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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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 :)