As the name suggests, the be quiet! Pure Base 500DX is based on the original 500, but clearly geared towards people who want more bling and better cooling while sacrificing some of that silence. All those extras come at a small, but certainly noticeable price premium of around $15 over the original. That buys you a third fan and embedded RGB controller with the ARGB strip and USB-C in the front.

Overall, while the original 500 was laser-focused on delivering understated silence and quality at an affordable price, the Pure Base 500DX is not quite as streamlined for the enthusiast audience. I would have loved to see a clean window panel with this case—something that is becoming more and more commonplace and thus weighs in more than when we reviewed the original. On top of that, I appreciate that be quiet! included the USB Type-C port, but would have liked to see a clean, new implementation in addition to the two existing USB 3.0 ports instead of the somewhat rough plastic insert taking up the space of one of those Type A plugs. Lastly, gamers tend to want to show off their GPU vertically in cases like this, and the Pure Base 500DX is certainly wide enough to allow it. This is just a limitation from the original 500 as it did not call for this feature with its understated looks, so you simply won't get it in the DX variant either.

Don't get this wrong, the be quiet! Pure Base 500DX is still an extremely well-built and well-engineered chassis at its core and comes with plenty of space for big CPU coolers, long GPUs, and liquid cooling. The internals are functional and keep things nice and clean as well, and the retail fans inside the case make it just as affordable, which are all traits that made it over from the original 500. At $85 MSRP for the original, there is not as much competition in that space of clean, understated, functional, and quiet. At $100 in the gamer space, you have to sway your buyers a little more, but all-in-all, the Pure Base 500DX is definitely a great choice.