© 2009 Bright Side Of News*, All rights reserved. Lian Li's New Cases for 2012

Lian Li's New Cases for 2012

2/16/2012 by: Anshel Sag

This year, we had a chance to meet with our good friend Jean-Pierre Skalamera representing Lian Li, one of the best case manufacturers in the world. We were excited to see what they had in store for us, as the company always seems to be doing new and interesting things with their cases, sometimes brilliant and other times simply crazy.

The first case we took a look at was the PC-Q12, this is a slim-line case which already has its own PSU built in and fits mini-ITX motherboards in a slightly different form factor than what most people are used to seeing. You'll notice that it has a top exhaust fan and two USB 3.0 ports built into the front of the case. This case looks super clean and slim.

Next, we have the PC-Q09FN which is more of a media center style case which features two USB 3.0 ports on the front as well. It also has the new Lian Li side panel attachment system which no longer requires screws but rather uses a series of metal rods that are welded to the side panel which then get pinched in their appropriate locations once the side panel is put into place. This tool-less attachment could either be extremely brilliant or a complete pain, we're hoping to test that out soon. This case also comes with its own PSU as a standard ATX size PSU would not fit inside this case. This case is a revision of their PC-Q09F which has a lot more connectivity in the front and doesn't have a centrally located disc drive. This case is probably one of the nicest looking HTPC cases out there.

After that we got to take a look at the PC-Q15, which is yet another mini-ITX case with yet again two USB 3.0 ports in the front of the case. There isn't anything necessarily unique about this case other than the fact that it borrows a lot of the design cues from the much larger cases that Lian Li makes, in a much smaller form factor. This case also features a built-in power supply and allows for a single PCI or PCIe graphics card or sound card to be used. This case also has some nifty looking wheels, even though they're actually non-functional and more intended for looks.

The next case we have is the PC-Q05, which we found to be one of the most interesting cases that Lian Li had to offer, primarily because we've never seen anything like it before in terms of size. This case is less than two inches thick and designed to effectively fit in ANY home theater or computer desk setup, yet it still manages to support desktop processors and up to two 2.5" HDD/SSDs. The motherboard is a proprietary one, but is designed to fit this specific case and as such allows for two USB 3.0 ports, DVI, HDMI, eSATA, LAN, two USB 2.0 ports and audio jacks.

Another new case we took a look at is the PC-Q18, which features more full-case design in a still relatively small form factor. This case is also a mini-ITX case, but it supports a full length dual-slot graphics card as well as a full size ATX PSU. Because of this, this case is going to be geared towards a more enthusiast, performance market. The case also features a 120MM fan in the front as well as a 120mm fan in the top. It also supports up to four 3.5" HDDs with hot swapability and two 2.5" HDDs or SSDs if you do not wish to use a full length graphics card. Once again, it also has two USB 3.0 ports in the front.

After all of these mini-ITX cases, we were really excited to see what midtower and full tower offerings Lian Li had in store for us, we detail those on the next page.
Here we'll be covering Lian Li's midtower and full tower cases and the cases that don't quite fall into either of the two categories.

First, we've got the PC-V700 which is designed to fit both ATX and mATX motherboards. This case is actually extremely small in terms of size because it supports a full size ATX motherboard from the top to the bottom of the case and actually has a front/bottom mounted PSU to accomodate the standard ATX size motherboard. The case als supports up to four 3.5" HDDs and three 2.5" HDD/SSDs. Three of the 3.5" bays are hotswappable, and are cooled by a 140mm intake fan. This case has a total of 4 fans, with three 120mm and one 140mm. It also features Lian-Li's new all metal tool-less bracket design which is probably the sturdiest and most brilliant design we've seen to date. It is also probably very expensive to manufacture. Another tool-less feature is the tool-less side panel system which we detailed earlier which this case also has. Also, note that the entire inside of the case is painted and black.

Next, we have the stealthy and slightly larger PC-B10FN, which features Lian Li's new cable management, sound dampening and tool-less retention mechanism for PCI slots. This case has sound dampening foam in the front door to muffle the sounds of the two gigantic 140mm intake fans in this case. Furtermore, this case also features Lian-Li's new all-metal tool-less bracketing system forl holding down your graphics cards as well as a new PSU mounting feature which enables you to really clamp down your power supply into place. There is also a filter located directly below the PSU in order to prevent it from collecting dust. This case also features Lian Li's tool-less side panel mounting system.

We also took a look at what was without a doubt the most unique case we've seen, ever. This was the Lian Li PC-100. From the outside, it looks like an unassuming standard mid-tower case, but inside it is a complete monster of a case with a set up that will boggle your mind. Like all of the other new cases we've mentioned from Lian Li, it has all of the new tool-less features and new cable management options, but that's not what interests us the most. The thing that interests us the most about this case is the fact that the front of the case is actually the back of the motherboard.

Looking at the front of the case, you've got a 120mm fan, and two 5.25 inch bays and a little door. This door like opening Pandora's Box. It opens access to the real design of the case inside and the fact that the system is completely flipped. This allows you to easily access all of the I/O that is usually found in the back of the case, in the front. This may sound weird, but once you realize how many people would like to be able to switch up connections in their system without having to dive underneath their desks, you'll begin to appreciate this design. Furthermore, for those that don't have the luxury of longer cables, having a front located I/O and PCI slots could be a godsend in certain situations.

If all of that wasn't good enough for you, this midtower is also capable of supporting XL-ATX motherboards like the Gigabyte X79-UD7, EVGA X79 Classified and some of the EVGA and Gigabyte X58 boards which supported 4-way SLI. In order to accommodate such gigantic motherboards, Lian Li had to engineer a unique way of mounting the 3.5" and 2.5" drives of the system onto brackets which are then installed onto the case after everything else including the motherboard is already installed.

We were also shown the PC-Z70 which features all of Lian Li's new tool-less features as well as eight hot-swappable 3.5" or 2.5" hard drives in the front, all which are cooled by three 120mm fans from the side. because this is a Lian Li case, it also has all of the appropriate sound deadening foam and is designed to be unassumingly powerful. This case also has quite a few rubber grommets, which we also believe are a must for any high-end case in order to accommodate proper cable management.

Finally, we took a look at the PC-V2120x which is Lian Li's flagship case and has almost all of the features of the other cases in terms of cable management and tool-less design, with one major added feature. It supports the HPTX form factor, also known as the EVGA SR-X motherboard. So, this case will support ATX, M-ATX, E-ATX, XL-ATX and HPTX because of the sheer size of the case and the 11 PCI slots. This is in addition to supporting 13 (10+3) 3.5" HDDs and 4 (2+2) 2.5 HDDs or SSDs. It also has five 5.25" bays to support whatever disc drives that you might need. It also has three 140mm intake fans in the front, plus three 120mm top mounted exhaust fans and one 120mm rear exhaust fan. Meaning that this case is just screaming to be water-cooled with gigantic radiators.

Overall, we left Lian Li extremely excited for 2012 and looking forward to seeing more case manufacturers innovating and improving in ways that we had never expected before.

Tags:

Lian Li, Lian-Li, LianLi, Cases, Aluminum, M-ATX, Micro ATX, Mini-ITX, ITX, ATX, Motherboard, Hard Drive, XL-ATX, HP-ATX