News Lian Li shows radical new case design

The PC-90 and PC-100 both feature a number of innovative touches

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/06/01/lian-li-shows-radical-new-case-design/1

 

My V1000 is already 'upside-down' - the motherboard is the wrong way up with the PSU in the base, which was pretty radical back in 2004.

It's not aged perfectly - heatpipes aren't really designed to work inverted - but in theory I'm interested in weird design revisions...

 

I don't see the point of turning the fans around if the internals of the case are turned around too - surely that's just the same as spinning the whole case around by 180 degrees?

Or am I missing something.

Glad to see Lian Li are still being as mad as ever, though.

 

Wouldn't it make more sense for the 'wall of storage' to be behind the motherboard tray?

 

I would rotate the disk and route the cables other way around - not in the middle, but on the sides. That would create a nice, manageable way of routing cables (the length wouldn't change at all when you open the case.

The real downside is the heat from the graphics card in my opinion.

 

bluespider42 beat me too it, I thought when I saw this the wall would be behind the motherboard rather than infront of it.

 

Put hinges on that hard drive tray and it's good to go.

 

Same here too, though personally I quite like the idea. What would make it perfect imo would be to have all the SATA cables embedded or even a backplane, so you actually connect your SATA cables at the bottom/bottom/side etc all in one clump rather than having lots trailing around.
Or even a custom case cable from the bottom etc to get to the ports and then split so all you get is one nice albeit thick cable to route not 6/8.

 

Exactly what I was thinking, hinged door = ease of access & lots of space

 

Yeah, I like the idea of a SATA hub integrated into a case design, with minimal cabling as a result.

Agree on the HDDs being mounted behind the mobo tray too - much cleaner look and more room for a WC loop inside the case.

I love my Lian Li V1200 Plus - a spot of dremelling easily made room for a couple of 240 rads inside.

 

We've already seen similar HDD mounting location with the Silverstone RV03

 

What is odd is the say it saves space, yet not made the case any smaller? Also yea i agree with putting the HDD behind the motherboard tray. Maybe they might implement some kind of hot swap esque connection so you just plug the drives into that silver band? Even so the bonkers design will probs cost a small fortune sadly

 

Definitely go with the HDD's behind the motherboard instead, hinged at the base to give access for cable routing.
I can understand reversing the fan flow. my case at work and at home are under the desk, exhausting the hot air out the front would give better cooling instead of heating up the area under the desk.

Lian-Li's marketing department need a slap though, 6 identical HDD's would make it look a lot more impressive than just a bunch of random drives.

And why hasn't anyone before put HDD's in the base of a pc? how many cases have empty space in the bottom. seems logical (or is that a big oversight by me?)

 

the only problem i can see with having hdd behind the board is the cooling of the hard drives, yes i know they dont get as hot as a GPU but they can still kick out a decent amount of heat, and in a area of no air flow could have some serious shelf life issues,

although i guess with a little bit of playing you could potentially replace 1 or 2 of the hard drives at the bottom with 120mm low speed intake fans and have a vent/s at the top of the case to get some air flow over the drives

also wild stab in the dark but i guess the higher concentration/build up of dust at the bottom of a case and mechanical drives dont mix well in the long run

 

I/O on the front of the case...otherwise known as turning the case around.

 

I like the hdd thing, would be awesome for water cooling with that room at the front. I don't understand revised mobo though.

 

OK, I don't get the 100 series. So they've basically turned the case around? Genius. I could just pick up my case and rotate it 180 degrees. Voila, a PC-100 for free!

At least Silverstone had a GOOD idea with the FT02...

 

They didn't just turn the case around since the 5.25" bays are on the same side as the i/o

 

Maybe, but I still don't see how turning the case round will improve cooling...

 

I'm not sure what the point is either, maybe it's as simple as easy access to all your i/o

If it's cooling related maybe the crazy rotation is solely dictated by having the usual rear exhaust used as an intake, straight into the cpu cooler. Underdesk air, behind the pc, is usually considered hot and dusty so that's probably why the rotation.