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
Testing Methodology
For testing Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in its stock configuration and a Zotac GeForce GTX 580 in cases that support it to get a feel for how the case handles heat and noise. Due to the power supply clearance constraints of smaller cases, SilverStone provided us with a slightly different PSU than our full-size ATX configuration for testing.
| Mini-ITX/Micro-ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU | Intel Core i3-530 (73W TDP) |
| Motherboard | Zotac H55ITX-WiFi |
| Graphics Card | Intel HD Graphics (IGP) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS8000A with Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 |
| Power Supply | SilverStone Strider Gold 750W 80 Plus Gold |
A refresher on how we test:
Acoustic testing is standardized on a foot from the front of the case, using the Extech SL10 with an ambient noise floor of ~32dB. For reference, that's what my silent apartment measures with nothing running, testing acoustics in the dead of night (usually between 1am and 3am). A lot of us sit about a foot away from our computers, so this should be a fairly accurate representation of the kind of noise the case generates, and it's close enough to get noise levels that should register above ambient.
Thermal testing is run with the computer having idled at the desktop for fifteen minutes, and again with the computer running both Furmark (where applicable) and Prime95 (less one thread when a GPU is being used) for fifteen minutes. I've found that leaving one thread open in Prime95 allows the processor to heat up enough while making sure Furmark isn't CPU-limited. We're using the thermal diodes included with the hardware to keep everything standardized, and ambient testing temperature is always between 71F and 74F. Processor temperatures reported are the average of the CPU cores.
For more details on how we arrived at this testbed, you can check out our introductory passage in the review for the SilverStone FT03.
Last but not least, we'd also like to thank the vendors who made our testbed possible:
Thank You!
We have some thanks in order before we press on:
- Thank you to Crucial for providing us with the Ballistix Smart Tracer memory we used to add memory thermals to our testing.
- Thank you to Zalman for providing us with the CNPS8000A heatsink and fan unit we used.
- Thank you to Kingston for providing us with the SSDNow V+ 100 SSD.
- Thank you to CyberPower for providing us with the Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive and the optical drive.
- Thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the SilverStone Strider Gold 750W power supply.
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etamin - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
+1. The light weight is just as obvious...there was no need to make such a big fuss about it like this was the first small all aluminum box madekevith - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Strength comes from the inside, Dustin, from the inside:-)Nice review.
londiste - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
first, i am admittedly a lian-li fan. however they don't have a single matx case i would really like. all their matx cases are too strange.lian li has some itx cases that would be better built for the purpose of fitting itx hardware (which is what you use) and thus be considerably more suitable. i've assembled a couple of systems with mid-high video cards into their pc-q08 that is frankly excellent for its size. anything without a gpu (or large/hot gpu) will also fit into and stay cool in their smaller cubes just fine (pc-q07 and pc-q11 are the current ones if my memory server me right).
considering the noise/heat situation bad for a case with no fans compared to case with a large 18cm fan is not very fair. 73w processor on an itx board is not a smart thing to do if you're assembling a quiet system. when comaring to temjin, i would be a lot more interesting in how pc-v600f fares - similar size, more traditional layout. or maybe pc-v354.
quibbles, to answer your question about atx case - as we are on the subject of lian li, pc-a05 and its newer derivatives are quite excellent at being simple, light and fairly reasonable size atx cases. price is naturally somewhat outrageous for what you get though (as with anything they produce). the first time i bought one, i had to open up the box immediately as i was afraid it was empty :)
etamin - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
You might want to give the PC-A04B a look. I built one about a month ago and it is literally a shrunken down standard ATX case with a removable hdd cage that allows it to support a full length vga. Extremely quiet with three removable fan filters too...at a very reasonable price.RandomUsername3245 - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
I've got a PC-V351 case, which is very similar to this one but a couple generations older. It's got several fans throughout the case, so the cooling is probably better than this one. It is a relatively light case due to its aluminum construction, but I also think it's rather flimsy. For example, it is very easy to bend one of the side panels when it is taken off the case -- it's just a thin aluminum sheet.Like the review states, if a video card has a top-oriented power connector, it absolutely won't work. I had to return one video card (luckily to a local Microcenter) because of this.
Also, the review suggests that the panel could be attached with screws instead of the clipping mechanism. The PC-V351 uses screws. It uses about 6 tiny flat-head machine screws per side. The case has a clean look, but it's a pain to disassemble vs. something with clips.
The form factor of this case is also a bit strange. It's not a small cube case (it's wider than most full-tower ATX cases that I've seen), but it is much shorter in height. I still think the case looks nice, but after living with it I realized that the extra width (3-4 inches vs. a mid tower) make it less convenient to put under or on a desk -- I think most people could spare an extra few inches in height, but might not have a few extra inches in width beside or on top of their desk for a computer case.
MichaelD - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Very nice review. I've owned a few LianLi cases and have always been impressed with them. One thing: In the Cooling area of the Specifications chart...I highly doubt this tiny case has 4x120mm fan mounts. Just sayin'.Aikouka - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
I own a few older (about circa 2007), larger Lian-Li cases, and let me tell you. If an intruder comes into my home, I'm just going to take the side panel off my PC-V2000B+ and use it to ward off said intruder. It almost seems like a psychological thing, because the side panels are what we typically work with a lot on a PC, and if they seem flimsy and cheap... what about the rest of the case?My main desktop uses a Corsair Obsidian 800D, and the flimsiness of the side panels is rather bothersome. Although, I think Corsair did that because of the horridly poor design of their (much lauded) cable routing, and the flimsy side panels allows for some flex. The flex is almost necessary as the 24-pin ATX power connector is simply too thick to be routed behind the motherboard. Why don't case manufacturers give us more room in the back if they expect us to route our power cables?
int9 - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Try adhesive velcro strips for holding down the 24-pin ATX cable. Corsair's 600t case has zip-tie holes punched into the rear plate; I had almost 1-inch of clearance after tying down the power cable.Peroxyde - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
Hi,I have noticed that the heavier the case, the quieter it is. If this case is too light, would it be subject to more vibration noises?
Can you please confirm? And more generally, what are the most important factors to have the quietest case?
Thanks for any advice.
Flagrant - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - link
I have the v352 which is almost the same as this new version. The differences are cosmetic, there is a lot more ventilation with all the tiny holes on the v353. V353 have snap on side panels while mine has a lot of tiny screws. I prefer the tiny screws just for peace of mind and since I won’t be swapping out components, but I prefer the exterior look of the v353 over mine.It took me almost a week to put mine together. I spent an hour every evening to work on it and cable management took the longest time. The most painful part of the install is having to almost always remove the motherboard panel completely to get inside the case which also meant I had to unplug almost all the cables.
After the install however I have to say I am very happy with the look and size of the case. Now I can put it on my desk and it looks very nice. Actually would have loved to consider the Silverstone case mentioned in this article. But I had the impression Silverstone is too expensive and I had a budget with this build.
I think the reviewer would have given a much more favorable review if he was able to consider every component going into the tiny case and make it a complete new build with a decent graphics card. I had a lot of fun filling up this case even tho it took awhile.