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  • Gadgety - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Got a PC-90 as it takes the monster sized HTPX motherboard size yet still looks like an ordinary sized chassis. Fit and finish is great. There are a couple of Lian-Li upscale features that are not available on the PC-90. They ought to bring out the PC-90x, or PC-90+, PC-90 Premium or similar so I could get it all in one package. Lian Li could benefit from bringing out upgraded versions of their better chassis.
  • yyrkoon - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    I bought a PC-G50 reverse ATX design and love it. It does not seem to have been a very popular case ( they did not last long on the market), but it is very functional, and small for a full ATX case.

    At 17" tall it can house a full ATX motherboard, full length video card, and has 2x 120mm fans, and 1 80mm blow hole for an optional 80mm fan. One of the 120mm fans has its own bracket, which is adjustable to sit directly over where the video card would sit inside the case.

    The 3 HDD bracket on the bottom was kind of cheap, but where Lian Li makes up for this is the 4 x 5.25" bays up top. You could like me opt out of a full length video card, and buy a 4in2 drive bay caddy. Which gives you room for 7 total HDDs. If that 4in2 drive bay adapter is bought from Lian Li, you get an additional 120mm fan to go with it as well.

    However one minor drawback was that the PSU mounting is sideways, on the back and sits right above the CPU. Leaving aftermarket cooling options to a minimum. OEM HSF's fit just fine, but anything larger would most likely not fit. *Unless* you modded the case, and moved the PSU forward to the front. Which I had considered myself several times.
  • yyrkoon - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Sorry, meant to say 4in3 drive caddy.

    Another thing i had often considered was buying something like a sythe 3x 5.25" bay mounted 120mm fan adapter, and making my own custom "tube" coming off it and blowing over the CPU, and out the back. I did buy one such fan bracket from Sythe, but never got around to making my own cooling ducting system. Hell I even bought the aluminum to do so lol . . . Oh well.
  • vanwazltoff - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    i watch a CES video on the whole line up and didnt really like any of there designs. lian li needs a new aesthetic. i love fractal cases
  • tzhu07 - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Yeah Fractal Design for me is the new king of case makers. Especially their Define line. They are quiet and classy and heavy set. I love my Define Mini.
  • Wardrop - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    I still wish Lian Li would do more generic modular designs. They offer so many nice accessories like hotswap bays and optical drive bezels, side panels, etc. I'm currently typing this from a computer housed in a LIAN LI PC-A16. It's such an awesome case. I've got 2x optical drives with bezels, 8x hot-swap external hot-swap drives, a full-size graphics card, 3x expansion cards, etc, and it's the size of a standard ATX case. It's perfect, but sadly they don't make any such case.

    They still do an E-ATX version, the A77, but I'd live to see the re-introduction of a case like the A16, and would love a Micro-ATX version with 6x5.25" bays. Would make a great NAS or gaming enclosure. They could half their product line by offering more generic cases like this. Instead they produce so many specific cases, none of which fully satisfy anyone's needs.
  • shatteredx - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    I used the legendary Lian Li PC-60 for my first build back in 2001 and it's still a great looking (but boxy) design.

    For me, their design aesthetic peaked with their Mac Pro ripoff design (the PC-V1000) which was a beautiful case with a great internal setup (mobo flipped, separate compartments).

    I've moved on to Silverstone (the FT03, outstanding design) since then and am very impressed with the internal and external design. Cases have progressed nicely over the past decade.
  • aguilpa1 - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Lian Li, could make their aluminum cases thicker. I have an older I believe V1000B that is built like an aluminum tank. My new full tower PC-P80 is made of much thinner stuff and I would be afraid to move it around to much for fear of it collapsing. It is obvious when a company is going downhill when cost cutting is apparent in their products.
  • chaos215bar2 - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    I'm not sure why you guys seem to like manual fan controllers in cases so much. Automatic control is great when it works, but I absolutely don't want to think about changing fan speeds in my case ever time I start up a game or a CPU intensive task. I want my builds to just work once I'm done getting everything just right.
  • shatteredx - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Agreed. My ASUS board's Q-fan control works great, manual fan controls are just an extra gaudy knob to have on the outside of the chassis.
  • Tuffrabbit - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Still have yet to find a case that I like better than my Lian-Li V1110B, thick aluminum sides, sound insulation, massive room for any motherboard or graphic card set-up. Currently using Koolance liquid cooling on overclocked Intel cpu and AMD crossfire...
  • RandomUsername3245 - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    I bought a Lian Li case (PC-V351) a couple years back due to its unique form factor. Based on this experience, I'm probably not going to buy a Lian Li case again. It is a pretty, anodized aluminum case when viewed externally, but it's a pretty lame design. The case requires > 10 tiny screws to disassemble the thin (easy to bend) panels. There's little ingenuity in its design -- just a basic frame with panels attached on the sides. I prefer the superior engineering of a steel + plastic Antec case any day. Maybe I'll try a Fractal Design case next...
  • yyrkoon - Thursday, January 10, 2013 - link

    Lian Li surely does come up with some weird designs I'll grant them that.

    At the same time though, some of their cases are great. The best case I have personally owned was made by Lian Li.

    Someone else had stated that they're "made of cheap flimsy aluminum". Well in some respect, I guess that could be viewed as true. It is not 2" thick structural aircraft grade aluminum for sure. On the same hand, those "rugged Antec steel cases" have cheap, flimsy plastic door catches that tend to break off in a couple of months.

    In the end though, you have to ask yourself what is the intended purpose of a computer case. Is it a tool that doubles as a hammer, or is it something that sits out of the way, and looks nice? Also, does it give you what you want / need in a case. Beyond just housing your parts in one enclosure. What accessories are available for it ?
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