Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
I experienced a few hiccups with the installation process, mainly because I am not familiar with the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX's unique layout. To start, I installed my Seasonic PRIME TX-1300 ATX 3.0 1300W first, which did not take long for me to realize my error. For one, the power supply bay is right behind the CPU socket area, which means it blocks access to the motherboard backplate. I ended up having to remove my PSU to get my Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC in, which was not a big hassle, but it also was not something I have ever experienced with a conventional bottom PSU layout. If there are any compromises to this chassis' design, this would be the biggest one.
The second issue I have experienced was the Light Base 600 LX specifies a maximum power supply length of 20cm. The PRIME TX-1300 is 21cm. For reference, the larger be quiet! Light Base 900 DX can take PSUs as long as 22.5cm. Exactly what gets in the way? Technically nothing except for the vertical cable management cover, which the inside lip touches the PSU. I do understand the PRIME TX-1300 is unconventionally long, so it is a bit of an edge case, but I feel like this is not a limitation that is necessary. There is enough flex in the chassis to force the cable management cover to close and mount the side panel anyway. This means be quiet! could have easily reduced the cable management cover's lip thickness or moved the PSU about 1mm inwards to remove this restriction.
Other than that, executing a good cabling job was very easy on the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX. There are many large openings all around the motherboard. They are all appropriately placed for routing cables through. For those with motherboard backside connectors like Asus BTF, MSI Project Zero, or Gigabyte Project Stealth, this chassis supports them all. The massive abundance of space behind the motherboard tray in conjunction with lots of well-placed zip tie anchor points make the job easy. To connect the front chassis I/O, the connector comes in one single cable with a single block. My only recommendation is to include built-in Velcro straps and corresponding tie down points.
The rest of the installation process came and went smoothly as I got past the initial hiccups described earlier. The placement of the ARGB LED and fan hubs at both the top and bottom of the case was a great design choice in my opinion, since it allows accessibility no matter where your fans are located. The motherboard shown above is the ASUS ProArt Z890-Creator WiFi with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K behind the Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC. The RAM shown is the Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5-7200 2x16GB. I only have NVMe SSDs connected to the motherboard, which is representative of most modern builds. I did not install any 2.5" or 3.5" drives, even though the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX supports them. A vertical GPU riser kit is included for you to show off your graphics hardware, should you choose to do so.
Installation of most components will require you to keep your screwdriver handy unless you count thumbscrews as tool-free. This includes all add-on cards as well as your disk drives, if you have any you want to install. I do not have much beef against this though, since it is usually much more secure, and it is not like I will take my computer apart occasionally anyway. The Light Base 600 LX will give you no surprises.
After plugging in everything, our system configured inside the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX was ready to roll. I hit the square power button in front, and my computer came to life. You can see how the external ARGB LED strips and internal ARGB LED fans look when fired up in my above photo.
On a scale from 0.0 to 10.0 where 0.0 is silent and 10.0 is the loudest, the stock Light Wings LX 120mm fans would come in at 4.5 subjective sound rating at full blast. Slowing them down will keep it at around 1.0 in my personal opinion. I am quite sensitive to perceived sound volume, and as a quiet PC enthusiast, the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX is reasonably good thanks to the fans. The rifle bearing fans have a smooth-running motor with no annoying noise during operation. That said, there is nothing intrinsically quiet about the Light Base 600 LX, as the chassis is fully ventilated with no sound dampening elements.
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Is the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX all things to all people, or did they try too hard and end up mastering none? To start, I love how it can be easily flipped to any orientation, whether it is conventional, inverted, or horizontal. This flexibility can accommodate users of different preferences, and the ease of doing so makes it so much more appealing. The Light Base 600 LX is a beautiful fish tank style case with lots of tempered glass to show off your latest hardware, including your graphics card, thanks to the vertical GPU riser kit that is included out of the box. The external ARGB LED strips are unique and provide a stunning appearance, while the internal ARGB LED fans add to the effect. I like how the front intake Light Wings LX are not only quiet at nominal speeds, but also have reverse blades to further enhance the look. Two well-placed interconnected ARGB LED and PWM fan controllers keep all of them operational. Functionality-wise, the open interior gives you lots of room to work with, including a virtually limitless gap behind the motherboard tray. The abundance of appropriately placed tie down points will keep your cables secure too. So, what are the tradeoffs? To be honest, I can see only one big one. To make the case work in any orientation, the Light Base 600 LX was made symmetrical, which placed the power supply behind the CPU socket area. This means you will have to install your motherboard and cooler before you install your PSU. I do not think it is a deal killer, but keep in mind if you ever need to remove your CPU cooler, you will also need to remove your power supply. That aside, here are a few things I noticed about the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX. The ARGB and reset buttons look similar and are not labeled, not to mention the beveled reset button is even easier to press than a flush one, making them easy to confuse. There is no particular reason why the cable management cover should limit PSUs to 20cm, as rare as they are, since be quiet! can simply do a cut out on the cover's lip or shift the bay inward by about 1mm inwards to accommodate longer units. On the cable management cover, adding built-in Velcro straps will help improve cable management. Lastly, the noticeable gap between the front and side glass panels may bother some people. One trivial thing to note is the Light Base 600 LX is fully ventilated in all directions, so there is nothing particular that makes this be quiet! case, you know, quiet. For about $185 at press time, the be quiet! Light Base 600 LX is a reasonably priced, well-built, and absolutely stunning chassis made with functionality in mind that will impress for many days to come.
be quiet! provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH:Renewal Award | APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks, but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 7.8/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The be quiet! Light Base 600 LX is a stunning mid-tower chassis with stunning ARGB LED visuals, beautiful tempered glass implementation, and innovative design features.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
