SPCR

http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/D_PC-800.htm
the pc-v800, as well, the sorta updated the V100,
http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/ ... -V1000.htm

am i late to the news? Any thoughts?

I like Lian-Li, but those look to be hard to quiet down even with acoustipack due to all of the mesh. I'm not one to complain much about some openings at the bottom of the case for air intake but that's excessive and seems like a fairly impractical cases if you are going for quiet. And I'm probably one of the most likely people to try quieting an AL case around here.

Still the styling is nice, and you could make a quiet pc with one, it's just going to be louder than other quiet pc's using the same parts in most other cases.

Talz wrote:I like Lian-Li, but those look to be hard to quiet down even with acoustipack due to all of the mesh. I'm not one to complain much about some openings at the bottom of the case for air intake but that's excessive and seems like a fairly impractical cases if you are going for quiet. And I'm probably one of the most likely people to try quieting an AL case around here.

Still the styling is nice, and you could make a quiet pc with one, it's just going to be louder than other quiet pc's using the same parts in most other cases.

yeah, I will try one of these aluminum jobbies one day. My mind is set on making an Antec Phantom work really well. This sort of setup would be great for that. My guess is: the phantom does better in a case like this, being that it is ALUMINUM! the heatsinks just cant perform as well next to painted, crappy imported recycled steel.

However, I duno if hardrive sound could be muffled in a thing like this. I noticed on my Nidec Samsung 120 gb drive that having the case open makes it audible, but closed, inaudible.

Not sure if you're serious or not, but an Aluminum case will not be cooler than a steel case of the same design. Ok maybe you'll get ambient 1/10th of a degree cooler due to the heat transfer but I doubt it'd be that much.

What's good about aluminum is the look and the weight.

Talz wrote:Not sure if you're serious or not, but an Aluminum case will not be cooler than a steel case of the same design. Ok maybe you'll get ambient 1/10th of a degree cooler due to the heat transfer but I doubt it'd be that much.

What's good about aluminum is the look and the weight.

if you use a phantom that needs to disipate heat via its aluminum fins, and those fins are touching a grilled-out style aluminum case, it HAS to get cooler temps than painted recycled steel.

That steel case = Al case for heat idea has not been tested in a system that relies on psu heatsink transfer, only with systems that have faned psu's.

And, being that the psu is the most noisey piece of equipment in the vast majority of setups, It could mean that phantom+aluminum vented case might be lower in total noise levels?

~El~Jefe~ wrote:if you use a phantom that needs to disipate heat via its aluminum fins, and those fins are touching a grilled-out style aluminum case, it HAS to get cooler temps than painted recycled steel.

That steel case = Al case for heat idea has not been tested in a system that relies on psu heatsink transfer, only with systems that have faned psu's.

And, being that the psu is the most noisey piece of equipment in the vast majority of setups, It could mean that phantom+aluminum vented case might be lower in total noise levels?

That's a good point but cases pretty much always have some dead air around the PSU. Now you could rig up an aluminum spacer or something, but then you have to get it just the right size, and you have multiple heat transfer points that will not be solid aluminum.

Personally if you are going to that kind of trouble I think it'd be better to just a case with a PSU channel that you can mount a low rpm 120mm fan in. It could make an interesting project though if someone ever tries what you're talking about, kinda like a home made Zalman TNN500.

Lots of unanswered questions about the changes to the PC-V1000, but one item of note is that they appear to have back-handedly fixed the case's biggest design problem - the baffle that separates the HDD compartment from the PSU is now removable, according to the pictures. Why it should be removeable, as opposed to simply being removed, is unclear, but if you remove it, and seal the holes on the bottom of the case, you have a 120 mm fan in front and a psu in the back, both moving air over the HDDs. How well this works will be an interesting question.

Yeah, after thinking about whatt I said, I am assuming that an air channel would be 3x better than worrying about some natural convection and heatsinking from an open aluminum case.

I want the antec p180....

Where is this thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a perfect case for isolating the psu with a nexus 120, or a panaflo 80mm if 120 doesnt fit the psu section.

I dont mean to be a thread crapper, but am I the only one that finds the LianLi cases to be hideous? The mismatch of the perforated front with the drive covers and the ridiculous wheels is what ruins it for me. The Al look is nice of course. (and yes by antec is ugly too but it wasnt $170 five years ago).
Maybe I'm just crazy, I like the Asus Vento

tay wrote:Maybe I'm just crazy, I like the Asus Vento

Yes, you're crazy.

IF you go diggind on the site you will notice that the newline seems to be the old line, but with all the "fixes"

http://www.lian-li.com/product.htm

BTW I think that the biggest improvement was the removing of the grating for the back exhaust fan. This alone made the case quieter and because the airflow is now unrestricted, cooler when running.

I look forward to a review of the new Lian-Li 'plus' cases, either the V-1000 or the V-1100 line..I'm anxious for the Antec P180 to finally appear, but I still think the Lian-Li's are more attractive. I know that's subjective but there you are. I hope to replace my old beige Antec case with something more interesting later this year, and I really need SPCR to review these new ones to help me decide!

Has anyone found these cases for sale yet?

Here's a review of the PC-V1100B Plus (in French): http://www.59hardware.net/index.php?opt ... 8&Itemid=5

I'm also waiting for a vendor.

It's all very gimmicky in my view (I own a V2000).

All the extra flaps and vents really don't assist airflow - they increase just noise (both resonance and wind turbulance). If you want extra cooling across the PCI cards you can achieve the same thing using a Zalman fan bracket for £5 together with (silent) fan of your choice. The rear diffuser box is useless - its doesn't improve cooling (it makes it worse) and also increases noise.

The biggest drawback of the V1000/V2000 etc is the hard mounting of the drive cage which is just horrendous for noise creation as vibrations are sent across the chassis.

The second drawback in terms of the noise is the front fascia - all those holes cause considerable sound leakage.

The third drawback is that all these 'bolt on' components just increase the scope for chasis resonance.

Unless my case is under my desk so that the absorbs the noise, I can actually hear the electrical pulsing from the motherboard during I/O operations.

It would be interesting to see if you can do what Dell has done with their systems - Use the CPU duct so that you can run the CPU HS fanless. One less fan is always good.

If you put a medium speed fan in the rear slot, and have the duct, perhaps you can plug that fan into the CPU header and control it with speedfan.

It might be necessary to do somehting a bit more radical (seal the duct to the heatsink top) but It might be worth a try with an XP-120 and a medium speed Yate Loon (or one of the maddog fans).

I have a V-1000B (the original version) and it is LOUD and HOT, IME. It's going to take a lot of work to quiet this thing down, but this premium version really helps us out by removing the rear fan grill. I would throw away that slot cooler (or sell it on ebay ).

Edit: Ok, the MB fan is a SCREAMER. I mean LOUD. It sounds like a 40mm fan that is about to die. BUZZZZZZBUZBUZBUZZZZZZ

It's driving me batty, and it MUST be replaced with a passive heatsink. Everything else is very quiet comparatively.

Another review. This one is in English and is of the PC-V1000 Plus.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/cases/200/

I've decided that the new configuration isn't compelling enough to wait for so I opted for the PC-V1100B from Monarch for $199.

I also ordered a Dremel from Amazon.