A Closer Look at be quiet! Dark Base 700
Rear and side of Dark Base 700 is made from SECC steel sheet. The thickness of the sheet is roughly 0.7mm. Steel based skeleton and the 4mm tempered glass is what adds the majority of the weight to this case. There are other aluminum parts and ABS plastic pieces in the case which aid in the over-all support.
The tempered glass is two toned on the sizes. This matches well with the rest of the case. The rear door is rather thick and is very stable. Some of the cheaper cases we see on the market have very thin steel sheets and that contribute to less stable cases. In this case Dark Base 700 is a solid as a rock and also a heavy one. Entire empty case is just shy of 15 Kg (30 LB).
What makes be quiet! cases different is the noise reducing insulation which helps with case vibrations. The insulation is rubber based and barely adds any weight. It is not removable so do not try to remove it unless you really have too.
As I have mentioned earlier the entire skeleton of Dark Base 700 is SECC steel based. The conjoining rivets are double stacked to keep this case as stable as possible. Internal placement of components are designed to host motherboards as large as E-ATX. With that in mind can bottom fed connections to the motherboard could be a problem in this case. (for instance bottom connected USB 3.0,3.1 Type C, HD Audio). Rear cable management is fair. You can see the front panel connections are long enough to be connected to the motherboard however it’s not easy to keep them under control without zip-ties.
On the back of the motherboard tray Dark Base 700 has a PCB Panel for connecting your peripherals. What is worth mentioning here is that this board supports LED lighting which most recent motherboards support.
The front bezel of the case is made from lightweight aluminum with plastic support. There aren’t many logos on this case in fact I found only 1 in the front. The logo is made from aluminum lettering. The back of the Dark Base 700 is your classic tower design. The power supply sits on the bottom of the case and the PCI support is rated for 7 + 2 devices. The exhaust fan provided by be quiet! is SilentWings 3. This 140mm fan rotates at 1600 RPM (max) and PWM Ready.
Intake in to the case is coming from the front of the case. The vent holes are on the both sides of the front bezel. On the top of the case is I/O panel with media ports. Starting from left to right Dark Base 700 has Fan Control Switch, USB 3.1 Type C connector, Microphone and Headphone jacks, Power button, Reset button, RGB cycle button and two USB 3.0 connectors. Note: When the fan controller is set to ‘Auto’ the speed of the fans are being controlled by the PWM controller on the motherboard.
The front bezel is removable. When removing it be careful not to snap the holding clips. Behind the front bezel Dark Base 700 is a removable filter and behind the removable filter is another 140mm SilentWings 3 fan. Because the front bezel is part of the RGB LED functions of the Dark Base 700 has a bottom fed connector. A very clever design. And again, we see more of the noise insulation on the bezel.
man if that 700 had better exhaust flow on the top id buy it .
the motherboard tray is removable, otherwise it wouldnt be possible to have an inverted build, maybe thats a typo there on page “A Closer Look Continued” 2nd paragraph