Lian Li PC-A55 Case Review: Unfortunate Name Befits the Design
by Dustin Sklavos on June 16, 2012 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- mid-tower
- Lian Li
- ATX
Noise and Thermal Testing, Stock
When testing the Lian Li PC-A55 I came upon a real conundrum. It's easy to argue our traditional assembly is less than ideal for testing this case, and the usual testing conditions unfortunately involve testing it on a thinly carpeted floor. At the same time, these are the exact same conditions that every other case was tested under, so making these allowances for the PC-A55 would potentially skew the results.
There was also the distant possibility that a second set of tests would give the PC-A55 some breathing room, so to speak. I originally made a judgment call and decided against testing on a different surface, but we eventually decided it was best to show what would happen if the case isn't on carpet. The results certainly improve, though not as much as you might want, and ultimately more data is always good to have.
With summer now here in Northern CA, my AC is working overtime to keep temperatures in check. I tested the PC-A55 under our standard conditions with an ambient temperature of approximately 24C, and again using the side panel of an Antec P280 as a flat surface on the carpet; those results are the ones labeled "elevated."
At stock, the thermal results of the PC-A55 aren't horrible, but they're still near the back of the pack—and on the carpet, the PC-A55 really lives up to its name. The SSD runs particularly hot, and that's due to the fact that there's no airflow around either of the 2.5" mounts. In an ideal situation, air is channeled up from the bottom 140mm fan, through the left side of the case, and out of the top 140mm fan. There's literally no ventilation anywhere near any of the drive bays and we're forced to rely on the aluminum building material to channel heat off of the drive.
Even that wouldn't be too bad, except that due to the way the drive mounts to the cage and the bottom of the enclosure, there's a small gap between it and the aluminum surface of the case. 43C is probably still okay for an SSD, but it's at the limit of where I'd be comfortable, and the rest of the storage bays are likely to be just as hot. Running a couple 3.5" HDDs sandwched together in this sort of enclosure is not something I would recommend.
Elevating the PC-A55 does improve temperatures substantially, but not really enough to make it competitive. The one to beat here is the Corsair Obsidian 550D, which performs comparably thermally but as you'll see in a moment it runs much quieter.
Even at stock clocks the CPU fan is already running nearly full tilt under load, while the graphics card fans are running at higher than usual settings. Putting the PC-A55 on a flat surface (or resting it on its side) and allowing cool air inside at least mitigates the video card's fan speed, but the CPU fan is still suffocating.
Thankfully Lian Li's case runs fairly quiet despite essentially cooking itself. Having only two fans (one of which is muffled in the bottom) allows the PC-A55 to run below the noise floor of our sound meter at idle, while load noise is bad but not horrible. Keep in mind that part of this is because there's virtually nowhere for sound to escape either, though; the only ventilation the PC-A55 really has is through the top fan.
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Dustin Sklavos - Sunday, June 17, 2012 - link
Considering the mountain of cheap laughs I got working on this review, I'm happy to disappoint you.eBob - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
My current case is full ATX and is smaller than that! I was actually considering going micro-ATX for my next build, but couldn't find a motherboard that I liked.crackedwiseman - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
A couple of years ago I did a build for a customer in an A05, which, similarly to the A55, tries to fit an ATX board in an mATX sized enclosure. It was a bit cramped, but not that bad, and thermal performance was solid given that I had an overclocked i7-920 and a GTX 260 in there. The A05 had a totally different internal layout; I can't image why they decided to change it - this is anything but an improvementrickcain2320 - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
The A05 doesn't work well unless you cut a hole in the top or add a slot fan. I never kept the front panel on because of heating concerns, which turned out to be true as my motherboard chipset fried from the heat, taking out the video card in the process.PortsOrBust - Sunday, June 17, 2012 - link
"Unfortunately, a case I can't find any argument for."This thought may be anathema on a "latest and greatest" enthusiast site, but if one simply wanted a small ATX case, and used only on-board ports with no additional cards, it seems to me that most of the other issues are not deal-killers.
Granted the PSU mount isn't ideal, but without add-in cards the airflow would likely overcome that problem, and finding a way to raise the box off the floor a half an inch or so isn't a big deal either.
Some people will pay $110 for the size and looks of a case, but aren't looking to spend $400 on the latest and greatest video card.
So, its by no means a perfect case, or even the best example of a compact case, but that doesn't mean there's no argument for it . . .
Dustin Sklavos - Sunday, June 17, 2012 - link
Except if you're not going to use any expansion cards, what's the point of going with a full ATX board instead of Micro-ATX or even Mini-ITX?erwendigo - Monday, June 18, 2012 - link
The better quality of a good ATX motherboard, a very "little" point.This review is a shame. You lost the point of a minimal case ATX, you had overestimate the importance of temperatures in a system that it isn´t in the enthusiast niche.
This case have a very specific niche, but you missundertood this and its rol.
And the worse, you made a lot of badass jokes. :-/
plamengv - Sunday, June 17, 2012 - link
Lian Li PC-A55 compared to Antec NSK-4000 is a monster. Lian Li never had such a good case as Antec is!Alchemy69 - Sunday, June 17, 2012 - link
This will do until NZXT release their M0-U7H case and then I'll go from A55 to M0-U7H.dave1_nyc - Sunday, June 17, 2012 - link
I'll probably wind up feeling like a dumbass for saying this, but I can' t believe that the dimensions are correct, esp the height, which is shown as 17.6". One of my machines systems uses a Fractal R3, which feels far more spacious, (and which has room for the PSU under the ATX slots), and it's about the same height.It measures a little bit higher from the floor, but then it has taller feet, and hence more space under the case for air intake.
So what am I missing? How can this case be almost 18" high and yet have so little vertical space?