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Lian Li PC626 Server Case


Date
: 10/21/01 – 12:16:15 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Lian Li
Price: $600

Introduction

I still remember when I saw a Lian Li case for the first time … It was back when O reviewed the Lian Li PC20, which proved to be a very good case with an unseen quality level. After that review I was totally hooked to aluminium cases and I got myself a Lian Li PC70 pretty soon after. The PC70 is the full tower version of the PC60 (which is equal to the PC20 but with another front bezel) and it has served me very well over the past few months.

Although the PC70 is very large and offers a lot of expansion space, I still found it to be cramped when I fitted all my hardware in it, along with my watercooler. At about the same time, I got in touch with from Lian Li (a great person to talk to btw) and he asked me if O would be interested in reviewing the Lian Li PC626.
I don’t know about you, but for me the PC626 was something I never heard of before … Why? Because the case was released around the same time that I was asked to review it. This means that Overclockers Online is offering you peeps the very first review of this very large all aluminium server case!



You thought the PC70 was big? Think again … and read on to find about how the PC626 was rated according to our established opinion :).

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Not all computer cases are equal … everyone knows that. Lian Li is one of the manufacturers who is putting quality in front of quantity, with some amazing results too! For those who have no idea what Lian Li is all about, let me give you a brief explanation.

Lian Li was founded back in 1983, so they have quite some history already. They started out small but just like all growing businesses, the pace increased rapidly and today Lian Li is producing over 1500 models that are being sold and used all around the world. They offer a wide gamma of products: mini towers, midi towers, full towers, server towers, hard drive racks, hard drive coolers, … in short everything that is related to computer housing material.

The reason why they got so popular is that the Lian Li products are manufactured entirely out of aluminium. Not only does it help to reduce system heat, but their cases are very light as well. Apart from the material they use, they also offer a supreme quality to the buyers. The level of quality you are getting with a Lian Li is like nothing you have ever seen before. Preinstalled fans, blowholes, thumbscrews, easy to remove cables on the LED’s, no tool designs, no sharp edges, … the whole nine yards! Note that very large parts of the cases are built by hand and not by machinery, which definitely adds up to the quality level.

Now that you have a good look on whom Lian Li is and what they do, let us take a closer look at the specifications of the PC626.

- Available as PC626 or PC626A (the A features SCA slots for hot swappable SCSI drives)
- Silver colored anodized aluminium
- Total of 14 drive bays: 4×5.25′, 2×3.5′ and 8×3.5′ hidden for hdd’s
- Four 120mm Sunon fans for optimal cooling
- Door to hide the external bays (with key)
- 9 IDE activity LED’s
- 4 coasters for easy transportation
- No tools required to open/close the case and to install hardware
- Removable dust filter
- 2 removable hdd racks
- Dimensions: 665x270x498mm (LxWxH)

I think we can call the specs jaw dropping wouldn’t you agree? When the UPS person arrived with the box, I was as ‘WOW’ this thing is big :).

As you can read in the speclist, the PC626 is available in two versions: the PC626 and the PC626A. Both cases are identical expect for the fact that the ‘A’ model comes with SCA-2 hot swap bays, supporting hot swappable Ultra 160 SCSI drives. Since I have no use for that kind of features, I opted to review the normal model, but those who do need it, please read on as apart from that feature both cases are equal.

Just like all Lian Li cases out there, the PC626 is made entirely out of aluminium. This really looks sweet and it helps to reduce the weight of your case drastically. Imagine a case with these dimensions being made out of steel … it would take you like four strong man to move your computer ;). Thanks to the aluminium, this server case weighs less than a steel made miditower … isn’t that great?



Expansion will not be a problem with the PC626 either … as it comes with 14 drive bays!! To be more specific; you get four external 5.25′ bays (to mount cd-roms, live drive’s, digidoc’s, …) and two external 3.5′ bays (floppy drive, zip drive, …). The remaining 8 drive bays are located on the inside of the case, spread over two removable hard drive racks. So you can install eight hard drives on the inside of your case, and when you do not use the external 3.5′ bays you can install drives in there as well! Each of these racks comes with a high quality handle bar that helps you remove the rack and carry it with you.

With eight internal hard drives, try to imagine the heat it will generate … and I am not counting the heat from the cpu and video card. Luckily Lian Li did not trip over this and they preinstalled 4 (!!) 120mm fans in the case! Sunon, one of the biggest fan manufacturers out there, makes all four case fans.
Two of those fans are located at the front bottom of the case, pulling cold air in and pushing it through the hard drive racks. Fan #3 is placed behind the processor, pulling hot air away from the hot cpu and video card before it gets a chance to spread out in your case. The last fan is mounted in the ‘roof’ of the case, blowing the hot air that rises out of the case. This is what people like to identify as a ‘Blowhole’. It looks very professional and it actually works too :).

The two intake fans are also equipped with a dust filter that we also saw on previous Lian Li cases. This filter prevents dust and other hardware killing particles from entering the case. And let me tell you, it really works. You should see it after one week of running 24/7 … I do not want to imagine all that crap attacking my precious and expensive hardware!



Now before you ask, the PC626 does not come with that sweet baybus feature we have seen on the PC60, PC70 and other smaller cases. The baybus lets you control the fan speed depending on your needs: low, middle and high. The reason why the PC626 does not come with this feature is obvious: the PC626 is not aimed towards the all-round computer user but it is aimed towards server applications where noise is not a problem. In those applications the main goal is stability, and with this kind of cooling stability is what you get. Before I turned on the case, I was expecting the equivalent of a 747 starting its engines … however the PC626 took me by surprise and the noise it is emitting is not that loud … what you hear is the airflow … not the fans whining :).



Another feature that I really like about the PC626 is the door that hides the external bays and the power/reset button from the eye (and noisy fingers ;)). With the door close, the only things you can see are the power and IDE lights. It looks very clean and I love it, but I am sure some folks will dislike this because they do not want to be hassled with opening the door every time they want to access their cd-rom. For me this feature is great as it keeps interfering people from using my cd-rom, turning on the pc, …

The PC626 comes with no less than nine IDE LEDs … Lian Li has really designed this case for people with high need heh ;)? I am only using two LEDs because I only have IDE drives but people who use SCSI drives will really love this! You can hook up a LED to each IDE drive, but than you have to connect it to the IDE cable and I did not felt like taking it apart … and risking to kill the cable.

Although the case is made out of aluminium, is still weighs enough when it is cramped with hardware. That is why the PC626 is equipped with four coasters we all know from office chairs. This makes it really easy to move the case around to clean or to add/remove something. All four wheels come with independent brakes in case you want to be sure it will not be rolling downhill while you are sleeping.

Just like any other Lian Li case, this one does not need any tools to add or remove hardware, apart from the screws to install the motherboard, hard drives and the cd-rom’s. All needed thumbscrews are included and you even get some spare ones in case you lose them ;). Note that you can use a screwdriver to remove or install the thumbscrews (in case you tightened them to hard and you cannot get them lose with your fingers).

Finally yet importantly I want to discuss the dimensions of the PC626. It is almost twice as wide as the PC70 and the PC60 models, while being about as high as the PC60 (a bit higher actually). Lian Li also offers the PC78, which is just as wide as the PC626 but it also is just as high as the PC70 … All in all the PC626 is very large but there are even larger ones from the same brand. The only reason why you would go for the PC78 is because if offers more external drive bays … I prefer the PC626 because I don’t need those extra bays and because I prefer the four 120mm fans in the PC626 compared to the four 80mm + two 120mm fans in the PC78.

Page 3 : Installation

Installation

What is a better way to test a case than building a computer out of it? Since I had been using the PC70 for my own box for quite some time I decided it was time for a change … let’s look what I put inside of the PC626 shall we?

- Abit KG7-RAID
- AMD Athlon 1.4GHz
- 4x256MB PC2100 Crucial DDR with ECC
- Matrox G550
- 2x IBM 30GB 7200rpm
- 2x IBM 40GB 7200rpm
- Teac 32x cd-rom
- Plextor 24/10/40 cd-rewriter
- Creative Soundblaster Live! Platinum with Live! Drive
- 3.5′ floppy drive
- D-Link NIC
- Overclockers Hideout Blizzard watercooler setup
- Enermax 451 PSU

All of this together results in a very powerful and complete system that cannot be installed in a midi tower because it is just too small … The PC70 I was using did the job fine, but I always want more space :).

The only bad thing I could think of when I was using the PC626 was the lack of a removable motherboard tray. The PC70 did not have on either but I still would love to see one in both cases. Fortunately, the PC626 is so ‘spacey’ on the inside that you will not have any trouble working in the case.

After the motherboard was installed, all the add-on cards were quickly added thanks to the easy to use thumbscrews :). I cannot live without these inexpensive goodies anymore! The next parts on the list were the cd-rom drives and the live drive. The plates that cover the bays are easily removed since they are installed with plastic (reusable) pushpins. After you removed them, just slide in the hardware, screw it down with the supplied screws and you are all set.
Last thing left to do … install the hard drives. Now this is often a task that I do not like but with the PC626 it is a breeze. Remove the three thumbscrews that hold the rack in place and slide it out. After the drives are installed in it, you slide the rack back in and secure it with the thumbscrews. All done!  

Note that you have to buy your own power supply as Lian Li is not including it in the box. Some people will like it, others will dislike it. Personally, I am in favour of this because now you can buy what you want/need instead of paying extra for a PSU you do not want anyway.

Installation was a piece of cake and took me like an hour or so to install a complete pc from ground zero all the way up (including guiding all cables and stuff that takes some time).

Page 4 : Testing

Testing

There is only so much you can test when it comes to a computer case. What I did was install the system in the PC70 first, run it for a while under stress and measure cpu and case temperatures. Afterwards I did the exact same thing with the PC626 in order to give a good comparison between a great case and an even greater case.

The PC626 performed very well! The four 120mm fans are doing their job marvellously since the case temperature is equal to the room temperature in any given situation! That is a very good achievement if you ask me … My cpu temperature went down a few degrees as well because the hot air is removed very fast. The video cards don?t have the chance to dump heat in the case as the case fans pull out the heat immediately. Overall I am very impressed with the results. The price you pay is of course the extra noise this kind of airflow brings along … but you cannot have both, can you?

Page 5 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Lian Li sure made their homework when they designed the PC626 as they managed to produce an excellent server case loaded with features and great cooling capacities. The quality is of the highest level and everything you can ask for is included, including the 120mm Sunon fans. Would I suggest this case for the average home user? Not at all, because for most people out there, this beast will be overkill. On the other hand, people who need a very large case that offers a lot of expansion and comes with top-notch cooling capabilities should really look at the PC626 because they get more than they asked for!! In short, if you can afford this aluminium beauty, I suggest you go for it as you will not be disappointed by it at all, I guarantee that much!

Good

- Looks great
- Aluminium design
- Expansion options
- Great cooling
- High quality level
- Coasters :)
- …

Bad

- Price
- No removable motherboard tray