Lian Li's latest case - PC-V1000

[chris]

http://www.dansdata.com/pcv1000.htm
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That's Lian Li's latest new case. It's a great looker - understated and attractive, but why is it I get the feeling I've seen that style of case before..

Yes, it pays a none-too-subtle tribute to the legendary Powermac G5. Good news for the PC folk using the silver Apple Widescreen Cinema Displays - Lian Li has built your case. But the style is trashed a little by the standard Lian Li PSU backing plate that looks exactly identical to the one on my Lian Li PC-12. However, the traditional L.L. thumbscrews are every bit as useful as claimed in my experience.. And if Dansdata reckons the quality is good, I'd believe it, since it is on my old PC-12 as well. But despite paying some tribute to Apple, it doesn't quite have the attention to detail of the real deal:

http://technophobe.net/power_mac_G5_pictures_panel.html

But I'm now wishing I didn't order the Antec P180, this Lian Li would have been a much better choice.

But since the P180 is on its way, I'll keep you informed on how it goes.

Despite both of them having the PSU in a seperate area of the case, the Lian Li doesn't seal that section completely, where the Antec apparently does. But the Lian Li with its cheese grater panels should in theory have better through ventilation, although the P180's many 120mm fan exhaust combination should properly ventilate the computer anyway.

[chris]

Now I've got the Antec P180 case working, and it seems to be doing its job.

The thing has 4 120mm fans in the case itself, along with a 120mm fan for the CPU. Trying FS IX with the case closed, I didn't get system zone 2 overheating this time.

[Chaul]

Lian Li:

Interesting design with the PSU in a separate compartment at the bottom of the case and the motherboard on the "wrong side". And it kinda looks like the new BTX form factor design but still fits standard ATX components. If the PSU has a fan on the inside, is it supposed to pull air through the bottom and push it out at the back directly? With so many ventilation holes, you'd expect the case to be noisy.. and dusty.. But it looks like a clever design.

Antec:

Four 12cm fans? Wow, sounds like a good choice and it must be roomy too.

My Compucase 6919 has two 12cm fans (fans were not included) + PSU fan but it has a closed loop water cooling installed in it (CPU+GPU). It also has an air filter at the front but the case still gets filled with dust.. So with this experience I get suspicious with all the extra ventilation points without dust filters..

Tuukka

[chris]

Yes, the Antec is spacious (despite being little bigger physically than my old Lian Li).

The PSU is indeed in the bottom of the Antec case, sealed off from the rest of it, as is the HDD enclosure.

Two large 120mm fans exhaust hot air out the top/back of this case, and they work, hold your hand over the top one and you feel the warm air rising from the case.

The front fan, a temperature controlled Antec 120mm wasn't a smart choice - it is lazy and runs just at 1200rpm most of the time, nowhere near its 2700rpm maximum.

[Smokey!]

The PC-V1000 is not "new new" though. I have a PC-V2100B.

Big and with more space than I could ever hope to use...

[chris]

For those who are wondering, the Antec case is working perfectly on my PC. The hot running P4 seems to be cooled better. System zone 2 will still overheat sometimes, but it takes a long time to happen - and then only in very warm weather.

Moving the temperature controlled fan from the front to the back made the whole thing work a bit better as well.

[Myshkin]

I just bought the Antec Sonata II in an effort to quiet the vacuum-cleaner noise that was coming from my computer... it comes with a quiet 450W PS, one big adjustable-speed 12 cm fan blowing out the back, and a space for one on the front (actually on the inside of the drive cage). Right now I have the exhaust fan on low, and a new Zalman 7000B on the CPU on low speed, yet my CPU is showing 38-42C during average use, and I haven't seen it go above 50C. That's about 3-5 degrees cooler than right before I changed the case and CPU fan.

BUT now I can't even tell that the computer is on. I didn't hook up the blue LED's on the front, so it looks dead and sounds dead unless the HD is spinning, 'cause I did hook up that light. Now normally the biggest sound I hear is the hard drive ticking, and even that is muffled because the Sonata II has rubber mounting points for the hard drive.

My video card (6600GT) has worked fine through a bit of testing, although it is oc'd about 10%. I'm going to have to play some Battlefield 2 on a warm day to really test it though, I might have to put a fan that I had on the old case that goes over a PCI slot to pull air over the vid card. For now it works great though.

Anyway, if you want a quiet computer, and don't want a windowed case, and you'd like a plain black case with a good finish, and a 450W PS is good enough (it is pretty good quality from what I have read), and a mid-size case is big enough, then I would recommend this one. Only US$120 PS included locally, though you could get it through Newegg.com in the US for $20 less.

http://www.mpbruns.com/pics/right.jpg

My old case had some rubber feet that lifted it above the carpet, so I do need to get something to put it on. I just put some cardboard to keep it off the carpet for now.

[chris]

I'm actually going to try a fanless power supply in my PC soon, since the PSU plays no part in cooling the computer itself. I figure it is worth a go, and besides, I'll get a bigger PSU anyway.

May also do a HDD upgrade as well. Perhaps a couple of 200 or 300gb drives.

[Chaul]

I have a problem with hard drive temperatures. Both of the HDD's (80+120GB) are around 50C which gives a warning in S.M.A.R.T..

[chris]

Okay, no fanless PSU, instead, something called Antec NeoHE-550 Modular Power Supply. A 550W job, with a 80mm fan and a neat little feature of plug-in cables, rather than the traditionally huge and messy fixed bunch of cables that are nearly always badly tangled.

I also looked at the Antec Phantom 500 (http://www.dansdata.com/phantom500.htm), but since it has the traditional fixed bunch of cables I decided against it - and my PC is heavy enough as it is without adding that 3.4kg lump of metal to it.

It should be noted the Enermax 350W PSU I have now is still functioning superbly - so full marks to it. With any luck, the Antec one will be as reliable.

Seeing as I've got a decent handle on the cooling of this Intel P4 based heater in a box, I can now go about finding ways to make it quiet as well - and since the PSU plays no part in cooling the computer now, I can use a PSU with only 1 fan (or none at all). The 120mm fan inside the PSU section of the case would provide ample cooling for the PSU.

[chris]

I have a problem with hard drive temperatures. Both of the HDD's (80+120GB) are around 50C which gives a warning in S.M.A.R.T..

Get them some better fan assisted cooling, if possible. If you can, try and put a fan in front of them if your case provides for that. Other than that, planting them inside the Antec P180's HDD/PSU section would solve it for sure.

[Chaul]

The original idea in the case design (Compucase) was to put the HDD's in front of the 120mm fan but that's where I put the radiator so there is not enough space now.. I would have to move the drives from their current position to the 5 1/4 slots if I was going to get them cooled better, I think.

[chris]

The new Antec PSU is in the case, it all seems to be working okay.

Easier to deal with this PSU since the power cables are all just plug-in things, only use what you need. The PSU's own fan actually doesn't run at all unless things get warm. So things are a little quieter than before.

You can still hear the computer, but the sound is a dull hum, not a particularly offensive hiss.

[Chaul]

I have to ask about the PSU fan. You say it does not run at all if things are cool but how does the fan speed up when things do get hot?

I installed a similar Nexus PSU in another case and every now and then the fan gets full +12V for a second, and after that it quiets down. But it does that every time.. The system barely generates any load on the PSU but the 1sec full fan noise every few minutes gets annoying after a while..

[chris]

I've had it running for some time now, and the PSU fan doesn't seem to be running, or it is only running very slowly.

If things get warmer in the PSU, it will speed up. It has a temperature probe hidden away in the PSU somewhere.

[Myshkin]

The Antec PSU on the Sonata II case has two fans, one of which only runs when it gets over a certain temperature. After a week I am completely satisfied still, I have yet to find something I dislike about the setup.

While running 3dmark06 a little earlier today, with the CPU fan on medium and the case fan on low, in a room that was about 22C, my CPU temp hit 56C during the CPU test. Not dangerously hot, but I wonder how it will do in the summer. I don't think it ever really gets warmer than 25 in here, as it is on the shady side of the house and I keep the thermostat (AC) in the 22-25 range. So, I don't think it will even come close to being a problem.

BTW that CPU test in 3dmark06 was pretty torturous. I don't think I had ever seen my FPS at 0 in any of the previous versions. With a P4 2.8, 1.5 GB RAM, and a 6600GT oc'd to 550/1000 (reg is 500/900), I received a humble 1474 score.

[chris]

25 degree celsius temps shouldn't be a problem.

Mine stays within the limits (just) in 30 degree celsius conditions - though the cooling setup in mine is a little more outrageous. ;) And the P4 3.4/3.6/3.8ghz land-grid-array processors are well known for running very hot.

Not sure I'd try a dual-core P4 820 (or whatever it is called). But I'd love to have a couple of those ones that power the new MacBook Pro (Intel Core Duo IIRC). Ah, yes, it is Intel Core Duo:

http://www.apple.com/intel/

Hehe, got to love Apple's cheeky marketing talk. ;)

[chris]

Now I have added a 300gb HDD. I hopefully won't fill that up too soon.

If I do, then I'll have to get a pair of 500GB HDD's, or a 1.5TB external network drive. :D