be quiet! Silent Base 601 review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

The be quiet! Silent Base 601 is a chassis that is pleasant to the eyes. It is a very good improvement over its predecessor (Silent Base 600). It’s still a silent one, making the side panels to flat was a good idea (from a design point of view), and adding a PSU Shroud and eliminating the 5.25” bay enabled be quiet! to catch up with the competition in this market segment. The Silent Base 601 is less 'plasticky' than the Silent Base 600 which is a nice improvement. There’s also a model available with a tempered glass panel (with plastic covers for HDD bays included). That choice should satisfy the needs of almost all consumers. Despite the fact that it’s not a massive chassis you can still mount up to two 360 mm radiators inside, if you prefer an air-cooled CPU, you can even fit a 185 mm (heigh) cooler. There’s also the option to use up to seven 3.5” and fourteen 2.5” disk drives (but you’d need to purchase additional drive bays for that).

Aesthetics

Looks are something subjective, but most users probably will like the Silent Base 601 based on design. The black/orange version is a more appealing product than the other ones, but of course, it depends on your personal taste. If you love to look at the interior (and quite possibly RGB too) during your daily work, there’s a version with a windowed panel for you. The two dust filters should allow keeping the interior clean. For the solid panel version, a serious drawback is lack of the plastic covers for HDD cage mounting points, then again also .. it is a closed chassis.

Features

The Silent Base 601 provides generous space for high-end components. The side panels easily pop off with the push of a button for fast and efficient hardware installation, while the PSU shroud provides a good interior layout and hides the wires coming out from the power supply. PSU installation is simplified by using a bracket inserted from the rear of the case. Dust filters located at the bottom and front of the chassis are easily removable from the front. ATX form factor motherboards fit really well. There’s also a big cutout for your cooler’s backplate. You can fit air coolers up to 185 mm in height, and if you prefer liquid cooling – you’ll fit two 360 mm radiators. Also, PSU length is not an issue in reality (288 mm of space). Graphics cards can measure 287 / 449 mm (with/without an HDD cage) which should be enough for most solutions, even with HDD cage installed. 

The Verdict

be quiet! released a really good-looking chassis with the Silent Base 601. It’s not too big (there’ll be also a new Silent Base 801, with a release date in Q4’18), but this should fit even the most demanding hardware. It’s made mainly of metal, so it will be sturdy and stable (fewer vibrations). The default storage options are sufficient, but you can add additional HDD cages (bought separately, so that’s a bit of a drawback). The case is easy to use, and installing the hardware was a breeze. We can recommend the chassis very much, as it does offer a very good combination of features and performance (especially silence) with really nice looks. It’s a bit strange (but it makes some sense) that be quiet! don’t provide the hard disk bay covers for the solid-panel version, which would help achieve a top-notch look of the interior. Performance-wise the Silent Base 601 is normal, but it’s definitely a silent chassis. The nature of a sound dampened chassis always a has a bit of an effect here. With an MSRP of €119.90 / £109.99 / $129 the price feels a notch high yet again, that's what sound dampening does really as these are expensive materials to work with. Overall it's very competitive given the features provided, for ten bucks more you can get the version with tempered glass side-panel.

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