A simple, yet “effective” case. That’s one way you could title an article analyzing the BeQuiet! Pure Base 501 Airflow (BG074). The test model features solid metal panels on both sides – non-transparent – each lined with sound-dampening material. Foam. In short, you’re dealing with a design rooted in the old school, something increasingly rare these days. Despite that, the purchase price of this case remains relatively low, close to the ground.
Results: Medium performance (42 dBA)
What about the system fans? We are testing the BeQuiet! Pure Base 501 Airflow case in the fan configuration in which it comes preinstalled from the factory. In the charts, this setup is labeled “1+1,” meaning one intake and one exhaust fan. Since both fans are controlled by the same PWM signal, airflow inside the case remains roughly balanced.
On vibrations: With the front intake fans, we observed only minimal vibrations on the front and rear parts of the case’s top panel. These vibrations are likely too faint to produce secondary noise by transferring to the surface the case stands on – they’re very low to negligible.
Why is there a missing value in the chart for a case? One possible reason is that the fans couldn’t be set to the required mode – either because the minimum RPM was too high or the maximum RPM was too low. Another reason could be that the available cooling performance was insufficient for one of the test components, which led to thermal throttling. Temperature values are always recorded (and compared) at comparable performance levels.
Hello. I red this review and I want to buy this case, but I’m worried that the Pure Wing 3 fan is approved but not top-notch.
So, which fan is good upgrade?
Reasonable options in my country are Momentum 14, Arctic P14 Pro, P14 Max or NF-A14x25 G2.
the CPU and the GPU of my PC will be 265k with air cooler and 5070 Ti.
What exactly are you expecting from a fan? The Pure Wings 3 is aerodynamically excellent, and personally, I would not replace these fans. Of course, the FD Momentum 14 and Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 are more advanced in terms of technical sophistication—but primarily in other areas, not necessarily in aerodynamic design. You can swap out the original PW3 fans, but you likely won’t see much of a gain in cooling efficiency. That said, you might end up happier with the acoustic profile. I can’t say for sure—that’s something very individual. 🙂
Thank you for your reply.
I would like to make my PC more quiet, but surely as you say, that’s individual thing…
I will try listening to the noise of some fans and I will install fans of which I prefer.
Analyzing sound based on analog recordings is highly debatable. Distortions already occur at the level of speakers. That’s exactly why we don’t include audio recordings in our tests and instead provide spectrograms, which everyone can read the same way. In other words, they show the noise levels at specific frequencies. Naturally, they’re more complex to read and interpret, but once you know how to work with them, they are much more accurate than subjective listening. 🙂
… but, maybe he meant listening live … and not from recordings on the internet 🙂
… and the recording, although distorted, still gives some idea of the pitch of the dominant tone 😛
I have this case. I installed the included fans + 1 third all as top and rear exhaust and reduced the rpm by about 40% via a Noctua NA-FC1 (to not reduce the pressure from the intake fans too much). For the front I installed 3 120mm Shadow Wings 2, also limited a little via Noctua ULN adapter cables. So even at full blast the PC remains quite quiet and is otherwise near silent.
Thanks for sharing your user experience. Yes, having the system fans run at lower airflow rates is often sufficient—it won’t limit the cooling. You’ve got your setup figured out well. It’s quiet, and that was the goal. 🙂