Lian Li PC-V350 Case Review

Here we have Lian Li’s M-ATX ‘Entertainment Cube’ the PC-V350 enclosure. Small but perfectly formed? Lets take a look!

Lian Li are a popular and well known manufacturer. Their chosen production material is Aluminium so their cases (and other accessories) are usually super light and beautiful to look at. I’ve owned a few Lian Li cases in my time and never been anything but impressed with them. Hopefully the PC-V350 won’t let them down.

Here’s what Lian Li have to say about themselves…

Lian Li Industrial Co., LTD was founded in 1983. We are the one of the largest and most reputable manufacturer of aluminium PC case in Taiwan . With over twenty years of experience in the computer products field, our dedicated team of engineers, production specialists and administrative staff provide the finest quality accessories available on the market.

Specifications:

Model – PC-V350
Case Type – Mini Tower Chassis
Dimensions – 279mm x 262mm x 373mm (W, H, D)
Front bezel Material – Aluminium
Colour – Silver / Black
Side Panel – Vent for CPU
Body Material – Aluminium

5.25″ drive bay (External) – 2
3.5″ drive bay (External) – 1 ( With Converter)
3.5″ drive bay (Internal) – 2

Expansion Slot – 4
Motherboard – M-ATX
System Fan (Front) – 12cm Ball-Bearing Fan x 2
System Fan (Rear) – 8cm Ball-bearing Fan x 1
I/O Ports – USB 2.0 x 2, IEEE1394 x 1, HD+AC97 Audio

Price – in the region of £80

Exterior:

The PC-V350 is securely packed in a sturdy box. It’s full colour with the front showing a 3/4 shot of the case itself while the side lists a selection of specification details. Overall it’s informative and tidy.

Upon opening i was greeted with an instruction sheet and two case and accessories catalogue sheets. The case itself was protected by polystyrene supports and a thick plastic bag to help stop scratches.

Once out of these the clean lines and subtle design really hit you. The front of the case is unusual in that it only contains the power and reset buttons. The external drive bays and the USB, firewire and audio sockets are located on the sides of the case.

Around the back is the I/O plate, PCI slots – they are and all-in-one piece secured by thumb screws that allow the whole motherboard tray to be removed. An 80mm fan specifically designed to provide airflow to the HDD’s and a PSU zone are also present – you can see that despite it being a MATX case it actually accepts full sized ATX psu’s. That means there are none of the drawbacks that come from using low power MATX psu’s.

Underneath Lian Li have attached some simple yet classy silver feet. As well as being aesthetically pleasing they raise the case to allow airflow to the two 120mm fans located within the front of the case.

Overall the fit and finish is very good with the overall build quality being similar to Lian Li’s ‘Silent’ series. The side panels are thick and securely attached to the chassis with six countersunk screws each.

Interior:

Moving inside the case we can see a simple clean layout. Having removed the six screws from the side panel you are left with the blanking plates which can be simply unclipped.

Behind this is a box containing the additional 3.5″ adapter bay and all of the ancillary components needed to install into the case. You get a selection of screws, clips, rubber grommets, zip ties, standoffs and Lian Li’s trademark standoff tool.

Looking to the main lower compartment you can see the dual 120mm fans that provide airflow for the motherboard components. These can be removed by unscrewing the thumbscrews from one side and unlatching the other side from the case. Quite a simple but effective system. I only have one very small reservation here though – i was surprised to see no sign of any kind of filteration device. In a dusty room i could imagine these liberally coating the internal components. Of course this issue could be remedied by using aftermarket filters.

As mentioned earlier the motherboard tray can be removed to aid installation. Once again the use of thumbscrews helps make the process painless. The clearance also suggests that a fairly chunky CPU heatsink could be used without it interfering on its way into the case.

The upper compartments allow the installation of various 5.25″ optical drives and, with the provided adapter, a 3.5″ drive too. That could either be a floppy drive or even a card reader. They are installed by attaching special screws to the drives and sliding them along rails in the case chassis. It is the first time i have come across a slide in mechanism for these bays in any Lian Li case and is heartily welcomed.

Behind these are the zones reserved for the ATX PSU and HDD. The HDD area allows two drives to be installed on rails as seen in other Lian Li designs. With the use of supplied rubber mounts (shown later during installation) it should provide isolation resulting in decreased vibrations and sound.

Installation:

My Lian Li card reader was the first item to be installed. To do this i used the supplied 3.5″ – 5.25″ adapter. The reader fit nicely and was ready to go in the case. I screwed the supplied guide screws to the adapter and slid the assembly into the case.

Once in place you simply use some supplied thumbscrews to secure them properly. Very effective and very impressive.

The optical drive installs in the very same way – slide in and secure with thumb screws.

I decided to install the motherboard next. I undid the thumbscrews, extracted the motherboard tray and added the supplied standoffs to it. This was a job made simpler by the additional tool the Lian Li supply. Much like a watchmakers screw driver with a modified head it allowed me to quickly and accurately add them to the tray. Once i had all eight screwed into the tray i placed the motherboard on top and secured it in place. The tray and motherboard was slid back in, secured and all the header cabling was plugged in place. Extraction to reinstallation took no more than 10 minutes. Quick really doesn’t do it justice.

Next up was the PSU – despite the model being a modular design i had no problems getting the unit in place. You may be limited with some of the larger PSU’s on the market, but since those are aimed at ultra high power users with a few GPU’s, watercooling and several HDD’s on the go i’d be surprised if anyone using this case would ever be needing that kind of power.

Finally came the HDD. As you can see the supplied anti vibration mounts are easy to screw in place. Once this is done the drive can simply be slid into place within the HDD bay behind the 80mm fan.

I must admit that for a relatively compact case the installation was made very easy by the thoughtful design.

Testing:

Test setup:

Processor: Intel e6600 @ 3GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte G33 M-ATX
CPU Cooler: Akasa AK-956SF
3.5″ Drive: Lian Li CR-35B Card Reader
Graphics: Onboard
Hard Disk: Samsung Spinpoint 320GB
PSU: Hiper Type-R 580W PSU

I left the PC to idle until the temperature stabilised (usually 10-15 minutes) and then took a reading. Load temperatures were generated using OCCT’s CPU stress test which loaded the CPU until the temperature plateaued.

Results:

As can be seen the PC-V350 offered improved temperatures – an impressive result for a compact enclosure.

Sound:

The PC-V350 was not what i would call silent – the 120mm fans in particular were somewhat intrusive so i could not recommend it for quiet computing.

That said, i have used Lian Li’s fans in the past and in general i have found that they can be undervolted to provide quiet performance. Indeed, their fans are some of the only i have ever used that manage to start at 5v which is exceptional. If you applied this modification to these fans then i have no doubt that the case would be almost silent.

Plus points for the chassis itself come from the fact i found no part of the case that resonated or buzzed (an issue known to plague aluminium cases) and i also found the rubber HDD mounts to successfully decouple the vibration of the drives from the case.

Conclusion:

Lian Li has an excellent case here. The PC-V350 is a very capable M-ATX enclosure with some exceptional design touches. It combines some of the best Lian Li design ideas i\\\’ve come to know and love with some additional touches i simply hadn\\\’t expected in a case this size. Add to that the fact that the case can be picked up for around £80 and it becomes an incredibly tempting prospect.

If you\\\’re looking for a HTPC, lan gaming machine or simple a clean cut compact desktop case that doesn\\\’t cost the earth then the PC-V350 fits the bill nicely.