be quiet! Pure Base 501 LX

[Darksaber]

The be quiet! Pure Base 501 LX is a refresh of the 500 series and replaces the FX series. The refresh uses the same frame, but with a slew of updates and improvements. These modernizations go a long way to keep the Pure Base 501 LX relevant, but even so, its age does become apparent in some aspects.

Show full review

 

[Chaitanya]

beQuite, Fractal and Antec(on certain cases in their line up) are the only case makers left who are providing proper vibration dampners on HDD mounts while rest of the case makers simply dont bother to do the bare minimum on their 3.5" mounting options forget features like vibration dampners.

 

[_roman_]

It seems it's still a tight squeeze in the front for the possible AIO.
There is so much space and still they are unable to provide space for 420mm AIO in the front and a hdd CAGE in the front at the same time.

the last fan - assuming an aio is put there, is rather useless

Someone wanted a cheap case and a cheap arctic freezer 33(31?) cpu tower cooler. Later I had to squeeze in the front an Arctic Liquid freezer 360 AIO cooler in a bequiet pure base 500 case. That case really was not to my liking. I had to move those 3 fans for the aio from up to down until i found one only way to squeeze that aio in the front.
Manufacturing quality was similar to the jonsbo D41.
I replaced teh fans with artic p12 or p14 ones. The stock fans from the bequiet pure base 500 are trash. I used them for a while as additional fans in my fractal design meshify 2 case. They do not convince me. I also think they were only 3 pin fans instead of 4 pin fans.

The edges on the front are dead corners anyway. It does not really matter if these are round corners.

My conclusion: Bequiet did not improve the 500 series case. Still those pop on things for the front cover. I realle hate those. You have to gently rip off the front. You see those pop on things on the part on the right in this picture.

My fractal design meshify 2 has a front door. Even with mesh I sometimes have to clean the front fans.

--

It seems that PWM / AIO Board is mounted with rivets. No money for 4 screws?
So when you want to get rid of that pcb. Or when you have to replace those soldered fuses you have to drill off the pcb?
I did once made the mistake to file a bit metall from my meshify 2 case. I do not want to have metal scraps near my computer.
The idea about using replaceable glass fuses or car fuses did not come to mind?

 

[Chrispy_]

I was reading this review thinking to myself, "Man, BeQuiet! have really done well for a $100 case, this is going back on my cases shortlist." It's a clean looking compact budget case with some slightly nicer fans, so It's going to be a little bit more than the competition, but still in the under-$100 market.

Similar cases from the competition are in the $50-80 ballpark, and typically still under $100 once you factor in white paint and four RGBLED fans.

H5 Flow 2024 white ($70)
H5 Flow 2024 white RGB edition ($95)
Corsair 3500X white ARGB ($95)
Phanteks XT Pro ($65, but often seen at $50)
Phatneks XT Pro ARGB white edition ($88)

At $145 this is just too expensive. It also commits several of the "classic" $50 case crimes:

• Hard styrofoam packing that can only take a single big hit, and doesn't offset the cardboard box very far from the case at all. You can't ship built (heavier) systems in these so they (maybe, if you're lucky) get the brand new empty case to you undamaged for its one and only journey, but that's about it.
• Cheap, flat IO panel at the back with minimal structural rigidity for your heavy triple-slot GPU and those annoying PCIe slot cover covers with extra screws to undo before you can access your screws. They only ever look okay when no cards are installed and once you install a GPU they never sit quite flush, so they always look misaligned, making them as shit cosmetically as they are functionally.
• A total absence of any kind of rubber grommet or cover for any of the holes in the motherboard tray. That's a cost-cutting compromise that I'm fine with if it saves a buck or two on a low-cost case, but $145 isn't a low-cost case any more.
• Continued use of black screws and rivets on the white version of the case. It's a frequently-raised complaint for white cases and it totally undermines the effort/expense BeQuiet went to with their white cables and white connectors. So they wasted money sourcing some white parts but ruined the look anyway. It's either all-white, or it's not. This is just dumb.

There's a lot to like about this case, but the four BeQuiet fans and PWM hub have pushed the price of this otherwise $50-80 case to a silly level and whilst they're good fans, they're still "basic" case fans lacking rubber dampers, ring lighting, fluid-dynamic bearings, or zero-rpm PWM range. They're sold as "essential" fans by BeQuiet and a 3-pack is about £35 over here in the UK so they're pricey for such basic fans but at least you know they're half-decent and come with a 3y warranty.

This case is still going on my shortlist, but I'm only interested when the inevitable clearance sales cut the price by at least $25. It's worth ~$100 IMO and maybe that's acceptable at $120 with BeQuiet's warranty, quality, and brand recognition - but even then it would be a tough sell against the better-looking H5 Flow RGB edition which is just a much smarter, better-looking and better-cooled case for $95:

 

[Mack4285]

Be Quiet need to renew themselves. I don't see anything I really like with their cases, from the design details to the lack of itx cases.

 

[bonehead123]

I totally agree with everything posted so far, especially these 2 things:

• A total absence of any kind of rubber grommet or cover for any of the holes in the motherboard tray. That's a cost-cutting compromise that I'm fine with if it saves a buck or two on a low-cost case, but $145 isn't a low-cost case any more.
• Continued use of black screws and rivets on the white version of the case. It's a frequently-raised complaint for white cases and it totally undermines the effort/expense BeQuiet went to with their white cables and white connectors. So they wasted money sourcing some white parts but ruined the look anyway. It's either all-white, or it's not. This is just dumb.

Sooooo to summarize: f/A/i/L !

 

[lexluthermiester]

Good review. This case does have nice features. Looks good too. Not sure I agree with the "thumbsdown" points though. Those seem very minor at best. But then again, I'm someone who thinks the omission of 5.25" drive bays is offensive and almost criminal, so whatever.

Continued use of black screws and rivets on the white version of the case. It's a frequently-raised complaint for white cases and it totally undermines the effort/expense BeQuiet went to with their white cables and white connectors. So they wasted money sourcing some white parts but ruined the look anyway. It's either all-white, or it's not. This is just dumb.

Can't agree with this. Reasons? The components that will go into this case have parts that are not white, so this complaint is a bit of a moot point.

 

[Chrispy_]

Can't agree with this. Reasons? The components that will go into this case have parts that are not white, so this complaint is a bit of a moot point.

They're not my grief - it's just a point that is almost always raised in review comments, reddit threads, twitter/x, youtube comments, pretty much anywhere you see reviews, news, or marketing announcements of white themed things that then have black parts in them.

Personally, white components and white cases don't appeal to me, I'm the function-over-aesthetics engineer who hates spending money on looks when the same money could be spent on the thing being faster/quieter/stronger/lighter or whatever.

I also think it's entirely possible to source all-white components these days. I've seen many an all-white showcase, likely the limiting factor used to be motherboard PCBs but these days everything is plastered over with plastic shrouds for these vanity builds, making the little black rivets and screws even more obviously the wrong colour. In that much, I agree with the haters in that if you're going to market something as white and charge extra for it, don't re-use the wrong colour parts from your black cases to save money. At least use silver screws and rivets - they're going to reflect the white case and probably cost less than the anodised black ones - it's just unwillingness to swap the colour of the rivets and screws in the machine between batches.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

When I first heard about the 501 series, I was rather stoked. It sounded like Be Quiet! had corrected the flaws with the 500 series and the case quickly found a place on my shortlist of replacements for my big, heavy AF Evolv X. But then I read TPU's review of the 501 DX and was a bit bummed to read that you could mount only a 240mm AIO in the top. I have a 280mm, and I refuse to mount it in the front. If they made it so that you could fit a 280mm in the top, I probably would've been able to forgive any other shortcomings with the case.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Personally, white components and white cases don't appeal to me

And that's fair, some do. I'm one of them. I'm planning a new system build and white is the theme I'm going for.

 

[ymdhis]

Dear Be Quiet,
Please make a compact matx or itx case that focuses on silence and small size. Thanks.

 

[JasBC]

Bought the original Pure Base 500 for less than half of that back in 2020, it was not on sale. . . BQ is scamming us.

 

[Chrispy_]

Bought the original Pure Base 500 for less than half of that back in 2020, it was not on sale. . . BQ is scamming us.

There are a few tooling changes for this facelifted version, but adding RGBLEDs to a $70 case shouldn't cost an extra $85!

There's inflation and tariffs and other economic changes, but that cannot possibly amount to such a huge discrepancy in price between this and everything else that is obviously subject to the exact same inflation and tariffs.

Dear Be Quiet,
Please make a compact matx or itx case that focuses on silence and small size. Thanks.

Can I also add "please don't ruin your compact case by trying to make it compatible with quad-slot, 350mm-long, 600W graphics cards"?
Compact cases should be for compact hardware. There's absolutely no shortage of vast, cavernous cases already on the market designed to fit the miniscule percentage of people who have a 4090 or 5090.