In this case, white is the central motif, transitioning from the be quiet! Pure Base 500 case to the Dark Rock 4 cooling and the B450 chipset-based motherboard. You’ve probably noticed, quite accurately, that the upper section of the cooler has been repainted, because no white model is available on the market yet.
The latest case from be quiet! – Pure Base 500 in White
The base of the Actina Dedicated line PC is the be quiet! Pure Base 500 case in white, with a side panel in glass. The front design finish has bent corners, which distinguish that machine from competitors, typically with sharper tips.
Air passages are highlighted with a black mesh with dust filters behind. The feet, the power switch panel and the side panel screws contrast with the predominant white.
We can easily say that be quiet! Pure Base 500 is an attractive looking design. The case is relatively small, too, as the product name indicates. Yet the best is still ahead of you – this small box houses numerous well conceived solutions you should appreciate.
The first of these is the implementation of noise absorption mats, which reduce the vibration level and loudness of the entire PC. It is a great arrangement in that you can customize the upper panel according to your needs, choosing a version with a mat or one with a mesh, with more intensive air flow.
Just a few moves and a cover will completely transform the top appearance.
Another very good design decision is the option to take out the 3.5” HDD cage, originally placed in the ‘basement’. This way, you can easily add modular cables to the power supply, or gain some space for a 360mm cooler in front, without sacrificing the bays.
The power supply itself has a separate mounting frame, inserted at the back. This solution, already known from the higher be quiet! models, works perfectly in this case.
The third great shot is the option to unscrew and disconnect the SSD section behind the motherboard and the section concealing all cables managed at the back. Actually, you will not appreciate this arrangement immediately after purchase, but if you want to change something about your PC after some time, it will be a great relief.
With the cable ties with be quiet! logo, you will quickly declutter the cables behind the motherboard tray.
As regards disk space, you can install 5 x SSD/2.5” HDD and 2 x 3.5” HDD. It looks quite acceptable in 2019, when the prices of flash memory could make you get rid of your standard HDDs.
If you choose one or two, you will find special anti-vibration rubber dampers in the drive cage. They reduce the level of noise generated by mechanical work by absorbing some of the vibration normally transferred to the cage.
How have we cooled the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X?
As far as fans are concerned, there are three of them in a Dedicated line PC from Actina: one at the front, one at the back and one on top. The latter was added due to the case size and the heat generated by the 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU.
With be quiet! Dark Rock 4 on board, you need to supply an adequate quantity of cool air from the outside to make it work quietly and efficiently.
Implementation of the top fan reduced the temperature under synthetic CPU load by 10°C, so the difference was noticeable. With this move, GPU fan speed could be lowered and the whole machine became less noisy as a result.
At 30-minute OCCT load, the CPU never broke the 73°C threshold, with its frequency maintained around 4.1GHz on all cores.
The fan in be quiet! Dark Rock 4 operated below 1300 RPM throughout the test, which made it practically 100% silent. The only audible sound is a quiet, low buzz, not upsetting at all.
The reason I mention it is that some fans, despite the low readings on sound meters, generate relatively high tones, more upsetting than those which may be louder but lower at the same time.
The best RX 5700 XT on the market
A lot of RX 5700 XT editions have already made their presence on the market. Obviously, some are designed better than others. In Actina Dedicated, we always choose the most reasonable solutions in terms of user comfort, price, and performance.
So we chose the Gigabyte RX 5700 XT Gaming OC, which is not particularly expensive but is fitted with three fans and well designed cooling.
Generally, this edition was appreciated by reviewers worldwide, so we are ready to serve it to our customers as well. Silent and powerful performance – this is the main objective for this line.
White motheboard from ASRock on B450
White motherboard was a must in this PC, to match the leading color. We chose the B450 chipset for purely economic reasons. Giving up PCI-E 4.0 is not much of a problem here because NVMe drives based on that standard are very expensive, and even the most powerful GPUs are not limited by PCI-E 3.0.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, on the other hand, does not take too much power, even under full load, so the respectable power section in ASRock B450 Steel Legend can handle it perfectly.
If you are considering a quick transition into a 16-core CPU, it would be a good idea to start with picking one of the well designed motherboards on the X570 chipset.
RAM in Actina Dedicated – reliable, high frequency
The choice of RAM for this PC was guided by such parameters as reliability, compatibility, and frequency. G.SKILL RAM sticks meet all these requirements, offering 3200 MHz and an effective A-XMP profile.
Even though the AM4 platform is not exactly young, it can still be picky as regards RAM; G.SKILL has always offered solutions that are compatible and, first of all, reliable, for which they will receive quite a lot of international awards.
Large SSD on M.2
The SSD WD Black 500 GB offers 2600 MB/s write speed and up to 3470 MB/s read speed. With this capacity, you can rely on your system, all its games and utilities loading quickly.
Another factor that encouraged us to choose SN750 was its service life. Its MTBF is rated at 1,750,000 hours, and the manufacturer’s warranty is 5 years. Competitor designs cannot boast of such excellent specifications.
Never try to save money on power supply!
Saving on a power supply is the greatest mistake you can make when building a PC. Beginner users often prefer to spend money on a better GPU or a larger SSD, while cutting costs on PSU to the absolute minimum.
The Dedicated line never drops below 600 W and 80 PLUS GOLD certificate, with almost noiseless fan operation. In this case, the pick was be quiet! Pure Power 11, so these criteria are fully met.
5-year warranty, state-of-the-art architecture and complete safeguards – this is much more convincing for us than some obsolete stuff, still based on ten years old solutions.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + RX 5700 XT combination – performance
Now you know all the components implemented in this PC, and it is time for testing it in games. See how the combination of a CPU and GPU from AMD is doing in the most popular titles.
| Resolution | 1080p | 1440p | ||
| Game | Average | 1% Min. | Average | 1% Min. |
| CS:GO (Low) | 480 | 95 | 419 | 58 |
| Fortnite (Epic) | 156 | 122 | 96 | 68 |
| PUBG (Highest) | 155 | 81 | 97 | 61 |
| Metro Exodus (Extreme) | 91 | 59 | 66 | 52 |
| GTA V Online (Highest, MSAA x2) | 104 | 71 | 89 | 70 |
| Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Uber, w/o HW) | 114 | 94 | 84 | 73 |
| Battlefield V (Ultra) | 122 | 74 | 107 | 61 |
| Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Mein Leben!) | 191 | 125 | 133 | 86 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest) | 106 | 95 | 77 | 63 |
| Forza Horizon 4 (Ultra) | 156 | 124 | 115 | 106 |
| Far Cry New Dawn (Ultra) | 95 | 67 | 88 | 61 |
| HITMAN 2 (Ultra) | 78 | 25 | 67 | 21 |
We can say it without hesitation – it’s not bad. The whole PC is very quiet during game play, as both the video card and the CPU feature excellent cooling systems.
Also, RX 5700 XT features some valuable technology solutions, such as Radeon Anti-Lag, or a sharpening filter, recently gaining popularity even with Polaris. The latter is interesting in that the effects it delivers are even better than those of DLSS from NVIDIA, with scaling of lower frequencies.
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and RX 5700 XT – summary
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + RX 5700 XT from Gigabyte combination is a great shot as far as I am concerned. With the 16 threads of the latest generation AMD CPU, you can stream your entertainment or render YouTube videos super fast.
All that in a consistent white design, kept silent with the components from be quiet!. Even though Actina had to paint the cooling by itself, with no Dark Rocks available on the market at the moment, this is also a demonstration of attachment to the vision of that PC.
If you are looking for a heavy duty machine that does not look like a product for aliens, you’ve come to the right address – this PC clearly shows that its builders would want to have it for themselves.
