be quiet! During the Computex 2023, it presented several interesting computer cases that are to complement the manufacturer's portfolio for the coming years. The main attraction, of course, was the top Dark Base Pro 901 , but the lower model - Dark Base 701 - was also very popular. In this case, however, we had to wait a little longer for the official premiere. The Dark Base 701 succeeds the Dark Base 700 with a differing approach to its overall design focus. The 700 was primarily designed for a near inaudible operation whilst the 701 has been designed for high-airflow and high-performance thanks to its fully perforated mesh panels. The manufacturer also took care of a more interesting appearance and the ability to control the backlight of other components. We received a casing in a black color version, which is certainly a more universal proposition. In addition, the manufacturer already released a white variant, which may be an interesting proposition for people who build sets in white colors.
The Dark Base 701 has the following specifications:
Packaging & Contents
The Dark Base 701 comes in a large, heavy cardboard box. The primary front side of the packaging shows the Dark Base Pro 701 as a black line drawing showing a peek of internal detail. The chassis name is also present across the bottom.
At the back we see an "about be quiet! marketing paragraph, and it is in several languages. Below this, we find a blown up shot of the Dark Base 701 with numbered components and a legend to the right to help identify the featured parts. At the bottom, we see several more languages explaining a few critical features via the marketing blurb listed above.
Rotating the package clockwise ninety degrees and we get a side shot with eleven languages. A QR code lead us to the product page on the be quiet! website.
The final spin of the package and we see the specification table for the chassis.
The case is protected by a foil bag and Styrofoam.
Inside the packaging, the first thing we will find are two elements: the first of them, a user manual thanks to which we will be able to know the main ins and outs of the tower.
And, secondly, a cardboard box, inside which we will find an additional HDD bracket, a grille cover for PSU area, some Velcro loops and installation screws.
A closer look - Outside
After we got this case out on the studio table, we were immediately greeted with a quite refined looking chassis. The Dark Base 701 comes in a matte black coating that appears all around the chassis. The manufacturing finish is excellent. The left side is dominated by a huge slightly tinted tempered glass window that will allow us to see all the installed hardware. The chassis adopts a low-profile design, with actual dimensions of 565 x 249 x 495 mm (length x width x height), which is a medium size. However, you’ll have to watch your back, as it’s no lightweight, weighing in at 12.8 kg.
Down the right, you’ve got a flush metal panel, it looks tidy. The rear panel is also easy to remove thanks to a pair of thumbscrews at the rear.
Removing the panel, there’s a full-cover panel of noise isolation material back here, which is a great feature to see included.
The front of the Dark Base 701 has plenty of mesh to enable airflow, giving the case easy access to external air for cooling. The mesh front panel of the casing is removable and is fixed with clip-on latches on the upper half, making it easy to remove.
There are two RGB light guide strips on the front panel, allowing some lighting effects.
Behind the removable housing front, be quiet! The Dark Base 701 is not only equipped with a dust filter that can be removed for cleaning and fan installation, but a high-quality 140 mm Silent Wings 4 fan was also pre-installed on the front of the case. The pre-installed fan is connected to the integrated fan control. In addition to the pre-installed fan, two additional 140 mm fans can be installed. It is also possible to mount three 120 mm fans at this point. In the lower right corner, in addition to the pre-installed dust filter, you will also find a small circuit board that provides the power supply for the ARGB lighting installed in the front of the case. Of course, this holder can also be easily removed to make installation as comfortable as possible.
The beveled I/O panel is located at the corner of the upper cover and the front panel. It contains a 3.5mm independent jack for the headphone and microphone, two sets of USB 3.2 Type A, one set of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, and a power button with light. Two additional switches are also installed at this point, which can be used to control the integrated fan and ARGB controller.
On the top of the case there is a ventilation grille in the form of a mesh. The case has been equipped with a fan bracket below these panels in case you need to get fans installed at the top or get more airflow.
There are some screws at the top for removing the top cover, handy if you want to put any fans or coolers up there. Below the mesh grille, the air outlet has already been equipped with another 140 mm SilentWings 4 fan. As we know from the front of the case, it is also possible to mount up to three 120 or 140 mm fans on the case cover.
Turning the Dark Base 701 around reveals a traditional layout with a large number of necessary intricacies to allow for the modularity and ability for the motherboard to also be installed upside down. As with the predecessor, we find the area for the power supply in the lower part under a cover, but we can completely remove the mounting plate for the power supply so that we can easily slide in the power supply. The eight slots for expansion cards are also new, because the frame for the slots can be removed and turned 90° and reinserted. A graphics card can be installed vertically. If you plan to do this, you should order the manufacturer's riser cable. In the upper area we find the opening for the mainboard IO and next to it a slot for a 120/140 mm fan. A third 140 mm Silent Wings 4 fan is already pre-installed here.
At the bottom of the case we find four large massive feet made of 2 mm sheet metal with a piece of rubber glued on, which has anti-slip and anti-vibration properties. The openings under the power supply are covered by a mesh dust filter in a plastic frame that slides out from the front. There’s a lot going on under here, with a bar running across the middle to add rigidity to the case. We also have a bottom mounted 120/140mm fan mounting location. This mount can be used to intake additional air.
A closer look - Inside
The internal space of the case is larger than that of mainstream mid-tower cases. The interior of the housing is divided into two chambers, which improves the aesthetics and ventilation of the computer. The main compartment can accommodate not only a mini-ITX, mATX or ATX motherboard, but also larger E-ATX models. The mainboard tray has a large opening so that you should be able to easily access the backplate of the CPU cooler later. In addition, the mainboard tray has numerous openings for routing cables. Although these are not provided with rubber protection, the edges are deburred accordingly, so that cables are not damaged here.
Dark Base 701 also provides a detachable motherboard tray. After removing all the screws, the entire motherboard configuration can be reversed, allowing the motherboard position to be rotated 180 degrees and the host placed on the left side of the screen. This design allows players to have greater freedom and customization needs. They can use this design to adjust the position of the motherboard, and the internal airflow system also has greater flexibility and planning.
I love this subtle Dark Base logo design, it’s just pressed into the panel and angled so you can see it through the tempered glass.
You can open this plastic PSU shroud panel. The PSU area is rather big with around 250mm of free space to install big Power supplies.
One Silent Wings 4 PWM 140 mm fan is mounted on the back. At the back, if desired, you can change the orientation of the expansion slots. Originally, they are horizontal, but after a few screwdriver strokes, they can be tilted vertically!
The screw connection points for the HDDs/SSDs and the cable outlets are fitted with plastic covers. Those covers are removable.
A plastic insert can be removed in the front area of the power supply cover. This is particularly important if a triple radiator is to be mounted behind the front. As an alternative to the closed insert, an insert with air slots can also be fitted. It is particularly useful when the optional 120/140mm floor fan slot near the front is used.
To access the back, the process is identical: we remove two screws at the back. On average we have 25mm of space between the mainboard tray and the cover, which is very generous. We find the many cable ducts, which allow the cables to be routed neatly, to be great. There are also many attachment options for cable ties.
There is space for HDDs and/or SSDs. There are a plethora of holes too, all clearly marked to indicate which can be used to mount HDD and SDD devices. Up to two 3.5 drives or three 2.5" SSDs can be installed. There is also space for a 3.5-inch device in the front of the power supply compartment, but you need to purchase an additional hard drive rack for the 3.5-inch device.
Although the built-in fan of Dark Base 701 is not an ARGB version, it still has a built-in hub that can control ARGB and fans at the same time. It can support up to eight sets of fans and seven ARGB devices. Players can directly install ARGB devices to enjoy the colorful display. You can also adjust the fan speed and lighting mode through the front panel.
Installation and Finished Looks
The installation process is quick since there are pre-installed motherboard tips in this case. Of course, you can install larger or small motherboards (E-ATX / XL-ATX / ATX / M-ATX / Mini-ATX). In order to place the first two wide formats, we must first remove the steel cover that covers the opening to pass cables. That is why a second cover adapted to this type of format is included. After the motherboard is installed, there is still a lot of space on the right side of the case.
Inside, there is room for a CPU cooler with a height of up to 185mm, so even the largest tower structures can easily fit here.
You can also install radiators up to 360mm.
The PSU area is very big and easy to get installed. The specification allows for the installation of units up to 250mm long , so even the largest structures can easily fit here. After removing the cover, the power supply can be inserted from the rear, but it could also be placed from the side. Remember to get all PSU cables installed before mounting the power supply.
When installing a graphics card, the maximum length of the graphics adapter must not exceed 430mm. There’s the option to mount the GPU vertically too, but you will need your own riser cable.
Cable management is very easy in this case. As you can see there is a lot of space for easy cable management.
The fact that both front and back panels can be removed gives you easy access to the PSU area for adding more cables or simply making better cable management around the bottom area.
This is the final result of the Dark Base 701 case. With everything in place, you can see how clean everything inside the Dark Base 701 looks. We have added three Light Wings 140mm PWM front fans.
Let's power up this system, the front and side ARGB lighting is distinctive. The front panel includes touch controls for fans and ARGB lighting. You can either sync ARGB/fans with the system or make them individually.
Test System and Methology
Test System:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard:ASRock B550 Steel Legend
Cooler:Pure Loop 2 FX 360mm AIO(@ the top of case)
Memory: 16 Go HyperX Fury 3200 MHZ DDR4
Graphics Cards: Sapphire RX 5700 XT Pulse
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 FM 1000W
Boot Drive: SSD Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 1 T
OS: Windows 10 64bit
To test the thermal performance of the be quiet! Dark Base 701 i loaded my test system for 15 minutes using OCCT and Fire Strike Stress Test (3DMark) and recorded the maximum temperatures reached using CPUID Hardware Monitor. CrystalDiskMark 8.0.0 to measure SSD temperature under load and Rise of the Tomb Raider: 30 minutes of gameplay. The graphics card always in auto mode, Meterk MK09 placed 50 cm from the box to measure the sound level. The measurements are carried out in 2 situations: at rest and under load. Room temperature was maintained at 20 degrees C for the duration of my tests.
Performance
The be quiet! Dark Base 701 did a fine job in our Temperature Tests. The mesh design of the front panel makes airflow easy and the fans don’t have to work hard at all to keep things cool. In our case, with an AIO-cooled system, it shows that low temperatures can be achieved through a lot of space in the interior and many individual holes, through which more air comes into the interior.
The be quiet! Silent Wings 4 PWM 140mm fans stayed relatively quiet across the RPM range. At maximum rotation speeds the fans get noisy.
Final Thoughts
We don’t get in many PC cases for review that can hold a triple-140mm-fan radiator on both the front and top simultaneously. And finding one that’s big enough inside to do that, but still small enough on the outside to carry the “mid-tower” label? That's exceedingly rare. That combination was probably the hardest part, but manufacturer be quiet! also figured, “Why not make it full E-ATX spec, too?” when finishing its design checklist. It did, and it fashioned a superb chassis for casual PC builders looking for a silent runner. That trifecta earns the Dark Base 701 our latest Most Improved award for PC tower cases. This case features an open mesh design and a sleek tinted, tempered glass side panel, as well as three pre-installed Light Wings 140mm PWM fans for efficient cooling. These fans use advanced motor technology and airflow-optimized blades to provide optimal cooling while producing minimal noise. Acoustic testing reveals that the case maintains remarkable silence at idle speed, making it an ideal choice for users. Control these fans with the included PWM and ARGB hub controller or synchronize them with your motherboard’s RGB software. Furthermore, the front of the case has extra ARGB LEDs, allowing for greater flexibility in creating different lighting environments. It emerges as a thermal juggernaut after extensive testing. The case effortlessly maintains CPU and GPU temperatures within optimal ranges by running the included fans at maximum speed. Even during demanding workloads, the mesh front panel, and a meticulously designed airflow scheme ensure efficient heat dissipation. The case has a spacious interior that can accommodate graphics cards up to 340mm in length, and Cpu Coolers up to 185mm. The addition of a PWM and ARGB hub improves the case’s functionality. This just saves the hassle of having to buy one yourself, or pick up some rubbish adapters that look gross, and are a pain to cable manage. Inside, thanks to features like a cable management bar, multiple routing holes, and Velcro straps, cable management is a breeze: there are three 3.5″ drive bays (two included) and five 2.5″ drive bays (three included) for storage. The be quiet Dark Base 701 has plenty of space for cable management, and space to install up to five 2.5-inch drives or three 3.5-inch drives. The case comes pre-fitted with a fan/ARGB controller, which can be controlled through buttons on the case itself of through your PC’s motherboard. Now, What’s missing here? Well, since this is a mid-budget option from be quiet!, don’t expect any flagship features. No Qi charging on the front panel. I was surprised by the lack of rubber protection around the cable management holes, but the openings here are designed cleverly, so overall, it’s forgivable. Also you need to purchase an additional hard drive rack for more than two 3.5-inch devices. The biggest caveat is that you’ve got to spend nearly 200€ to secure it. The price is slightly higher than that of some competitors.
Once again, be quiet! have come to market with a solid case design with their new Dark Base 701. Consumers can leverage a robust mid-tower chassis that offers a minimalist aesthetic that contrasts nicely with the massive amount of RGB on offer. This case is also pretty inclusive when it comes to internal space, accommodating modern GPU sizes, and large liquid cooling solutions. The case has 3 years of warranty.
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