Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900 Orange Edition Case Review

A Closer Look at the Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2

The Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2  is a full tower case and can hold up to an EATX motherboard. As we mentioned earlier, the Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2 comes with a tempered glass side panel. The accessories come neatly packed in a small cardboard box and placed inside the 5.25″ bays. The 5.25″ bays are a feature I love seeing in a full tower case or any case. I’m old school and like the ability to have an optical drive. The backside panel has an optional vent that allows you to add up to two 120 mm fans on the back panel. The vented back panel can help disburse much of the heat built up in the back panel and is yet another small, but a great feature of the Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2.

The front of the Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2 has a panel that is vented on the sides and solid on the front. The front of the panel has a door on it that allows you to access the front and bottom fan filters, as well as the two 5.25″ bays if you plan to use them.  The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 has vents on both the front and rear of the case, running the entire length of the case. There are also vents like this that run the height of the case on the front and the length of the case along the bottom. These vents provide plenty of airflow. However, the design of the Dark Base Pro greatly cuts down on the amount of noise the system produces.

The Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2 has very thick noise dampening material installed in the inside of the door. This dramatically cuts down on the noise that the Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2 emits. The rear side panel also has the same noise dampening material. The front I/O has what one would expect from a high-end case in 2019. The power button is centered on the front I/O. To the right are the power led and hard drive led, a single USB 3.1 port and a USB 3.1 type-c port. To the left are two USB 3.0 ports and two 3.5 mm jacks. One for a mic and the other for a pair of headphones. all 3.5 mm jacks and USB ports are gold plated to help extend the life of the ports.

The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 has dust filters on the bottom that cover a total of up to three 140 mm fans. The front dust filter snaps into place and covers up to two 140 mm fans. Both dust filters are made from a very fine mesh so almost nothing should get through these dust filters. Also, the dust filters are very easy to clean. A simple tap against the walkway outside and most of the dust just fell off. Going to the bottom of the case, the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 has very strong feet with anti-slip pads. This helps to keep the case off whatever surface its places on and the rubber helps to prevent it from sliding.

The Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2 also comes equipped with Qi wireless charging. The Qi charging pad is on the top panel, just behind the front I/O. Although most of the air is moved through the side vents, there are also vents on the top panel, near the rear of the case. The Chassis can hold an additional seven fans, added to the three that come installed, as well as up top four radiators. With the noise dampening material, combined with the multiple cooling options, you can build a near-silent system with excellent cooling ability.

The back of the case is what you’d expect from a full tower case. The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 has rear exhaust mounting for both a 120 mm fan or a 140 mm fan. The rear of the case has a traditional three-prong plug built into the case, with a pigtail extension, as well as a power switch. Now, if you’re using a 1600 watt EVGA SuperNova P2, which uses an IEC C19 type plug, you’ll have to remove the panel with the plug and power switch. It may not look as good with it removed, but it beats buying a new power supply.

Now that we’ve looked at the outside of the case, it’s time to tear it down and take a look at the inside. First, we removed the front and rear side panels. Both the top and front panels are held in place by a series of clips. They were a bit tricky to pop off. But someone with smaller hands would have less of an issue. Next, four screws hold the front panel, with Qi wireless charging pad in place.

Behind the motherboard tray, there is ample room for cable management. On the motherboard tray itself, there is a very large cutout that will allow you to access the backplate of your motherboard in the event you need to swap coolers or water blocks. In this case, it should be a water block. The Dark Base Pro 900 comes with a drive cage already installed. This drive cage can hold two 3.5″ hard drives or four 2.5″ hard drives or SSDs. However, there are spots for another five more drive cages. Each cage can hold a single 3.5″ hard drive or two 2.5″ hard drives or SSDs. These drive cages do come packed with the case. Also, you can install the dual hard drive cage at either the top or the bottom of the cage. In total, the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 can support up to 5 HDDs, 10 SSDs and 2 optical drives right out of the box. Not including M.2 drives on your board. The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 could make for a great home server case as well.

The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 comes equipped with a dual-rail fan controller designed for creating two separate cooling zones. In total, the fan controller has either PWM fan connectors. Each of the two rails is swappable between  Silence and Performance Modes. There are also headers for the included RGB strips on the bottom of the controller. Also, if you have RGB fans installed, you can plug the fan controller into the RGB header on your motherboard to control the RGB lighting using your motherboard’s software.

The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 comes equipped with a removable PSU shroud. However, this shroud isn’t just for aesthetics, it has functionality. There are removable panels on the top of the shroud, five in total. Removing the panel on the right side of the shroud allows you to install a radiator on the front of the chassis.

There is a center panel that when removed, allows for the installation of a 2.5″ drive, SSD or hard drive. On either side of the center panel, there are spots for 120 mm fans to be installed. So, if you decide to leave the PSU shroud in, it can help with airflow by installing an additional two 120 mm fans. In the case of the build for this review, we removed the shroud to make room for more water cooling components.

The PSU shroud isn’t the only removable part of the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2. In fact, several parts are removable such as the 5.25″ bays and even the entire motherboard tray. In my eyes, a removable motherboard tray is a sign of not only a high-end case but a sign that the person or persons designing the case care about the build process. The motherboard tray comes with the standoffs pre-installed and can hold up to an EATX motherboard.

The Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 comes with three 140 mm Silent Wings 3 fans installed. There is a single 140 mm Silent Wing 3 fan installed in the rear exhaust. There are two additional 140 mm Silent Wing 3 fans installed in the front of the Dark Base Pro 900.

The 140 mm Silent Wing 3 fans that come installed a 12 volt DC, PWM fans that run at 1600 RPM. They also make the Silent Wing 3 fans in a 120 mm version. The 120 mm Silent Wing 3 fans run at 1450 RPM. The Silent Wing 3 fans are near-silent, even at max speed running at 15.5dB(A). The Silent Wing 3 fans have a 6-pole fan motor that cuts down on power consumption and vibration. They use Fluid-dynamic bearing which allows for a very long life span of an estimated 300,000 hours. The distinct design on the fan blades are optimized for high airflow.

On the top of the Dark Base Pro 900, there is mounting for up to a 420 mm radiator. You also can mount a 280 mm radiator. To use a 420 mm radiator, you’ll have to remove the 5.25″ bays. Looking in the basement of the Dark Base Pro 900, you see a mounting bracket for the power supply, as well as the pigtail extension for the plug and power switch. Even with the power supply installed, you can fit a 240 mm radiator in the basement of the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2. However, this requires the dual hard drive cage to be moved to the top of the case.

On the back of the motherboard tray, there are three large rubber grommets for cable management. I do like the style of the Be Quiet grommets. The rectangular flaps help with cable management better than ones with triangular flaps in my opinion. To the fight of the motherboard tray, there are a series of five panels. These panels cover the unused bays for the hard drive cages. So, if you need to add additional storage, simply pop out the panels, and add drive cages in. Behind the motherboard tray, there is a spot to mount an additional 2.5″ drive next to the included fan controller.

Now that the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 is stripped down to its frame, we can now start the actual build. Although there are several different ways the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 can be configured, we decided to go with the stock configuration for the build. The reason for this is this is the configuration most people would use when building in this case.