Lian Li's PC-A05FN: Alternative Thinking at a $99 Price Point
by Dustin Sklavos on December 7, 2011 10:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Lian Li
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
To look at the Lian Li PC-A05FN at any stage of the assembly, I really had very little idea as to how it was going to perform. There's clearly a focus on improving cooling of the CPU, but they also at least appear to have sacrificed cooling the graphics card in the process. Lian Li also made very few allowances towards cable management, and I didn't have high hopes for the acoustics. Early on at least, I was banking on it providing excellent CPU cooling performance at the expense of the other components.
Unfortunately, at least in our stock testing, Lian Li's gamble doesn't seem to have paid off. While idle temperatures are fantastic, once we get to load we find performance to be pretty much on par with everything else. These thermals don't seem to justify the added trouble and care the PC-A05FN requires, but let's see if acoustics are improved.
At least the PC-A05FN winds up being reasonably quiet, though under load it kicks up a bit. Maybe our stock settings aren't stressful enough for it? The enclosure seems geared towards CPU cooling and the stock Intel Core i7-875K certainly just doesn't put out much heat under load.
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ShieTar - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
This is a strange thermal design indeed. It seems the engineers at Lian Li were trying to get the best CPU cooling possible, without too much care about what that will do to the GPU.Sounds as if it could give you a nice, silent workstation with a high-power CPU and On-Chip graphics. Sadly, in my personal experience, most business buyers don't seem to care too much about the noise that their employees will have to suffer from their machienes, and just go straight for the cheapest offer.
Still, it would be interesting too see a comparison of this box and a more classical competitor when filled with this kind of business setup instead of your standard, more gaming centered, testbed.
Touche - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Aluminum cases have a big drawback. They tend to hum due to HDD vibrations. It'not (as) noticable if you have loud fans, but it's terrible with quiet computers.bji - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
I have this case and this doesn't happen to mine. No humming. Also my fans are almost never running; it's a quiet computer.Why is aluminum more susceptible than steel anyway? What's the science behind your statement?
Death666Angel - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Mass (weight) is a great noise insulator. And steel has a greater mass than alu. So usually, steel has better acoustic qualities. Using that to translate "all alu cases are worse than others" is not right.ckryan - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
I put a lot of mass on the panels with the acoustic dampening material, and it's totally worth it. But I didn't have any humming or vibrations beforehand.piroroadkill - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Sideways 3.5" drive bays. Having them facing the board is just way too cluttered. With the immense width of this case, you'd think they'd have much better cable routing options behind the motherboard tray, too.darkhawk1980 - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
I don't have the case, and it's difficult to really know if it would fit or work, but would it be possible to modify the side panel and add in a 80mm or 120mm fan that could blow air in near the air inlet on the GPU? Specifically, perhaps, placing one right near the back (or front, depending on your viewpoint) of the GPU, and placing it between the end of the GPU and the HDD caddy's? This might improve both the GPU temperatures and the SSD temperatures, although I'm not sure if it would help or hinder the other temperatures inside the case. This would also help to provide a positive internal pressure (looks like 1 inlet fan at the back, and 2 outlet fans [power supply exhaust + front 120mm fan exhaust]) which is definitely a good thing.MadAd - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
Ive given up giving up on these cases with creative item rearrangements. It never works, weve had ATX for 10+ years and if there was a good configuration to be found, wed have it already.Why dont the manufacturers start calling for a smaller redesign? Optical Disks and Power Supplies are limiting shrinking the box atm, but ask for a smaller power supply atm and people grimace with the mutterings of 1U on their lips. Mobos can always be smaller, all electronics can, but no one seems to have any will to do it.
If consoles pads and laptops are 'taking over' standard pcs, then its time to do it...most home users dont need more than a slim client, with space usually going to ppl with many HDD (nas box anyone?) or large gfx arrays.
IM sure atx wont just disappear tho, enthusiasts that need the space can use it, but we really need to deal with this size thing to move the PC into the living room.
Death666Angel - Thursday, December 8, 2011 - link
I don't see the shortage of small enclosures, be they ITX or mATX, in the last few years. There are quite a lot of cases that offer what you describe, with SFX PSUs for moderately powerful gaming rigs or external pico PSUs for mid to high-end CPU+iGPU configurations.And there there is also the AIO becoming increasingly powerful and cheap.
ATX will always be around because a lot of people don't want to pay the premium for the smaller size and they just hide the case. Or they actually need the space. I don't see how anything huge has to change though, as there are products for everyones purposes. :-)
MadAd - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
"a lot of people don't want to pay the premium for the smaller size"exactly!
so until the market moves to a new standard, anything that isnt atx is going to have a premium on it..its dragging the platform as a whole down