A relatively small PC case with the potential to attract the masses. That is, if you care at least a little about colorful lighting. Otherwise, we’re still in the “midi-tower” class, where price accessibility also plays a role. Within BeQuiet!’s product lines, this case still belongs to the lowest (Pure Base), although it keeps a “higher” standard throughout. There’s nothing that would suggest excessive cuts or visible flaws.
BeQuiet! Pure Base 501 DX with installed components
The maximum supported height for a tower-style CPU cooler is around 175 mm. BeQuiet! doesn’t list this in the official specs, but measurements from the CPU to the side panel confirm it. Even if you had 5 mm less, it would still be enough for the vast majority of air coolers.
A bit trickier is installing the screw in the upper-left corner of the motherboard. In that spot, a screwdriver’s access is blocked by the top-mounted fan – unless you have an unusually long screwdriver shaft. Of course, the fan can be removed, and then suddenly there’s enough space to reach that screw and properly secure the motherboard in the Pure Base 501 DX.
Otherwise, building inside the BeQuiet! case is very comfortable, and you’re unlikely to encounter any real obstacles during component installation.
On the rear side, cable management is made easier with well-placed Velcro straps.
There’s around 27–32 mm of space for cables behind the motherboard tray – that’s the distance from the tray to the right side panel. This panel also includes sound-dampening material, which eats up about 3 mm, but even so, there’s still ample room for cables, as we managed just fine during testing.
And yes, the Pure Base 501 DX supports graphics cards up to 368 mm in length. That includes models like the GeForce RTX 5090. If a GPU is longer than that, it will run into the frame structure used for mounting front fans. For this reason, it’s best if long graphics cards have side-facing power connectors – which they usually do.
The ARGB LED lighting runs through a light guide in the front panel, powered via a SATA connector. So be sure to use that cable if you’re working with a modular PSU. The lighting is fairly prominent, stretching the entire height of the front panel, and it expands sideways at both the top and bottom. But as they say – one photo is worth a thousand words. See below.
