be quiet! Dark Base 701 Case Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Dark Base 701 is available in black from November 14 at a suggested retail price of $229.90 / €229.00 / £229.99, while optional HDD Cage 2 drive cages and a Riser Cable for vertical GPU installation are already available on the market for €9.90 / $9.90 / £9.99 and €59.90 / $54.90 / £59.99 respectively. Dark Base 701 in white will follow next year.

Overview

be quiet! is one of the best brands in the business, and honestly, I can’t recall the last time I bought, used, or tested one of their products and it wasn’t anything short of excellent. They don’t put out a huge amount of new products every year, they’re very much a quality over quantity brand, and it’s clearly been working well for them so far.

Obviously, the biggest downside of this case is the price, it’s pretty damn expensive, and frankly, there’s just no getting away from that. However, it does bring me back to that quality aspect and be quiet! really has put a lot of premium hardware in their build that certainly adds to the retail price.

Firstly, the Silent Wings 4 fans are some of the best fans on the market today. Buying a single 140mm Silent Wings 4 is going to cost you £20-25, and there are three of them pre-installed, so that’s an easy £60-75 of the MSRP. There’s a huge fan hub with ARGB control built in, and a front control button for both the fans and the ARGB too. There are two ARGB light bars in the front of the case, the wireless connection for the front panel, the dust filters, the noise-dampening materials and that’s only the small stuff.

For the big stuff, there’s a full-coverage dust filter on the bottom, top and front of the case. There is a flush-mounted tempered glass window, and brushed aluminium trim. Then you have the motherboard tray, which is removable and rotatable, which is pretty trick, and the top cooling mount can be fully slid out to install your cooling. Do you need all this? No. Is it a nice thing to have that makes the case more versatile and easy to work with? Absolutely.

Should I Buy One?

The price is obviously a big factor here, and I’m sure for many mid-budget builds, this is simply too expensive. However, for a high-end PC, even at £230, the case is still likely to be the cheapest part of your build. With premium cooling, built-in fan and RGB control, noise-dampening materials, modular cooling mounts and motherboard tray, and a premium fit and finish throughout you do get a lot for your money, it’s just a quality product in every regard, and it gets a big thumbs up from me!