Lian Li PC-70 Aluminium Server Case Review

Lian Li PC-70 Aluminium Server Case Review
Date : Thursday, 22 March 2001
By : Diceman
Product : Lian Li PC-70 Aluminium Server Case Review
Provided by : PCMods.Com

Introduction
Yo peeps! Diceman here with another killer case to show you guys. Today I'm gonna give ya an up-close and personal look at one of the hottest products on the market today. The PCMods.com PC-70 All-Aluminum Server Case .

The popularity of aluminum cases continues to grow. But until now there was only mini and mid-tower aluminum cases on the market( at least easily found ones). And even though the smaller aluminum cases sold very well, there was still a big demand for a "big brudda" to those cases. Everyone saw the advantage in having a normal sized case that was extra light, extremely sturdy, excellent cooling properties, and dashing good looks, all right outta the box!. Especially the tweakers and the LAN party nuts that are constantly draggin their big steel cases around. An aluminum case would be worth it to them for the lack of back pain by itself. Well , the hardware gawds out there demanded bigger and Lian Li came back with this baby. They took there most popular model ,the pc-60, and made it bigger. But it's not quite the larger exact copy. There is some things to make a note of in this case if you're thinking of picking one up. We'll get into that shortly. But first a few specs and benefits of an aluminum case:

Benefits

Now this particular version of the PC-70 we're gonna look at today is from PCMods.com . Most, if not all of you, have at least heard of Pcmods.com or have seen their products and maybe didn't even realize it. They've got distributors all over the world . They sell some of the most innovative case modding stuff on the market and one of the very few sites that have actually designed totally new products themselves to fit the needs of the cooling freaks out there. All there kits are designed with ease of installation in mind.

Ok, I can't wait any longer to tear into this beauty of a case.....

Getting inside
First thing I noticed when the box landed on my door was how big it is. I knew this was gonna be a server case....and the box certainly helped reaffirm that. But, although the box was bigger than some, I jerked it off the ground so fast I alsmost did a backflip (matrix style) because the box was much lighter than it appeared =)

It even came in a nice big full color box reassuring me as to its contents.

I continued to open it up and get her out of the box where I could take a good look at it. (the table of course) and give it the "pat-down" for any weapons. (sharp points). Smooth as silk it was. The case features all aluminum construction and leaves the natural brushed aluminum finish to it. It is quite attractive.

You can see this baby is all about drive bay's and space!

Now let's take a look at what makes this PCMods.com PC-70 alittle different from the "stock" PC-70. This PC-70 I received came with the new server window cutout in its side. PCMods custom designed this window shape for this case which in itself shows their dedication to providing the best possible solution to a given project. Noone else has dared such a feet as cutting up the first batch of PC-70's to hit the US. But with tons of research as they have done they were confident they could pull it off and I think they did very well. They could've just slapped one of the smaller window kits on it and saved themselves some trouble but they wanted to do it right. Let's a take a closer look at the PCMods.com PC-70.

Again you see the beautiful finish but also the custom window design.The window was designed to show off only the parts of the interior you wanna show off. The gentle curves cover up the PSU area and all the drive bays and hard drive bays. What's left is only open space to display.Excellent job in my opinion! You'll notice that this case is ALL thumbscrews. Everything. even all the drive bays inside had large quality thumbscrews. ( no cheapy screws here) There was also a set of fold-out feet included (already attached) to the case. They are plastic( NOT ALUMINUM )but painted to match and provided adequate support without any fear of a rollover =)

The contents of the case combo I received was :

Both the side panels feature tool-less entry via 3 thumbscrews per panel located on the rear. The panels removed effortlessly from there showing the true craftmanship in the case as everything fits perfectly with no rubbing or warpness anywhere that I have found. The PC-70 comes with 4 x80mm fans pre-installed. 2 x80mm's in the lower front and 2 x80mm 3-pin fans in the middle rear section (near cpu) that even included fan grills on the inside of the case .That really tops off the interior look by adding alittle extra chrome to it and also by protecting your fingers and the installed hardware by not allowing anything to get between the blades of the fans.The one not so good thing is that there both 3-pin fans and I dont know of a motherboard that'll hold that many 3-pin fans on it (taking into account the cpu fan and maybe video card fan).

So you're prob gonna need a 3-pin to 4-pin adapter for at least one of the rear 80's. Another nice feature about the 2 lower front 80mm fans is the fact that they're wired ,via 3-pin connectors,to a mini fan control pcb (located just above the fans themselves) that lets you set 3 diff speeds to the fans low/normal/high. It also serves as a mini fanbus that allows you to power both fans thru one molex connector that protrudes from the mini pcb.Now I can't seem to find what the exact specs are to the different setting but needless to say I only needed the high setting =)The lower front fans didnt include fan grill on either side as they are not in any direct danger of foreign object getting in them. The bezel protects one side and the HD cage on the inside. The wire package (reset,power,hd led,etc) was also nicely bundled into one strand to keep it neat and together.

In the upper rear of the case there is place for two other 80mm fans bringing the total to 6 x80mm (not counting any psu fans). That's pretty good cooling power built-in. But is it ever really enough stock?....lol.. <eyes dremel..."no,not yet, caaaaalm">

Another great feature is the built-in fan filter for the lower fornt 80mm fans. Its removable,reusable, and washable. The bezel is all aluminum for those wondering and includes the usually plethora of small holes to try to allow more air in thru the bezel. It seemed sufficient and didn't seem to make it whistle or add any noise to the case while running. The filter unit released easily but also held firm to the case when attached.You can see there's 4 squeeze points to release the filter assembly.

Here's where I need all you Enermax owners attention. The Psu sits in a solid "L" shaped hanger and this is odd for a couple reasons. 1) the dual fan enermaxs will have to be mounted upside down and 2) the rear of the case where the psu attaches will only let you mount the enermax upside down. Look at the pic and you'll see what I mean. You could easily mod it to fit the right way with your enermax by unscrewing the psu plate in rear and flipping it around and then cutting a circle into the "L" hanger above the cpu. i would do that but one thing to think about before you cut up your $250 aluminum case: Will you be using that kind of psu forever? I mean that exact dual fan psu?...hmm.....But a good mod will survive the times. One thing about the current way I have it set up is if I added the two upper 80mm fans they would be directly above/front of the enermax intake fan. Now this could be good or bad. It will either cause a nice strong flow of air enter the enermax as the two 80's pull air to that upper rear section of the case.....or it will disrupt the flow somehow. I wanna think it will help cause a powerful external exhaust like this (with the 2x80mm's) as long as the 2x80's you install back there are of decent power.

Bottom Line: Is there gonna be enough air getting pushed/pulled up there to supply the three fans with enough air? ...Who knows?...:-)

Now, if you're using a "normal" psu where it intakes extra air thru the rear of the psu (toward the cd drives) them this will be perfect for you in stock form. Its just the Enermax users that will have to make a few decisions on what they wanna do.

All the drive cages on this beauty are also toolless and utilize those high quality thumbscrews which makes system assembly and dis-assembly very quick and effortless. All the 3.5" and 5.25" drive bay covers are also very high quality aluminum and they snap on and off with ease. It's amazing how machined to perfection they actually are. Shows the attention to detail that went into this case. So just undo 2 thumbscrews and the big 6 ( yes SIX!! ) Hard Drive cage slides right out the side , or just undo 3 thumbscrews to have your entire 3.5" drive cage pull out the front of the case. It doesnt get much easier than this and you've got a built in hd cooler with this setup! Excellent! Overall so far I've found the aluminum rigidity to be very good. I'm quite impressed with this case so far. Very solid and has a precision feel to it.

Window Kit Installation
Now that we've checked out some of the goodies inside, Let's take care of getting that window installed. The PCMods.com server window kit they designed for this case was very easy to install with a little bit of patience. First off, you can see how perfectly the window is cut to the case cutout. This by far is the hardest thing of doing a window yourself if your going to use the channel molding. The window has to be at least damn near perfect to fit correctly. But the window comes to you perfectly cut and the molding is of exact size for the window. Putting the molding on is pretty straight-forward. There's a small and smaller groove in the molding. The smaller groove attaches to the aluminum panel and the slightly larger groove is for the window to sit in.

Now after I attached all the molding I decided to peel back about an inch or so all the way around both sides of the protective paper so I wouldnt be putting the paper in the molding along with the window and also by doing this I could still leave most of the window protectant paper on while i was installing it. Simple Idea that gives piece of mind when handling the window as much as you will be while installing it. Make sure you get a hard blunt (prefereably rounded but thin) object when trying to fit the window in the molding. If you don't you'll be screaming in minutes....hehe...Cuz the window is designed to be very secure once installed there isn't alot of play here. So you need to start a corner and go from there. Don't expect it to just whoosh right in...cuz it won't. It'll take you a few minutes to get it in there snug. I used the bottle opener tool on my Leatherman tool and that worked like a charm! (*use #2,084 = plexi window installer) :-P

After you get the window settled in the molding, go around and double check the the molding is totally opened up over the edges and its got a good bite all the way around.You should have a even sized gap on the inside of the molding where you'll next apply the locking strip for the molding. That said, you go ahead and put the locking strip in the inside groove. Stretching it a little helps it get firmly into the groove and it will expand when you release it in the channel. When I finished putting the locking strip in , there was about 4 inches left over. Just snip it with a pair of scissors. Doesn't have to be perfect as noone will see it and you've got most of it in there so i actually cut it about a half inch short so i could have a spot to pull it out if I needed to. Now that it's all done you can go ahead and remove the protective film on the window and install the side panel as normal. You now have a perfect custom designed window installed in the case.

We've got inside it. We've put a window in it. It's time to throw a system in it and see how smooth it is in the real world.

Its as simple as undoing a few thumbscrews and pulling out the 3.5" and the 5.25" cages to install the drives. I threw a floppy and zip drive in the 3.5" cage and my 20 gig 7200 rpm HD in the HD cage. Look how lonely my hard drive looks in that big cage all by itself...heh. You know how alot of time when you install drives you gotta play with them alittle (sometimes alot) to get them to be flush with the front bezel?......well not with this setup. The blank drive covers are not attached to the bezel but rather to each drive bay. What this does is help you line up how far in/out each drive should be even when its not even in the case. get me? Meaning, just line up the front of the drive you're installing with a properly installed blank bay cover and you're set! Its just so easy....lol.....and with the precision of this case (right down to the bay covers lining up perfectly!) you can't lose.

System Specs

The test system installed without a hitch and everything lined up perfectly. Notice that even the I/O slot covers have thumbscrews?....very nice. (although a tad bit akward getting your hand in there to twist) The case with the installed components was still very spacious. This is a big ,deep case. YOu could easily fit dual cpu boards or full size server boards without a second thought. If you notice in the pics.....thats a full sized ASUS Cusl2-C ATX board....looks almost puny in this case....heh. You see all my homemade rounded cables...been using them for over a year now and they took me about 15 minutes to do and cost nothing but half a roll of electrical tape...:-P

Conclusion
Well if you read this whole thing you'll notice I had nothing major to gripe about. That's because there wasn't anything that stood out as bad. There was bearly anything that even hinted as bad. This has been a pleasure reviewing this case cuz of its quality and attention to details. I can whole-heartedly recommend this case to anyone looking for a creme of the crop full tower/server. It's quality is unsurpassed and ,at a selling price of $249 (w/o psu), won't totally destroy your piggy bank. The PCMods.com PC-70 Server Tower is an excellent case..period! The custom designed window from pcmods is a great add-on purchase to this case if ya wanna spice it up even more.

Thanks
I'd like to thank PCMods.com for providing us with this great case to show you all today. If you like what you see then head on over to PCMods.com and pick up for yourself the case that everyone is talking about ... The PC-70 Server Tower. If you like the features but don't quite need such a large case, or , you're looking for a smaller LAN case with these features, Then here's a sample of the other aluminum offerings from PCMods.

Final Note: Stay tuned for my PC-70 mod project where I bust out da dremel and take this case to skool (VH style)