be quiet! BGW11 Dark Base 900 Aluminium ATX Gaming Chassis - Black

"Update October 2019"From 2 to 3 stars. I just can’t give 4 stars because of all the headaches and almost rage attacks this case cost me… and I have the patience of a Buddhist master…I've had this case since March 2019. My experience with is has been very 'ambivalent,' to put it in one word. From the beginning, both I loved and hated it. I loved its looks and premium feeling of most materials, while I hated the incredibly clumsy design solutions, wasted interior space, lack of useful features (e.g. bolt-less side panel mount), absolute lack of innovation (other than the useless –for most–‘inverted motherboard layout’) and finally, worst possible bolts/screws quality utilized.A week ago I bought a Lianli PC011 Dynamic (see attached picture). I wanted it for its looks, innovative design and compact size. Buying this case helped me look at the Dark Base 900 Pro from a different angle and understand its strengths and weaknesses better, which are:Good:- Silent. Even with quality fans running at 600RPMs, only SSDs and a water pump running at 1000RPMs (inaudible), your system will be significantly quieter in this case compared to others (at least, compared to a Lianli PC011 Dynamic).- Excellent cooling (airflow).- Good, solid materials.- Fan controller, wireless charger (although it’ll take longer than half a year for you to be able to simply drop your phone on the charger and having it charging at once without having to look for the bloody sweet spot for it to charge).Neutral:- Size.- LED lights.- Motherboard position can be adjusted (be careful with this feature though and pay close attention to the top-bottom clearance you’ll have for the components you plan to install).- Motherboard tray may be removed and used outside the case as a test bench.Negative:- Unnecessarily difficult to build in it even for an enthusiast.- Highly restricted cable management space on the back (behind motherboard).- Horrible bolt/screws’ quality; worst possible in the market.- Real need for a power-drill if you want to dismount some of the case’s components, or rearrange the interior (and even having one: good luck doing so!).- No ventilation holes for the optional, third, top-front fan. This fan will ‘compete’ for air with the other two.- Clumsy as ‘F-word’ PSU mount (oh boy don’t l feel better now after saying it…). Look at how l ended up mounting mine (pictures)…- PSU bottom ventilation is vastly reduced: half of the space where your PSU will be mounted is closed (at the bottom); your PSU will only be able to suck half of the air it may need.Considering the above, I now look at this case in a much more positive light. Yet, as much as l like its looks and value its strengths, I simply can’t give it 4 stars. Its design is beyond clumsy; it’s a work half the way done. And those bolts… that PSU mount system… At 200+ GBP it’s a solid no-go. At 130 GBP it has my recommendation (but you better know what you’re getting into!).BeQuiet disappointed me SO bad. I'm still waiting for a reply here in Amazon.*****Original review*****If this case represents the best Be Quiet has to offer then what a disappointment.I'll try to make this easy and simple by structuring the review into pros and cons.The positive:- The looks (subjective).- It seems sturdy.- Quiet (?) (My system only has SSD drives, fans running at 600rpms or non spinning at all so it's difficult to assess the case impact here.)- Dust filters. l'm not too sure about how long they'll last, but they do catch more dust than those on my previous case (Fractal Design R5).- Fan controller: in my unit it works perfectly. I personally find it useful.The negative:- Building on this case is horrible. If you have ever built a Fractal Design, for example, then this case will get on your nerves - guaranteed.- Big case, little space. Cable management is truly horrible, which is so unexpected given the size of the case (my old Define R5 has tonnes of space in comparison). There is so little room to do so! Combined with the way the side panel fit (all the sound proofing material takes up quite a bit of the already little space available) and you have a nightmare coming your way, no matter how neat you do your cable management (see picture). If, on top of that, you have an EVGA Titanium with a CPU cable half the size of your forearm, then you're truly up for a... rage attack?- The PSU mount. Someone already commented on it. Can someone hate the way a PSU mount is implemented in a PC case? If so, then I hate the way this one is done.- The screws used. Worst quality you'll ever encounter in the market. The don't stand a single time use.- Have you ever used a 'power drill' to build a system? (See picture.) You'll have to if you use this case. Some of the bolts must have been tighten by an angry Terminator. Now, combine this with the bolts' absolute worst quality and then you really have a situation here. I found myself having to use a screwdriver and a hummer in order to unscrew one of the broken bolts. Happy days.- Qui-charger: someone wrote in a review that you need the accuracy of a sniper (or something like that, l can't remember). Boy, wasn't he right... A sniper? l'd say a Delta Force or DEVGRU teams sniper. Holly smokes the damn thing is so annoying. You'll never 'ever' find yourself throwing your phone on the qui-charger and be happy so see it's working right away. Ever. Let's say that I gave up on it and prefer to use the cable charger... Just can't stand the bloody thing.- Outdated. The interior design and layout (900 Pro and Rev. 2) is simply outdated. Just check other brands like Lian-Li, Phanteks or Fractal Design and you'll see the features and solutions they use. In comparison, the Be Quiet is simply outdated and lacking features. (I believe the entire design of this case was anchored to the 'brilliant' idea someone had at Be Quiet of having that useless (for most!) feature of 'inverting the motherboards position.' It's because of this feature that some parts of the case are ill designed (the PSU mounting system is the best example I can provide).- Have you seen the way my poor SSD was mounted? There is only 1 SSD caddy available (in such a big case!) so I had to put the other one I have on the back of the case, near the PSU... just look at the pictures and try to find it... Sure enough, the case comes with plenty HDD bays but first I don't want to restrict the air flow and second I want my system to look nice (since it has a side window). Besides, I truly dislike those HDD big bays that reminds me of those old days HDD drives.- Motherboard and top clearance: boy, such a big case with so little internal room. You can adjust vertically the position where the motherboard is placed. However, the more room you allow on top (e.g. for a top mount radiator) the less you have in the bottom and your USB 3.0 cable barely manages to connect to the MOBO (unless you want a horrible cable management, that's it). // If you opt for mounting the radiator in the space available at the very top of the case, then your radiator fans will have a very hard time sucking or pushing air anywhere because the top of the case has no holes other than a few openings at the very back and the side ventilation (implemented throughout the case) will be blocked by the radiator and the fans themselves. Useless).- PSU lack of ventilation: the hole under the PSU mounting position is half the way blocked by the case frame (again, due to the silly 'invert motherboard' feature that forced this design) so your PSU can hardly take fresh air from the bottom. Thankfully I have a very efficient PSU (EVGA T2 - 850w) that generates little heat (I have never heard the fan spinning on it; l know it works).- Led strip lights: as someone noted, since they are not magnetic, they don't stay in place. Mine fell 12 hours after I had placed them (see picture). I had to replace them on the top of the chassis (where you're supposed to mount a radiator/fans) so that they cannot fall.- Front 3rd fan: unless you keep the front door open, the top fan has literally 'nowhere' to suck air from. If you buy the case (don't!!) and inspect the area you'll come to the same conclusion. Shame!If you can, by all means, stay away from this case.I still give it 2 stars because 'once the system is built' (!!) and you forget the horrible experience you had doing so, then the case works perfectly (having the right components for it, like a very efficient PSU).Finally, I don't know why Be Quiet is taking SO long in offering the Dark Base Pro '901' (we have the 601 and 801). I guess they had SO MUCH to change in this case that it must be taking them a lot of time to implement it. Not that I would but it anyway, enough of Be Quiet for me.Be Quiet, you lost a customer here (well, a few, because I surely spread the word whenever I have the chance).

-- UPDATE after trying to install PSU cover --DO NOT BUY THE PSU COVER. I tried for the life of me to fit this... thing... and to absolutely no avail did I even come close. You LITERALLY have to unscrew EVERY screw on your case to fit this abomination. I mean that you have to remove ALL the panels under the sides, top, rear... you name it. It was only once I had done this and moved around all my components in a desperate attempt to accommodate it, that what completely stops it fitting is the USB and front panel inputs on your motherboard. It simply doesn't have enough height in order to clear these cables so it will just bend them down... yet another poorly designed product from Be Quiet!...-- ORIGINAL CASE REVIEW --Here is my original review of the case (if you have dared to read on) itself when I first purchased it...I wanted to give this a higher review but I just can't because of A FEW design faults which made putting together this case with my setup a bad experience, and even injured me at times.1. The screws have horrible torque and will thread easily, so be EXTREMELY careful when tightening or loosening them.2. The case itself has sharp corner/edges/everything. I cut myself on a finger tip, once on the underside of wrist and on the back of my knuckle. So again take great care when assembling panels or moving stuff around. It is not forgiving in any way.3. The front door design is just plain stupid. This is a commonly held view of this case, but I now understand it completely myself. It doesn't "stay shut", but merely sits shut through the weight of it's own. That means if you move the case or pick it up, you better make sure you have that door secured or it will swing open with force of a clumsy Jedi and either dent whatever it hits or itself.4. The compartment for the PSU is probably the worst design I've ever seen. You need to unscrew the entire compartment, screw in the PSU itself then slot it back in with a "slotted screw" design, which means it's not actually secured but only by the force at which you jam it back in against the slotted screws. On top of this, the screws at the side screw INTO your actual PSU, denting and destroying the paintwork/coating. My shiny, white Corsair RM750X now has two circles of dented, scratched metal where the screws have bitten into it. Not cool.In summary, it is a quiet (if you have a quiet cooler and fans)/fairly spacious (although I had to move stuff around to fit my setup) case but DEFINITELY not worth 180+ quid. Max 100 I'd say. My old case which was 70 quid didn't give me half the issues which this one did. Look at other cases because this unforgiving, ailing behemoth is insanely frustrating and will give you instant migraines and chronic back ache every single time you have to change/upgrade or troubleshoot its contents.

Having had more than a few "Be Quiet" items I finally decided to upgrade my old case (Zalman mid tower ), mainly due the size of GPU`s now as well as having 6 hybrid HDD`s and 3 SSD`s, the old case was shall we say starting to bow a bit, This case swallowed all the drives up without issue, and the fact all the bays are modular means you can chop and change to your hearts content, it also means that the cables are fed around the back of your MB, no mess to effect the airflow = cooler running. The only thing I can find fault with is the HDD operating light on the front of case is White" and it`s bright, it would have been a lot better being either a red or possibly blue and a step down for brightness, this will illuminate a room at night with rapid flashes, not good, other than that being able to fully adjust your PSU position ( I have an EVGA Supernova 1200w ) to be exactly where you need it for cable management and airflow again, I can highly recommend this case.