Alright, let's address the negative points of the be quiet! Dark Base 700 first as I had to take a really hard look at the chassis to now be able to point out something tangible. The chassis clocks in at the same price as some full towers on the market, so it would have been nice to maybe see one or two extra 3.5" hard-drive cages - but I will gladly admit I am being a bit picky here. The same mentality may be applied to the HDD cage covers and Velcro strips. The only real, but small downer is the somewhat ugly USB-C I/O in front.

Yes, I had to nit-pick to find something wrong. The be quiet! Dark Base 700 can in other words essentially be considered the perfect showcase (pun intended) of what a modern mid-tower chassis should include - even though it is a bit on the expensive side.

Starting with the exterior with a steel top and front cover, completely detachable front panel, and excellent implementation of RGB into the current design language of be quiet! enclosures, the Dark Base 700 sets the stage perfectly as the smaller brethren of the 900 series. One of the biggest upsides with the inclusion of RGB is the fact that be quiet! no longer needs to offer multiple SKUs for the same case to give users their choice of a color element.

On the interior, everything is extremely well thought out. From the reversible motherboard to the pull-out radiator plate or individual hard-drive cages, the chassis screams modularity - just like the larger Dark Base Pro 900 variant.

Once the system is assembled, which is not only easy but functional as well, the finished interior look is extremely clean, which is not only due to the included Velcro strips and many mounting hooks behind the motherboard tray. It also helps that there is a long and slim gap between the shroud and motherboard tray as this means that you won't see anything except the plug on the bottom edge of the motherboard. On top of that, the plastic covers for the unused hard-drive trays help as well.

be quiet! has engineered a compact, extremely functional and well-rounded chassis that follows the mantra of German engineering - it is not the cheapest, but checks off everything from quality to design and functionality.