be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 Full-Tower Case Review

Design

It’s unmistakably a be quiet! case, with lashings of that textured black with a tasteful logo on the front. The usual orange stripe that is common with their products isn’t here though, instead, it’s a tasteful line of ARGB on the bottom half of the front panel that also runs along the PSU shroud on the interior. I love that, it’s less in your face than much of the RGB on the market these days, not that there’s anything wrong with a rainbow disco when you want one. There’s a large tempered glass window too, so you can showcase your hardware in all its glory.

The front panel is thick, and it’s not a door either, it’s a fully fitted panel, giving it a very enclosed look that is purely focused on silent performance. Ventilation comes in from the side and will be enough for most systems, as this case is huge, so the intake areas are bigger than they look. However, an airflow panel is included in the box too, and I’ll install that in my build.

The top of the case is closed up too, but where the old model has the vent and then removable top panels to cover it, this has the covers UNDER the mesh, so the aesthetics are much cleaner regardless of which configuration you choose to deploy. Here it is closed…

…and here it is open! Well, sort of, as you can see there are still those thick noise isolation panels in place.

They’re heavily padded on the underside and fit edge to edge as you can see above.

The whole top bracket is fully removable too, so you can mount hardware externally.

The right side panel features more ventilation too, but this comes with a full cover included in the box if you wanted to seal this up too. You can keep it closed for more noise isolation, or again, open this up to add more airflow, fans or radiators to the side of your case. The same space can also be used to mount additional storage too, it’s very versatile.

The front panel looks fantastic, but it’s also very practical too. It has a nice layout, with lots of USB ports, and Type-C, but also a touch interface for the fan control and RGB control too! You can even pop your phone or other Qi-charging compatible devices on the top front of the case for wireless charging, which is really handy.

On the interior, the case has a clean aesthetic thanks to the huge PSU shroud, and various covers hiding all the main fixtures. There’s a hell of a lot of room in here too, and that bodes well for larger graphics cards, liquid cooling and other high-end hardware.

I like these little details, like the recess in the side of the PSU shroud, then an embossed logo on it, and a thin strip or RGB lighting that run the full length. Again, like a display in a museum or something with the name plaque in front of it, very nice indeed.