Be quiet! Pure Base 500DX

Evolutionary advancements

NOW THIS IS WHAT we’re talking about be quiet! The Pure Base 500DX is a fantastic advancement on the original Pure Base 500 that was announced at Computex last year. This tech journo was lucky enough to get his hands on one to review back in 2019, and although it was an impressive case for the cash, it didn’t quite hit the mark across the board. It had flaws, most notably with limited airflow, no RGB (although that’s likely a plus for many of us), and a pretty lackluster front I/O. At the time, we knew be quiet! had plans to adjust some of the foibles us reviewers had with it, but the steps it’s taken to rectify those faults are impressive.

So what was good about the original? Well it all came down to it being a very strong balance between price and features. A quick peek inside showcased a well-designed modern interior, complete with intelligent cable management, strong cooling mounting solutions, a full-size PSU cover, beautiful sand-blasted paint finish, hot-swappable roof filters, a tempered glass window, and a sound-dampening rear panel. It was nothing short of a pleasure to build in, and versatile enough for any midrange system for folk not keen to drop more than $85 on a mid-tower case.

Fortunately the 500DX features an almost identical base layout to the standard 500, but with some significant improvements. You still get the fullsize PSU cover, support to mount and showcase 2.5-inch drives on the interior alongside the cable-tidy bar, 3.5-inch drive support hidden under the PSU cover, and 140mm fan support everywhere. Most notably, however, be quiet! has gone on the offensive when it comes to the cooling problems we mentioned before.

Previously the Pure Base 500 only had an inch gap between the solid front panel and the front intake fans, and the only available air cutout lay in the bottom of the chassis at the base of that front panel. Now that’s not always a bad thing—it mitigates noise somewhat, and in mid-range builds, as long as you don’t live in Phoenix, Arizona with no air-conditioning, you’re going to be OK with it thermally. But for performance nuts (ourselves included), compared to something like Corsair’s iCUE 220T RGB Airflow, the Pure Base 500 was nearly four to five degrees hotter in our testing scenarios. That’s not nothing, especially in a world where, GPUs and CPUs boost or lower clock speeds depending on a target temperature, even running at stock.

The DX variant addresses that by converting a vast majority of the front panel into a metal mesh to enable better airflow for those front intake fans. On top of that, as standard the DX gets three of be quiet!’s Pure Wings 2 140mm fans, improving the situation dramatically.

The company has also thrown in some fairly effective ARGB here too, with two strips lining the front panel, and one interior strip at the top of the case to illuminate the inside of your build. You can sync all of that with any motherboard that supports it, or an ARGB controller, or just configure it via the front I/O button. Speaking of which, we’ve seen an update here too. There’s still not a lot of I/O, but you now get a USB 3.1 Type C port and a USB 3.0 Type A port, rather than the original’s twin USB 3.0 ports.

Any downsides? Well it has seen a price hike—it’s now $100 as standard for both the white and black variants, which is unfortunate as the original Pure Base 500 is still only $85. However, you get an extra fan, better airflow, and of course all of that extra ARGB for just $15 more. It’s hard to critique the Pure Base 500DX: It’s an evolutionary step forward on its predecessor, and a perfect all-round mid-range chassis for anyone looking to build in the ATX form factor.

VERDICT 9

be quiet! Pure Base 500DX

PROPER NOUN CAPITALIZATION Fantastic interior layout; strong cooling support all round; great price; extensive RGB.

BRAND’S OWN STYLE GUIDE No gray variant (at least not yet).

$100, www.bequiet.com