be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Review

Taking the top spot in be quiet!’s chassis lineup, the Dark Base Pro 900 is the companies new flagship full tower, boasting a removable motherboard tray and flexible hardware installation – including plenty of water cooling support.

Product on Review: Dark Base Pro 900
Manufacturer & Sponsor: be quiet!
Street Price: £199 GBP / $250 USD

Extending out into the computer case market, be quiet! used the platform at Computex 2016 to unveil their latest top of the line computer chassis. So far we’ve had the Silent Base 600 and Silent Base 800 but today we’ll be delving into a completely new category – Dark Base.

The Dark Base Pro 900 is the first chassis to arrive from the Dark Base family. This new release is regarded as be quiet’s flagship solution – promising to deliver on quality, features and performance. Inside, this case is optimised for high-end hardware including monolithic CPU coolers, big graphics cards and a plethora of water cooling radiators. Dark Base Pro 900 also boasts a number of specialised features which seek to innovate – sounds interesting? Let’s crack on!

be quiet! on their Dark Base Pro 900

The Dark Base 900 and Dark Base Pro 900 represent the high-end of the be quiet! chassis lineup, offering unrivalled flexibility with impeccable cooling and silence features. Typically for a bequiet! product, this new chassis was developed and designed entirely in Germany with high-end enthusiasts and individualists in mind – all of those who expect the highest standards when it comes to modularity, compatibility and design for their high-end workstations as well as overclocked and silent water-cooled systems.

Technical Specifications

Below are the technical details surrounding be quiet!’s Dark Base Pro 900 – taken directly from be quiet! themselves:

Dimension (W x H x D in mm)
242.7 x 585.5 x 577.2
Case Type
Super Midi Tower
Material
0.8mm – 1mm SECC, 0.8mm Aluminum, ABS plastic,
Dark Base Pro 900: 4mm tempered glass
M/B Support
E-ATX, XL-ATX, ATX, M-ATX, Mini-ITX
Front I/O
2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, HD audio jacks
Fan Speed Controller
Dark Base 900: 3x 4-pin, 3 x 3-pin, Controller: manual 5V-12V
Dark Base Pro 900: 4x 4-pin, 4x 3-pin, Controller: manual 5V-12V / PWM hub
Cooler Height (mm)
185
Graphics Card Length (mm)
325 / 470 (w/o HDD trays)
PSU Length (mm)
150 – 284
PCI Slots
8
Drive Bays
5.25” Bay – 2
3.5” Bay – 7
2.5” Bay – 1 + 14
Cooling Fan (mm)/(rpm)
Front: 2x SilentWings® 3 – 140 / 1000
Rear: SilentWings® 3 – 140 / 1000
Optional Cooling Fan (mm)
Front: 1 x 140 (w/o ODD cage, fan bracket included),
Top: 3x 140 / 4 x 120 / 1x 180
Base: 1x 120 / 2x 140
Radiator Support (mm)
120, 140, 180, 240 (2x 120), 280 (2x 140), 360 (3x 120), 420 (3x 140)
Additional Features
Dark Base 900: 2 step side panel bezel
Dark Base Pro 900: 2x Multi-Color RGB LED strip, Qi charger

Closer Look Video

We’ve produced a video review of Dark Base Pro 900 which details all of the included features, demonstrates an XL-ATX test system being installed and highlights the clearance options inside for components such as water-cooling. Please check out our video review or hit play on the video below:

Thermal Performance Testing

Within Dark Base Pro 900 there three cooling fans included (Silent Wings 3) which are all 140mm. There are two at the front as intakes and one at the rear which is positioned as an exhaust. This arrangement follows a traditional cooling methodology so we should therefore expect good results.

To discover the thermal performance of Dark Base Pro 900 we will record idle temperatures after 20 minutes from a cold boot. We will then stress the system and temperatures will again be monitored after 20 minutes have elapsed.

The delta temperatures are recorded for the test with the ambient being subtracted from the reported maximum core temperatures from the test. The cooling fans will be connected to the fan controller and set to “high” for the purpose of testing.

System Components

CPU Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard MSI Big Bang Marshal (P67)
Graphics ZOTAC NVIDIA GTX 480 AMP (Different to GPU used in video)
Memory 8GB Kingston HyperX Genesis 1600MHz CL9
HDD Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA-II
PSU DeepCool DQ750

Noise Noise

Due to Dark Base Pro 900 using a fan controller we can tweak the noise levels of the three cooling fans, even with this set to “high” the noise emitted from these fans is more than acceptable. This result is achieved by the excellent noise performance from Silent Wings 3 and the thick aluminium/tempered glass panels. You can have a listen to the noise from this case on our video:

Conclusion

We’ve become quite accustomed to seeing the same features and designs being implemented in new computer cases and it’s rare to see anything which ‘breaks the mould’ but with today’s release of the Dark Base Pro 900 we’ve definitely been treated to a good helping of innovation.

Although the default layout may be fairly traditional for computer chassis design, inside, modifications to the power supply are clearly present and storage takes the form of individual, independent metal trays – instead of a series of trays consolidated into a HDD cage. In a practical sense this means that the user can choose to detach specific storage allocation to free up some space for airflow or make way for another device and while doing this the entire storage solution isn’t lost as it typically would be with a HDD cage.

This modular methodology doesn’t stop there either; the motherboard tray can be adjusted to suit a particular preference. In the vertical position we can shift the tray up and down, we can invert the tray to make use of the reverse side or we can even completely detach the tray to use it as a test bench.

Another aspect which is likely to be the first of its kind is the inclusion of a Qi Charger at the top of Dark Base Pro 900. Those with a mobile device which has wireless charging capabilities will be able to maintain a full charge within arm’s reach – an ideal accompaniment in this age of portable technology.

For the purpose of testing we used the largest form factor within Dark Base Pro 900, installing our XL-ATX test system. This case handled this configuration very well and provided us with lots of flexibility for big CPU coolers, large graphics cards and a multitude of water cooling radiators.

Dark Base Pro 900 arrives with a price-tag of £199 GBP / $250 USD which is certainly at the upper-end of the computer chassis market but we are reminded of just how flexible this case is – bearing plenty of space for expansion and utilising premium materials such as aluminium and tempered glass.

The Dark Base Pro 900 masters the art of innovation by bringing a lineup of features which will satisfy a variety of different build types. This case earns the flagship moniker in be quiet’s portfolio.

VIDEO REVIEW – VORTEZ TV

Pros
+ Sleek, stylish design
+ Premium build materials
+ Qi Charger
+ Plenty of modular storage options throughout
+ Good cooling performance
+ Includes a fan controller
+ Can house high-end hardware
+ Flexible support for water cooling

Cons
– Heavy

Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.