Lian Li's PC-90: The Hammer Strikes Hard
by Dustin Sklavos on February 21, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Lian Li
Testing Methodology
For testing ATX cases, we use the following standardized testbed in stock and overclocked configurations to get a feel for how well the case handles heat and noise.
| Full ATX Test Configuration | |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-875K (95W TDP, tested at stock speed and overclocked to 3.8GHz @ 1.38V) |
| Motherboard | ASUS P7P55D-E Pro |
| Graphics Card | Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (244W TDP) |
| Memory | 2x2GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer DDR3-1600 |
| Drives |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 100 64GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps Samsung 5.25" BD-ROM/DVDRW Drive |
| CPU Cooler | Zalman CNPS9900 MAX 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 IN-WIN BUC.
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 CNPS9900 MAX 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, Intel Core i7-875K processor, ASUS P7P55D-E Pro motherboard, and Samsung BD-ROM/DVD+/-RW drive.
- And thank you to SilverStone for providing us with the power supply.
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Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
This is absolutely not true. Outside of being two large, black boxes, I've seen nothing that makes these two cases remotely similar in actual design.Observist - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
IMO, the 650D is the most Lian-Li-looking case on the market not made by Lian-Li. This particular Lian-Li (PC-90) is not very similar to the 650D, but the PC-9F and the 650D have nearly identical internal layouts. The Corsair has 1x200mm front fan instead of 2x120mm, includes a fan controller, and a few other nice features, but also costs 50% more than a PC-9F... and weighs 100% more.I think the PC-90 here is very overpriced, even compared to other LL cases.
GeorgeH - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Thanks for the review; I've been eyeballing this case for awhile but the price tag has kept it out impulse buy territory. It cools just as well as I thought it would, though, so it looks like I've found the case for my next build.I do have to say I'm a little perplexed as to why the drive shield and extras are a 'negative', though. I can definitely understand complaining about them when they could be better, but wanting Lian Li to skip them altogether seems a little strange. This is especially true of the optical drive cover; I’ve used them before, and they’ve always worked great and made the case look more polished and professional – worst case they don’t work and you use the case without them.
Observist - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
Check out the Lian-Li PC-9F. It's similar to this one (PC-90), slightly smaller, with the following differences:- Only $120
- Bottom-mount PSU
- Traditional HDD cage (6x)
- Space behind MB tray for cable mgmt (limited, but enough)
- 120mm front fans
- USB/audio ports on top
(And that's my last cheesy sales clerk post on this thread)
CloudFire - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
It's more of a concern about airflow getting into your system parts, pretty obvious to think about when you're building a computer. Obviously that is not a concern for you. Myself, and others, even with a windowless case, we like to see a perfect wiring job on a rig done right, but I guess some of us have greater expectations from our custom rigs than others and don't enjoy seeing a rat's nest of a wiring job .rastagor - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
I have this case.I like the clean lines of it.
I like that it's relatively small for an ATX-XL case.
It's hard to work on inside (but see above)
Wiring inside is a mess, despite my best efforts to route stuff nicely.
The video cards get very very hot- ventilation and airflow over the PCI slots is not adequate.
Hope this helps,
R
john1970 - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - link
I've had 2 lianli cases in past both were good at the time but with longer vga cards and multiple setups they would not work for modern configurations.This case look very plain and the inside looks just plain lazy.I put together a Level 10 GT case just a few days ago I couldnt be more please with cable routing and cooling .IMO this case might look ok on the outside but fails really hard on the inside.Like others have pointed out ,even if you take your time with the build it will look sloppy.I give this case a 3 out of 10.dacipher - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
We'll take your 3 out of 10 extremely serious, since you obviously own the case. What's with all the hate with Lian-Li? They make top of the line cases with solid construction. I have a PC-B25FWB from '09 and it continues to satisfy me 'till this day. Yea the price is a little steep but once you have a Lian-Li in front of you, that'll be the last thing you'll think about. Don't be an enthusiast if you don't have the money! Just keeping it real and West Coast.Leyawiin - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
I don't think I would like this case, but I love my A05N. Small, clean design, accepts full sized ATX, light weight, easy enough to assemble and with the optional 140mm fan lid, quite cool.This one has some good ideas but that lack of cable management is kind of sad. Its worse than my ten year old Antec midtower that had no cable management features at all.
doppelavatar - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
I happen to own this case too and I've been building dozens of rigs since *486 so I know what I'm talking about. First of all I would like to adress the cable management complaints from people who obviously don't; may I remind all the Lian Li haters trolling this forum that this is a COMPACT HPTX chassis so that if it were to use the usual cable management it wouldn't be compact anymore. On the other hand if you use a regular ATX form factor, cable management is quite a breeze with a bit of patience and a few velcros... now, if you happen to be a nicompoop who can't deal with cables without grommets and a few hundred square feet behind the motherboard you are bound to hate this case because YOU are lazy, not Lian Li since they seem to take for granted that the people buying this case are competent grownups who are neither tool-less nor witless. For those who rightly observe the heat produced in the PCI area by an SLI/Crossfire configuration THAT is the reason why this case has a 14 cm fan mount on the top. I used Lian Li's own CF-1412R on rubber strips and a filter and my two 6950@ 6970 furnace gets most of it's RISING heat efficiently and rather quietly expelled, and my thermal performance is even better than the one tested in this review and THAT is what this is mostly about, isn't it ?