Cases don't have to be boring!

so it's been a while since we've taken a

look at a case so today we're going to

take a look at be quiet Shadow base 800

FX you know lately um oh it's backwards

lately be quiet it's been super excited

about its new like white series of stuff

but I think they've had white cases

already for a while but anyway we'll

take a look at the shadow base 800 fepic

Shadow and white do those two go

together computer cases are boring

they're unsung heroes but you know

they're important because one they have

to like house all of your components two

they're responsible for the overall

cooling capability of those components

if the case itself is suffocating all

the parts inside then the case can be

your bottleneck of performance if it's a

thermal issue um they're also the thing

you look at every single day so unless

you have a window which this one does um

the case is the only thing you're going

to see so anyway the shadow base 800 FX

being an fx means it has integrated

Lighting in there you can see the color

version of this one here is white with

the little sticker and a couple other

things to note here like overall cooler

height uh capability for it so obviously

it's eatx that's nice to see we'll see

though often times cases we'll say eatx

and then there's like something right

there to block other cables from getting

to it but we'll see eatx all the way

down to Mini ITX looking for the maximum

cooler height though CPU Cooler up to

180 mm PSU up to 250 M Mill milliliters

250 mm long and GPU up to 430 M mm long

now they say up to because you had front

fans and radiators and things on the

front of this if you go water cooling

then that's going to cut into some of

the height uh or the length available to

your GPU so let's start with the

unboxing it's got hard foam in there

which it's fine to ship a case but if

you're going to assemble a full system

in there and try and Chip it that foam

is not going to do you much good this is

going to

suck I just wanted to get over with and

it fooled me cuz I touched the styrofoam

when I thought it was done and then it

wasn't I found that rather

shocking

but there's actually two be quiet cases

we're going be taking a look at we got

this one right here which is the 800 the

shadow base 800 and then we also have

the 701 which is actually a bigger case

you would think the 800 would be a

bigger case cuz it's a bigger number but

no the 701 is actually bigger than this

but let's go ahead and get the

uh static generator removed from from

the

case that would also be the

plastic it's a pretty fancy looking case

here I I see some things in here that I

like already so the top fan filter it's

magnetic paracity on it it's that going

to be great it's probably less than 50%

that means how much of it is open versus

blocked so obviously a larger hole in

the mesh would be a higher paracity this

appears to be maybe 50/50 maybe a little

bit less than that I do like that we at

least have up here too the be quiet logo

so it's not just a regular old mesh

piece typically if I'm running exhaust

fans up here I would remove the mesh

because I'm more concerned with having

as much air flow at the top of the case

as possible having the mesh on there is

just going to reduce that air flow but

without it it's kind of not the most

attractive looking thing it's a little

unfortunate is I guess if you really

wanted to you could trim the mesh and

just have the frame be on there so the

manual is just sitting here at the

bottom you can see the Black Version

like I said they kind of have white

additions coming out now of pretty much

all their cases so that's what we're

looking at here is the White Version um

the manual does show us things like

different fan layouts um radi layouts uh

how some of the modularity works in

there because you can do things like

move the drive cages around um Etc how

to remove your fan filters and such how

to remove the front but it's kind of

nice because you can see like different

radiator layouts and it shows you how

thick of a rad what size RADS will tend

to fit it kind of gives you an idea too

of what will interfere like for instance

if you were to put a really thick 360

rad in the front or 420 rad in the front

you interfere in some of that top space

so it kind of gives you an idea of what

will and won't work so that's kind of

nice to see um also shows obviously they

fit 140 mm fans and 120 mm fans speaking

of fans we have four

pre-installed um be quiet light Wings

fans in here so these are not like

Cheapo El Cheapo case fans you would

tend to throw away they're just like

flimsy plastic crappy fans that won't

match anything else that you get because

of the fact that the fans that they tend

to put in cases are different than the

fans that would sell independently but

as we take a look at the inside you can

see we have four pre-installed 140 mm

light light Wings fans in white so they

match the white case obviously now the

light Wings have the white light Wings

have been out for a year now like

exactly a year from the time they

were're taking a look at this video but

that that's just nice because that means

you're getting four off-the-shelf

independent fans that they also sell

which means that you could populate more

in here and have them all match like I

said most case manufacturers will just

put a cheapy fan in there that's worth a

couple of bucks maybe on the chance that

you'll buy their case that way there's

some fans that are included but I think

most people that are shopping in this

category or this price point are going

to toss any basic case fan anyway to put

something nice in there so these already

have illumination now because of the

fact that we have four of the lightwings

so it makes me wonder now is there going

to be an RGB Hub on the back of the case

I really hope there is but there's

something else that I'm seeing here this

guy right here is pretty neat so this is

removable depending on how much space

you need up here for let's say Ultra

thick radiators Push Pull configurations

Etc um although you need to be mindful

of how just how far out you can push

that because of the fact that it is kind

of indented there so if you're going 420

mm radiator you only have so much

thickness before you hit this little

piece right here but I like the fact

that this has this sort of a scoop shape

to it so that some of that air that's

making its way into the bottom component

or the bottom compartment of this case

would make its way to the power supply

but the power supply has its own air

intake on the bottom so the power supply

has its own fan and stuff that means

that air can get scooped and pushed back

up through here directly into the upper

component or compartment to see whether

or not um that actually helps with airf

flow I think what we might do is at the

end of this video we might hook up the

smoke machine again and just see if

whether or not it's actually doing that

and then not completely smoke the place

out like we did last time on accident

where we had the place look like it was

literally on fire let's see we've got

this bracket right here

which does something no it comes off

it's obvious it's plastic too it's it's

really flexible um this is something a

lot of cases have started including in

their their designs now just to help

cover up some of the cables making their

their um their bends back to the

motherboard but you need to be mindful

too that if you have a a motherboard

with a 90° 24 pin layout it actually

should be okay in here when I take this

off you you'll see why and we'll test

fit that in a second we've got a pre

pretty decent amount of space between

our top radiators and such right here uh

before we even come close to impacting

anything on the motherboard but because

it is offset as you can see right here

it pushes the fans and the radiator

closer to the side glass or the side

panel so that you can clear any tall

vrms that might be existing on your

motherboard with power delivery uh

requirements what they are today for

modern CPUs the heat sinks are getting

taller and bigger on motherboards so

there can be an interference there if

they were to Center that the downside is

in terms of being centered and when it

comes to the easiness of inst or the

ease of installing water cooling the

front radiator fans if I pop this off

are

centered Pogo pins yep Pogo pins right

here for

RGB right there so the the front does

have an illumination ring like strip

right here and right here that will

light up and we'll light that up in a

little bit so you guys can see um this

is also how you get to your fan filter

which is magnetic you can leave it off

if you want but this is centered so that

means this is actually offset from the

top so that means if you're doing water

cooling and you want to have like nice L

bends or 90° bends to the rad you'll

have to offset it rather than just

having it all line up because it's on

the same plane so one is over from the

other they are offset you can see we

have thumb screws that are captive also

for the side panel so you're not going

to lose these when you go to take them

off but we also have oh sound dampening

material which is another key component

for um be quiet like pretty much all

their panels have this it helps a little

there's so many other Vents and openings

in this case sound is going to make its

way out no matter what it does help a

little bit and it also helps dampen some

vibration that might make its way

through the case we also have a captive

uh thumb captive screws on our power

supply shroud so you take this off you

mount this direct to your power

supply and then you slide the power

supply in and mount that down so you

don't have to worry about losing screws

for that these are also thumb screws

that are on there looking at the

backside holy cow do we have a a

splitter so we've got our pre-installed

fans and RGB this is so nice cuz that

means we are already have their back and

the front handled when it comes to fans

we don't have to wire them up or cable

manage them they're already in there

cable managed and plugged in the only

thing we have to plug in are the signals

that are going to be coming from the

motherboard and I do like that the plugs

are also white with the white cabl so

here's our front panel connector which

is a single plug because things have

sort of become standardized on the front

panel connectors although there's still

some push back whether or not that's

truly a standard all the motherboard

manufacturers have sort of adopted the

same layout for power button reset

button power light and hard drive light

activity light means you can just have

one plug to plug in which makes this so

nice for beginner Builders to have to

deal with the stupid dual plugs to try

and get them all lined up we have our

white

USBC we have our SATA power right there

this is going to be for our um hub for

our RGB as well as our fans we also have

HD audio which to me is still I'm still

surprised this exists these days because

whatever they're shielded they help keep

the buzzing out but they still tend to

buzz over time sometimes depending on

the quality of your other cables and

shielding in your system and then we

have our signal wires here for our Hub

like I said so we have one RGB input and

then we have one pwm fan circuit fan

signal right here the downside about

this is by having everything connected

to one Hub means they're all going to

speed up and slow down together that's

not necessarily a problem it's just if

you have four exhaust fans on here one

in the rear three in the top because

you're running a 420 rat or something up

there although there's not a lot of 420

aiio they do exist that means you're

going to probably have to do some

balanced air flow here because of the

fact that you have three intake fans on

the front now although if you're going

through a radiator on the top that's

going to reduce air flow which means

you're probably going to have more CFM

coming in the front than what's going

out the top I only mention that if

you're super anal about making sure that

everything's balanced air flow with

either neutral pressure or positive

pressure um but this means all the fans

would be speeding up and slowing down

together so if you plug this into your

CPU header and you just leave it on the

auto pwm you're going to have all your

fans speeding up and slowing down all

over the place based on standard pwm CPU

fan header L um algorithms and

motherboards meaning sometimes you might

load a program and if you have 1400k or

something the temperature can Spike

suddenly which means all your fans

go together so beyond that that's

everything that comes on the front panel

connectors there I love that that's all

pre-wired we do have space for 1 2 three

more four more fans we only need to put

three more in here actually to be fully

outfitted so that's kind of nice that we

have an extra one on there but you have

one 2 3 four additional fan headers on

there um which is pretty nice um let's

see this is our hard drive Mount right

here so you can mount um 2 and 1/2 in

ssds on the back side or an additional

controller if you decide that you're not

going to use this and you want some

other ecosystem in there you probably

Mount the control box to that this guy

just pops off right here which is just

just a a plate to fill that Gap and the

one the reason you have this on there is

because you need to be able to get your

wires and stuff going to your SATA

connector or your SATA drives so you've

got this guy I think I just put on

upside down it's a little crooked now so

I'm still trying to see how to get this

guy out of here is there a screw up

there oh yeah there is a screw up here

there a black screw right under there

that looks like it's holding on this

plastic piece the reason why I even

mentioned that is the fact that you can

scoot it over you can move it over from

there to there giving you a little more

clearance for any of the super wide

motherboards that maybe are wide but

don't have a 90° header so they have to

make the bend that way this is not going

to be in the way so you do have what

appears to be about an extra inch or

about 25 mm of movement to the left

looks like you might even be able to

move it no you can't move it inward so

there's that pretty straightforward

looking at the bottom down here you can

see that is just one big gigantic

opening for a much bigger power supply

than anyone should ever actually really

need so I don't see a there's even a fan

Mount right here now you see this we

have a 120 and a 140 fan layout right

there if you wanted to bring in extra

air from the bottom I guess you could

that seems to me a little bit

unnecessary though cuz it's just going

to I guess it would blow right up

through there that'd be an interesting

test to see if a fan down there actually

helps coming up into there the uh fan

filter on the bottom pulls out the front

and since it runs the entire length of

the case that's important because if you

have it up on a desk against the wall

you you can't go backwards you need it

to go forward so there is that highly

recommended that you leave the bottom

dust filter on because the power supply

pulling in air and any dust on your desk

can make its way up in there and start

to clog up so it's much easier to pull

this out and blow it out than to tip

your case over and try and blow out the

power supply but other than that it's

pretty straightforward there's plenty of

tie down straps on here um for cable

management there's no real channels or

anything like designed for you to be

able to run cables in to keep them nice

and tidy it's just more of a flat panel

back here that's intended to have this

sort of cover the unsightliness of

seeing those cables through the opening

um there's also no Mount right here for

attaching fans or anything right here

which is sort of become a staple of case

design these days a lot of case

manufacturers are using this wall now to

put fans on this case is not so it's got

a double hard drive bracket for 3 and

1/2 in drives I'm not entirely sure how

to use it but I know it goes down

here and uh you can have multiple

positions you can mount that in so that

you can have uh support where'd it go ah

come

on there so you have different positions

you can move it in so you have support

for the length of your power supply what

we can't figure out though honestly is

how you're supposed to attach a hard

drive to it so this is one of our bad

hard drives but it's supposed to attach

to this

somehow and according to the picture

it's like right there but the manual is

pretty poor in this aspect

so I don't know how I'm supposed to

mount the drive to this so Mark taking

off points for the their manual and

their bracket design here cuz this makes

no sense like we got screws right here

and their image shows a thumb screw

there right and it shows how you can

move it and then it's like hard drive

attached how it's just like floating

there there in a thumb screw how the

hell ises that okay moving on not

everything could be perfect so that's a

terrible design in my opinion what's not

a terrible design though is the fact

that you've got this additional area

right here that you can mount another 2

and 1 12 in drive or uh RGB controller

or another 3 and 1 12 in drive right

here so it can actually mount on that

bracket like that if you wanted it to

that's going to obviously block the back

of your motherboard where you need to be

able to uh access it for installing your

cooler and such if you needed to so you

can undo that and you can undo these

velcro straps right here and then you

can actually swing it away as you can

see I don't want to have it fall off

right now everything zip tied in but you

can actually pull this off and then move

it out of the way and access the back of

your motherboard so not incredibly

convenient if you forget to you need

access to the back of your motherboard

once it's put together but not

impossible to be able to access it if

you needed it okay so it's really dark

obviously we have it lit so that you can

hopefully see the smoke once I start um

just a couple caveats one um it's a

white case trying to film smoke that's

hard but usually we do this with a black

case um second of all um I don't know

how well this is going to work so let's

just see I do not have the top fans

populated only the front and what I'm

trying to see is what the overall air

flow looks like but there there's a fair

amount of air flow even with the front

filter on cuz I do have the front filter

on so you can see right here just how

easily it's picking up the smoke and

look how much it's pushing out the back

of the case and I did tape up the

motherboard um IO Shield where the

motherboard be blocking that off but I

think the most important thing to take

from this is that wow check this out it

actually pulls the smoke back out the

front if I put the smoke underneath it

pulls it back out and goes into the

front of the case but the biggest take

away from this right now is the fact

that I'm completely smoking out this

room and the air flow is so

great that it's overpowering any chance

of it really scooping up through that

filter so that probably really helps

with the bottom fan to be honest um but

look at how much of the positive air

flow there is out the top even with the

filter on right

now it's one of those things where I

would like venture to say in terms of

case cooling it has got more than enough

with just those three intake fans and

that one rear exhaust and then obviously

the cooler on the top would just

additional um airf flow so the B quiet

Shadow base 800 FX um it's a pretty good

it's a full tower case technically I

mean I might also qualify as like a

jumbo mid Tower I feel like the justif

the qualification between mid Tower and

full tower is sort of lost these days uh

the price it's currently

$169 but if you look at the price the

three a three pack of the light Wings

white fans is $54 on Amazon that really

brings the price of the case down to

about

$113

right $114 that's that's actually a

pretty good deal just with the fans

alone so you can see with the lighting

on right now it's just very nice uh

clean aesthetic available in white

available in Black I think it's got

plenty of air flow uh for any of your

air cooled components and I think

obviously that much air flow would be

good for water cooled components too 420

in the front or 360 in the front 360 on

the top 420 in the front maybe a 280 in

the top Etc you have options um I don't

think you need to go with anything crazy

in in terms of uh adding a a whole crap

ton of fans in this just whatever fans

we throw on the top now for our AIO if

we did that with matched lightwings so

that everything is coordinated would be

a pretty sexy looking build but it's

like a lot of case manufacturers want to

charge you this much for a case and not

even give you a good fan with it so the

fact that it's

$167 I think it's 167 on Amazon is what

it was currently going for the black one

was actually more expensive typically

it's the other way around but the black

one was about $10 more which is really

odd but considering the fact that the

cheapest I found the three pack of the

light Wings white fans 4 was for 550

$54.99 on Amazon shows you that you're

getting actually really good deal for

this case all right so there you go guys

there's our look at the shadow base 8800

FX um again the FX just means it's got

RGB on it so I think it's a really

wellth thought out case especially for

the price anyway if you guys have built

in this sound off down below what it was

like I had to assume building in this

would actually be pretty simple there's

lots and lots of room in there um and I

think another important thing to

consider is the fact of how quiet this

case actually is all four fans are

currently running at full speed and I

know my lavalier mic is not even picking

that up and it is less than it's like a

half a meter away from me sure the backs

side's facing me but the front fans are

right there and that airflow test that

you just saw was with all the filters on

top and front so it actually surprised

me how much air flow was able to create

even with the filters being pretty dense

in terms of be able to C catch smaller

particles of like hair and fur and dirt

and dust and stuff like that all right

guys thanks for watching and as always

we'll see you in the next

one