How Much Does it Cost?
The be quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX PC Case is available from Amazon for around £200, give or take a couple of quid should you want the black or the white version. I actually think the white version looks pretty spectacular, but at the same time, the black version I reviewed today certainly isn’t ugly. The price is pretty high, putting up against some fearsome competition from the likes of the Fractal Design torrent, Lian Li 011D EVO, and HYTE Y60, which all cost about the same. However, be quiet! does come with a few tricks of its own that make it a strong competitor, and four premium 140mm ARGB fans, and a superb fan and RGB control hub pre-installed is a very welcome addition. Those fans are £24.99 each when you buy them separately, they’re truly fantastic fans though.
Conclusion
This case has a lot to love, and very little to complain about. No case is perfect, at least, not for everyone, either that or I’m just really fussy. If there’s one thing I would change in this case, it has to be the PSU shroud, as it feels like a wasted opportunity. Many modern cases have more ventilation, fan mounts and cable routing holes on the PSU shroud, and while the Shadow Base 800 benefits from a cleaner aesthetic, a little more practicality on the shroud would be a welcome upgrade. Of course, that’s hardly a deal breaker, I’m picking a minor thread and dragging it out here, really.
That’s it, everything else is pretty fantastic, so go buy one right now! Seriously though, I get that this isn’t a cheap case, and dropping £200 in a box is going to make your wallet shudder. You can get a good PC case for half that, such as the be quiet! Pure Base 500DX, which comes with Pure Wings 2 fans, RGB lighting and costs just £109.
However, the Shadow Base is much bigger, allowing you to install bigger and better hardware, such as flagship graphics cards, and both more and larger radiators compared to the 500DX. Being bigger and more durable means the Shadow Base has more materials in it, increasing the cost, but that’s to be expected. Plus, the Pure Wings 2 fans are great, don’t get me wrong, but the Light Wings 140mm fans are top-tier and also feature integrated ARGB lighting. You could buy a cheaper case and put your own fans in it, but buying four Light Wings fans is going to cost you £100, not a cheap investment, but still in line with the pricing of good quality Noctua, Thermaltake and other top brands fans. You would think that means half the price of the case is just the fans, but no, without these fans it’s still around £150, so honestly, with the fans (the FX version) it is a very good investment.
This case does make more sense for those building flagship gaming systems though, it’s built to handle the biggest and the best, so one or maybe even two large radiators, a huge graphics card, a chunky power supply, an E-ATX motherboard, and still room left over for sticking a big manga action figure in the case or whatever it is the reddit kids do to look cool. When it comes down to that level of PC, £200 on a case is still likely to be the cheapest component of the whole build.
be quiet! has a fantastic reputation for build quality and performance, and that certainly holds up today. I also think they’ve got some of the best-looking PC cases on the market, they’re clean, stylish, and surprisingly sophisticated looking, which isn’t easy to achieve when you include ARGB lighting, but it’s done pretty tastefully here, and that’s a refreshing change.
