be quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX PC Case Review

Peter Donnell / 2 weeks ago

A Closer Look – Interior

With the side panel removed, you can really appreciate just how big this case is, with a vast amount of space on the interior, and I can’t think of a single high-end piece of hardware that wouldn’t fit in here. There’s room for anything from a mini-ITX motherboard, which would look ridiculous. However, it will support the biggest ATX and E-ATX motherboards too, which is obviously what the case is best suited for.

There’s no support for BTF motherboards, but it does have lots of options for traditional cable routing, with large cut-outs flanking the motherboard on all sides.

There’s also a large cable cover to the right, allowing for bulky cables to be easily routed out of sight.

Towards the front, you can see the backs of those gorgeous Light Wings 140mm fans, however, the front of the case will support 120mm fans too if you want to swap things out.

There’s a large cut-away in the PSU shroud too, so if you wanted to install a thicker 360mm or even 420mm radiator in the front, that can be easily accommodated.

Up on the top, you’ll find three more 120mm or 140mm mounts, allowing for up to three more fans, and again, it will support up to a 360mm or 420mm radiator in the top of the case.

And then there’s a 120mm/140mm mount in the rear too, so airflow is obviously well taken care of here.

The PSU shroud is built-in and covers the entire bottom of the case, with the exception of the cut-away at the front and some ventilation there. Given the size of it, you’ll be able to cram an insane amount of excess cables inside it, that’s for sure.

I do wish there was a vertical pass-through for the GPU cables, putting it right here would be ideal.

Around the back of the case, there’s a very deep clearance, so again, excess cables can be crammed out of sight, or if you’re the Patrick Bateman of PC building, you can arrange all of your cables neater than your business card, as there’s plenty of cable tie points to keep everything tidy.

Towards the front, there’s a removable mounting kit for your SSDs, allowing you to tuck a few drives out of sight.

There’s room for an optional drive cage down here, but also a fan mount should you need to better direct airflow throughout the case.

Then there’s a further space to mount a drive behind the motherboard, and also a built-in fan and ARGB lighting control hub. What I really like is that the hub has room to add more fans, and will accommodate PWM and lighting control for every available fan mount in the case.