What kind of case format are you looking for in your next purchase?

[Lian Li Tech]

All things equal, what case size/format would you pick for your next purchase? Why?

[Mydog]

I want room for radiators, the more the better but that's just me

[Kallenator]

Not extreme, but kinda nice to see more of.

Small mini-ITX case, VESA possible with a proper PSU.
*Mini-ITX, room for standard slim Intel fan.
*1x/2x 2.5" and 1x slim optical drive.
*PSU, super efficient 60W(35W TDP) or 120W(55-95W TDP) (No fan). Not external and with proper short cabling. 2x Sata, 1x Slim Sata, 1x 4p Molex and std ATX connectiors.
*Aluminium, less weight and makes it easier for mounting on Vesa.
*1x low profile PCI-e.
*Front, 2x USB 3.0, 3.5mm jack Mic and Audio.

This kind of product does not exist, you only get cheap steel versions with terrible cluttered loud PSU's, or too small external PSU powered versions.
The closest is IN WIN IW-BQ656T, but it's design is flawed everywhere.

As for Full tower, there are many good choices out there as we speak, however the Mid segment could use a bit more compact custom water-cooling love.
For example a 2x180 RAD on the bottom, mATX mainboard, no 5.25" bays - only a slim one for optical drive, 2x 2.5" 2x 3.5".

[HuffPCair]

I like mid size cases lately. I seem to go through stages of wanting big then small and inbetween. Right now kind of on the small/inbetween.

[sargatanas]

full tower ofc - offering enough room for watercooling
inverted mainboard tray like the v2000 would be awesome too

[lutjens]

Bring back the V2000 case...awesome case. Otherwise, a nice storage rackmount like the 24 bay Norco case, but with Lian Li quality.

[Michalius]

No option for mATX. Keep waiting for Lian Li to release something that has the features of the Arc Mini but in aluminum.

[Lian Li Tech]

full tower ofc - offering enough room for watercooling
inverted mainboard tray like the v2000 would be awesome too

Bring back the V2000 case...awesome case. Otherwise, a nice storage rackmount like the 24 bay Norco case, but with Lian Li quality.

So much love for the V2000.

[Lian Li Tech]

No option for mATX. Keep waiting for Lian Li to release something that has the features of the Arc Mini but in aluminum.

Ahh, mATX meant to add that in. When compared, which features in the Arc Mini that you find most lacking in the PC-A04. Water cooling? Cable management?

[3lfk1ng]

Hello Lian Li.

I own three Lian Li cases and all three required heavy modification for liquid cooling solutions. It would be nice to see cases with room for dual 240MM or dual 280MM radiators. I love your designs otherwise.

I eagerly await a mATX or mITX case with the exclusion of a cd rom drive and the exlusion of hdd bays. I only ever install Windows from a thumb drive and for the last 4 years, I have excluded CD rom drives from my builds. This room for CD rom drives and 3.5" mechanical HDDs only makes the cases larger. Apple excluded CD rom drives and 3.5" HDDs it only made their computer more sleek and appealing.

I also request the ability to mount SSD's in a dock on the backside of the motherboard tray (I built one myself to hide the cables and the SSD's fit perfectly). This makes for a really clean look.

If you made a case that excluded 5.25" bays and 3.5" bays it would be much smaller. Perfect for users like myself who only require SSD's.

Thank you.

[Michalius]

Watercooling, exactly. A lot of people in the enthusiast community really prefer to keep their radiators internal. I know Lian Li has done a great job of supporting externally mounted radiators, but it misses half of the point of building such a system, which is aesthetics.

The Arc allows for a wide variety of radiators due to offsetting the top fans away from the motherboard side of the case. Because of this, you have enough clearance for radiators to actually be over the motherboard heatsinks while retaining a lower overall case height. Being able to mount two 240mm radiators internally allows for a wide variety of components, rather than being limited by the radiator space available.

In direct comparison to the A04, the Arc Mini has two 120mm top fan spots and much better cable management options. However, it also has a plastic fascia that isn't too appealing in person once you are accustomed to Lian Li brushed aluminum. :P

To give you some pictures as to what I'm talking about. The minimum amount of clearance that you want is 55mm (30mm thick rad + 25mm fan). Here's a pic of the top fans in relation to the top of a Maximus Gene V in my PC-V700.



While there is just enough room to the top of the heatsink, there isn't physically enough space with a radiator mounted there to actually plug in the motherboard power. This prevents any sort of 240mm radiator from being installed, including the frequently used H100.

Here's a picture of my old Arc Mini build. If you notice, the radiator comes to almost the same point a 30mm thick radiator would in the V700, but the radiator is as close to the open side of the case as possible. This gives plenty of clearance to plug in the CPU power. There's even enough clearance for the radiator to be over the MOSFET heatsink if I were to have used a thicker radiator.



The downside to this, of course, is that you lose that wonderful symmetrical appearance that many of the Lian Li cases have. However, judging by the PC-V650, I don't think that is a huge concern.



If that kind of mounting was just on the OTHER side of the case in your SFF/mATX/ITX cases, it would make a world of difference without any significant change in core design philosophy.

Hello Lian Li.

I own three Lian Li cases and all three required heavy modification for liquid cooling solutions. It would be nice to see cases with room for dual 240MM or dual 280MM radiators. I love your designs otherwise.

I eagerly await a mATX or mITX case with the exclusion of a cd rom drive and the exlusion of hdd bays. I only ever install Windows from a thumb drive and for the last 4 years, I have excluded CD rom drives from my builds. This room for CD rom drives and 3.5" mechanical HDDs only makes the cases larger. Apple excluded CD rom drives and 3.5" HDDs it only made their computer more sleek and appealing.

I also request the ability to mount SSD's in a dock on the backside of the motherboard tray (I built one myself to hide the cables and the SSD's fit perfectly). This makes for a really clean look.

If you made a case that excluded 5.25" bays and 3.5" bays it would be much smaller. Perfect for users like myself who only require SSD's.

Thank you.

While extremely niche, I would most definitely buy this case as well.

[3lfk1ng]

These are some old pictures of my setup before I added the tubing. It still gives you an idea for the extremely tight tolerances that I had to deal with just because I prefer Lian-Li cases. These are 2x 280MM Aquacomputer Modularity Radiators. The two 240GB ssd's are completely hidden behind the motherboard. Also (I don't have pictures) but my PSU and fan controller are hidden under an black acrylic box I had to keep everything nice and clean. I'm long overdue for some decent pictures, my apologies.








Input: If the case was an inch wider and provided enough room up top to clear the motherboard heatsinks and taller ram modules (this case would have been perfect if the mATX position sat flush just above the PSU without support for ATX) this case would be a water-cooling dream. I had to use Samsung's 30nm ram in order to keep from hitting the radiator when sliding in the motherboard tray.

[nullface]

Itx

[prava]

Ahh, mATX meant to add that in. When compared, which features in the Arc Mini that you find most lacking in the PC-A04. Water cooling? Cable management?

There are some differences, one of the biggest being the "no compromise" in the Arc Mini (my brother has one). As of now, there is no mATX tower from Lian Li that has this capabilites (together):

a) Support for whatever high-end heatsink you may use.
b) Support for watercooling units (custom or OEM, doesn't matter) with at least 2 x 120 rad support.
c) Support for all the above without super tight tolerances that make buying a unit a risk in case something doesn't snap in.

For instance:



Why? The V600F is probably THE most gorgeous tower mATX case ever released (imo)... but it ain't practical if you want to build a high-power computer because:

a) It lacks a rear fan (which makes no sense to me from a design standpoint).
b) You can't put any decent heatsink in there (150mm max height... and if you do find a tower heatsink with that height, good look fitting your ram into the mobo).
c) I doubt you can even put a watercooling OEM unit with a 120mm rad...

Also, because there is no rear fan it will be hard to have the system properly cooled if you plan to put some decent vga's in there.

Really, I LOVE the design of the case, its simply stunning... but trading aesthetics for performance is something that shouldn't be needed.

---

Instead, lets look at the Arc Mini:

a) No heatsink tower compromise (well, if you plan to put a super huge one, then yes, but with 165mm you can put almost whatever you want).
b) As many fans as you'd want to.
c) The case is just a "tad" bigger than your V600F.

All in all, the V600F trumps the Arc Mini in terms of beauty and quality... but the latter is much more useful when building a computer and thus the value of the V600F decreases.

IMO, whats lacking from Lian Li this days is to put more thought into designing products... because some design choices clearly means that the design group isn't even up to date to the nowadays needs, because towers such as the A04 or the V600F have obvious mistakes that anybody who has ever built a computer wouldn't do.

So, just test your designs with modern hardware:

-Can we put a high-end computer in there?
-Can such high-end hardware work fine with the airflow designed?
-Can we use up-to-date parts with this case?

For instance, allowing builds to put a cooler with height up to 150mm is a poor choice design... you'd rather make the case smaller because from 120mm to 150mm the choices aren't very different... when from 150mm to 170mm they are, and a lot.

Its the only thing Lian Li is lacking this days: the quality is unparalleled (well, lets not speak about Abee cases and the like, hehe), but they are far behind in terms of usability, things that Silverstone is very up to date (with products such as the TJ08-E, which is the perfect form factor as everything you need fits, but there is no wasted space anywhere. A true example of a job well done... also, the SG09 is a very nice example of a form factor although, IMO, the front is ugly (something that can be changed easily).