I probably didn't phrase my support quite as well as I should have; you do have to work within the constraints of a particular case, but generally there seems to be good performers in all sorts of sizes in the $30-40 region (which includes some of the heatsinks you'd suggested), so replacing the heatsink doesn't have to be an expensive proposition and you'll most likely be getting both quieter and better cooling, so it seems to be pretty much win-win.

The PC-Q11 looks nice..if you only need 2 3.5" drives. Remember the main purpose of the PC-Q08 is to have 4+ 3.5" drives I think i'd prefer a smaller case if I was going to use a low number of disks in a mini-itx build.

Hi all,

Just wondering from those of you who have this case...

1. Can anyone let me know the length of card which can be used WITH the lower drive cage present? The card I want to use in 17cm long. I can't seem to find this info anywhere!

2. I am thinking of cramming in 6 x 3.5" PATA (not a typo) drives, a 3Ware 4 port PATA RAID controller (hence question 1), and maybe a DVD drive. Am I crazy to think it can be done? The previous pic posted looked really cramped as-is!

3. Finally, for a mini-ITX board like the GA-D510UD, is it safe to assume the single PCI slot will "line-up" with the slots on this case?

Thanks!
Raj

If you look at the diagram for the very similar MATX Lian Li PC-V354, the dimension of the drive cage is 115mm. Base on that number, you should have 185mm or 18.5cm of space for a video card with the lower drive cage according to the diagram (300mm without lower drive cage) for the Lian Li PC-Q08.

Just measured. sheltem is correct -- but don't forget to leave another cm or more for the power plug to the video card if it mounts on the rear (rather than the top edge) of the card.

Brilliant... as it'll be a RAID card, no problem with the power slots etc poking out from the back!

Going to order this first thing tm, thanks guys!!

Raj

What OS is preferred here, a 32 GB SSD seems overkill...?

FreeNAS can be installed on a 128 MB USB stick (plugged right into the motherboard).
Do you need 32 GB of space for the OS to run a server?

Obviously it's not for FreeNAS. On the other hand, the price of many a good consumer SSD of 30gb size is increasingly trivial. Typically $75, not even on sale. Quicker, probably a lot more robust, and it will accommodate any OS of your choice.

Welp, finally pulled the trigger and bought one of these. Waiting for it to be delivered to see if it can house a Thermochill PA160...

I have built a I5 750 system with a GTX460 video card as follows


System-Windows 7
CPU Core I5 750
Ram 4gig
CPU Cooler Thermalright AXP-140-RT CPU Cooler (fits perfectly as long as you do not use backing plate -I used fibre washers on bolts at back of MB)
CPU Cooling fan Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm Fan -air flow away from MB towards Power supply.
MB Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3
Video Card EVGA GTX460
Main Hard Drive OCZ Vertex 2 60GB E Series SSD
Secondary hard drives-2x Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD7500BPVT 750GB (laptop drives in a hard drive rack)
Power Supply Silverstone Strider Plus 600W ST60F-P -Fan opening inside case removing air from CPU heat sink.

I blocked all air vents on case so that only the front fan (replaced by Noctua NF-P14 FLX 140mm ) and the top 120 mm fan operates.

I used sound deadener on all the insides of the case.
In most cases Combination Butyl/Foam Super Sound Deadener
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD
but under motherboard
Butyl Based Sound Deadening Material
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD

This stops any vibration noise form the aluminium case itself.

Temperatures in case are excellent , similar in fact to my Antec P180 Mini.
Noise wise it is very Quiet for a desktop , quieter than my Antec P180 Mini which has same CPU and Video card.

Thanks for the great review, but one thing... Excuse me, but am I the only one noting some interference with the cpu cooler clearance that is mentioned in the review.

The review claims that the clearance is approximately 110mm, but Scythe Samurai ZZ's height is according to both SPCR's review and product's homepage 122mm including the fan?
This seems like a a great case, but that was an error(?) that I spotted in the review, can someone confirm?

And one other fact... The Samurai is installed the wrong way in your review. The heatpipes are pointing to up, and it should be known fact that heatpipes need to be facing either horizontally or down. http://en.expreview.com/2010/11/15/90%C2%B0-rotationhow-to-install-heatpipe-cooler/11843.html

I'm seriously thinking about buying one for my desktop use. Noctua NH-C12P SE14 would be my pick for the cooler. It's 8mm lower than Samurai and so it would give more room for the clear air to move.

I am currently doing a home server build with the Lian Li Q08, Zotac H55 and the Samurai ZZ. There is about 5/8inch between the top of the Samurai ZZ fan and the bottom (side) of the power supply. It does fit ok.

I installed the Samurai ZZ with the ends of the heat pipes (upper fin end) pointing toward the motherboard back panel ports. This puts the heatpipes horizontal. I can't seem to see the heatpipe orientation in the article pictures, either in this article or the home server article. Is there really a preferred orientation? Some sites say yes, others say no. The cooler mounts touch a couple of the capacitors in this orientation, so I am not sure what others did.

I am using the Seasonic X-650 power supply and the supply fits, but the cables are MUCH too long. Looks like the ATX24 cable will need to be shortened from about 24 inches to about 8 inches. The CPU12V 4 pin cable will need to be shortened as well. If this is not done, either the space for the video card or the space for the middle drive bays will be compromised to say nothing of the airflow blockage from the extra mass of cable. I have the power supply currently mounts with fan to the outside of the case to draw cool in and not add the PS heat load to the case air.

Jay

What a beautiful build !! Very very thoroughly done and well planned, I'd say - I particularly like what you did with the 2,5" HDDs and the cage. Not to mention all the dampening. Have you tried any other 14 cm fans other than Noctua? How is your fan control set up /any undervolting ? Have you considered any other graphic cards or alternative cooling of same?

Cabling is not exactly as nice as I would like. Hands are 'too' big to work in very tight spaces. I could tidy it up with some tricks such as a power distribution module to reduce the power cables but as it runs very cool I am decided to leave it.
The Front fan is under volted using one of the adaptors supplied by Noctua (blue one) which you can see on the side of the front fan..
The front fan runs at 860 RPm, CPU fan at just under 600 rpm the Top fan is also under volted.
Not thinking of another GPU or alternate cooling of same.
I have not tried any other fans even though there are quieter ones than the Noctua 140mm I used.
The build was to test out the performance and optimisation of an of an SSD and the use of 2.5mechanical Hard drives in a compact system. I am giving it to my Daughter. With a Core i5 750 and a GTX460 it is a reasonably fast unit, and she will think it is very quiet

Anyone wants to comment on this?

Hi,

I remember looking into this and found out the height of the cooler was 94mm inc the fan and the length of the cooler was 122mm. If you look at the pictures it starts to make more sense. If the fan is 92mm then the heatsink pipes sticking out to the side make it 122mm. So it is the width and the height of 94mm and the bit that sticks out is the 122mm.

Brilliant point. That would make sense. I just wish it would become standardized in which order dimensions are given (W*H*D) and/or that it would be mentioned if it's unclear.

Are there any alternatives on the market for 6 HDD NAS? I would like it to be small as possible and this case still waste much space with 5,25 drive and huge fan, probably even power supply.

I found only fractal design array r2 - quite unacceptable design. And fractal design define mini - quite nice, but it is even bigger then lian-li.

Nope, not that I know of. I picked this case because it was by far the best 6 HDD Mini-ITX case around. As proven by Mike's testing, it's very doable to keep it quiet. Very good cooling, very nice quality case, very pleasant feeling aluminum. The options are very few beyond this.

Thank you for a great forum thread. I am about to build a WHS11 server with the following components:

Case: Lian Li PC-Q08B
Motherboard: Asus E45M1-I Deluxe
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM DDR3 PC10600/1333MHz 4GB
PSU: Seasonic X-400FL 400W
Optical drive: Samsung SH-B123L
OS: WHS 2011 Sweden OEM
HDD1: OCZ Agility 3 Series SATA III 2.5" SSD 60GB (for OS)
HDD2: Western Digital Caviar Green WD30EZRX 64MB 3TB (more physical HDDs later)

Many people point out the fact that the performance wins with a SSD in a WHS build is minimal, which I could agree on. The reason for me to still go this route is to have as few mechanical things moving when idle. I aim for setting physical HDDs to spin down (turn off) after say 30 min. In this context I think it is very attractive to have a silent SSD hosting the OS. When Idle, only the two case fans will move/make sound. And these can be fairly well controlled by BIOS and/or a FanMate or two.

My question: Am I safe putting in a Seasonic X-400FL PSU. Apparently it is 160 mm long + the cables/connectors. Will this fit in the PC-Q08? I think the Seasonic PSU is identical to the Silverstone PSU used above by Stori so it looks promising. Can anyone confirm that the Seasonic X-400FL works, please?

Any other comments on the build are highly appreciated.

Christer: I've got the same precise question, will the seasonic 400x fit into the lian-li PC-Q08B?

I've already got my Q08B case running with an old PSU (Vantec with a fan) and i want to swap it to seasonic x-400 for less sound. Will i need any changes to the cooling ecosystem when transitioning? I would prefer to leave the factory default case fans if it would be an option (the overall build is a HTPC with low power consumption - intel BLKDQ45EK motherboard with integrated graphics, a Scythe SCSMZ-2000 Samurai ZZ CPU cooler on top), both case fans are running at 600 rpm with fanmates.

Christer & Theolos:

Did any of you two manage to fit the seasonic x400 into the PC-Q08 and use the 4 hdd hard disk cage as well?

Thanks
Alan

.. and to follow-up, what orientation did you point the seasonic PSU bottom-fan? outwards towards the grill, or inwards towards the motherboard?

Hi,

I took the plunge and did my own Lian Li PC-Q08 build viewtopic.php?f=20&t=65338&

I decided to go with the Kingwin LZP-550 and cheated by having a PSU extender. It has worked out really well as the extender gives a bit more space inside and allows cool air from the front fan to go downwards onto the Noctua NH-C14

In all the testing so far the Kingwin LZP-550 has never spun up but I feel safe that if it ever got too hot, then it can spin up.

I'm using it with the psu grill facing the cpu so it can draw in cold air from the outside so I've been able to block off the left hand side case grill (going to put in some sound dampening later).

In my particular case, the psu has always remained cool.