Thank you be quiet! for sending us the Light Base 900 FX and some 140mm Light Wings fans for review!

I've been building gaming PCs since the early 1990s, and I've always tried to keep my gaming rigs pretty fresh and up to date. The last time we refreshed our PC cases was around four years ago, where we bought the Fractal Design Define S2 Vision RGB. There is a lot to like about them, with a smart design that fits a whole lot into a fairly small tower. While the aesthetics are great, the cooling performance leaves much to be desired, and it would sometimes get pretty loud. Last year, one of the best upgrades for my PC was the be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 360mm AIO CPU cooler that really improved my system a lot - it lowered the temperature and sound level quite a bit. Even still, there is always room for better, especially since the years of use has taken its toll on the old Fractal, with scratches and cracks and so on. So, when be quiet! offered us the chance to review this new Light Base 900 FX, I jumped at the opportunity.

be quiet!'s new Light Base line includes the 600 and 900 series. While both are fairly large, the 600 is what one might consider a more 'reasonable' size, with the 900 being a flagship that makes quite a statement. I compared it to the size of a mini fridge the first time I saw it, and while not quite that big, it's still one big case. The funny thing is, if you actually measure the two Light Base cases, the difference between them is only a couple of inches here and there, but those inches add up.

All of that space is used to expand just a bit on the already impressive Light Base 600 to offer just a bit more. For example, there are now expansion 8 slots instead of just 7, and a longer motherboard tray. This allows for E-ATX and XL-ATX motherboards, used for extremely high-end models with more PCIe or RAM slots, or even those dual-socket boards. This case also supports multiple 420mm water cooling radiators while the 600 maxes out at 360mm; more on that later.

This new line of cases are be quiet!'s entry into the new fishtank-style case market that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. For those building high-end systems, it totally makes sense - we spend so much time and money on our PC builds, we want them to look great too! For those not aware, fishtank-style cases have glass on at least two sides, typically adjacent ones, so you can easily see everything inside with ease. In most cases, the glass panels are on the front and the side, and the panels butt up to each other, not unlike in a fishtank. Because of this, most cases that use this design have a fan air intake on the side towards the front, on the side of the case that has the motherboard tray on it. This way, there is still decent airflow while still showing off everything on the inside. The Light Base 900 FX uses a similar design.

On my old Fractal, the side had a nice window, as did the top, but it got quite hot inside since there just wasn't enough airflow to really handle all of that trapped heat. I dealt with this by swapping out the glass top with an optional mesh one, but it certainly didn't look as good anymore. With the Light Base, the intake fans are on the side (and potentially bottom), while the top is mesh for easy airflow out of the top, as heat naturally rises. I would not recommend this or any case without fans; if you buy the Light Base 900 DX that does not include them, make sure you have fans you love from another source. With that said, be quiet!'s fans are some of the best on the market, and you would be hard pressed to do better. So I would strongly encourage you to pick up the 900 FX model, since it not only includes an exhaust fan, but three reverse-blade fans for the side intake. These reverse-blade fans are not able to be purchased separately, so choose carefully.

Speaking of fans, this case supports up to ten 140mm fans. The Light Loop 140mm fans that they sell separately are perfect matches to the included fans on the case. The only tricky part is that if you want intake fans on the bottom, you can't easily get a set of matching reverse-blade fans to mount there.

However, you can mount an unbelievable amount of radiators inside this case for those who love water cooling. You can mount up to 420mm radiators on the top and bottom, up to a 360mm radiator on the side, and up to a 140mm radiator to the rear. I thought at first that the side could handle a 420mm, but I realized that the case lacks that bit of extra space past the fans on each side that a 420mm radiator would need. In any case, I doubt anyone but the most excessive water cooling nut would find any fault with this layout of fans and radiator flexibility.

On top of all of that, the top and bottom fan/radiator mounts are removable, making installing them a breeze. As someone who sometimes reviews CPU coolers, this is something I'm really grateful for, as swapping the radiator out should be a piece of cake. It should also make refilling water coolers easier as well (which be quiet! CPU water coolers all support).

From what I've been able to gather, be quiet! has separate products that target the RGB-loving crowd, as well as some that target those who prefer dark and quiet cases. This case is certainly meant for those who love RGB lighting, though it's also quiet enough to satisfy most who just want a quiet case. More on the sound levels later, but I am seriously impressed.

If you love RGB lighting, this case is here to help. For starters, the included fans have full ARGB support on a ring around the fan blades, so they can glow pretty much any color of the rainbow. Even if you get the model without the fans, on the motherboard side of the case, there are four prominent RGB stripes that go all around the case on every side except for the rear. The be quiet! logo is featured prominently on two sides as well, though that's always in white. If you are an RGB enjoyer at all, I must say that this case looks sharp. I prefer setting all of the lights to one color (I prefer blue), but every color looks good that I tested. The case has a built-in RGB controller where you can select from several different colors like white, orange, red, green, blue, purple, and rainbow. Each color also has a couple of RGB patterns like breathing and rotating if you like your lights to move. I was able to get my RAM to match the color of my case easily enough, but my GPU may require further tweaking.

Another great bonus for fan and RGB lovers is that there are two integrated fan controllers built into this case, which can match the speed and colors of up to twelve of them. This is nothing short of awesome, as the case can only hold ten fans, so having a couple of extras means even the most RGB-crazy among us will have no trouble getting this case to look like you want.

Like many cases of this size and design, this is what we might call a dual-chamber case. Rather than have the power supply, drives, and cables routed from below like with my old Fractal case, this design has a second chamber behind the motherboard where all of that other stuff goes. In this case, it's under the RGB strips, and it's around three inches deep. This is enough space for the power supply to be mounted vertically, a cage for the 3.5" Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and at least two SATA 2.5" SSDs. Given all of that space, I was surprised there wasn't more space for drives, but I was able to make it work with what I had.

You see, I was both lucky and unlucky. When our first 900 FX arrived for review, there was a rather large hole put into the box with a forklift, and the glass shattered. We received a replacement, and that is what I reviewed. However, each case only includes one HDD cage, and yet there is room for two HDD cages. The product on be quiet!'s website calls it the HDD Cage 2. Unfortunately, as of this writing, that product is not yet for sale at any retailers, despite being listed as a product. Since I have five SATA drives (4x SSDs and 1x HDD), I needed every slot in that case available - including the HDD cage that I stole from the broken 900 FX. I suspect I'm not the only person with so many drives (after all, isn't expansion why we love desktop PCs so much?), so I do hope that more HDD Cage 2s are made available to purchase soon. In the meantime, I'm one of the lucky few out there that has two HDD cages in their Light Base 900 FX.

Speaking of which, in order to get that second drive cage in, I had to unscrew the cage holder from the case in order to fit that cage in. While there's no tools required to screw or unscrew the cage itself since it uses thumbscrews, the cage holder is far enough in that there is no easy way to install those drives without resorting to a screwdriver to remove the whole assembly. That's a bit of an oversight, but forgivable considering most rarely remove their drives. One thing that did happen to me though is that one of the screws from that drive cage holder fell into the small opening left by the wires coming in from the RGB strip at the bottom of the case. I could not easily retrieve this without taking the whole RGB strips off, so I also stole that screw from the broken case - but most people in that situation may well be in for a big job taking the whole thing apart if that happens to them.

I should probably point out that there is a fancy door that hides most of the wiring from prying eyes, and doubles as a mount for two of the 2.5" SSDs that I use. I'm grateful for those slots, though I wish it had more - my motherboard has eight SATA ports after all, and I likely won't be able to use them all without creativity and some double-sided tape.

 

In order to fit everything in that rear chamber, the power supply is mounted vertically behind the CPU area of the motherboard. This is fine in most circumstances, but if you ever have to swap out the CPU cooler with another, you will likely have to remove the power supply first. Hardly a deal-breaker, but something to take note of.

One final thing to point out about this case. It comes with four feet attached, and they do a great job raising the bottom of the case off of the floor, allowing decent airflow through the bottom of the case. This 900 FX is designed to be usable in three different orientations: normal (glass panel on the left), upside-down (glass panel on the right) and horizontal, like a classic desktop, with the glass panel on top. On each side there are hidden openings where the included feet can be installed. The top and bottom have little slits that allow the feet to be removed or installed by rotating the feet so that they come out. Horizontal use requires a bit more, by removing the rubber grommets and installing the feet into the new holes. Tricky, but it can be done.

Another little quirk of this design is that it includes dust filters on the top, bottom, and side. This is fantastic, but the bottom filter may require a bit more effort to access, as you will probably need to flip your case over and take the bottom (now top) off in order to clean out the dust filter underneath.

From a performance and sound point of view, this case is seriously impressive. To start off, my office, when there is no HVAC running or any other major noisemakers, is extremely quiet at around 30dB. My old Fractal case (with be quiet! 360mm AIO - which did a great job making it much quieter to start with) was around 34-35dB when idle at the Windows desktop. This new case, with the same CPU cooler and other components, measured around 32dB. This is incredible!

After ramping up the system load with a CPU + GPU torture test with prime95 and furmark 2 at the same time, I saw decibel levels of around 56dB with the Fractal case, and a max of 52dB on the 900 FX. When testing just the CPU, I saw much lower volumes of 46dB with the Fractal, and 41dB on the be quiet!. Interestingly, during much less stressful workloads like 3DMark Time Spy, both were around 47dB during the mixed GPU tests, while the CPU tests had the be quiet! case about 3-4dB quieter. I quickly learned that my GPU is the loudest thing in my case, though that's pretty difficult to do anything about.

When it came to system temperatures and performance, the be quiet! Light Base 900 FX also took a win. The CPU temps were always about the same or slightly lower, as were the GPU; every little bit helps, especially when overclocking. I saw generally lower averages, and top temps in the torture test of 1-2 degrees lower for both at their worst during the prime95 + furmark 2 test. I expected the CPU to go down, but the GPU surprised me, since the case intake fans aren't blowing directly on the GPU anymore. I bet with some intake fans on the bottom, this case could be even cooler!

While not without flaws, I am overall quite impressed with the be quiet! Light Base 900 FX PC case. I do like the black, though I also appreciate my wife's white 600 DX case. Black matches my setup better, but the white does look really sharp. Whatever your preferences, if you have a desire to switch to a fishtank-style case, then I strongly recommend you take a good look at be quiet!'s offerings. These cases are really great - they may look loud at times with that RGB, but they sound anything but, and the thermal performance is stellar. Before this upgrade, I would sometimes get annoyed at how loud my PC got while it was on. That is not true any longer! I love this case, and I hope that they offer the HDD Cage 2 for sale soon, for those like me who need them. Also, I strongly recommend the 900 FX version, since the reverse blade fans are only available preinstalled (if you care about matching RGB). And those who enjoy water cooling have plenty of options to make that install the best it can be. Highly recommended!