Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
On the be quiet! Dark Base 701, the front, sides and top panel can be easily taken off. The front panel can be removed by yanking on the handle at the bottom. It is held in by six flat ball-and-socket joints. Unfortunately, one of the sockets broke upon removal, but the panel is still fairly secure. An interesting feature found here is a small electrical panel with pogo pins to send power and information to the addressable RGB LED strips contained in the front panel. With the front panel removed, the front and bottom filters can be accessed and removed for cleaning. The front mesh is magnetically held on at the top and swings out, while the bottom mesh filter slides out from the front. Behind the front mesh, is a fan and radiator bracket that is held in with two captive thumbscrews. This bracket can be completely removed for easier installation of components. It has space for three 140mm fans, three 120mm fans or up to a 360mm radiator. In stock configuration, a be quiet! Silent Wings 4 140mm PWM high-speed fan is installed in the middle position.
The side panels can be removed by loosening the two captive thumbscrews at the back. Each side panel can slide backwards and pop off. One of the peculiar features of the be quiet! Dark Base 701 is that the internals can be completely inverted, so the motherboard is mounted facing the other side. The glass side panel and metal side panel can be placed on either side to accommodate this layout.
Looking at the left side of the case, there are several removable plastic panels. One long piece stretches across the side of the bottom and hides the bottom chamber where the power supply unit, its cables, optional HDD cage, and fan reside. Near the front, there is a removable panel that leads to the lower chamber with the option to choose a solid plastic panel or one with plastic louvers for extra ventilation. These panels simply snap in place, but I ran into a small issue with the large horizontal panel where I had to lift the metal of the bottom chamber slightly to get it to fit.
On the right side, there are three small plastic panels. Two of these plastic panels cover spots where you can mount a 2.5” SSD to show on the front. The smaller middle panel can help cover the cables that lead to the SSD mounts. The plastic panels can be removed to mount water cooling components. A sizable cable channel is situated to the left of this area. This allows for cables to be passed to the back and does a decent job hiding any messes. Due to its design, if you mount a 3.5” disk in the back, the cables may be visible from the front side.
Moving to the motherboard mounting area, this case can accommodate up to a 30.5 x 27.5cm E-ATX board. There is a clear debossed mounting index indicating with letters to indicate which standoff holes are for the different motherboard types. You can see the case is made in China based on these markings. Nine standoffs are preinstalled for an ATX motherboard. Perhaps due to the invertible internal layout, there is a good amount of flex for the mounting area. For motherboard cooling, a 185mm tall air cooler can be installed. On the back, there is a preinstalled 140mm Silent Wings 4 fan as well. Optionally, a 120mm radiator can fit here instead.
The top panel can be removed by loosening the two curiously non-captive thumbscrews at the back. The top panel then slides back and lifts off. There are six sliding hooks that also hold it in place. Unfortunately, one of the middle hooks was broken before I even touched the panel. Looking at the broken piece, there appears to be some plastic injection issue that caused the part to not properly form. With the top panel removed, the top fan and radiator mounting bracket is revealed. You can slide and remove this bracket by unscrewing two Philips head screws from the side. By default, the third 140mm Silent Wings 4 fan is installed in the rear position. However, a total of three 140mm or 120mm fans or up to a 360mm radiator can be installed. A total of three Silent Wings 4 140mm PWM high-speed fans are included in the case. Each of the fans features rubber mounts to dampen vibrations and have “virtually inaudible operation and superior cooling”. The Silent Wings 4 fans utilize a fluid dynamic bearing and 6-pole motor. They are rated for a maximum air flow of 78.4CFM, air pressure of 2.36mmH2O, and 29.3dB at full speed.
On the right side of the case, we have the behind-the-scenes part of the case. On the inside of the solid metal side panel, we actually find a large piece of dense foam for sound dampening. As mentioned earlier, there was damage to the side panel and the rail on this side. With some elbow grease, I was able to provide sufficient correction to make it fit together again. Besides the unfortunate damage, we do find a nicely laid out area. The power supply chamber is located at the bottom. There are four rubber pads that help to support the PSU to reduce vibrations, which is a nice addition. A PSU up to 250mm long can be accommodated here. There is also plenty of room for cables to be stuffed down in this location. The separately bought 3.5” HDD cage can be mounted at the front of the lower chamber, or a 140mm or 120mm fan.
Moving upwards, we find the included fan and ARGB controller. It is in a nice white color to match the case and can control up to eight fans at a time. Two additional ARGB headers are present here to plug in additional RGB LED lighting. The controller is powered by a standard SATA power connector. It uses a standard fan header and ARGB cable to connect to your motherboard for synchronizing fan speed and lighting control. Even without the ARGB header connected, there are preset lighting modes that operate the front panel light strips.
Beside the fan controller, a 2.5” drive can be mounted. There is also room for either two 3.5” or 2.5” storage options to be installed on the left side. A total of three 2.5” and two 3.5” drives can be mounted in the case with the included hardware. Plenty of cable management troughs and tie down spots are found throughout the back. There is 24mm between the panel and the tray for cable management. The central large cable channel is well-designed to easily accommodate the 24-pin ATX cable and still has room for practically any other cable that needs to be there. Additional details like the two rubber pads on this channel to prevent rattling on the side panel are a nice touch. There is plenty of versatility and “maximum usability” for cable routing and drive mounting in this area.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
