This little cute thing right next to me is the BeQuiet’s latest addition to their mid-tower chassis portfolio which goes by the name of Pure Base 500. This is actually one of their most compact chassis to date, but despite of that, as you will see later on, it offers a great deal of flexibility.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve had the metallic gray model of Pure Base 500, it looks sort of like a dark silver color, and I personally like it the most next to the white and black color choices which they also offer for this model, but this color is a welcomed departure from your common picks. It has a really nice coating and feel to it, the front panel has that brushed aluminum looks to it, although that part is obviously made out of plastic. On top of it you can see your usual I/O array, two USB 3.0 ports, so no USB-C ports, audio in and out jack and a big ON switch that lights up. This version also has the tempered glass left side panel which completes the look, while you can get the version without it, which will keep around 10-15$ in your pocket, depending on the color choice also. Overall the chassis looks very industrial and minimalistic, but with a little bit of that flare, round edges, just to give that extra something, which is sort of like BeQuiets signature move for all their other models too, which I’m overall a fan of.
Before I go on and continue with my detailed look of this model, let’s first go ahead and put a build it! Yeah, I know that there’s already something in it now, but I want to show you how that was. Roll the tape!
Be Quiet! Pure Base 500 – their most compact model
With everything in place, It’s really hard to find any major complaint when it comes to ease off-putting it all together. Of course, the first step before entering in BeQuiet Pure Base 500 is to remove the tempered glass side panel, which has a total of four sort of like a half thumb screws in each corner, meaning you don’t need a screwdriver to remove them, and then you can just pop it off, which is a pretty usual way of handling them, and I appreciate how they’ve aligned the bottom feet a bit outside of the chassis frame, so the glass can sit on it and have a more stable ground once you pull the screws off. I also like the fact the glass is just ever so slightly tinted, if at all, so you can really get a good look at the components in it, while they also covered the edge of it with the same color scheme as the chassis.
Although the chassis is a bit smaller compared to what I’ve lately reviewed, like the SilentiumPC AR7X model, feel free to check it out in the right top corner of this video, I had no problems what so ever with components handling in it, thanks to the fact that to the right of the motherboard tray we have a completely clean space. Up here you can put two 2,5” drives, you can see four dedicated wholes below and above this boxy looking thing with the BeQuiet’s logo on it, and actually, that’s a cable cover for them.
Speaking of the cables, there’s plenty of cutouts around the motherboard tray, especially on the bottom, while none of them have any rubber grommets. In a way that was for a reason, because BeQuiet went for this interesting looking right-angled canal cover on the main right side of the motherboard, which would be great in a case where all of the connectors on the motherboard are right-angled, but with most of them, they’re not, so that cover ends up being a bit too tight, because it’s pretty low, especially when a cable needs to go up and above to be connected onto a port which is vertically oriented on the motherboard, like for example a thick 24-pin ATX power cable. Other than that, you can accommodate basically anything in terms of the components, up to 190 mm tall CPU coolers, 369 mm long graphics card, up to 360 mm radiators on the front, or 240 mm on the top.
Blueprint for modern chassis
As you’ve probably noticed, the bottom third of the Be Quiet! Pure Base 500 is occupied by the power supply shroud, and I personally don’t mind it at all when they do it like that, a complete cover from back to front, it looks more unified and cleaner, while they left some space on the top front in order to give some extra room and clearance for the radiator. They’ve also put little triangle like cutouts so the drives and power supply can breather a little bit better since the heat will not get trapped down there, although that could potentially bring the temperatures up a bit for the rest of the hardware inside the main compartment.
Let’s get outside from here for a second and check out what’s installed for use behind the other right-side panel, which is, as you’ve may notice, just a regular panel, with any cutout or bulges, that goes easily off with undoing two thumbscrews which stay put once you do that, so you don’t have to be afraid of losing them. I really like how they’ve simplified and cleaned things behind the back, this is how the cables were when I opened up the right-side panel for the first time, all nice and tidy thanks to plenty of preinstalled Velcro ties and most importantly, everything back here is really easy to handle, need to put in some drives in the drive cage or you want to move it a bit for better radiator clearance or you don’t need it at all, no problem, two thumbs screws and it’s gone, same goes for the 2,5” drive plate behind the motherboard tray, bam, one screw and it’s down, need to have a better cable clearance during your installation or if you want to showcase your 2,5” from the inside of the motherboard as I mentioned earlier, there, done.
All in all, in terms of the cable management there were no hiccups, especially if you plan to use only M.2 drives in the beginning, as I did here, if you’re for example building a new configuration from scratch and planning to add drives later, the clutter will be minimal and everything will look really clean. There are enough cable tie points around the whole area the route everything properly, as I said you’ll get a lot of Velcro ties together with some zip ties, plus the room between the side panel and the motherboard tray is big enough to accommodate anything. The same can be said for the power supply area, you can tuck its and other excess cables in there, it will be even easier if you don’t plan to keep the drive cage, while with it you will have to squeeze them in a bit.
Pure Base 500 – Does it fit your budget?
Last, but not the least, let’s talk about chassis cooling and noise performance. Why I say noise, well, first and foremost, as it’s a BeQuiet chassis in question, they made sure to put some sound dampening material on the front, side, and top panel. You already saw me pulling of the side panel, while on the top we have this futuristic and clean angle cut looking panel held by magnets, which again has this triangle looking pattern cutouts, that gives you some airflow. The front panel can be easily removed just by pulling it from the bottom, and thankfully, it’s not connected to the front I/O so you don’t have to be scared of pulling any of the wires off together with it, and I for one really appreciated this design choice, so it’s easier to handle your cooling solution, and here you can again see the sound damping material.
Since trying to make the chassis as quiet as possible usually overlaps with the cooling performance of it, and it’s general ability to move air in the case where the intakes and outtakes are being blocked off or restricted by design, it’s time to take a closer look how this effects the Pure Base 500. For starters, BeQuiet pre-installed two of their 120 mm fans, one on the back, and one on the front, those being the non-PWM versions of the Pure Wings 2 models, which are one of the top choices when it comes to noise to performance ratio, they whisper-quiet, especially these 900 RPM models which they’ve put.
In terms of moving the air thought the chassis, the front panel seems to be pretty blocked off, It has some mesh-like intakes on the side edge of it, but judging by the size of it and the fact that it also has some dust filters on it, it looks to be pretty restricted. I assume that a single fan on this type of front panel, serving as cold intake solution, will have less effect on the airflow and cooling, maybe if with a two fan configuration. With the stock amount of fans, it seems like it makes more sense to put that front fan onto the top and try to get rid of the accumulated heat as fast as possible. With doing so, you could leave the hardtop cover or put the magnetic mesh filter which BeQuiet bundles with this case, but either way the airflow potential will be somewhat restricted since the mesh filter is pretty dense and the front cover has just a few cutouts and it partially covers the fan, so in the end, it’s probably better to leave everything off. That was confirmed by actually testing these scenarios, and here are few screenshots of that, also followed up with the noise testing for each setup.
As you saw, the difference is pretty obvious, so you will have to weigh in if you want to have a little bit of extra cooling performance versus keeping the dust build-up as slow as possible. Of course, besides the dust filters which I mentioned, there’s another one the bottom side for the power supply and it actually covers the whole bottom surface and it’s easily removable from the front. Down there you can also find four plastic feet which raise up the chassis for better air intake clearance, while they have rubberized padding so the chassis stays planted.
When you draw the line, it’s really hard not to like the new Pure Base 500, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it as checks all the boxes for anyone who is in search for a capable and straightforward chassis that can accommodate your latest hardware choice, with looking good and being practical while doing so, while the only problem it has laid in the fact that it faces very strong competition in this price point.
That’s it for this time from me, I hope this Be Quiet! Pure Base 500 review helped you in some way with making your decision, if you have any question feel free to hit me in the comments section of my YouTube video listed above, you can contact me via my social media channels!
