Hardware Lian-Li PC-B25

And still, they felt the need to rip the P180's front bezel (specially the airflow design) and looks. Understable, as it's become one of the most popular cases around, bud sad nonetheless.

I know. I'm one of them. And it doesn't have anything to do with what I said. Still Lian Li no longer looks like an industry leading manufacturer to me. Besides the "high end" feeling one gets when unpacking one for the first time, they don't really bring anything to the table than Antec or Coolermaster don't already provide at half the price. And if I really, really had to get a superb looking, overpriced alu case, Silverstone has a much more interesting line nowadays (specially on HTPC cases).

Antec has just made the 2 most "silent conscious" cases in the market, the P180 (, P180b, P182...) and P150 (Solo). They didn't borrowed much from Lian Li, as far as I know... I have yet to see any Lian Li case with HDD suspension, dampened panels and silent fans (and that includes their "V Silent" series). Design-wise...the Antec 180 was revolutionary (and polemic...just take a look at the original silentpcreview.com threads to see all the "looks like a fridge" trashtalk) when launched and it brought several cooling and silence solutions that no other manufacturer had included up to that point.

Despite, people talk about alu cases as if that was something good on itself. News flash, it's not. It's simply a matter of choice. A lighter case, for me, it's irrelevant when talking about a desktop rig, but alu as a material is simply a hindrance for silent computing.

All in all, I'm not bashing Lian Li lovers. To each their own I guess. But as a former Lian Li user, I do feel that you pay up the nose in money and features for a slightly better than average build quality and finish.

 

why is there never a perfect case , love the asethetics thou

 

blue circle would be the first thing i mod to make it a red circle. tho removing it completely is an option.

side panel is nice, better than just flat plain dull panel. but each to his own.

nice clean little case

tho at that price point, ill pick upa TJ04 any day (yes, welcome to the Silverstone fan club )

 

First thing that came to mind was 'cute'. I like it, though I prefer larger cases myself. Side beveling is odd, but not bad perse'. The B-25 is my fav bomber from WWII.

 

only Lian-Li case I'd ever shell out for would be a PC343 server cube (the one with 18 5.25" slots)

this case doesn't work for me for one simple reason: not enough 5.25" bays for my hot-swap HDD array gear.

 

after i've won the lottery i'll get one too

yep.. the 343 is a seriously great case.. but.. comes great case comes high price.. even if the price is appropriate for what you get...

 

Meh. I can find way better in Silverstone's lineup. I'll still take a TJ07 over any of this Lian Li hooplah any day.

 

Urgh, the TJ07 aesthetics are awful. I hate the rounded top, bottom and curvy bit in the middle. The Lian has elegance with a dash of boldness. Sure, it's square but it works.

It all depends whether you want big and brash or light and elegant - you can't convince people either way and if you're not a Lian fan you're not going to like it from the get-go.

We've got another cube from Lian in, but this one is far smaller and cuter

 

well.. the TJ07 is the only case known to me (excluding mountainmods cases due to price (shipment to europe from usa just not really affordable)where you can fit a 360 rad internally without much modding, so it certainly has its apeal.

@bindi any chance that your referring to the v350?

 

Would you (Da Dego) be referring to the Cooler-Master rip off TJ03, ex-server-case TJ05, or hideously overpriced TJ07?

It's the attention to detail that really hooked me on Lian-Li, along with the lines of the V-1000. You can tell that a lot of thought went into everything, from the CD drive bezels to the rounded and/or covered edges on the inside. Look at the side panels on the V-1000. The engineers wanted a smooth, flat plate, without screwheads or bends, so they flipped the conventional slit-and-tab design around, and put the tabs on a sliding bar inside the case. They (and not Antec) were the first to play with putting the PSU in a separate area, down with the hard drives. The blank CD faceplates mount in two spots, rather than Silverstone's one, so the faceplates can't rotate - they just click into place and they're flush with the front. Also, because they click into place rather than screw down, you don't have to worry about stripping one out.

 

This is good case really! But I think IT's expeinsive

Thanks for this review.

 

lol'ed... I want memorabilia !! Where can I find some ?

Nice case, but does not stand out much from the crowd (it DOES look nice, still).

 

I'll confess, I'm a Li-Li fan. But I can also admit I like a lot of Silverstone's stuff. If the price is not an issue, I like the 07, 09, or even the 10...which is basically an 09 with a front door. The older Silvers were cool too. The Kublai series doesn't do it for me though. Look weird, IMHO.

 

Did I miss it, or was there not a "Martin Rattle Test" in this review? Whadafuxupwidat?

 

There was - always is - and the Lian Li passed with flying colors. Zero rattle here, baby!

 

I think it looks quite cool actually. I'd still rather have a V-1100 but its quite a nice case.

 

I believe you need to post an "update" to your review of the Lian Li PC-B25 to correct your errors.
You incorrectly stated that it has two 80mm fans in front, but I believe it you will check, they are actually two 120mm fans.
You did not pick up on the correct use of the screw stubs on the PSU bracket for holding the PSU exhaust shroud, and had negative things to say about that. You should clarify what these are actually for and not penalize Lian Li for "your trouble".
Also please check and report whether or not the front cover is removable and if there are any air filters in front of the two front fans.
Thanks for your review.

Joe

 

It does look pretty nice

being an owner of a V2000B+ i have to say, lian li cases are pretty damn nice
However, they certainly come at a premium, I'm not convinced they are worth the premium though

I prefer my case, with its 7 5 1/4" bays, and like 12 HDD bays, but to each his own

P.s. i don't know why the changed the HDD mounting system
On my case, you bolt 4 odd bolts in, then slide the drive into a groove, and then pull down a catch which holds the HDD in place, quick, easy, painless, but technically not silent, not that i notice the noise of the HDD's

Edit
Also, if i wanted a plane, id rather have an F15 with 3d thrust vectoring - *drool*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:F-15-vector.jpg

 

i bought a lian li a05b and the only thing i don't like very much is the quality of the fans...they are too noisy...anyway i'll change them with 2 noctua or papst

An other thing i want to point out. My case too had the side panels hard to remove first time but after 2 times they are normal!

 

Welcome!

All valid points and I've amended the review accordingly. The front can be removed by unscrewing four screws and there are some loose filters for large dust particles, but nothing to stop little bits.