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Lian Li PC-9300


Date
: 12/19/02 – 08:50:47 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Lian Li
Price: N/A

Introduction

If one would ask me how many cases I reviewed for Overclockers Online in the past two years, I would honestly have no idea. What I do know, is that many of those cases were made by a well-known computer housing manufacturer called Lian Li. What's so special about Lian Li? Well, for those few peeps out there who don't know this brand … Lian Li is one of the most popular manufacturers of slick looking, fully featured and high quality aluminum cases. You name it, they got it: micro towers, mini towers, mid towers and of course full towers and the server class towers that will probably house an average sized human ;). Lately, Lian Li added another series of cases to their gamma: the desktop model. As the name implies, this type of case is intended to be put on the desktop instead of underneath it. Because of this, the case is placed horizontally whereas tower cases stand vertically. Today I'm investigating the Lian Li PC-9300, an aluminum desktop case with enough features to scare away many tower cases … Let's see what the PC-9300 has to offer …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

First of all, let's have a brief summary of the specs before I'll discuss them.

- PC-9300
- Dimensions: W360xH132xD430mm
- Drive bays: 2×5.25" external, 2×3.5" internal
- Cooling: 2 80mm ball bearing fans
- M/B Type: MicroATX form (max size: 9.6"x9.6")
- Two frontal USB2.0 compatible ports
- Includes a mounting kit to install a 3.5" external device
- Features a blue light strip
- Entirely made out of aluminum

With the PC-9300, Lian Li is not targeting the hardcore computer users out there who own a complete watercooled rig featuring a RAID5 setup, a DVD writer, a DVD rom, a LiveDrive!, a rheobus and perhaps even an LCD display mounted in a 5.25" bay. Why? Well, because it won't fit into this case!

The PC-9300 is targeted towards the "normal" @Home computer user who owns a pair of hard drives, a DVD rom and perhaps even a cd-rewriter unit to write back-up's of his "My Documents" files. Those users will find this case to be an ideal choice as it looks very good on their desk and it doesn't eat up a lot of place since one can put his monitor on top of the case!! Another interesting application for which I would personally use this case, is to build a DVD-box. Instead of laying down several greenies to buy a stand-alone DVD player, why not building a new rig with your old components and just adding a DVD-rom to it … hook it up to your television and "voila", you got yourself a kick-ass DVD-box that will draw many people's attention!

Now that I gave a few pointers on the application of the PC-9300, let's talk specs! As you already now, Lian Li only builds aluminum housings, meaning the PC-9300 weighs close to nothing ;). The case is made out of the same high quality grey colored aluminum as many other Lian Li cases. Next to the carbon-like strips on the side, the case has four good looking "feet" on the bottom, which remind me of the feet you can find on hifi equipment.

On the front bezel, you'll find two buttons (one to power up the rig, another one to reset it), accompanied by two LED's to reveal hard drive activity and power status. All is well, but I wish Lian Li could make that reset button a bit wider because it is a pain to push down.

On the left front size, there are two USB ports awaiting your needs. Needless to say that they both support USB2.0. These ports will definitely come in handy to hook up your mouse, joystick, digital camera, … in the blink of an eye. Most new cases feature this, which is a good thing since I don't enjoy finding my way to the USB ports on the back through a messy bunch of wires ;).

As I already mentioned, the PC-9300 only has two external bays, both 5.25" in size. If needed, you can install a 3.5" device in it (like a floppy or zip drive) thanks to the included converter kit! Good points for Lian Li here!

The final feature I want to mention concerning the front bezel, is the blue light strip sitting above the expansion bays. Those who have read our PC-6089A review a few weeks ago will know what I'm talking about since that case came with two light strips! When you power up the machine, this strip will be activated as well and a cool blue color will enlighten the strip! It looks really good without actually shining too bright and distracting you from your work. Perhaps Lian Li should install a on/off switch for those who really want to turn it off, but I sure like it!

Ok, so we covered the front of the case, now let's check out the backpanel. On the left side, you'll find a hole where the MicroATX PSU has to be installed. In the middle part, you have the obligated port outputs with above those ports two 80mm fans pushing hot air out of the case. As you can see on the pictures, the PC-9300 comes with a built-in rheobus that lets you choose between three speed settings, according to your needs. Finally to the right side, are the slots to house add-on cards. What I noted about this, is that the plates to cover up the holes are prefitted with holes. The idea behind this, is to increase cooling capacity, which might be a good idea with a space limited case like this!

Once I opened up the hood (by removing the sweet thumb screws), I was watching the inside of the case. As always, Lian Li has put a lot of effort in the finishing tough: there are NO rough edges to cut yourself on, the cables are being routed to the side of the case by using cable gutters and of course the internal 3.5" bays are completely removable with thumb screws to allow an easy installation of your hard drives. Also note the four screws on the mainboard backplate: by loosening them, you can slide the backpanel to the right and take it out completely in order to install the motherboard and other hardware!!

Page 3 : Testing

Testing

As I mentioned earlier, this case only takes MicroATX motherboards and PSU's!! At first I thought, no problemo … but after contacting several computer stores over here, I quickly learned that it would be a hard task to get my hands on a MicroATX motherboard but more important, a PSU! At this moment I am still awaiting delivery of both pieces of hardware, so I was unable to actually build a computer out of it …

But no panic, I intend to construct a DVD-box with this case (like I mentioned in the "Specs") and I plan on doing an article on that so you'll learn all about it at that time.

Since installing a MicroATX motherboard and PSU is no different then installing its ATX counterparts, I expect no trouble what so ever using the PC-9300. I took it apart as I would install a motherboard in it, and all went ok!

Here is a list of what will be going into the DVD-box as soon as I got the remaining parts:

- ABIT BD7m (or newer MATX board)
- 256MB DDR Memory
- P4 1.6A CPU
- WD 20GB HDD
- GeForce4 MX with TV-out (needed to hook it up to the TV set)
- OS: probably some sort of Linux … not sure yet!

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

The Lian Li PC-9300 is Lian Li's first attempt at designing a desktop case, and I must say: I'm amazed! This case comes with everything you can ask for in such a case, including removable hdd-racks, a rheobus, two 80mm fans to cool the inside down, a removable motherboard tray, frontal USB2.0 ports and of course, the cool looking blue lightstrip. Add to that the all aluminum design, and you just know this case is sweet. Is this case for you? Depends … If you are a true power user who has several hard drives in some expensive RAID setup, two video cards to power your triple monitor setup, a dual CPU rig featuring watercooling and apart from all that you also need at least 5 external 5.25" bays, this case is NOT for you! On the other side, if you are looking to build a nice desktop pc to play games or to surf the net and you do not need all of the above, this case might be what you need. It will also eat up a lot less space, since you can easily put the monitor on top of the case!!

Good

- Design
- Features
- Takes up less space then a tower case
- Will come in handy for a DVD-box project ;)

Bad

- MicroATX only
- Not much expansion room
- Reset button is too small!!