Much of the internet adores small form factor cases, but the appeal of a good old-fashioned mid-tower can’t be denied. No difficult choices, no need for restraint—you can stuff in nearly all the components your heart might desire.
Such is the allure of the Be Quiet Silent Base 802, a mid-tower case that eschews the dainty footprint of its compact rivals. At 20.8 x 11 x 21.8 inches, this one takes up the full scope of its classification, dwarfing competitors like the NZXT H510. If your first PC builds took place when setting jumper switches was the norm, the 802 will comfortably fit your mental definition of “mid-tower.”
Be Quiet puts that space to good use, too, as you can see in our video above. All of the company’s gear focuses on noise minimization, and the Silent Base 802 is no exception—in fact, its side and front panels come lined with notably chunky sound-dampening material that measures 10mm thick. The default solid panel for the top of the case also sports a thinner 3mm material meant to muffle the whirring fans in your PC. You have a choice of completely going all-out on the silence angle with the non-windowed version (which provides two solid side panels with that thick foam), or the tempered-glass variant that allows you to show off your build’s innards. As an improvement over the Silent Base 801, the 802 also includes the option of mesh top and front panels that you can swap in for more airflow.
Alaina Yee / IDG
You can invert the Be Quiet Silent Base 802’s motherboard tray, allowing you to view the PC’s innards from the right side of the case instead of the left.
You can also fill the Silent Base 802 with plenty of storage. Out of the box, you can house up to three 3.5-inch hard-disk drives or up to seven 2.5-inch drives. Purchase additional drive cages to fill the slots toward the front of the case, and you can pack in a whopping seven 3.5-inch hard disk drives or up to fourteen 2.5-inch drives. Overall, with so much room in this case, fitting a high-wattage power supply and radiators won’t be the conundrum that it can be in a more svelte tower. And truly, that’s the luxury of a case this size: No excessive thinking or careful planning. You can just jump right into the building.
Yet despite this case’s utilitarian vibe, it can dazzle a bit, too. Its motherboard tray inverts, letting you place more emphasis on graphics card cooling…as well as flip the orientation so that your build’s guts are viewable from the right side of the case. The side panels are designed to swap easily, and as you’ll see, reconfiguring the 802 in this manner is very simple.
The Be Quiet Silent Base 802 comes in two colors, black and white, with both available in non-windowed and tempered glass flavors. The solid panel variant is $160, while the windowed variant is $170. You can purchase them now on Amazon and Newegg, though stock varies due to the current high demand for PC components.