W
hile be quiet! is only a couple of
generations into its case journey, the
company has already gone from
good efforts with pricey, flawed designs, to
one of the most interesting and unique cases
on the market. The Silent Base 802 is big, but
packs a lot into its cavernous dimensions. It
focuses on cooling and there are three
140mm Pure Wings 2 fans included, with
two up front to create positive air pressure.
There’s space for four more 140mm fans too,
with room for up to 420mm radiators in the
front and 360mm radiators in the roof, with
plenty of clearance for twin rows of fans or
thick radiators.
The large accessory box includes
replacement panels for the roof and front,
which feature mesh rather than sealed panels
to improve airflow – that’s great for a case
costing under £150. The front panel pops off
easily too, sliding up vertically, although it also
comes loose easily if you try to lift it, which
caught us out with back-jarring consequences
during testing.
BE QUIET! SILENT
BASE 802 /£141 inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukThe case itself is solid enough,
with mostly steel construction,
but the exterior does feature
a lot of plastic – it doesn’t feel
cheap, but it lacks the finesse of
the Corsair 5000D Airflow, for
example. However, it has some
fantastic side panels that pop
off easily by pressing buttons
at the rear of the case. Only the
Fractal Design Meshify 2 is more
elegantly engineered.
Building a PC into the case
is straightforward, but we were
disappointed with the minimal effort
paid to cable tidying, which wasn’t on par
with the rest of the field. You do get a pre-
connected PWM fan hub with six channels,
which can also double as a two-speed manual
fan controller, and there’s the option of a
vertically mounted GPU too. What’s more,
the top fan mounts are located in a slide-
out tray, which makes installing extra fans
and radiators here much easier. In addition,
the motherboard tray can be rotated for an
inverted layout.
Out of the box, there are three 3.5in mounts
for hard disks and up to seven for SSDs,
although you can expand these numbers
to seven and 15 respectively by purchasing
optional mounts.
In its stock configuration, the CPU delta T of
71°C was a few degrees off the pace, but not
terrible and the GPU delta T was the lowest at
64°C. The best result, though, was the noise
level, which was just 37dBA using the mesh
panel. With the closed panel, the CPU delta T
rose 2°C and the GPU delta T by 5°C, but the
noise level stayed the same at our measuring
point. Adding one and then two extra 120mm
fans failed to improve the airflow, though,
with just a single degree knocked off the CPU
delta T with two fans installed in the roof and
front sections.Conclusion
The Silent Base 802 nearly hits the nail on the
head, and is worth considering if low noise is a
top priority. It has good cooling, plenty of room
for expansion, highly useful features and very
quiet operation. Its mediocre cable-tidying
setup means it just misses out on an award,
but it still comes recommended.SPEC
Dimensions (mm) 281 x 539 x 553 (W x D x H)
Material Steel, plastic, glass
Available colours Black, white
Weight 13.2kg
Front panel Power, reset, 2 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1
Type-C, 1 x stereo jack, 1 x mic jack, fan control
Drive bays 3 x 2.5/3.5in, 7 x 2.5in
Form factor(s) E-ATX (up to 275mm
wide), ATX, micro-ATX
Cooling 3 x 120/140mm front fan mounts
(2 x 140mm fans included), 1 x 120/140mm
rear fan mount (140mm fan included), 3 x
120/140mm roof fan mounts (fans not included)
CPU cooler clearance 185mm
Maximum graphics card length 432mm
(287mm with second hard drive cage)VERDICT
Superb in many departments, but a lacklustre
cable-tidying system means it doesn’t quite
top the field.SILENCE OF
THE LAMBS
+ Good cooling
+ Intuitive features
+ Good expansion
possibilitiesHANNIBAL RISING
- Not quite as refined
as the competition - Average cable tidying
- Front panel can come
loose when carried
COOLING
28 / 30
DESIGN
26 / 30FEATURES
17 / 20
VALUE
17 / 20OVERALL SCORE
88 %