be quiet! Silent Base 800 Windowed Edition Mid-Tower Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Silent Base 800 Window is available from most popular retailers for 149,90EUR/119 GBP/149,90 USD ex. VAT. At the time of writing, there are no retail links available, but they should be cropping up later today, or by the end of the week at the very latest. Don’t worry if you already invested in the original Silent Base 800, be quiet! will also be selling the window panel as a separate add-on for 29,90EUR/24,99GBP/29,90 USD ex. VAT.

Overview

be quiet! already impressed me with the Silent Base 800 when we first saw the original model. There have been very few changes to the window edition, in fact, the clue is in the name, they’ve just added a window panel to it. Of course, this may only be a small change to the overall design, but it has made a huge impact to the visual appeal of this chassis.

If I had one gripe about this case before, it was that it didn’t let me show off my system build. The interior of the Base 800 in stunning to look at, with its orange highlights on the cable grommets, its pristine black painted interior, superb cable routing, those fancy Pure Wings fans and more! Having it hidden away behind a layer of sound proofing material and a thick panel felt like a visual waste.

Of course, that sound-proof panel on the original was meant to do an important job and keep this chassis super quiet. The fact that be quiet! have engineered a panel that not only offers a stunning view of the chassis interior but also the same acoustic performance as the solid panel, is nothing short of incredible. The only downside of the double glazing on this chassis is that it slightly reduces the CPU cooler compatibility, mostly with older be quiet! models, but be quiet! state that all their newer models are compatible due to their shorter design. Fortunately, if you have the older coolers or any other larger cooler, you can remove the inner window panel to increase compatibility at the cost of some sound-dampening.

Pros

Excellent build quality
Unique design
Competitive range of features
Window panel offers same acoustic performance as solid panel
Window panel can be purchased separately
Dual layer window
Window can be made single layer for maximum cooler compatibility

Cons

None

“The be quiet! Silent Base 800 is already one of the best performing and feature packed chassis money can buy, but with the addition of a new side panel window, it’s also been elevated to one of the best looking chassis money can buy and it offers a great way to create a system that you want people to see, but not hear!”