Lian Li v350 review *LOTS OF PICS*

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Ok then, Got back from taking my car in on Friday afternoon to find a note had been left on my doorstep 'citylink have been....'... oh noes thought i, but it turns out they delivered next door, so i instantly went over and grabbed my new toys...

This is what was waiting for me:




First thoughts again were 'oh noes!' as it's plastered with pics of the silver case, when, we all know black is made of win... Anyway, closer inspection saw that there were stickers all over the box saying that it was the black version, and alas, when i opened the box, it was!

So, first things first, pics of the closed case (i apologise in advance for all of the greasy finger marks all over the case.. what can i say, i'm dirty...)

Front (mmm!):




Right hand side:




Left hand side:




Rear:




Ever since my first Lian Li case just over a year ago, i have been in love with them ever since. They just look and feel... executive... Plain without being boring, it's almost as though Lian Li cases are... sophisticated, and the v350 is no exeption. Now for some close up on some of the detail:

As there are 2 120mm intake fans, and the only exhaust fans will be the psu and the 80mm fan on the rear, there is going to be rather a large pressure differentional, thus, Lian Li have added vents on each side panel, above the psu, and on the PCi blanking plates:




Here we have the 'front panel' albeit on the left side panel:




Close up of the power and reset switch:




A close up the detail stripe on the front:




And finally, the Lian Li logo:





I will be getting up pics of how easy this thing is to use and install hardware into, and even provide benchmarks and temperatures, but for now, there's the outside! I'll update with some more pics a bit later. Enjoy!

[V|per]

Ok, time for a look inside.

We'll start with removing 5 thumb screws and sliding this beast out:




Never had a removable motherboard tray before, i like... Also get a handy tool for tightening and loosening the standoffs, here she is in action:




A shot of the dual 120mm fans:




And 2 thumbscrews later:




I've also take both side panels off, ok, so there's 6 screws per side panel, but at least there's no rattling like there is in other Lian Li cases.

HDD racks, nice to be able to use 2 HDD's, could add more in the 5.25" bays (assuming you haven't filled them with something else...)




And here's the extras that come with the case as standard:




Installation

Ok, time to get some hardware inside, the specs are:

G33 mobo (have the ds2r and p5k-vm, haven't decided which one to go for yet...)
e2200 w/ zalman 8700 cooler (for now )
2 or 4 gig of ram
8800 GT
250gig hitachi deskstar
Optical drive
Corsair HX520w

HDD mounting bolts and anti-vibration mounts installed:




Hdd installed:




Installed optical drive, note, the rail where the screws slide down has a slight notch in the end, so it holds the optical drive in place. Others are reporting that they have to use an extra screw to hold it in place, which is a pain, as you need to remove the PSU and/or the HDD's to do this:




And PSU installed... very easily actually. Also note there is enough room behind the psu to hide some cables if need be:




That is all for now, as i am still awaiting the cpu. But rest assured i'll get pics up of the rest of it going in.

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HARDWARE INSTALLATION

Righty guys, CPU arrives this morning (cheers cupra) and thus i now have everything needed to get this beast up and running.

Ok, have already got the psu, hdd and optical in (my mistake with the optical, i ordered an ide one, should have been sata...) And here's the rest of the stuff installed onto the motherboard tray, and, this was the EASIEST motherboard install i have ever done...






Note that the CPU cooler isn't installed, because it was a little too large and would have snagged on the edge of the case.

Weapon of choice:




It was easyenough to slide the tray back in, but installing the cooler was a little more problematic, mainly due to the crappy catch mechanism from zalman, but alas, it was sorted. Also turns out i could have installed it prior to putting the tray in, it only just catches, but will go through pretty easily. (a not to people getting this combination of mobo and cooler, the cpu heatsink touches the NB heatsink) Last thing to get done... the cabling... always a pain in the **** job, but needed even more so in a SFF case, and, approximately an hour later, i got this:






And i cunningly hid the cables in 1 of 3 places, under the motherboard tray(or down the sides of it)

here:



and here:




Careful when hiding cables in the front, there's no guards on the fans, and you dont want one of your fans to get wasted on cables (or vice-versa)

Now, to get windows up and running.


There was alot more room than i thought between the mobo and psu, i make it 128mm +/- 2mm, which is getting very VERY close, as ocuk state that the ac7pro is 126.5mm tall.. means a bigger range of possible cpu coolers than some SFF cases...

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*reserved3*

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*UPDATE*

benchies to arrive shortly

[SiM]

Thanks for the review! Good work, keep it up....

That's quite an odd shaped case though. What made you go for a case with this shape?

[V|per]

Thanks for the review! Good work, keep it up....

That's quite an odd shaped case though. What made you go for a case with this shape?

Cheers! sat on it now, cant seem to get it clocking well though, man i hate gigabyte boards...

Chose it because it looks damn sexy, it's small, but you can still fit laods in there (ie, water ) Easily transported to lan (i cant carry my v2k... it's just tooo heavy...)

Just love the minimalist look to be honest...