The be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 is a high-end super tower, costing a bomb, while offering all you might ask from a chassis, including a Qi charger for your mobile phone. While keeping a timeless look, the 901 offers a more modern look than its predecessor, the Dark Base Pro 900, and a highly modular design allowing you to invert the mainboard base and install the tempered glass side panel on the opposite side.
be quiet! has designed some of the best chassis available in today’s market, with the Dark Base Pro 901 leading its portfolio of relevant products. This is a full tower (or super tower) chassis, offering a vast interior space, which is also highly customizable according to your needs. What do I mean by the word “customizable”? For example, invert the mainboard and have the tempered glass side panel on the chassis’s left (board) side, so if you have (huge) space in your office, you can install the chassis on your left side and look at its internals. Moreover, you can choose between silence and high airflow configurations by choosing which parts you will use at the top and front panels. During my testing, given that the brand’s name is quiet! I used the silent configuration.
The case comes pre-installed with three high-quality fans (Silent Wings 4 140mm PWM). You can install up to eleven fans if you want more airflow and lower operating temperature (but at an increased noise output). But enough with the case’s features. We will see all of them on the following pages.
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An exploded view of the chassis, showing all of its parts. The highly customizable character is demonstrated.
- Model Name: Dark Base Pro 901
- Case Type: Full Tower
- Materials: Steel (SGCC), Aluminum, ABS Plastic, Tempered Glass
- Color: Black
- Motherboard compatibility: E-ATX / XL-ATX / ATX / M-ATX / Mini-ATX
- Pre-installed fans: [Front] 2x, [Rear] 1x
- Fan Type: Silent Wings 4 140mm PWM
- Fan bearing: Fluid Dynamic
- Fan support (Front): 3x 140mm / 3x 120mm
- Fan support (Top): 3x 140mm / 3x 120mm
- Fan support (Side): 3x 120mm
- Fan support (Bottom): 1x 140mm / 1x 120mm
- Fan support (Side): 3x 120mm
- Radiator support (Front): 120 / 140 / 240 / 280 / 360 / 420mm
- Radiator support (Top): 120 / 240 / 360mm
- Radiator support (Side): 120 / 240 / 360mm
- Radiator support (Rear): 120 / 140mm
- PSU form factor: ATX PS/2
- Max PSU length (mm): 325 (288 according to the manual)
- Max GPU length (mm): 495
- Max cooler height (mm): 190
- Drive Bays: [5.25″] 1x / [3.5 “] 2x Internal (7x max) / [2.5”] 6x Internal (16x max)
- Dimensions (L x W x H), (mm): 603 x 254 x 569
- Fan PWM Controller: Yes
- Fan RGB Controller: No
- I/O Panel: 1x USB 3.2 Gen. 2 Type C, 1x USB 3.2 Type A, 1x Audio Jack, 1x Mic Jack, 1x Power Button, 1x Fan Speed, 1x RGB Light, 1x Qi charger (15W)
- Removable dust filters: 4x (Top, Front, Bottom, Side)
- Expansion slots: 8x horizontal / 4x Vertical
- Weight (kg): 16.3 (net) / 20.8 (gross)
- Price (excluding VAT): $330
- Warranty: 3-years
Thorough, spot on review, as usual. Every review I’ve seen on this site so far is superb, even preferable to most found on some of the more ubiquitous sites.
This flagship Dark Base chassis from beQuiet!, even if a tad pricey, is likely their best, & one of the best on the market. The only disappointment (for me), is unlike their Silent Base & Pure Base series chasses, the Dark Base has no choice for a solid, non tempered glass solid side panel. While said choice is important to some, for most its a non-issue.
It would be good to have a section on memory cooling as well. Heavy memory OC is greatly affected when temps get too high.
While it will add more time to the review process, I think it would be great if you could add a section for noise normalized and fan normalized measurements. I imagine a 1 front intake and 1 exhaust 120mm fan would be suitable for 90% of cases while providing good data for those who plan to use aftermarket fans.
Thank you for your suggestions! Noise normalized, I do already, using the fans of the chassis. Fan normalized is a huge pain for me. Only if I find someone here to completely handle chassis since they are killing me.