Lian Li's PC-90: The Hammer Strikes Hard
by Dustin Sklavos on February 21, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Lian Li
Conclusion: Workstation Class
If you're after pure performance from an enclosure, Lian Li's PC-90 is an excellent place to start looking. Despite quibbles with the assembly, the PC-90 is able to achieve in a smaller space and with less resources and weight what larger enclosures like the Cooler Master Cosmos II and Thermaltake Level 10 GT can do. Lian Li's enclosure almost makes competing cases feel over-engineered by comparison. Yet if we look closer at all of these designs, it becomes fairly clear who each of these cases is designed to cater to.
Lian Li's enclosure has the performance to appeal to enthusiasts, but virtually no allowances are made for liquid cooling of any kind. Certainly the enterprising user could install a 280mm radiator in the front, but similar to the brackets included with the SilverStone FT02, this is something an individual could but probably shouldn't do. The PC-90 is an air-cooling case first and foremost. Once you take into account the incredibly minimalistic exterior and the slightly more involved assembly, it seems clear Lian Li is gunning for the PC-90 to be used as a workstation enclosure as opposed to a high-end gaming system. Certainly it can handle either and the performance is definitely there, but it's a lot easier to see the PC-90 under a desk in an office than, say, a Level 10 GT.
With all that said, I still waffle on some of Lian Li's design decisions. I feel like their mounting system for storage drives at least make more sense here, but the optical drive mounting system, and particularly the drive fascia, needs to be revised. There's no shame in needing to use tools to assemble a desktop; toolless allowances are nice, but sometimes it's better to just go back to basics. I expect some users will probably worry about hot air flowing from the interior of the enclosure up through the power supply's fan, while others will be concerned about outward-mounted hard drives passing vibrations through the side panel and thus amplifying access noise. These aren't invalid concerns, but I wouldn't let either one stop me from using the PC-90. Hot air going through the power supply might very well wind up being a serious issue, but mechanical hard disks can always be mounted on the interior sides of the drive plates to help alleviate vibration.
There is, of course, also the price tag. At $199 the PC-90 is an expensive piece of kit, but at the same time I do find myself having difficulty recommending alternatives. This is a situation that may very well come down to personal preference. End users looking to save some dosh can always pick up Rosewill's Thor v2, while users looking for a little more flash are going to have access to the Cosmos II and Level 10 GT. There are good options for each user willing to invest in a quality case, but $199 feels too steep for the PC-90. The performance absolutely matches the price tag, but the materials and overall build quality don't quite line up. At $149 it would be much easier to recommend. As I've said on other expensive parts and peripherals, I wouldn't fault anyone for buying the PC-90, but it could (and should) be less costly.
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ckryan - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Lian Li's are difficult to build in for the most part. Especially the smaller ones. The PC V351 is a total bitch.just4U - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
The older cases were a joy to work with.. Still never had a better case then the Lian-Li PC60.. for it's era it was remarkable. I still have two in use today and I to work with alot of the new designs that come out so it's not like there isn't something to compare to.Todays' Lian-Li needs to get back to the basics and understand what we want rather then throwing weird our way and hoping we will buy..... and I hope their execs read this!!! I'd really like to pull the trigger on new lian-li's but for now i'll pass and keep buying from corsair and cooler master, with the odd nod to antec.
pandemonium - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
I, for one, enjoy the simplistic look of Lian-Li's cases.Robalov - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Nice results, but for that price, it looks a mess.I would like to see cheaper iterations based around that design in the future however.
cjs150 - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
I love Lian li for much the same reason I love Silverstone cases, they dare to be different. There is a real attempt to rethink case design, unlike most case manufacturers whose idea of innovation is to stick a fancy front on the case and change the fans from 120mm to 140mm.Sadly like Silverstone sometimes the quality of construction does not match the originality of the original concept.
Mking the case 25mm wider and allowing for cables to be routed round the back would have been simple to achieve and immeasurably improved the case. Alternatively why not mound the drives behind the motherboard but with some channels for cable routing.
Fundamentally a nice try by Lian Li but not really convincing
DanNeely - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
To make that work with the giant mobo form factors they're supporting they'd also need to make it an inch taller to have space for cable holes on the bottom. Not sure if they'd also need to mess with anything on the front end since it's hard to visualize how a massive HP-TX board actually would sit in it.cjs150 - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Maybe - although running cable holes down side of MB tray makes a lot of sense too.As a case I think it probably has real potential for watercooling but for a standard ATX board - radiators on front and bottom look rather obvious locations
Luay - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
For a single GPU build, any two or three 120mm fan equipped case from CM, Rosewill or Antec for less than $60 will do the job.For SLI/CF, any mid tower 140mm fan equipped case for less than $100 such as the Rosewill Blackhawk will do.
For Tri-SLI/CF, I'll start looking for the 230mm big boys, HAFX or the $150 Rosewill Thor.
For Quad SLI-CF, I'll need a case with two PSU mounts and a minimum of four 230mm fans such as the $200 Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra.
as for this case, no side fan means the two 140mm front fans won't push the air all the way to the exhaust fan at the back, if more than one GPU or any obstructive device is installed on the motherboard. The roof intake fan is already feeding most of the air to the CPU and the cooler if it's there. I don't think it's safe to install more than one non-vapor chamber custom cooled (inside-case heat dissipating) video card in this case!
I don't believe this is a gamer's rig at all and your recommendation for the PC90 as such worries me.
Iketh - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Anyone who buys Rosewill is wasting money. Anything marked with Rosewill, run the other way as fast as you can.As for the rest of your post, you sound like a troll or a genuine retard.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
I disagree. The Rosewill Thor v2 has shaky build quality, but it's not terrible. On the flipside, the case is an incredible performer and probably the best bargain for a full tower on the market today.