Lian Li's PC-A05FN: Alternative Thinking at a $99 Price Point
by Dustin Sklavos on December 7, 2011 10:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Lian Li
Noise and Thermal Testing, Overclocked
Given the emphasis on processor cooling in Lian Li's PC-A05FN, hopefully the enclosure's unusual design will pay off with the substantially increased thermal load that the overclocked processor and RAM bring. That said, we can expect increased ambient heat in the process and with no directed airflow going towards the GeForce GTX 580, I'm at least a little concerned about the heat and noise that card may put out.
Processor temperatures wind up being excellent, and the chipset and DIMM results are also excellent, but sacrifices are made. The SSD runs hotter than almost any other enclosure we've tested (not really a concern for an SSD, but we'd be wary of using a 2.5" HDD), and the GeForce's cooler is definitely being taxed more than usual. That idle temperature is pretty much the worst we've seen, and the load temperature is mighty close.
Unfortunately, while noise in the PC-A05FN is good, it's not great. While the processor stays cool enough, that GTX 580 is roasting. It's among the quieter enclosures we've tested under load, but at idle the GTX 580's fan is already working harder than we'd like.
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nubie - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
I would rather have a case that is smaller in the front-to-back dimension, even at the cost of a little height.Actually, a dream would be the GTR3 (it can hold a full-atx motherboard and a dual-slot video card, and it is as small as many an ITX case.)
If only the GTR3 was easier to install and work with, but you can't have everything.
owdi - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
The author missed an key feature of this case - it is one of the shortest ATX cases on the market.I bought the previous version of this case because it fits inside the center channel compartment of a http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/cgi-bin/redirect...">Techcraft SWP60 TV stand. Just barely. You have to install it through the back and it does stick out by 3 inches.
owdi - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
That link to amazon didn't work an I can't figure out how to edit my post. blahMadAd - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
short, long, when the area is about the same its all fiddling around the edges of a tired market long overdue an overhaulTigashark - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
Agree with the other commentors... the Inverted design worked far better with the old A05N which I happen to own. The old design has the motherboard mounted in a way that the CPU is on the bottom, airflow is from the rear to front and the system keeps plenty cool .It *will* fit a full 11.5 inch graphics card in it which ends up sitting behind the bottom optical bays which are rarely used.
Im not sure why LianLi changed this design.. its main advantage is it was a very small formfactor that can fit any graphics card, while remaining light and portable (and looking GREAT) .
They should have changed the model number to avoid customer confusion as the "Old" A05N is far better...