Be Quiet Light Base 600 LX Case Review: Innovative design, lackluster thermal performance

The latest fishbowl-style PC case on our test bench is Be Quiet’s Light Base 600 LX, a medium-sized chassis that supports three layout configurations. It also features ARGB lighting strips along the side, back-connect motherboard support, and includes two pre-installed ARGB and PWM hardware hubs.

Will the Light Base 600 LX make our list of best PC cases? Let’s take a look at the specifications of the case, straight from Be Quiet, then we’ll go over the features and wrap up our review with our thermal and acoustic testing.

Specifications

Features of Be Quiet’s Light Base 600 LX Computer Case

▶️ Build Quality

As this is a Be Quiet case, one thing you can be assured about is the quality of the construction. The build quality is strong and sturdy, with no readily apparent weaknesses.

▶️ Side view and customization options

When looking inside the case in its default configuration, the layout looks fairly standard. You might notice the motherboard tray has more holes than normal - that’s to support back connect motherboards like MSI’s Project Zero. On the side of the motherboard tray, next to the fans, are three slots for cable management.

▶️ Radiator and fan support

This case can be equipped with up to 10 fans. There’s support for one exhaust fan, and up to 9 fans from the top, side, or bottom of the unit. However, you can only install 360mm radiators at the top and bottom of the case. While the side intake does support up to three fans, it only supports a 240mm radiator.

▶️ Dust filters

There are dust filters built into the top, side, and bottom of the unit. However, cleaning them will be a minor pain because it requires disassembly of the unit – they aren’t easily removable.

▶️ Front view

Like other fishbowl designs, most of the front of the case is see-through glass, but you also have the IO panel in the center, flanked by three ARGB lighting stripes.

▶️ IO Panel

Starting from the bottom (or left if configured horizontally) the first button allows a user to quickly change the ARGB settings of any devices connected to the pre-installed ARGB/PWM hubs.Next up is an audio jack, next to two USB-A ports, with power button between them. You also get a USB-C port and a reset button at the top / right.

▶️ Rear side view, Hardware ARGB and PWM fan hub, storage, and cable management features

There aren’t any included Velcro straps pre-installed, but there are a few points where they could be installed to manage your cables. Otherwise, Be Quiet includes plastic ties for cable management with the case.

Cables can be organized behind the middle plate, which also supports two 2.5-inch drives. You can also install up to two additional drives of either 2.5- or 3.5-inch sizes in the drive bay located in the bottom-left corner (shown in the picture above, removed in the picture below). But Be Quiet only includes one mount by default, so you’ll have to buy another if you need to use four drives in this system (or two 3.5-inch drives).

Pre-installed on the top and bottom of the case are two hardware hubs, each supporting up to six PWM fans and six ARGB lighting connections (for a total of up to 12 devices). Lighting settings can be adjusted on the fly by pressing the bottom button on the IO panel.

Rear view

▶️ Bottom View (Default configuration) and Three Layout Options

At the bottom of the case, you have your ventilation slots and four removable feet.

The feet are removable to support one of this case’s most interesting features: the ability to customize the case with three different layout configurations, as shown below.

▶️ Included GPU holder

There is also an included GPU suppport with this case, which can be used in all three layout configurations.

Thermal Tests, Test Setup, and testing methodology

Our thermal tests are presented to give you more information about the product’s performance, but aren’t intended as the sole judgment of the chassis. The style, price, features, and noise levels of a case should also be considered – and we all have different preferences. What I might like in a case, you might not – and that’s OK. My goal with these reviews is to give everyone, no matter their preferences, enough information to decide whether or not a product is right for them.

Today’s case can be configured in multiple configurations. The thermal results below were taken from the case’s default configuration, as shown in the photo below. Thermal performance may vary if configured in another orientation.

The measurements I’ve benchmarked this case against focus on

• Maximum cooling performance on the CPU when fans are normalized to a moderately low noise level; the GPU is idle for this test. This primarily shows the efficiency of the fans included with a computer case.
• System fan noise levels
• Maximum cooling and thermal performance in a worst-case-scenario test that fully stresses both the GPU and CPU. We’ll cover the temperature of the motherboard VRMs, CPU, and GPU in separate charts.
• Comparing CPU and GPU temperatures in a workload that’s similar in power consumption to Far Cry V.  This stresses both the CPU (approximately 150W) and GPU (275W).

MORE: Best PC Cases

MORE: Best Mini-ITX Cases