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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aznofazns - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
"Don't get me started on their ultra high end chassis, where their exterior paintjob is pretty much the only thing high quality about them."My V2120X's interior is superb. Everything about it is superb. Airflow, layout, ease of installation, features, build quality, style.
"the Mac Pro chassis is pretty much the gold standard of aluminum cases still and if you can't get side panels as rigid as Apple, don't bother with the material."
Again, try telling that to my V2120X. The side panel is so thick I cannot even bend it when I try.
Besides, why is it crucial to have side panels built like titanium plates? That ramps up the cost of materials. As long as they're sufficiently thick to not break under normal use, does it really matter?
"A lot of the design features in their spacesaver mATX cases range from somewhat understandable to downright stupid"
I absolutely agree with you on this point. A lot of the micro ATX and mini ITX cases have illogical layouts (especially for the PSU), but Lian Li has been improving on this, as seen in the V353.
cjs150 - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
Lian li clearly thought about where a computer would be when putting this design together.It is, as a concept, perfectly suited for people who have a computer on their desk rather than under it. Having a side ways facing optical drive is a good design choice for those type of people.
But when it comes to the reality of the design there are lots of fail points here.
For starters, do people really need lots of HDs in a computer that is on top of desk and presumeably next to the keyboard? I am sure that many people will not agree with me but I would design it to hold a maximum of 2 HDs.
I am not convinced by the horizontal MB tray either.
I think on balance I would prefer a 200mm fan up front (with dust cover), one optical drive bay and 2 HD bays would be better airflow and still very quiet. Being a water cooling fan that would allow for a rig with decent airflow to cool everything bar GPU and CPU and a 200x2000 radiator to cool the GPU and CPU which would be very quiet
Death666Angel - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - link
I'm half through the review, nice stuff. But I'm personally not a fan of cubes anymore. I got myself a Lian Li V352, the predecessor. It is a good case, but in my opinion fairly limited. It collects dust like crazy. Because of the cube shape you cannot put anything on the floor of the caes since the motherboard covers that.Overall, the Temjin TJ08-E sounds like a much better package for me and I'm going to be buying one next year and mod it a bit for some water cooling.
don_k - Friday, September 30, 2011 - link
I'm curious to see what other models you got from them. My A77 is a joy, immense build quality. And yeah, Lian Lis are all aluminum cases and they're not cheap.softdrinkviking - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
would have been nice to see you really try and stuff this case as full as you can.should have used a bigger board with a big video card and so forth.
sure, you may have run into problems, but that's really the point, isn't it?
Whatthetech - Saturday, July 21, 2012 - link
I'm sorry to say that I have to completely disagree with the review posted here. I'm not meaning to offend, but as a long time case-builder I have found that the PC-V353 case is rather nice, and that the reviewer here really didn't seem to put much effort into the build. For a real review, and pics of this case with a full build with EFFORT, head over to whatthetech.info - it's in the main navigation bar.n13L5 - Wednesday, December 9, 2015 - link
This may be a pretty old review now, but being something of a fan of Lian Li's aesthetics and quality, I can't help noticing just how many of their cases have serious flaws in details, layout and cooling concept.When they introduced that little computer case in the shape of a locomotive, I became convinced, that at least one of their case designers was an adorable dreamer - but without much care for really designing the cases for efficient placement of components or a truly optimized cooling concept. If they could at least firmly adopt the positive air pressure idea, it would alleviate a lot of issues. They do manufacture the NCASE M1, but that design was done by people who actually build systems with a clear intent to get the most fps from the smallest size box without it overheating or being noisy.
/pointless rant on an ancient 2011 review
Thanks for the review anyway, I will check out the V354, which you said you liked better :)