be quiet! Silent Base 600 Window Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction

be quiet! have worked hard over the years to establish themselves as a premium brand and it’s safe to say they’ve done just that. Time and time again we’ve seen award-winning products, from their enthusiast grade powers supplies, incredible CPU coolers, high-end fans and their previous chassis, the Silent Base 800. All their products have been exceptionally well designed, built and more important of all, they all had a focus on being as quiet as possible.

Following in the footsteps of its big brother, the Silent Base 600 looks like the ideal solution for a mid-tower. It ticks all the right boxes in terms of specifications for those wanting a desktop gaming PC. It features high-quality be quiet! fans, room for high-end hardware, a sound-proofed design and even a dual-layer side panel window, to give you a look inside the chassis, without compromising on noise suppression.

As you can see, it’s vaguely similar to the Silent Base 800, with the matte black exterior finish that’s great to look at, but still reasonably understated.

The right side panel is really nicely designed. be quiet! could have used a blank panel, but they chose to add a bit of style to it instead.

The front panel is nicely designed, with a stylish oversized power button at the top, as well as four USB ports and HD-audio jacks on the edge.

The front panel is mostly black panels with a brushed effect to give them a touch of style. To the sides, you’ll find two full-height strips of ventilation, each with a little bit of silver trim.

The top part of the front panel opens out, revealing 3 x 5.25″ drive bay covers. More noise dampening solutions here too, with thick sound proofing material on the door panel as well as thick anti-vibration rubber stoppers.

The bottom half remains shut, but you can slide up a dust filter from behind the top door, making maintainance super easy.

The filter is washable and very easy to remove/reinstall.

Around the back, you’ll find a little bit of passive ventilation at the top of the chassis. Further down, we’ve got a 120mm be quiet! Silent Wings fan, three routing grommets, seven ventilated expansion slot covers and the PSU cut-out.

Airflow for the PSu and any base mounted cooling is kept clean by a large slide out washable dust filter.

The top panel is raised towards the front and back, giving it a nice unique look. There’s a bit of ventilation towards the back too, perfect for any top mounted cooling. It features an indirect design too, which should help reduce noise without hurting airflow.

There are four feet on the base of the chassis, giving good ground clearance for the bottom air vents; each foot is coated with a durable rubber grip, which should prevent the chassis from sliding around, while also reducing vibrations.

Interior

The interior is well designed, with huge cable routing grommets, built-in motherboard stand-offs and a huge CPU cooler mounting cut out, so the installation process should be nice and easy.

In the top, you’ll find a pair of 120/140mm fan mounts, with some ventilation at the top to make way for airflow.

Tucked in the bottom, four thick rubber pads under the PSU, which will help reduce any vibrations. There’s lots of ventilation too, with room for a 120/140mm fan in the base of the chassis for extra airflow.

The front hard drive bay supports 3.5″ drives, which can be mounted with clip on anti-vibration rubber rails. There’s a slide up/down mechanism with a thumb screw on the left, allowing you to lock your drives into place and two more thumb screws that allow you to completely remove the drive bay, making room for bigger front mounts cooling hardware or a second long graphics card.

There’s a good amount of clearance above the hard drive bay, giving you room for even the longest graphics card on the market.

There are three 5.25″ drive bays, likely more than most people will ever need, but they’re handy for fan controllers, water cooling hardware, or hot swap drive bays. Or you know, an actual optical drive.

There’s plenty of room in the back for a 120mm water cooling radiator or AIO, even if you stick with the pre-installed fan, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a very high quality be quiet! Silent Wings fan.

There’s a small cut-away to the rear of the chassis frame, making it easier to reach the expansion slot screws with your screw driver. Below that, a thick foam padding on the PSU cut-out ensures a snug and vibration-free fitting.

There’s a good amount of cable routing space at the back, with a few cable tie loops to help keep everything neat and tidy.

Two stealth 2.5″ drive mounts behind the motherboard, very handy should you need to remove the front hard drive bays for extra cooling.

The side panels are extremely well made, with very little flex in them and a the window panel is especially brilliant. A tightly sealed dual-layer window, which amazingly blocks the same amount of noise as a panel with noise dampening material! This is the same panel design that be quiet! innovated for their Silent Base 800 Window Edition chassis.

The right side panel is coated with a thick layer of sound dampening material, although I struggle to find a part of this chassis that hasn’t been designed to block noise, which is no bad thing if you seek a super quiet PC build.

Complete System

Building our test system inside the Silent Base 800 was super easy, there’s lots of space for out hardware and there were certainly no issues with compatibility. Actually, I couldn’t have put a second GPU the same as our massive 270X in without moving the hard drive bay, but that’s not a fault, just a personal choice on this build.

The top GPU has a vast amount of clearance, giving you lots of room for airflow from any front mounted cooling.

Cable management is doing a great job, with grommets all present in the places you’re going to need them. the split fin design also means the whole grommet doesn’t get pulled out of shape by each cable.

There’s loads of room in the bottom that can be used for cooling or storing excess cables.

Lots of space from the PSU to the GPU, as well as between the GPU and the side panel window, so airflow shouldn’t be an issue, even for multi-GPU configurations.

Cable routing holes above the motherboard help prevent cables trailing across the board. There’s plenty of space from the motherboard to the rear mount also, which means you should have no issues with AIO cooler installation.

All panels back in place and the Silent Base 600 is certainly a fantastic looking chassis and it shows off the interior build really well, without compromising on acoustic performance as many gaming chassis often do.

Final Thoughts

Pricing

There are two models of the Silent Base 600 available, one with a window and one without. I’ll be honest, they’re not going to come cheap, but since it’s just launched, we’ll update with retailer stock prices as soon as possible. The MSRP isn’t too bad though, easily on par with other premium grade mid-towers and you certainly get what you pay for.

• Silent Base 600: €109,90 – £79 – $109,90
• Silent Base 600 Window: €124,90 – £94 – $119,90

Overview

I absolutely loved the Silent Base 800 chassis, while the core of the chassis didn’t offer any huge innovations, it did pack a lot of premium grade features into a very sexy package and the smaller Silent Base 600 is certainly no exception to that. This is a great looking chassis, with a sleek design and a ruthless focus on noise suppression and airflow. There’s sound dampening materials everywhere that you would hope, then more where you wouldn’t expect. There’s rubber padding, grips, foam padding and rubber hard drive strips, the list goes on. If there’s any vibrations in this chassis from your components, it’ll make easy work of dampening them and keeping the noise levels down. Of course, sound-proofed chassis often sacrifice a little for the sake of a side panel window, but the Silent Base 600 uses what is effectively double glazing to make sure that’s not an issue. If you pick the solid panel or the window panel, you’re getting the same acoustic performance and that’s just amazing.

It’s a great chassis for showing off your build, with perfectly colour coordinated hardware and trim inside and out. The cable routing space, stealth hard drive mounts and all-black be quiet! premium quality fans which come pre-installed, are just some of the features that are going to leave you with a great looking build that you’ll be proud to show off to anyone willing.

The slightly smaller size is a nice touch too, as the Base 800 was a bit of a beast. The Silent Base 600 is a little more reserved and will be more suitable for most desk sizes. It’s also a little friendlier if you tend to move your chassis around a lot, such as for LAN gaming events.

be quiet! already make some of the best products in the industry, they’ve proven that to us many times before. The Silent Base 800 was their first chassis and it was very impressive, making it difficult for the Silent Base 600 to live up to its reputation, but it’s done it with ease and while smaller, it’s certainly no less a great chassis.

Pros

• Exceptional build quality
• Extensive sound-dampening methods
• Double-layer side panel window
• Premium quality fans pre-installed
• Cable routing
• Removable hard drive bay
• Slide-out dust filters
• Water cooling support

Cons

• None

Neutral

• Dual GPU configurations of high-end cards will require the removal of the HDD bays, but there are stealth bays and 5.25″ drive bays that you could easily use instead.

“The be quiet! Silent Base 600 gives you the best of many worlds in one package. It’s stylish, supports high-end cooling, is great for showing off your build and best of all, it’s extremely quiet, making it perfect for those who want a system build that can be seen and not heard.”

be quiet! Silent Base 600 Window Mid-Tower Chassis Review