The Light Base 500 LX delivers the low noise levels you’d expect from a Be Quiet PC case. If peak cooling is a high priority, though, consider adding more fans beyond the four supplied ARGB ones.
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 2×2 cable and the latter by a legacy 19-pin.
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.
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.
Six ball-style snaps secure the top panel, and three more are located at the top of each side.
