be quiet! Shadow Base 800 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

TweakTown's Rating: 94%

The Bottom Line

be quiet!'s Shadow Base 800 is superb. If liquid cooling is your thing, support for dual 420mm radiators, a mesh front panel and three 140mm Pure Wings 3 fans, it makes the Shadow Base 800 a winner for performance.

Pros

• Front mesh allows for great airflow
• Supports two 420mm radiators simultaneously
• Includes three 140mm Pure Wings 3 PWM fans
• PCIe slot bracket can be fully rotated to support a vertical GPU

Cons

• The top section is not removable like most cases in the market today
• PCIe slot bracket orientation must be determined before motherboard installation
• No rubber cable grommets

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Newegg for $95.99 USD

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

The last time we looked at a be quiet! product was the Dark Base Pro 901, and we loved it for the rotatable motherboard tray, three included Silent Wings 4 140mm PWM fans, and its support for 420mm radiators. This time, we will look at a new line from be quiet!, the Shadow Base 800.

The Shadow Base line is placed right under the Silent Base line and the Pure Base line of PC cases, making the proposition for value and performance a very real thing and priced currently at $129.99 for the base Shadow Base 800 model. In contrast, other models include the 800 DX for $149.99 and $169.99 for the 800 FX.

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* Prices last scanned on 12/13/2024 at 10:30 am CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Packaging

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Here is the standard brown cardboard box, the typical image of the product on the outside.

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The backside of the Shadow Base 800 shows an exploded view of all the parts.

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The packaging, with two end pieces of hard foam and a clear plastic bag, is standard for a sub $150 ATX chassis. Everything arrived in one piece with no damage.

Outside the be quiet! Shadow Base 800 ATX Full Tower Case

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With the Shadow Base 800 out of the box, it stands tall and proud with a complete mesh front panel, allowing tons of airflow inside to cool system components.

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Looking through the slightly tinted tempered glass side panel is a spacious interior, ready for all sorts of activities.

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The rear of the Shadow Base 800 shows a standard ATX layout with fan support for either 140/120mm rear exhaust fans (1 of 3 Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM fans pre-installed). The rotatable PCIe slot cover is moving further down, allowing the ability to mount a GPU vertically while leaving ample room from the tempered glass side panel.

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The back side panel is, well, really plain. Nothing much is happening here except for two captive thumbscrews.

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Another be quiet! staple, a meshed-out magnetic dust filter, which, in practice, is a nice touch but is completely unnecessary for traditional airflow for a dust filter to be effective.

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The roof can accept a 360/420mm radiator or three 120/140mm fans. A triangle ventilation pattern provides additional rigidity.

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The front I/O section is located on the front top lip. Starting with the USB Type-C port, rated at USB 3.2 Gen 2. Next are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a large power button, separate 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks, and a small reset button.

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The front, which is mostly fine mesh, allows for lots of airflow into the main cabin of the Shadow Base 800.

Inside the be quiet! Shadow Base 800 ATX Full Tower Case

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Again, the Shadow Base 800 has a spacious interior, allowing for some interesting hardware combinations. The Shadow Base 800 supports up to E-ATX-sized motherboards with the ingeniously integrated cable management bar that can be moved to the right if additional space is needed for motherboard clearance.

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The front fan mounting section can accommodate a 360/420mm radiator or three 120/140mm fans. Unfortunately, this fan mount does not come out for an easier installation of fans and or radiators.

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The front view of one of the three included 140mm Pure Wings and 3 PWM fans.

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The first of three included Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM fans. Model number BQ PUW3-14025-LS-PWM. These fans run at 1200 RPM on 12V with .3 amps worth of current.

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This basement/PSU shroud section allows for extra clearance for additional water cooling gear, such as a pump or fatter radiators. When left in, this cutout helps with airflow direction.

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Two more Pure Wings 3 140mm PWM fans make up three included fans. The included accessory box is fixed to the SSD mount; more later.

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The rear side panel is a bit boring, but it includes some noise damping, which adds a bit of weight while aiding in reducing noise, something be quiet! has been known for.

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With the back side panel removed, support for up to four 2.5" SSD/HDDs, two can be installed on each of the SSD/HDD brackets that clip and screw onto the back tray in three different locations. A pre-routed cable raceway runs up the center with four velcro cable straps, keeping the included front I/O cables from flopping too much. PSU limitations are nonexistent in the basement section unless two 3.5" HDDs are installed using the included bracket. There is ample room for cable passthrough points throughout the motherboard tray; however, no rubber grommets are found.

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The accessories that were included with the Shadow Base 800 in the labeled accessories box were a two-bay 3.5" HDD mount, various screws, rubber SSD/HDD mounting hardware, and a few zip ties.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: B650 AORUS Elite AX (AMD B650) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360 - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 5600 RGB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: APNX C1 - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: MEG Ai1300P PCIE 5 & ATX 3.0 Gaming Power Supply - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer 7.00.6700, CPU-z 2.08.0 x64. GPU-Z 2.56.0, and HWiNFO64 v7.66-5271

Final Thoughts

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After putting a build into be quiet!'s Shadow Base 800, I can safely say it was a very easy build process. There were only a few minor gripes, but everything seemed to sort themselves out anyway. The first issue I ran into was that I needed to get used to having a removable top section to allow for easier building and installing things like fans and radiators, but again, it's not a huge deal. The second issue was with the PCIe slot bracket; you better decide if you will vertically mount your graphics card before installing a motherboard. I could not vertically remove the PCIe bracket to mount the test GPU, the NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE. Besides those two issues, the Shadow Base 800 is a solid case to build in.

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The finished result of building in be quiet!'s Shadow Base 800 looks awesome for a blacked-out build, for the most part, if I had used all black components. Front ventilation is awesome, thanks to the fully meshed-out front panel.

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Testing the Shadow Base 800 is the same suite of the latest testing hardware. An AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with vcore limited to 1.1v running at the standard frequency of 4.5GHz on a B650 AORUS Elite AX motherboard. For memory, Patriot Viper at DDR5-5600M/T sticks work nicely. The GPU is the NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE, running at stock clocks and power limits. The Shadow Base 800 did well regarding total system cooling, mostly due to the two large 140mm Pure Wings 3 fans that drew in a ton of fresh cool air.

I relocated the top 140mm Pure Wings 3 fan to the front of the Shadow Base 800 while building so that I could mount the Arctic Freezer II 360mm AIO in the roof mounting location. The AMD Ryzen 7700X CPU only rose to an average temperature of 62.5C, while the GPU, the NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE, averaged only 67.3C.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.00.6700 for over 1 hour; the ambient temperature was 19C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v7.66-5271, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.57.0, and CPU-Z 2.0.0.x64.

So overall, the Shadow Base 800 was a pleasure to build a system in, just like any other be quiet! the case that I have built-in. Sorry to fangirl here, but it's so true; I have NEVER had a bad build experience with a be quiet! case, even the low-budget priced ones. Something to note here is that the fans are inaudible, which is amazing for their cooling. Now that it is out of my system, I found a few issues while building. Namely the PCIe slot orientation while trying to mount a GPU vertically and the top panel not being removable. That's it. It's just a great case that does what it does great.

The current price point of the Shadow Base 800 is $129.99 at Newegg, while the MSRP is at $169.99, making the Shadow Base 800 a stellar deal at the current moment. The next model up is the Shadow Base 800 DX, which is currently an additional $20 more, with the white model being $5 more; the MSRP is down from $184.90. Lastly, the Shadow Base 800 FX model is priced at $169.99, down from $219.99. When searching on Newegg for a mid-tower case with great airflow, three included 140mm fans, there only seem to be a few competitors in that market space, which be quiet! has cornered quite well.

So, if you are looking for a high airflow case with three stupid quiet fans, you can't go wrong with the Shadow Base 800 from be quiet!.