn't have a reversible motherboard tray and to me I would gladly lose that functionality just to have you know price point but as it stands it's it's a fantastic case if money's not an object or something you think about this is a case that you can't go wrong with from my point
of view I agree .