Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
As usual, I started by installing the power supply. Since this is a silence-focused build, I chose the Seasonic PRIME 600 Titanium Fanless 600W to ensure no noise would come from the power supply. This power supply is a bit bigger at a length of 170mm, but there was more than enough room in the basement of the be quiet! Silent Base 802. According to be quiet!, the case can hold units up to 288mm in length, which is far more room than you probably will need. However, the good thing is that there is a lot of cabling space even with the front drive cage installed. I then used the tie down points and included Velcro straps to secure the cables in. Afterwards, I installed a WD Blue 1TB hard drive into the drive cage and routed the necessary cables. Since the fan controller is SATA powered, I connected the controller now.
Moving to the interior, I ended up installing a test mATX motherboard into the be quiet! Silent Base 802. Although a much larger motherboard can fit in the case, this was what I had on hand. With a Noctua NH-U12A mounted on top, you can see the Silent Base 802 has much more room to spare. This cooler measures 158mm tall, but be quiet! mentions you can install coolers up to 185mm. At this time, I connected all of my power cables to the motherboard. Next, I would install a graphics card, as be quiet! notes the Silent Base 802 can easily accommodate video cards up to 432mm with no hard drive cages installed at the front. This should be sufficient for practically any graphics card, including the latest NVIDIA Ampere or AMD RDNA2 cards, assuming you can get your hands on them. Otherwise, I finished cabling everything and cleaning it up. Even with the thick sound dampening material, there was sufficient spacing between the back and the side panel for thicker cables. The be quiet! Silent Base 802 was easy to build in, but part of this is because the case was very large. I also appreciate the many rubber grommets and cable tie points to keep your cabling in check.
With everything plugged in and powered on, the three Pure Wings 2 140mm fans spun to life and the white power LED turned on. As you already saw, all of the fans were plugged into the fan controller on the back of the be quiet! Silent Base 802. Overall, the be quiet! Silent Base 802 has two mentions of silence in the name and the resulting sound output is as you might expect. According to the standard APH Networks sound scale, where 0 is silence and 10 is loud, the be quiet! Silent Base 802 is around 2.0/10 even when the fans spin at maximum. This is understandable considering the fans spin at a maximum 1000 RPM. When you swap out the solid panels for the airflow ones, the sound goes up to 2.5/10, which is still pretty quiet. It is quite clear the audible dampening panels do what you might expect in absorbing sound.
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Each of the be quiet! cases I have reviewed in the past have been a positive experience and the Silent Base 802 is no different. Once again, the build construction is solid on the Silent Base 802 with its sturdy side panels and unshakeable structure. It is a really large case for a mid-tower, but it does not feel flimsy or lacking in any area. I like the way be quiet! has implemented their side panels with the one button push to unlatch and pop off. Internally, be quiet! has ensured users have access to as much of the case with great compatibility for mounting large components like radiators, fans, heatsinks, or graphics cards. There are quite a few places for mounting storage at stock configuration, and this can be increased with additional brackets. Other valuable additions include the integrated fan controller with controls at the front and a removable tray for inverting the layout. The "Silent" name is clearly shown through the thick sound dampening material we have inside the side, front, and top panels. However, I appreciate the fact users are given the choice to prioritize either noise suppression or airflow with the included mesh front and top filters. Building in the be quiet! Silent Base 802 was simple and straightforward with lots of space for cables while providing anchor points and Velcro straps to make it tidy. The top sliding radiator bracket makes installing water cooling components easier too. It does help that the case is large enough to easily work in and not be worried about clearances. In the end, you will have a build that will either be near silent or allow more air to pass through without sacrificing too much on noise output. If there was anything I would want to see improved, it would be to make the front Type-C cutout a bit cleaner and group the front I/O pins together. I also think be quiet! should have installed three PWM fans here, especially when you consider the price. Speaking of which, the be quiet! Silent Base 802 can be found for $160 USD for the non-windowed one, while the tempered glass variant costs ten dollars more. This large be quiet! case is not exactly the cheapest option out there, but you can be sure the Silent Base 802 is a quality choice with many included options for users to make it their own.
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 7.9/10
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! Silent Base 802 is a Goliath-sized mid-tower case that truly offers users the ability to change up their build on the fly.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
