0 
0 Having played with a NZXT H510 PC case for the last couple of years, I was fortunate to check out the be quiet! Pure Base 500DX case. At around £100, it was on par with what the former case cost me originally. Would the Pure Base 500DX offer a nice upgrade without negating any of the features I already had?
be quiet! Pure Base 500DX
If you love your tech as much as I do, make sure to also check out the amazing be quiet! Silent Base 802 PC case review as well!
Design
Standing at 463mm high on its feet, 232mm wide and 450mm long, the Pure Base 500DX is slightly wider and slightly longer than my NZXT H510 case. Equally with the slightly larger size it is also a kilo more, weighing in at 7.8kg.
Available in black or white, the futuristic-looking mid-tower PC case sports a tempered glass door on the left side as well as a full solid mesh front. It is worth noting that a non-windowed version is also sold. Across the top lies a magnetised mesh to further aid airflow while inside there are 3 preinstalled Pure Wing 2 140mm fans. In total you can install 2 – 140mm fans to the front and top and 1 to the rear. If radiators are more your thing then the top can house one sized up to 360mm, the front up to 240mm, and the rear up to 140mm.
On the top, at the front of the case there is the power button along with HD audio mic and headphone outlets. There is also 1 USB 3.2 gen.1 and 1 USB gen.2 type C outlet to enable your peripherals. Lastly on the module, there is a button to allow you to navigate through the ARGB presets. Yes, the Pure Base 500DX has some funky lighting.
RGB Goodness
With 2 central vertical lines on the front that light up along with a strip of LEDs that run from front to back internally, your PC is guaranteed to stand out. If you want that of course. You can also turn them off! They are also fully controllable from your PC if you have ARGB capability.
Internally there is room for 7 PCI slots, support for a GPU upto 360mm long and motherboard compatibility for ATX, M-ATX and Mini-ITX. There isn’t the fancy engraving on the case to help you with standoff locations as there was on the Silent Base 802! I did love that concept.
When it comes to drive bays there is room for up to 5 – 2.5″ and 2 – 3.5″ devices. This is plentiful given that my NZXT had only 3 – 2.5″. With the move to SSD’s it means I can pack some more into the case.
The PSU form factor is an ATX PS2 that is installed onto a frame before being slid into the case and locked in position.
Ease of Building
Everyone enjoys the construction of their PC. I have always enjoyed ripping things apart and seeing how they work before putting them back together again. Of course, getting them working is also part of the achievement! With the Pure Base 500DX standing naked, it was time to start installing all of the components.
The motherboard had plenty of room to aid the location of screws. Granted not as huge an access as the beastly Silent Base 802, but still adequate. It’s always the top screws that I struggled with. Removing the pre-installed exhaust fans did help.
Once more, the PSU and SSDs have a cool frame to mount onto before being deployed into the chassis. Although the PSU isn’t really something you hope to need to change that often, it is great that be quiet has thought of ease of access. In comparison, the PSU in my NZXT case had to be slid in from the side, nice and easy if it is the first thing to go in, however, it can be tricky to then remove once you have begun filling the void space up with cables and other gadgetry!
Graphics Card Space
Installing the GPU was no different to many of the other PC cases. The access to the screws that hold the vented guards in place is on the outside, the nice to see here is that each of the guards can be easily slid out and kept if desired in order to be reused later. None of that wiggling the guard in order to break it free from the case.
Cable management behind the righthand side panel is well thought out with good routes for cables and optimal holes for cables to hook up to the motherboard. The shielded vertical slot for the main motherboard cable means that you do not see the hole. It would have been nice to have had something similar along the bottom perhaps, but appreciate that the sweep of the cables may not allow for it.
All in all the build time was fairly swift with be quiet’s methodical approach to PC cases clearly paying off when it came to the ease of installing the parts.
Performance
With the Pure Base 500DX ready and willing, it was time to power up. With the ARGB lights glowing in orange both externally and internally I must say it certainly looked the part as it lit the whirling tech inside.
Compared to my previous PC case of a similar price, namely the NZXT H510, how would the Pure Base 500DX perform when playing similar games?
Call of Duty Modern Warfare saw temperatures on the RTX 3070 hit 64 degrees and 60 degrees on the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU while having a good session of hardcore TDM. In comparison, I originally had temps of around 70 degrees and 65 degrees respectively on the NZXT.
The Hunter: Call of the Wild, is another fantastic game for getting those circuit boards and processors very hot. Here the RTX 3070 hit 73 degrees while the CPU achieved 62 degrees during an hour of constant gameplay. The NZXT was once more warmer here with 78 and 67 degrees.
Dust Magnet?
When it comes to airflow, the Pure Base 500DX has a vast intake and exhaust area to ensure that you get fantastic airflow. The large removable, and easily cleanable meshes, ensure that little to no dust is able to get inside. This results in cooler temps as well as slower fan speeds, in turn, this means that there is less audible sound as well as a cleaner-looking machine! I have a fairly dusty house which isn’t helped by having the dog bed close to my desk. Where I was having to clean out the inside of the NZXT case every few weeks, now I am yet to accumulate any dust internally. The meshes clearly do their job!
I award the be quiet! Pure Base 500DX the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A sample was received in order to write this review.
YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Discord | Podcast
About Author
Got one, great case. Only point I would make: take the top fan out and put it in the front, so you get a two in-one out config. That way you get positiv preassure and it’s realy quiet; 40db on a distance of 25cm.
Amazing, thanks for the info, I will get Jas to give that a go! Anything to help cooling and noise levels!