Lian Li Launches the PC-Q33: Another Hinge Chassis, but mini-ITX
by Ian Cutress on December 20, 2013 6:04 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- Lian Li
It seems that this is a week of Lian Li press releases – first up was the PC-V358 micro-ATX case that uses hinges to make accessing the components easier, paving a way for an upgradable system. Today it is the turn of the PC-Q33, built on a similar paradigm with a hot-zone on top featuring the motherboard, CPU and GPU, with a cool zone underneath with the power supply and storage.
This case comes in 229mm x 328mm x 240mm (WxHxD) dimensions, or ~1 foot tall, and is made solely from Lian Li’s favorite material, aluminum. This also means a total unladen weight of 2.18 Kg (4.8 lbs), and a variety of storage configurations – the hinged panel has room for 3x2.5” or 2x2.5”+1x3.5”, and the side storage locker has room/fixtures for 2x3.5” or 1x3.5”+1x2.5”, meaning up to five drives in total.
In terms of available dimensions, Lian Li have given the PC-Q33 a maximum PSU length of 200mm, VGA card length of 220mm (8.66"), and maximum CPU/VGA height of 180mm (7.08"). The front panel is typically light as most Lian Li cases are, with two USB 3.0 ports and audio jacks. The system comes supplied with one 120mm fan in the rear, with the side mesh providing an intake point of fresh air.
Available in black and silver, the PC-Q33 should be available by the end of the year at a MSRP of US$99.
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etamin - Friday, December 20, 2013 - link
This is a good design for systems that don't need discreet graphics....you can fit a massive cooler in there to pump air horizontally through the entire case. Problem is, there are no fan filters and it would be loud.CrimsonFury - Thursday, January 2, 2014 - link
You don't normally put filters on exaust fans (and the case doesn't have any intake fans)I don't see any reason why it should be loud
meacupla - Friday, December 20, 2013 - link
Finally, a lian-li case worth looking at.The lack of cooling, only one 120mm in the rear, and short video card only is a bit disconcerting, but such trade-offs are not necessarily a bad thing for a compact mITX case.
The cutouts for tubing in the rear is one of those "why hasn't anyone else thought of this?" features for any case built with CLC in mind. Seriously, why haven't other manufacturers done this? It's so easy to join those tubing cutouts and fan cutout into one.
And this one doesn't look fugly for once. It's not fat, it's not crater faced, it doesn't have useless extras to throw the proportions off...
DanNeely - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - link
Lots of companies have been doing tubing cutout's for years. Their heyday was probably a half dozen years ago when internal twin/triple 120mm fan mounts were still fairly uncommon and if you didn't want to dremel your case up the standard way to install one was externally using a switech radbox to hang it from the single 120mm mount next to your mobo's IO ports.meacupla - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - link
Yeah, the individual tubing cutouts were pretty standard since Conroe era, back when water cooling meant you had to assemble everything yourself.However, I am talking about modern cases that are being designed in an era where CLC is pretty popular and also where some cases are specifically built around using a CLC. So why do these modern cases not have tubing cutouts actually designed for CLC, with their not-removable tubing, in mind?
pixelstuff - Friday, December 20, 2013 - link
I wish all of these Mini-ITX case manufacturers would start putting SD Card readers in the case like many laptops have. It's the only feature I miss when building a mini case, and it's virtually impossible to add (internally) after the fact.zcat - Friday, December 20, 2013 - link
This looks like a great case that I'll seriously consider for my build next summer, as I've primarily bought Lian Li since around 2005. My last build, in the summer of 2012, fit a high-end i7 in a PC-Q11A miniitx, which looks very similar to this case, except that the useless CD-ROM bay was finally removed. The option to add a SANE-sized video card is a plus (though I'm still relying on HD4000 for most things)Bobs_Your_Uncle - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - link
FWIW, I would certainly appreciate an AnandTech review of this case. It holds substantial appeal on a number of planes & a truly quality review of it's performance & practical functionality would prove most valuable.Gadgety - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - link
Me too.Gogo64 - Saturday, December 21, 2013 - link
Is that Lian Li logo removable?