Lian Li's PC-V353: Lighter Than Air
by Dustin Sklavos on September 28, 2011 4:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- MicroATX
- SFF
- Lian Li
- Mini-Tower
Noise and Thermal Testing
Since we weren't able to get our Zotac GeForce GTX 580's power leads connected, the Lian Li PC-V353 was tested using only the IGP on the Intel Core i3-530. This is where we'll see if Lian Li's fanless design really pays off, though I have reservations about how well a case with this much ventilation is going to be able to handle muffling the sound of our test system heatsink.
With basically no airflow, many of the parts are left to marinate in their own succulent juices. Thermals start very low since the case design seems to be able to keep the internal ambient temperature close to the external ambient temperature, but once you place a load on the system there's basically nothing inside it to move all that hot air. None of these temperatures are dangerous, but every other case we've tested has had the benefit of at least one good fan.
The SilverStone Temjin TJ08-E is able to cool effectively while being a mite quieter than the PC-V353, likely due to a more directed and enclosed design operating with a single silent fan. The only fan noise the PC-V353 has to worry about is the HSF unit on the processor, but the problem is there isn't anything really muffling that noise.
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Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
The perspective in that pic is a little off. A standard GTX 580 does not fit, and in fact I mentioned this in the review.Hargak - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
the new gtx 570 are shorter and would fit, you could run them in SLI although they recycle air with the centered fan (vs venting out the rear) they would fit. That would be quite a power house. I have a PC-Q11R (Red) with a 2600k and a GTX 570 in it. Now that's compact firepower.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Even if they would fit, though, running such a config in this type of case is just asking for problems. I have 5870 CrossFire in a normal size Lian Li case (PC7 I think), and the mobo slots are only separated by a single PCIe x1 slot. The top card gets up to 100C during gaming and ends up overheating and throttling, and often crashing the games. I had to underclock to get things stable. I can't imagine what would happen in a cramped chassis like this running two adjacent high-end GPUs (without doing something like water-cooling).onetwistedsoul - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Dustin, after reading your article I was thinking "Hmmm, well done". At least until I reached this particularly insightful sentence:"Like most middle class white males, I fear change and the unknown, ..."
Really? How stupid a comment can one make and not be edited out by a superior?
BPB - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Agreed. What a stupid comment. How about I reply in kind and call it a typical PC (no pun intended) comment by a middle class white wimp. I'm thinking you probably don't swing your legs over a dirt bike at the end of the day and spend a few hours racing in the dirt with a bunch of middle class white guys. Or strapping on some skates and banging bodies with a bunch of middle class white guys hitting a rubber slab with a stick. Me thinks somebody at AT fancies himself more than a tech writer.IlllI - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
you must be a republicanMonkeyPaw - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Please no.MilwaukeeMike - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Or a Human, since being afraid of the unknown is human nature. It's why kids are afraid of the dark and the eldery prefer a rigid daily routine. We wouldn't want common sense to get in the way of a good jab though, right, Illll?Skott - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Yeah, when I saw that line too my thought was why is a guy like this writing a PC case review? I don't know if it was an attempt at some kind of humor or what but it makes Dustin look bad as a person and a reviewer. Kinda kills his credibility IMO.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Edited sentence. I'm a middle class white male as well, and it didn't offend me, but I was also tired -- our admin section was down for several hours yesterday so my final read of the last two pages was a little later than I wanted. But seriously, to say that a statement like that "kills his credibility"? Please. It might make you not like him I suppose, or think he's completely politically incorrect, but it doesn't change the content of the review.