Test System

Assembly

As you may remove the motherboard tray, you may also add all the major components within the restrictions of the chassis frame. This makes assembly of large air coolers and multi-GPU setups quite easy. Once they have been put in place, simply replace the filled tray. While this is great, the majority of us will probably just skip taking the tray out by adding the components the traditional way, as there is plenty of space all around.


To install hard drives inside the 3.5" trays, simply loosen the three thumbscrews and pull the whole contraption out toward the motherboard tray. Each of these metal units may hold a 3.5" drive or two 2.5" units. Remember that pump-mounting accessory? That would go on top of one of the hard-drive trays, so you can even adjust the height at which the pump is placed.


We will skip that generic SSD bracket in the back and go straight for the new one meant to go on top of the shroud. Simply fill it using traditional screws, and put it into place where it fits right in.


Adding an optical drive bay is the one assembly element that has been kept traditional. Simply remove the front cover and slide the drive into place. As you can see, the mounting holes line up perfectly with the drive, allowing you to secure it easily.


To install the power supply, you first have to take out the special frame. It is held in place by screws with a sliding mechanism, so you can put it back in place once filled quite easily. There is loads of space for large units unless you choose to install fans or liquid cooling on the floor, which would restrict your choices considerably.


With everything in place, the interior of the be quiet! makes a very clean impression. While you may see the PSU cables with the white backdrop here, those should blend in nicely with the interior once the solid black side panel is in place. Most of the cable mess can be found behind the motherboard tray. While my setup looks a bit cluttered, this is by no means be quiet!'s fault. I could have used the mounting points to the left of the orange grommets to secure some of the cables better.

Finished Looks

Once everything is assembled, the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2 looks darn sleek and sexy. Thanks to the front door, the drive is not visible and everything looks super clean. An orange LED behind the power button lights up as well to let you know the system is on.


Thanks to the light tint of the glass panel, you can clearly see all the components inside in even a well-lit room and without any major lighting elements within the Dark Base Pro 900 rev. 2. The new shroud looks great inside the chassis from this vantage point. The other side and rear, on the other hand, are exactly as you would expect them to be, identical to the original revision.