Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means, with screws and a screwdriver. As you can see, there is plenty of space on three sides of the board, so you may use large components and still get to all the connectors along the PCB's edges easily.


be quiet! designed their own way to install hard drives into the chassis. While the Silent Base 800 uses the same rail-and-lock method employed by some other case manufacturers, be quiet! replaced the plastic rail with a silicone strip two thumbscrews hold in place. You may simply slide the drive into place once two of those have been attached. Now, move the lock down to hold the contraption in place. As you can see, the silicone strips are rather soft, but everything, once locked, holds in place surprisingly well.


To install an SSD, put it into its individual tray. Each drive is held in place by screws, so you need tools at this point. The single thumbscrew holds the tray in place flawlessly, but is quite close to the actual drive itself, making it a bit difficult to tighten without a screwdriver once the tray has been filled.


Inserting an optical drive is quite quick since taking out the cover to free the bay of your choice is a breeze. Now, simply slide the drive in and lock it in place. be quiet!'s locking mechanism actually works quite well, but you may also want to sink additional screws into the drive if need be.


With everything in place, the Silent Base 800's interior is actually very clean since all the cables have been hidden away behind the motherboard tray, though I would have liked a few more hooks in the tray to increase the flexibility in routing everything evenly behind the tray.

Finished Looks

With the side panels back in place, the be quiet! Silent Base 800 makes a great impression. It does a great job of encapsulating sounds within and uses a timeless design its target audience should like nicely as well. Going well with the enclosure's overall look, even the LED under its power button lights up in orange.


The optical drive in the front is hidden well by the door, and the rear gives you readily available access to every connector. As the fan has been recessed into the rear, it should make finding the plugs even easier, though it somewhat cuts down on how much room there is on the inside.