Cases & PSUs

be quiet! Pure Base 600 Window Review

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March 28, 2017 12 Min Read
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The first case to debut be quiet!’s Pure Base Series; the Pure Base 600 Window boasts a feature-set which delivers on all of the essentials and applies elegance by way of a tempered glass panel.


Product on Review: Pure Base 600 Window
Manufacturer & Sponsor: be quiet!
Street Price: £89.99 GBP / $100 USD

be quiet! has always been associated to keeping things functional. Their very name endorses this fact and for a number of years regardless of temperature performance figures, their cooling products have always been about achieving low-noise emission. Today’s product review sees us analyse their latest computer case venture which appeals to the inner purist – those of us who insist on traditional design ideals. This isn’t such a bad idea at all when we take a brief look at a market which is obsessed by RGB lighting and gimmicks which fail to achieve even basic levels of functionality.

Pure Base 600 was released at the beginning of the year and focusses on the essentials in computer case engineering. Fast forward to March 2017 and we have a slightly modified version named “Window” which carries a tempered glass panel. Inside, be quiet! has equipped this case to house high-performance hardware; including a plethora of locations for different sized water cooling kit.

Sound interesting? Read on!


be quiet! On their Pure Base 600 Window
Pure Base 600 Window is truly multi-talented, offering a great deal of functionality and features for an attractive price. This case sets new standards in its performance class with high installation flexibility and effective cooling performance.

Smart usability features and whisper-quiet operation enable you to realize almost any system configuration you desire for your ATX or micro ATX PC. It’s simply the perfect base to build your system on.

Technical Specifications


Below are the technical specifications surrounding Pure Base 600 Window, supplied by be quiet!:

Warranty
Two years
Weight
8KG
Form Factor
Mid-Tower
Dimensions
492mm x 220mm x 470mm
Motherboard Support
Mini-ITX, MicroATX, ATX
Maximum GPU Length
425mm (with HDD cage removed)
Maximum CPU Cooler Height
165mm
Maximum PSU Length
210mm
Expansion Slots
7
Drive Bays
(x3) 3.5in
(x8) 2.5in
Material
Steel
Power Supply
ATX (not included)
External Connections
(x2) USB 3.0
(x1) Headphone Port
(x1) Microphone Port
Fan Mount Locations
Front: (x2) 120mm or (x2) 140mm
Top: (x3) 120 (x2) 140mm
Rear: (x1) 120mm
Fans Included
Front: (x1) Pure Wings 2 (140mm)
Rear: (x1) Pure Wings 2 (120mm)
Radiator Mount Locations
Front: 120/240/280/360mm
Top: 120/240/ 360mm
Rear: 120mm

First Look


PB 600 Window arrives in an eco-friendly, double reinforced cardboard box. Details surrounding the case are found on the front and reverse and inside, the case is covered in a clear plastic sheet and held in place with dual polystyrene pillars.


Removing PB 600 Window from its packaging we have quite a distinct looking mid-tower. The orange accent strips which run vertically are a clear indicator that we are dealing with a be quiet! chassis.

The “Window” aspect to PB 600 obviously points to the inclusion of transparency on the prominent side. be quiet! has equipped this case with a thick sheet of tempered glass. This allows for a complete overview of the system installed within the chassis and will certainly be ideal if you’re planning to deck the configuration out with RGB lighting.


Over on the reverse, we have a solid steel panel with no distinguishing features except on the inside, be quiet! has placed a thin layer of noise damping material to minimise noise emission.

So far, we have a tidy looking case which brings a level of elegance.

Exterior



At the very front of SB 600 Window we have a flat, plastic fascia which has two 5.25” drive bay covers in the upper region while along the edges we have mesh to allow air to enter for the front cooling and coloured strips since this is the “Orange” edition.

Around the back, we have an opening at the bottom for installing the PSU, seven PCI expansion slot covers and a 120mm rear exhaust cooling fan.


All of the essential front panel connectivity options are located at the very top and they include the following:

• Power button
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• Headphone and microphone jacks
• HDD activity LED
• Reset button
• Three speed fan controller


Further back from these ports at the top of PB 600 Window, we have a large plastic panel which has four incisions which offer a degree of ventilation in case users want to add in cooling fans at the top of the chassis. Later on, we’ll check out the cooling options available.


Flipping the case over onto its side, we have four raised feet – each having a strip of rubber padding to prevent the case from slipping around on smooth surfaces. Immediately underneath the PSU area there is a dust filter which can be detached without having to place the chassis on its side as pictured.

Interior




The side panels on PB 600 Window are fixed onto the chassis using thumbscrews – the difference with the tempered glass panel is that we have four low-profile versions. After removing these panels we’re met by a spacious internal layout and design. The motherboard tray can entertain ATX, M-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards and there are an assortment of tool-free mechanisms for installing hardware.

The motherboard tray features a multitude of cable grommets to ensure good cable management. We also have two trays which allow two 2.5” drives to be installed behind the motherboard tray – a handy spot to keep storage on the alternate side and possibly remove the 3.5” drive storage (if it isn’t required).


The power supply is designed to be installed at the bottom of the case. be quiet! has engineered the case to have rubber padding which will prevent the PSU from vibrating or scratching the chassis, there is also a detachable dust filter which slides out and can be cleaned.


Above this we have a series of seven PCI expansion slot covers, each have ventilation to encourage better airflow inside the chassis and each has a thumbscrew for easy removal.


A Pure Wings 2 cooling fan comes pre-installed as a rear exhaust fan and above this we have the roof of SB 600 Window which can accommodate three 120mm fans or two 140mm fans. Later on, we’ll explore the radiator support at the top.


Towards the front of the case there is allocation for adding n two 5.25” drives but there are no tool-free mechanisms for installing – standard screws are required to fit a device into place.


Support for larger storage drives is found within PB 600 Window and comes in the form of three floating storage trays. The great thing about the design of this storage is that each tray can be removed independently. These trays can accommodate 3.5” or 2.5” drives. However, if you do only have two SSDs – they can all be detached to improve airflow and support longer graphics cards.

Behind the storage trays there is a single Pure Wings 2 cooling fan attached as an intake (pulling in air – across the system). This is a 140mm fan – two 120 or 140mm fans can be installed at the front.

Installation




The entire process of installing hardware inside PB 600 Window is especially easy thanks to all the space and tool-free mechanisms.

The only drawback we came to (which is only minor) was the cable management. Some of the grommets are in odd locations if you install an ATX system like we have. The 24-pin ATX cable in particular has to stretch further over and keeping the cables tucked in on the reverse side can take some extra time and effort in order to get the side panel back on.


To install devices like the storage, 3.5” drives just need to be attached to the trays and designated screws applied, while a 2.5” drive (like an SSD) can be placed onto one of the two trays and screws just need attaching to the underside as shown in the picture above.

Clearance – CPU Cooler, GPU, Cable Management, WC


The clearance options inside a chassis are imperative to establishing whether specific hardware will fit or not. In this part of the review we go to significant areas of the case to discover what the limitations are.


CPU Cooler

There is a maximum of 165mm for the maximum height on the CPU cooler inside PB 600 Window. Installed within the case we’ve used the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO which is 159mm in height and there is plenty of space beyond this before the heatpipes touch the side panel.


Graphics Card

In the graphics card department, there is 425mm of clearance without the HDD trays attached but with them attached as shown above, there is around 275mm. The way in which be quiet! has designed this case means that storage can be repositioned or entirely removed to make way for a large graphics card and this also presents us with the option to install multi-GPUs if you have an AMD CrossfireX or NVIDIA SLI set up.


Cable Management

The area behind the motherboard tray allows redundant cables to be routed and can affect the tidiness inside a chassis. So, we have approximately 2-2.5cm behind the motherboard tray which is sufficient for basic control over those unruly cables. We do however need to bear in mind there is material on the inside of the side panel which will take off some of that measurement and users will likely want to avoid damaging the material also – with this in mind we’d estimate you have 1.5cm of clearance which can make the job of tucking away cables quite tricky.


Water Cooling

It’ll come as no surprise that PB 600 Window can handle closed loop coolers of different sizes and in different locations. At the top, we have support for 120, 240, 280 and 360mm radiators, at the front there is support for 120, 240, 280 and 360mm radiators and the rear can also house a 120mm option.


Looking at the top more specifically, the top panel needs to be detached in order to access the mounting holes. This panel can be quite cumbersome and extra care needs to be taken not to apply too much force when pulling the fascia away from the chassis – there are plastic clips which hold it into place.

Thermal Performance Testing


Inside PB 600 Window we have just two cooling fans. A 120mm and 140mm – rear exhaust and front intake, both are Pure Wings 2. This traditional method of cooling in a push-pull configuration usually yields good results.

To discover the thermal performance of PB 600 Window 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 30 minutes have elapsed. The fan controller will be set to “high”.

For the purpose of accurate analysis, the idle and load temperatures for CPU will be recorded and the range between idle and load will be calculated to determine how efficient cooling is.

NOTE: Ambient temperature is 20C

System Components

CPU Intel Pentium K G3258 @ 4GHz
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z87X-D3H
CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Graphics NVIDIA GTX 760
Memory 4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3
HDD Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA-II
PSU DeepCool DQ750

Noise

Noise is definitely not an issue with PB 600 Window. The thick panels and option to modify the speed of the fans help to minimise any noise emission – even with the fan controller set to “high” this can be regarded as undisruptive.

Conclusion


be quiet! are known for their clinical approach to product development as they focus on practical and functional designs which completely shy away from some of the useless gimmicks from other brands, which appear to plague the indstrsy.

It is this ethos which is once again realise in the Pure Base 600 Window. The non-windowed version of this chassis was introduced at the beginning of the year, but with popularity for tempered glass ever increasing, be quiet! wisely took it upon themselves to bring to market a modified variant. As with both editions, PB 600 is an elegant computer case which boasts smooth lines and the type of livery that minimalists appreciate.

While the tempered glass is obviously associated with high-quality, the rest of the chassis has also been engineered to a high standard also. Although we are dealing with a case which takes pride in taking things back to the basics, system builders can rest assured that there haven’t been any cutbacks in terms of build quality.


Moving inside PB 600 Window, we are presented with a spacious environment to build Mini-ITX, Micro ATX and ATX systems. There are tool-free mechanisms for installing kit, numerous locations for moving in different sized water cooling components and there are flexible storage solutions for 2.5” and 3.5” drives. be quiet!’s inclusion of the floating HDD trays is a novel idea and allows users to detach any unwanted trays to free up space for multi-GPU configurations and front cooling.

Low-noise has always been a forte of this brands’ and the PB 600 Window emits very little noise even with the cooling fans switched onto “high”. The presence of a fan controller is appreciated at this price point because there are many rival computer cases which omit the inclusion of being able to modify the speed of the cooling fans in such a way.

Current pricing for PB 600 Window indicates that this case is available for £89.99 GBP / $100 USD, which makes a case of this calibre decent value. It has all of the features most users could need and even adds in a touch of premium with a tempered glass panel.

Despite taking on a ‘back to basics’ approach, Pure Base 600 presents all of the essentials to a rather high-standard, and this windowed edition with its tempered glass panel only serves to amplify this!

Pros
+ Subtle styling
+ Great build quality
+ Reasonably priced
+ Features a three-speed fan controller
+ Innovative storage solutions
+ Can host high-end kit
+ Good support for radiators
+ Low-noise operation

Cons
– Cable management can be tricky

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