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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Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
This is absolutely not true. Outside of being two large, black boxes, I've seen nothing that makes these two cases remotely similar in actual design.Observist - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
IMO, the 650D is the most Lian-Li-looking case on the market not made by Lian-Li. This particular Lian-Li (PC-90) is not very similar to the 650D, but the PC-9F and the 650D have nearly identical internal layouts. The Corsair has 1x200mm front fan instead of 2x120mm, includes a fan controller, and a few other nice features, but also costs 50% more than a PC-9F... and weighs 100% more.I think the PC-90 here is very overpriced, even compared to other LL cases.
GeorgeH - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Thanks for the review; I've been eyeballing this case for awhile but the price tag has kept it out impulse buy territory. It cools just as well as I thought it would, though, so it looks like I've found the case for my next build.I do have to say I'm a little perplexed as to why the drive shield and extras are a 'negative', though. I can definitely understand complaining about them when they could be better, but wanting Lian Li to skip them altogether seems a little strange. This is especially true of the optical drive cover; I’ve used them before, and they’ve always worked great and made the case look more polished and professional – worst case they don’t work and you use the case without them.
Observist - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Check out the Lian-Li PC-9F. It's similar to this one (PC-90), slightly smaller, with the following differences:- Only $120
- Bottom-mount PSU
- Traditional HDD cage (6x)
- Space behind MB tray for cable mgmt (limited, but enough)
- 120mm front fans
- USB/audio ports on top
(And that's my last cheesy sales clerk post on this thread)
CloudFire - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
It's more of a concern about airflow getting into your system parts, pretty obvious to think about when you're building a computer. Obviously that is not a concern for you. Myself, and others, even with a windowless case, we like to see a perfect wiring job on a rig done right, but I guess some of us have greater expectations from our custom rigs than others and don't enjoy seeing a rat's nest of a wiring job .rastagor - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
I have this case.I like the clean lines of it.
I like that it's relatively small for an ATX-XL case.
It's hard to work on inside (but see above)
Wiring inside is a mess, despite my best efforts to route stuff nicely.
The video cards get very very hot- ventilation and airflow over the PCI slots is not adequate.
Hope this helps,
R
john1970 - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
I've had 2 lianli cases in past both were good at the time but with longer vga cards and multiple setups they would not work for modern configurations.This case look very plain and the inside looks just plain lazy.I put together a Level 10 GT case just a few days ago I couldnt be more please with cable routing and cooling .IMO this case might look ok on the outside but fails really hard on the inside.Like others have pointed out ,even if you take your time with the build it will look sloppy.I give this case a 3 out of 10.dacipher - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
We'll take your 3 out of 10 extremely serious, since you obviously own the case. What's with all the hate with Lian-Li? They make top of the line cases with solid construction. I have a PC-B25FWB from '09 and it continues to satisfy me 'till this day. Yea the price is a little steep but once you have a Lian-Li in front of you, that'll be the last thing you'll think about. Don't be an enthusiast if you don't have the money! Just keeping it real and West Coast.Leyawiin - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
I don't think I would like this case, but I love my A05N. Small, clean design, accepts full sized ATX, light weight, easy enough to assemble and with the optional 140mm fan lid, quite cool.This one has some good ideas but that lack of cable management is kind of sad. Its worse than my ten year old Antec midtower that had no cable management features at all.
doppelavatar - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
I happen to own this case too and I've been building dozens of rigs since *486 so I know what I'm talking about. First of all I would like to adress the cable management complaints from people who obviously don't; may I remind all the Lian Li haters trolling this forum that this is a COMPACT HPTX chassis so that if it were to use the usual cable management it wouldn't be compact anymore. On the other hand if you use a regular ATX form factor, cable management is quite a breeze with a bit of patience and a few velcros... now, if you happen to be a nicompoop who can't deal with cables without grommets and a few hundred square feet behind the motherboard you are bound to hate this case because YOU are lazy, not Lian Li since they seem to take for granted that the people buying this case are competent grownups who are neither tool-less nor witless. For those who rightly observe the heat produced in the PCI area by an SLI/Crossfire configuration THAT is the reason why this case has a 14 cm fan mount on the top. I used Lian Li's own CF-1412R on rubber strips and a filter and my two 6950@ 6970 furnace gets most of it's RISING heat efficiently and rather quietly expelled, and my thermal performance is even better than the one tested in this review and THAT is what this is mostly about, isn't it ?