Light Base is Be Quiet’s series of cases with panoramic interiors—the company is better known for its silent-running, more enclosed dark sentinels. A new addition, the $145-as-tested Light Base 500 LX, features the compact height and angled fan mounting popularized by a few of its PC case competitors, notably NZXT, while adding a 16-mode ARGB controller, a powered fan hub, and four ARGB spinners. Also available in a non-RGB version for $25 less (Light Base 500, $120) or in White for $10 more, this Light Base model mostly stands out as a source for low-cost, ready-to-go RGB lighting. That’s the biggest reason you might choose it over that other angled-fan competitor.

Design: Taking Another Angle on Cooling

Though even the most minor changes can make a product stand on its own, the efforts Be Quiet made to make its angled corner intake fans a brand exclusive are far more noticeable. Rather than chop off one corner of the case like we saw in the NZXT H9 Flow or the APNX V1, the designers filled the corner with a vertical bar and extended the side panel to cover the gap from that angle. The front panel’s gap remains as a styling cue, and the vertical bar delivers some function by housing the case’s ARGB-mode button, USB 3.x ports, backlit power button, headset jack, and reset button.

Those USB ports are Type-C and Type-A, the former connected via a Gen 2x2 cable and the latter by a legacy 19-pin.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

While the filter that covers the above fans is merely a perforated sheet stuck into position using flexible magnetic strips, the rigidly framed slide-out filter of the bottom panel intake is a more rigid piece of kit. The empty fan mount that it covers is designed to hold three more 120mm fans.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The back panel hosts two full-size power supply bays, as well as the expected seven slot covers and 120mm ARGB fan. The slot panel is bridgeless (having no separators between slot covers), and the fan mount has additional holes to optionally fit a larger 140mm unit.

Also, notice the pattern of fine perforations on the steel side panel, which is large enough to vent both power supply bays and extends to the right/front angled intake.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Six ball-style snaps secure the top panel, and three more are located at the top of each side. Removing these exposes the two power supply bays, as well as the opposite end of the angled intake’s air duct.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The top of the Light Base 500 LX supports radiators up to approximately 410mm long, including both 360mm and 280mm formats. The side mount does not have radiator mounting provisions, but instead uses a slide-out cage to hold its three 120mm ARGB fans. (You can see the angled top of it, screwed down, in the next image below.) We can also see a bit of the perforated sheet dust filter that covers the side fans.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Proprietary connectors chain all three intake fans together, the end of the chain fed by an adapter cable with ARGB and PWM fan inputs. The ARGB connector also has an output, making it possible to add yet another ARGB device.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The LX version’s ARGB controller board also serves as a powered fan hub. That the controller/hub board is mounted to one of the Light Base 500’s two 3.5-inch drive bays may irk some storage-minded builders, but those whose motherboards are adequately provisioned with headers may not need the controller board since so many of the case’s fans are chained together.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Builders who would like to fit a power supply each of the bays will need to ditch the drive tray entirely since it’s affixed to the upper bay’s filler panel, but those who prefer internal drive mounting space will find room for two 2.5-inch drives on its inner and two 3.5-inch drives on its outer sides. The case even includes a second screw tab to affix the forward portion of the drive tray when it’s mounted in the lower power supply bay…just in case you’d like to swap their positions.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The Light Base 500 LX is designed to support reverse-connector motherboards (Asus BTF or MSI Project Zero), and its cable passages are also roomy enough to serve traditional top-mounted connectors. While it doesn’t provide mechanical support for the largest EATX motherboards, it’s designed to hold the more common oversize models around 10.6 inches deep that are typically found in the gaming/enthusiast markets.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Like several other current models, the Light Base 500 LX’s bottom panel is a two-layer design that conceals the frames of up to three 120mm-by-25mm fans. Rolled metal edges prevent anything larger (such as a radiator) from fitting there, though extra-stubborn users could use their fans as spacers to put a radiator atop this chamber.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Building With the Be Quiet Light Base 500 LX

The Light Base 500 LX includes a user manual, separate hardware packs for power supply/SSD/motherboard standoff/drive screws, a tenth standoff with a hex adapter socket, a vertical graphics-card adapter, and five zip ties. Though the card adapter is capable of positioning a graphics card vertically across the case’s expansion-slot space, builders must purchase a riser cable separately to make that card functional.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

A 9-pin front-panel combo connector addresses the power/reset buttons and power-on indicator LED, an HD Audio cable serves the headphone/microphone combo jack, a 19-pin USB 3.x cable connects the Light Base 500 LX’s Type-A ports, and a Gen 2x2 cable its Type-C port. The SATA power, ARGB, and PWM fan connectors that you see to the right in the image below all feed its removable ARGB controller/powered fan hub.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

We won’t be able to drop our card straight into our motherboard since its screw tab must be slid backward over the case’s external bracket. As much as that’s clumsy, Be Quiet was at least kind enough to make the access hole extra-large (around 25mm tall) so that the spade ends of our video card’s bracket could clear the circuit cover of our motherboard.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

In our assembled-system photo, you can see the letters “EFX” on the lower portion of the circuit cover that our graphics card bracket had to clear. It worked. Everything fit perfectly.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Likewise, it all looks good. The empty fan mount at the bottom of the case appears a little unfinished, but we’re sure that advanced builders could find a trio of matching fans to fill it.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Testing the Be Quiet Light Base 500 LX

Here’s a recap of the standard components that we use in test builds for ATX PC cases like the Light Base 500 LX...

Regarding CPU temperature, the Light Base 500 LX finished in a virtual three-way tie for third place with two cases that shipped without fans: the Lian Li O11 Vision Compact and the APNX V1. The preinstalled rear exhaust fan gave it some advantage in voltage-regulator cooling over the other two cases, and it even—barely—kept our graphics card slightly cooler.

Our noise test reveals at least part of the reason why the Light Base 500 LX’s fans are only so-so at assisting the component cooling: They’re rather quiet. (Look at them next to the NZXT H9 Flow, which also ships with four fans in the same position.) So quiet, in fact, that the case’s SPL is virtually tied with the non-assisted APNX V1.