Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1625
Introduction
Lian Li is known for their full-featured and extremely toned down, yet stylish looking products. The first two cases that we had a chance to check out in the past year, the PC-6070 and the PC-V1000, amazed us with great performance as well as innovative features to help ease PC hardware maintenance. And since metal working is one of their top skills, they know how to utilize aluminum in the best way possible.Lian Li is not a gaming chassis company, nor is it one of those manufacturers with a few years of experience that are just trying to get a product out there which would sell. They are in the business of creating designs and features that will help change the computer industry for the better through research and design as well as consumer feedback instead of just the latter.
Recently, Lian Li has given us the opportunity to look at the PC-60 Plus, which is a variation of the original PC-60 case. Take a look at some of the features below.
| Lian Li PC-60 Plus | |
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Included Features |
| - Updated cooling system with 4 fans - PSU fan cover - Removable motherboard tray - Full set of auxiliary ports |
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| Possible Improvement | |
| - Right side panel security features - Tool-less features |
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Though we have not had a chance to look at the original PC-60, we can still compare it to the new PC-60 Plus to see the changes that have been made and how they may help increase performance numbers in the end.
More information is available on the PC-60 Plus at Lian Li’s website.
Special thanks to Hampton Technologies for providing us with the PC-60 Plus.
External Design of the PC-60 Plus
Like every other Lian Li product as well as many plain vanilla cases on the market, the PC-60 Plus has the simplest of bezels with a flat, door-less design. No modified parts will be found on any Lian Li case, especially the PC-60 Plus. From the outside, the case even looks extremely small compared to the ones that we have reviewed recently.The top half of the bezel consists of four 5-1/4” drive bay covers, which are silver in color to match the rest of the case’s aluminum construction. They are easily removable; they are not held on by screws or anything that requires tools, but instead, can be punched out from the inside of the PC-60 Plus.
Below those bays we see two more bays - this time, they are the 3-1/2” kind, which are aligned vertically to the left. The original PC-60 case had three of these bays instead of two. We will see how this affects the internal layout of the case when we open up the “Plus” model. These covers can also be removed by pushing them out from inside the case. To the right of the 3-1/2” drive bays, we see the large power button with a smaller reset button positioned below as well as the power and HDD activity LEDs side by side at the bottom of that section. The reset button may be a bit difficult to press for anyone with wide fingers, but the small size does provide protection from any accidental resets.
At the bottom of the bezel, we see the large 120mm fan vent with the Lian Li logo at the center, whereas the original PC-60 model had a set of two 60mm vents in its place. Under the vent, we also notice a sturdy fold-down door made of the same aluminum that the bezel is made of, which hides a full set of auxiliary ports that include audio in/out, dual USB 2.0, and one FireWire port. Though the auxiliary ports are placed at the standard location in typical cases, we enjoyed how Antec positioned their auxiliary ports in a module at the top of the bezel, which could easily be accessed when the case was either sitting on the ground or on a desk. The module isn’t at all necessary, but the location of the ports can make a world of difference.
At the top of the case, we notice another vent for what seems to be an 80mm fan mounted at the roof of the PC-60 Plus. Because of the small size of the case, we are waiting to see what effect the placement of that top mounted fan will have on a power supply as large as our OCZ PowerStream.
The side panels are simple and very similar to those on the PC-6070 that we looked at in March of 2004. Both side panels are secured to the PC-60 Plus by thumbscrews. To remove the panels, we pull the panel back about an inch, then lift up to release it from the track at the bottom.
Internal Design of the PC-60 Plus
As soon as we open the PC-60 Plus, we are taken back to the design of the PC-6070. At the front, the 5-1/4” drive bays are designed the same – as a single piece of metal folded around, which extends all the way to the back of the case at the sides of the power supply mount. None of the drive bays are tool-less, which we weren’t expecting due to Lian Li’s track record for leaving tool-less features out of their products. Each drive requires screws (provided with the case) to be mounted to the drive bays, which proves to be secure and tight to keep the drives from moving around during operation.
Click to enlarge.
The only change that we see are the two 3-1/2” bays directly under the 5-1/4” bays instead of three as we mentioned earlier. They are meant for floppy drives, memory card readers, etc. - anything that requires external access on the front bezel. The PC-60 had three of these while the PC-60 Plus only has two, which is enough for typical home and business user applications.
The PC-60 Plus also features the same removable HDD cage that we found on the PC-6070. It can hold up to five 3-1/2” HDDs vertically or three HDDs mounted horizontally with the included cage partition. The drive cage is secured to the case by two thumbscrews and can be removed by sliding the cage out through the open side of the case.
As we shift our eyes to the back of the case, we see the expansion slots use thumbscrews to secure any add-in card that we would want to install like our 9800XT video card. One thing we notice is that the frame of the case interferes when using a screwdriver to install or remove these thumbscrews.
It isn’t really a big issue, since they are thumbscrews, but the option to use a screwdriver easily always adds a few points to the final judging of the case.
Cooling Hardware
The first major change that Lian Li implemented in the PC-60 Plus was the cooling system. Instead of the two 60mm fans up front, Lian Li has decided to use a 120mm fan that will increase air flow while decreasing sound output. The larger fan will help cool the HDDs mounted in the drive cage much better than the 60mm fans did on the original PC-60.
The PC-60 Plus also includes the standard 80mm fan that we saw in the original PC-60 as well as the PC-6070. There is also a change here. Lian Li has included a chrome-finished air duct that, when secured to the back mounted intake fan, guides air directly at the CPU heat sink fan to provide it with fresh cool air.
This feature may make some of our hearts stop out of fear of air flow gone wrong, but Lian Li has implemented other features to equalize air pressure inside the case. There is an 80mm exhaust fan mounted at the top of the case where we saw the vent on the outside. This fan will help move rising warm air out of the case.
The second exhaust is through an included 120mm blower module, which can be mounted at the space beside the expansion slots. This blower will help move warm air away from the video card as well as pull air from the rest of the case.
The last piece of hardware that will help air circulation is the power supply. A unit with a few fans to help keep the air flowing will do a system with higher heat outputs much better than a cheap single fan power supply. Lian Li has included a PSU fan cover to direct air to the side of the case to prevent recirculation through the back mounted fan.
Case Construction
We can always simply put it by saying that the case is well constructed, but that sounds vague, since everyone has their own definition of a “well constructed” case. The PC-60 Plus is extremely lightweight because of its all-aluminum construction, but its not at the cost of strength. The entire structure of the PC-60 Plus is the strongest that we have seen in aluminum cases since the PC-6070/V1000 models as well as SilverStone’s TemjinIII.
There is a single security feature on the PC-60 Plus that is also found on the PC-6070 as well as many other similar models to the PC-60 Plus. This feature is the side loop for third-party locks or security wire that can be utilized to lock the left side panel as well as motherboard tray to the case. This security feature would almost be complete if the right side panel would have been locked also similar to the issue that we mentioned when we looked at the PC-6070.
Motherboard Tray
The motherboard tray is almost identical to that in the PC-6070 as well as many other models similar to the PC-60 Plus in that the tray and back panel of the case are a single piece. It can be removed by pulling it out through the back of the case. It is secured to the PC-60 Plus by four thumbscrews on the back panel and can also be locked to the case as we mentioned before.
Unlike the PC-6070, however, the PC-60 Plus’ tray uses screw-on stand-offs instead of the snap-on type. By “snap-on”, we mean that the stand-offs can be installed on the tray by clipping them into the rectangular slots cut out on the tray. We actually feel that it is better to have the screw-on stand-offs because they just seem more stable than the snap-on type.
The Installation Process
Installing our hardware took a bit longer than we expected, since we have to screw everything into place. To install our HDD, we had to first remove the drive cage, and then apply four screws to mount the drive. The power supply was also a hassle because we needed to remove the mounting plate at the back of the case to slide in the PowerStream unit, and then screw the plate onto both the power supply as well as the case.
Click to enlarge.
Our motherboard installed quite easily. We did not remove the motherboard tray, since the motherboard was the first component that we installed and no wiring was really in place to interfere. If we had removed the tray to install the board, it would have probably tacked on about 1-2 minutes on the total installation time.
One thing we noticed with the newly implemented CPU air duct feature was that when mounted onto the fan at the back of the case, the duct was not centered over the CPU heat sink fan. We did not see this as an issue, though, since the heat sink fan was large enough to receive any air blown at it that would make the air duct just as effective. The duct can also be pivoted and mounted in various positions to accommodate many different hardware combinations.
Benchmarks - Thermal
Describing the cooling equipment that comes with a case just doesn’t cut it for us. We need to see how it actually performs to see if it is as effective as what the manufacturer’s say. We have hand-picked a full system, which we believe is the current system setup for the average user.| PC Mid-Tower Test Bed | |
Chaintech VNF3-250 |
 Click to enlarge. |
The thermal readings for the key components and points on the motherboard during operation were as follows. The numbers in each square represent the average ambient air temperature of that particular square inch of the case in degrees Celsius:
Click to enlarge.
Our predictions were right - the temperatures of each critical component were 2-3 degrees cooler on average compared to the temperatures in previous case reviews. The CPU, heat sink fan, and video card especially ran much cooler due to the added air duct and blow fan.
Benchmarks - Sound
The other performance meter when it comes to cases is the level of sound output created by the cooling system. We measure the noise levels of the PC-60 Plus at 12" away from the closed chassis with the power supply and heat sink fans turned off. Take a look at our results.
The sound output was predictably high for the PC-60 Plus because of the four different types of fans included with it.
Final Words
With aluminum cases popping up on the market from these new manufacturers that most of us have never heard of, it’s quite difficult to distinguish between the products that are actually worth for what we may pay them.The thermal performance of the PC-60 Plus was amazing, thanks to the addition of the CPU air duct and blower fan, which effectively moved air in and out of the case where it was needed most. Temperatures were decreased 1-2 degrees on average and not just the system ambient temperatures, but also the temperatures of the individual critical components, especially the CPU and graphics card.
The sound output, however, was a bit too high for a case of this size, but it is a tradeoff if we want better thermal performance. The case put out sound levels around 54 dBA, which is much higher than the levels that we measured with the PC-6070. Then again, the PC-6070 didn’t have a total of 4 fans operating.
The PC-60 Plus is currently retailing between $135 and $150. It seems a bit steep for those used to spending under $100 for a case, but the PC-60 Plus is completely aluminum in construction, has a great cooling system, and will visually appeal to most users out there including the novice users and enthusiasts. We definitely recommend the PC-60 Plus to anyone willing to spend money on a great performing product.
Special thanks to Hampton Technologies for providing us with the PC-60 Plus.
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