Review be quiet! Pure Base 500DX Review: Straying from Tradition

[Admin]

be quiet!’s Pure Base 500DX is an airflow-optimized chassis that offers incredible value with all its included goodies, but does it live up to the be quiet! name?

be quiet! Pure Base 500DX Review: Straying from Tradition : Read more

 

[PapaCrazy]

BeQuiet -> BeTrendy

 

[velocityg4]

Yea... People buy the BeQuiet! brand because they want their computer to be quiet. Having a niche separates them out from the chaff. I expect they're going to get hammered with bad customer reviews. As loyal customers of the brand buy this case for their next build. Then blast it for being loud.

 

[kep55]

I have a 2007 MacPro with twin Xeon processors, 16GBRAM, multiple fans etc. When my main PC crapped out we swapped in the Mac.We'd have to look at the power light to make sure it was on it was so quiet. We got the PC back from the shop and we thought the local jet port was next to us. So why is an "ancient" Mac so much quieter than the latest & greatest PC.

 

[Mr5oh]

Yea... People buy the BeQuiet! brand because they want their computer to be quiet. Having a niche separates them out from the chaff. I expect they're going to get hammered with bad customer reviews. As loyal customers of the brand buy this case for their next build. Then blast it for being loud.

Perhaps, or perhaps they are trying to expand into other market segments? They still make quiet cases as well. Most people looking for the quiet cases should be able to look at this and realize it doesn't have any of those qualities, it's minus the insulation and many of the other things many "quiet" BeQuiet cases have. Niche markets are nice, but in general even if you have die hard fanatic customers, they won't support a company.

I'd like to see this with an optical drive. However it still checks a lot of other boxes, like plenty of room for a large air cooler. I like it.

 

[nofanneeded]

Your noise high levels are not from the case fans , they are from your GPU and CPU cooling solution.

correct this fake review.

 

[islandwalker]

Your noise high levels are not from the case fans , they are from your GPU and CPU cooling solution.

correct this fake review.

"Your noise high levels are not from the case fans , they are from your GPU and CPU cooling solution."

That is what the review says. Unlike most be quiet! cases, this one doesn't dampen noise levels from internal components.

 

[derekullo]

Perhaps, or perhaps they are trying to expand into other market segments? They still make quiet cases as well. Most people looking for the quiet cases should be able to look at this and realize it doesn't have any of those qualities, it's minus the insulation and many of the other things many "quiet" BeQuiet cases have. Niche markets are nice, but in general even if you have die hard fanatic customers, they won't support a company.

I'd like to see this with an optical drive. However it still checks a lot of other boxes, like plenty of room for a large air cooler. I like it.

You can't fault them for trying to expand into different market segments.

But you don't need to be an expert in advertising to realize that naming your company Be Quiet! pigeonholes you into creating a certain kind of product.

There is no law saying they can't make loud products, but all of the marketing and advertising thus far has gone into reinforcing that belief.

For example, Chik-fil-A could sell beef burgers, but they already have Chicken in the name.

Other companies with too specific or unfortunate wording have changed their name to better represent what they sell.

Best Buy was originally named Sound of Music.
Shoppers may not intuitively link you with buying refrigerators and televisions.

Google was originally named Backrub.
Actually I have no issue with Backrub ... everyone likes backrubs.

 

[Co BIY]

"For cooling, the chassis comes with three 900 RPM Pure Wings 2 fans that use voltage control for regulation (3-pin). Although we’d prefer to see PWM control, at this price point the latter is far from expected. "

I think you meant former instead of latter.

I wouldn't bother except that reviews like this are long lived.

This case probably deserves a separate line that breaks it a bit apart from the be quiet! tradition.

"light case!" by be quiet! Real marketers could probably do better (or much much worse).

 

[deesider]

I have a 2007 MacPro with twin Xeon processors, 16GBRAM, multiple fans etc. When my main PC crapped out we swapped in the Mac.We'd have to look at the power light to make sure it was on it was so quiet. We got the PC back from the shop and we thought the local jet port was next to us. So why is an "ancient" Mac so much quieter than the latest & greatest PC.

Latest doesn't always mean greatest

 

[PapaCrazy]

I have a 2007 MacPro with twin Xeon processors, 16GBRAM, multiple fans etc. When my main PC crapped out we swapped in the Mac.We'd have to look at the power light to make sure it was on it was so quiet. We got the PC back from the shop and we thought the local jet port was next to us. So why is an "ancient" Mac so much quieter than the latest & greatest PC.

You didn't hear the latest and greatest then. Or atleast not the greatest. The PC market is larger, with plenty of poor examples. But when done right, PCs are hard to beat for silence because of the selection of components available. I have a 2010 MacPro and a PC in a Silverstone FT-02 (a 10 year old case) and the PC is quieter. The Mac has a slight ambient hum from anywhere in the room. The only sound from the PC is air moving, which becomes silent at 3ft. There's also the temp differences... much of the reason Macs run quietly is simply because Apple decided to sacrifice thermals when setting the fan curves.

 

[Darkbreeze]

"For cooling, the chassis comes with three 900 RPM Pure Wings 2 fans that use voltage control for regulation (3-pin). Although we’d prefer to see PWM control, at this price point the latter is far from expected. "

I think you meant former instead of latter.

No, they don't mean that. They mean exactly what they said in the review.

To be clear, they are saying that while PWM would be preferred, it is not expected, at this price point. That is because PWM fans are more expensive than DC controlled fans. So, it says, what it means. You just didn't read it the way it was written.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I have a 2007 MacPro with twin Xeon processors, 16GBRAM, multiple fans etc. When my main PC crapped out we swapped in the Mac.We'd have to look at the power light to make sure it was on it was so quiet. We got the PC back from the shop and we thought the local jet port was next to us. So why is an "ancient" Mac so much quieter than the latest & greatest PC.

You can build two identical systems and change ONE fan in ONE of the systems, and go from a very quiet system to a jet engine. It takes whoever built or sold the system to cheap out on ONE component, for an otherwise mostly silent system to become an ear wrecker.

Besides which, there are a lot of other variables and considerations involved as well. You pay five to ten times what any PC costs to build when you buy a Mac. For a fraction of that price you can include high quality QUIET components such as CPU cooler, case fans and power supply, and have the same quiet experience. Choose crappy fans, get crappy sound levels. It's that simple. It actually has very little in most cases, to do with the case. The hardware itself is more than half the battle when it comes to sound pressure levels.

 

[nofanneeded]

"Your noise high levels are not from the case fans , they are from your GPU and CPU cooling solution."

That is what the review says. Unlike most be quiet! cases, this one doesn't dampen noise levels from internal components.

NO it DOES NOT SAY THAT. it says
CONS
Loud performance under load

This loudness comnes from YOUR choices not the case fans. and it will be the SAME loudness in ANY CASE that does not use foam fo rnoise blocking,

 

[Darkbreeze]

Tom's hardware does not post "fake reviews". Removing that portion of your thread. If you have an issue with that you can contact me by PM to discuss it, not that it will change anything, or contact one of the CMs.

There are many questions regarding some of the reviews, but being "fake" isn't one of them. Whether or not we can agree with some of the conclusions, that's another story.

Also, if you want to be taken seriously, you might want to focus on posting with correct grammar and spelling. People tend to ignore the posts that don't have that, because those kinds of posts are generally, well, you get the idea. I don't need to go any further with that.

 

[dmorisette]

Perhaps, or perhaps they are trying to expand into other market segments? They still make quiet cases as well. Most people looking for the quiet cases should be able to look at this and realize it doesn't have any of those qualities, it's minus the insulation and many of the other things many "quiet" BeQuiet cases have. Niche markets are nice, but in general even if you have die hard fanatic customers, they won't support a company.

I'd like to see this with an optical drive. However it still checks a lot of other boxes, like plenty of room for a large air cooler. I like it.

I went for the Pure Base 600 last November and I love it. This model has 2 external bays which I wanted. I learned about bequiet fans, lol. Their cases generally come with standard versions of the fans and High Flow versions are available. The standard 140mm spins at up to just under 900 rpm and is all but totally silent while flowing decent air. The High Flow versions will go to 1600 rpm and become audible around 1150 to 1200 rpm. My hardest use is gaming and I have them set to run around 1100 to 1150 in the 60 to 68 F range, they've never kicked up above that, even when folding.
The 600 has the dampened front cover with side inlets. Very quiet, but back in behind those screens is a set of air baffles that reduces area of the inlet air stream. It's doubtless designed to reduce noise, but I got my trusty Dremel out and got rid of them and noise level didn't seem to increase. Can't tell from outside of the case that it is modified. Airflow definitely improved.
I can see this case sticking with me for a long time.

 

[kep55]

You can build two identical systems and change ONE fan in ONE of the systems, and go from a very quiet system to a jet engine. It takes whoever built or sold the system to cheap out on ONE component, for an otherwise mostly silent system to become an ear wrecker.

Besides which, there are a lot of other variables and considerations involved as well. You pay five to ten times what any PC costs to build when you buy a Mac. For a fraction of that price you can include high quality QUIET components such as CPU cooler, case fans and power supply, and have the same quiet experience. Choose crappy fans, get crappy sound levels. It's that simple. It actually has very little in most cases, to do with the case. The hardware itself is more than half the battle when it comes to sound pressure levels.

ALL of the components in the systems were selected based on reviews on Tom's Hardware or Sharkey Extreme.

 

[Darkbreeze]

ALL of the components in the systems were selected based on reviews on Tom's Hardware or Sharkey Extreme.

That doesn't necessarily mean much, and Sharkey Extreme changed hands in 2001 becoming a shadow of it's former self with all the original staff moving on to other pastures, so anything you got from there after that was likely shot through with corporate nonsense much like most other review sites have become even those closer to home, or, if it was information from before that then it was so out of date as to not be relevant to anything at all in any way in a modern system.

As for "reviews" from here, just because something was reviewed here doesn't always mean it was reviewed "well" or recieved good marks. It also depends on what it scored well in. If it scored well because it can move a lot of air, that doesn't mean it's going to do so quietly. There are a lot of fans out there that can move air and a lot that can be silent. There are not a lot that can do both.

 

[Abom]

I appreciate the reviewer's info on noise difference. The base 500's poor thermals got a lashing on social media and this case seems like a good response.
I think this case does RGB in the least offensive way possible.

I've been simmering on a custom loop with this case in mind and the top radiator comments were super helpful! Looks like I'll be sticking to a 360 rad in the front and a 120/140 rad for the rear exhaust.

 

[Soaptrail]

gamersnexus shows the noise levels are fine and when put at 36DB the case has great airflow.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3575-be-quiet-pure-base-500dx-case-review-mesh-thermals-noise

The Pure Base 500 was a well received case. We don’t particularly like it because the thermal performance is bad. The Pure Base 500DX is a Pure Base 500 with good thermal performance: everyone wins. The $100 price point may be a little less tempting than the $70-$85 range the original 500’s SKUs are currently listed at, but it is in fact a better case than the original 500. The 500DX is competitive with other mesh-fronted cases near its price class like the H500 Mesh, Fractal Meshify C, and P400A RGB, especially for customers that intend to make use of the three included stock fans rather than substituting their own. This is the first be quiet! case we’ve reviewed that has had any RGB effects beyond some basic strips around the panel edges, but they haven’t gone overboard--the ARGB lighting effects are well done without being obnoxious. It’s also a legitimately quiet case, regardless of whether that’s down to the noise-damping efforts or simply the low RPM of the stock fans.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, seems to be a very decent option and unlike most of the Be Quiet cases, this is one that I've been offering up as a recommendation. It would be nice to see it about ten to twenty bucks cheaper, but, you know, 'Rona and all that, so unlikely.