be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 review: The king of PC cases

I be quiet! asked you how many fans it should add, what cooling it should support, and what other features you'd like to see in a PC case, and you answered, "Yes!" you'd end up with the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901. The specification sheet is long, detailed, and impressive. So, too, is the case, with its sleek design and subtle RGB lighting effects. There's even Qi wireless charging for mobile devices and a capacitive front-facing interface for controlling the included fan and RGB hub.

Being an expensive chassis, there's a healthy use of aluminum alongside tempered glass and steel to create a sturdy, imposing black PC case. There's also a fan and RGB hub, which can support countless blowers and synchronize everything with the motherboard if desired. be quiet! went all out with the Dark Base Pro 901, which makes sense since this is a flagship chassis to go up against the very best from Corsair, Lian Li, and other brands.

We built a very powerful system inside the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 to put it to the test with the latest hardware from Intel and Nvidia. The good news is that we had no problems keeping even an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X or Intel Core i9-13900K cool. The padded sound insulation is a nice touch, though the case will ramp up in decibels with enough fans installed to keep everything within an optimum operating temperature range. It's easily one of the best PC cases available.

About this review: be quiet! shipped me a Dark Base Pro 901 case for the purposes of this review and had no input into its contents.

Availability and pricing

be quiet!'s Dark Base Pro 901 is a premium PC case with plenty of touches that make it a compelling purchase for those seeking one of the best platforms around. It's an eye-watering $300 at MSRP, but it's well worth the asking price if you have the available budget and want something from the company's exquisite collection. The Dark Base Pro 901 even comes wrapped up in its own branded sleeve for a superior unboxing experience. It's truly a masterpiece before you even lift a screwdriver.

Hardware design

Big, bold, beautiful

The Dark Base Pro 901 is a gorgeous all-black PC case with a good use of aluminum throughout, including on the front and top panels. The expensive look matches its MSRP, though it's not just about looks. be quiet! also made sure to consider just about everything within the outer shell. The highlight is the front-facing 5.25-inch drive bay. That's right, you can install an optical disk drive inside the Dark Base Pro 901... in 2023.

There is a drawback to using a drive here, which is the replacement of the internal 3.5-inch drive cage. The lower tray door needs to be opened on the front panel, or the disk would need to be ejected each time. It's a nice touch, nonetheless.

Keeping to the front, almost everything is mesh, aside from the aforementioned lower bay door and front I/O panel up top. Not only do we have the main power button and an array of ports, but also some capacitive controls of the RGB and fan hub. The right panel is bare aside from a strip of mesh metal for providing a side-mounted radiator and/or fans with access to cool air. The left panel is the usual tempered glass window affair we typically see on ATX desktop PC cases.

The same goes for the rear of the Dark Base Pro 901, which plays host to PCI slots, a single 120mm fan mount, motherboard I/O cut-out, and a PSU bracket. Because a radiator and fans can also be attached to the top panel, there's a 30mm high strip of mesh metal wrapping around the sides and rear of the case.

The two side panels can be removed without a screwdriver, and the same goes for the top panel, which provides access to the radiator and fan mounting bracket. And there's ample cooling here. This area allows for the installation of one of three 360mm radiators or three 140mm fans if you're installing the AIO rad elsewhere inside the chassis. The front panel supports up to a 420mm radiator and/or three 140mm fans. The side panel can hold a radiator of 360mm in length and/or three 120mm fans.

be quiet! includes two huge accessory boxes with various panels to swap out the default configuration, making it possible to go for maximum performance or better acoustics for quieter operation. The top panel alone can be kitted out with a full mesh panel or a combination of solid panels, depending on whether you'll be fully utilizing the top-facing fan mounts. Dust filtering is handled by a large filter on the bottom, which requires the front panel to be removed in order for the filter itself to be extracted and cleaned. There's a second filter located behind the front panel, which again can be cleaned once the front face has been removed.

Building a PC inside the Dark Base Pro 901 is a straightforward and easy process thanks to the modular design, so even those with minimal PC building experience can put together something truly special.

Building a PC

Cram everything inside this case

be quiet!'s case supports up to oversized E-ATX motherboards. The latest AMD and Nvidia graphics cards will have no trouble fitting inside the case, with up to 495mm to play with. The included accessories box has absolutely everything you need for building a PC. There's even a magnetic support stand for heavier GPUs and a plastic screw bin. By default, be quiet! has the five 2.5-inch drive slots bracket installed next to the motherboard tray, which also hides cables, but this can be swapped out for the third radiator bracket to unlock access to three more 120mm fans.

Behind the motherboard tray is a well-designed cable management routing system. With a few cable ties, everything can be neatly tucked behind various plastic channels. We installed an Asus ROG Strix Z690 Hero motherboard and found no issues working with a full-size ATX board. A be quiet! AIO with a 360mm radiator was used to adequately cool our test bench processors, matching the design of the rest of the case. All fans and RGB channels were connected to the integrated fan and RGB controller hub, which was then used to synchronize the lighting effects with the motherboard for a full rainbow visual experience.

Building a PC inside the Dark Base Pro 901 is a straightforward and easy process thanks to the modular design.

I'm a fan of the RGB lighting present here. It's just enough to provide much-needed eye candy for an otherwise black slab of metal and glass. Even the USB ports on the front panel are lit to make it easier to spot them in low-light conditions. With the controller hub and front panel I/O, be quiet! does require at least two SATA power connections to be presently available. It's worth checking your PSU since an AIO would also likely require SATA power.

Performance

Cooling enthusiast-grade hardware is no trouble

With everything installed and cables routed on the rear, it's time to put the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 to the test. An Intel Core i9-13900K was installed onto the motherboard, with an Intel Core i5-13600K on the second test to see if the case performed with less heat to deal with. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 was used for both tests with 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM. I tested the case with the solid and mesh front panels, noting any differences between the two.

The noise increased slightly to 47 dB(A) and temperatures did fall by a few degrees with the mesh panel installed, but whether that's a tradeoff you wish to take depends on how much power you're pushing inside the case. Our test bench barely hit 70 degrees Celsius for gaming and general usage. Stress testing did push the processor to its thermal limit, but that's by design and allows Intel to get as much performance out of the chip as possible. The case and 360mm AIO handled it well, with frequencies dropping within expected ranges.

Voltage regulator modules (VRM) can get toasty when put under strain, and while the Core i9-13900K we used was running at stock settings, it still draws considerable amounts of power. I didn't see the VRMs hit 30 degrees Celsius, which is a testament to the cooling performance of the Dark Base Pro 901 and the design of the Asus motherboard. The RTX 4070 happily chugged along in-game at 65 degrees Celsius. I didn't replace the two front-facing 140mm blowers be quiet! included with the case, which could provide additional airflow with three 120mm fans.

be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901: Should you buy it?

You should buy the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 if:

• You want an expansive case to fit inside big PC hardware
• You plan on using more powerful AMD or Intel processors with AIO coolers.
• You want an easy PC-building experience with excellent cable management

You shouldn't buy the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 if:

• You don't have the space for such a giant PC case
• You prefer to use multiple front-facing USB-C ports
• You don't care for wireless Qi charging

I'm a huge fan of be quiet's catalog. The company is responsible for some of the best cooling solutions and PC cases on the market, and the Dark Base Pro 901 is another fine example of its craft skills. Unboxing the case itself, unpacking the accessories, and building a PC inside the case feels like an adventure. It's recommended you spend just as much (if not more) on the very best processor and graphics cards to make the most of the Dark Base Pro 901.

So long as you have $300 to spare, you'll be buying one of the best PC cases around in terms of design, thermal performance, and acoustics.

The design helps create a sleek case with subtle RGB lighting that can complement almost any theme. If you're planning to use an AIO with a few RGB-enabled fans, everything can be controlled and synchronized through the integrated RGB and fan controller hub. The front-facing capacitive controls are a nice touch, though they can feel like a step back from physical buttons at times, much like modern vehicle infotainment systems.

Cooling support is where the Dark Base Pro 901 truly shines. It's possible to fit up to three 360mm radiators inside this chassis, allowing for a serious custom open-loop water cooling solution to be created for easily handling the heat generated from the best graphics card and CPU. So long as you have $300 to spare, you'll be buying one of the best PC cases around in terms of design, thermal performance, and acoustics.