A Closer Look at Pure Base 500
The case itself is based on a steel frame with a steel side panel. The top and front of the case are made from ABS plastic and have a brushed aluminum feel to it. The entire case is painted black and the paint matching between the front bezel and the case itself is spot on. There is a single logo of “be quiet!” on the front of the case. The logo feels metallic to the touch. On the back of the case, we can see a standard ATX layout with the basement mounted power supply. There are seven PCI slots for you to use and the supported motherboards, in this case, is ATX / M-ATX / Mini-ITX.
The right side of the case has a solid steel side panel with captured thumbscrews on the back. And on the left side of the case is the features a 4mm tempered glass window that is held by thumbscrews on the side of the panel. The window comes covered with a plastic sticker to protect it against any blemishes while shipping. The window is large and has an inch of the black inner lip.
The frame of Pure Base 500 is singled riveted at the joints however this doesn’t make this case flimsy. The frame is very strong here and that is always a big plus in my book. The power supply space is in Pure Base 500 is being visually separated by a non-removable shroud which gives the case extreme cleanness and should make it easy to route cables. There are four cable management Velcro ties on the back of the case to help you be organized. Pure Base 500 also has a hidden cable shroud on the right of the motherboard tray for the motherboard power connector and other miscellaneous cables.
The bottom of the Pure Base 500 is equipped with a plastic dust filter that can be easily removed from the back of the case for cleaning. The case stands are made from ABS plastic and have rubber sticky pads glued to them. This case is designed to be on the flat surface and I do have to say once it’s on a flat surface it is difficult to slide/adjust it due to the rubber feet. So you don’t have to worry about this case to slide off your table or tip over. The top of the case offers two convenient ways to provide cooling into the case. One is with the closed magnetic bezel and one without. If you are planning to cool your system with fans and not via water-cooling then you might want to use the magnetic bezel to keep sound to a minimum. For the top-mounted radiators, I would recommend removing the bezel and open up the airways for the exhaust.
The IO control panel is located on the top of the case and provides the following jacks, 2x USB 3.0, Microphone, and Headset jacks along with just a single power button. I am not sure why be quiet! decided to drop the reset button but its nowhere to be found in this case.
The front bezel could be easily removed by pulling it forward away from the case. The bezel itself is made from ABS plastic and has a sound deadening mat glued to it. Another place where you are going to see this type of mat would be on the top removable bezel and the right-side panel. There are two honeycomb based strips on both left and right side of the bezel to provide air intake into the case.
be quiet! as included two 140mm fans. One of the fans is installed in the front of the case is a Pure Wing 2 140mm fan. Pure Wing fans rotate at about 900 RPM and are extremely quiet with about 17 dBA under a full load. The other included Pure Wing fan is installed on the back of the case to push air out of the case.
