Be Quiet’s Pure Base 500 mid-tower case launched last year with a focus on minimizing fan noise, but as usual with quiet cases, its temperatures ran warm. Happily, you can now bypass that catch with the company’s airflow variant, the Pure Base 500DX.
As you’ll see in our video above, the 500DX’s star feature is its mesh front, which allows for much greater air intake. (And falls right in line with the overall case trend for the year.) Instead of the foam-lined solid panel found on the standard Pure Base 500, the DX version has two large, long mesh sections spanning most of its front, partially outlined with ARGB light strips. The latter is a first for Be Quiet; until this case, it had only offered non-addressable RGB as accents.
Outside of this front-panel design change, the 500DX has two other main differences. The first is the exchange of one USB-A port for a USB-C Gen 2 on the front panel, while the other is the addition of an ARGB light strip along the upper edge of the chassis, right behind the tempered-glass side panel. All ARGB strips are controlled by a button also housed in the front panel, which allows you to cycle through six individual colors with four different light patterns, plus three rainbow patterns. It’s a thoughtful inclusion for those who have motherboards without an ARGB header, or who dislike the less-than-ideal software situation for RGB.
The Pure Base 500DX is available now at an MSRP of $100 with two color options, black or white. Retailers include Amazon, Newegg, and B&H, but most places are sold out or on back-order due to high demand. Be Quiet says that more stock should arrive soon—but be prepared to jump on it quickly, as it’ll sell fast.