Overall and Final Verdict
Well, this may have been the first large case I’ve had in the office for a little while but it is certainly an interesting one. Putting aside the orange that everyone knows I love, the Dark Base Pro 900 is a great looking case. Be Quiet! went with a clean design, hiding everything behind the front door and top and bottom plates. This unique design that uses the mesh around the outside edge of the sides for all of its airflow looks great and also helps keep the noise down. Combined with sound dampening materials in a few areas and their high-quality fans this is a good setup for anyone who wants a quiet PC without packing it all behind a solid side panel. The design was a lot more modular than I expected with multiple ways to move the motherboard tray, power supply, as well as all of the drive bays and cages. Being able to remove those cages and the included LCS bracket makes this a good pick for custom water cooling as well. Of course, you can keep the drive cages and build a monster storage PC as well.
The Dark Base Pro 900 does have a few issues with the overall weight being a huge one. At nearly 32 pounds without anything inside, once you get a PC in it with water cooling or with all of those hard drives you aren’t going to want to move it. I also ran into an issue where I found out that you can drop one of the screws down into an impossible to get out location. Beyond that, while the case is forward looking with its glass side panel and modularity it feels a little behind in wire management with things being tight behind the motherboard tray and without any good way to cover up the cables coming out of the power supply. Both are common on even entry level cases anymore.
With an MSRP of almost $250, this isn’t a cheap pickup as well. But the focus here is on high-end crazy builds with one or more custom water cooling loops or with 70TB of storage. With both types of build, the higher case cost would be nothing compared to the rest of the components. With Threadripper coming out, X299 recently launched, and Vega on its way it seems like now is the perfect time for higher end cases like the Dark Base Pro 900. Plus how many other cases can wirelessly charge your phone?
Live Pricing: HERE
