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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nubie - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
I would rather have a case that is smaller in the front-to-back dimension, even at the cost of a little height.Actually, a dream would be the GTR3 (it can hold a full-atx motherboard and a dual-slot video card, and it is as small as many an ITX case.)
If only the GTR3 was easier to install and work with, but you can't have everything.
owdi - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
The author missed an key feature of this case - it is one of the shortest ATX cases on the market.I bought the previous version of this case because it fits inside the center channel compartment of a http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/cgi-bin/redirect...">Techcraft SWP60 TV stand. Just barely. You have to install it through the back and it does stick out by 3 inches.
owdi - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
That link to amazon didn't work an I can't figure out how to edit my post. blahMadAd - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
short, long, when the area is about the same its all fiddling around the edges of a tired market long overdue an overhaulTigashark - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
Agree with the other commentors... the Inverted design worked far better with the old A05N which I happen to own. The old design has the motherboard mounted in a way that the CPU is on the bottom, airflow is from the rear to front and the system keeps plenty cool .It *will* fit a full 11.5 inch graphics card in it which ends up sitting behind the bottom optical bays which are rarely used.
Im not sure why LianLi changed this design.. its main advantage is it was a very small formfactor that can fit any graphics card, while remaining light and portable (and looking GREAT) .
They should have changed the model number to avoid customer confusion as the "Old" A05N is far better...