Lian Li PC-08 Review
Published by Marc Büchel on 19.01.16Page:
Installation
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| At this point we’re going to work our way from the outside to the inside. Unpacking the case we see that the two side panels have not been attached to the case. This is actually a wise decision, since pre-mounting the panels could lead to them breaking during the shipment. It’s also practical for installing your components since you don’t have to remove these two panels to start installing your hardware. Removing the top as well as the right side panel we notice they’re clicked-in. Therefore taking these two panels off is as simple as it gets. Having those two panels removed as well, we now have clear view at the inside. Looking at the motherboard tray we find a total of six grommeted cut-outs, which are there to rout cables from one side of the motherboard tray to the other. Since this case is based on a two chamber layout the power supply is placed on the backside of the motherboard tray and all necessary cables need to be routed through the mentioned grommets. Right above the power supply, there is the modular HDD/SSD cage, which offers space for up to six 3.5 inch and two 2.5 inch drives. Installing drives is simple and done by sliding 3.5 inch HDDs in place while fixing them using thumb screws. The 2.5 inch drives are located on top and at the bottom of the cage. Looking at the left side of the motherboard tray we see a huge cut-out right behind where the motherbaords CPU socket. Thanks to the six rubber grommets cables can be routed to the components exactly where you need them to be. If you want to put the motherboard in place, there are pre-soldered stand-offs. If you decide to build a system using air cooling, there is 170 millimeter of clearance. In other words, you won’t have to check the height of your huge tower cooler since it will fit anyway. In the end it’s pretty straight forward to tighten motherboard and cooler in the case. Now it’s about time to install the graphics card. Also in this case you don’t need to worry about compatibility. Graphics cards can be up to 370 millimeters long. Tightening the card to the case can be somewhat circumstantial. You first have to remove a cover for the slot bezels to then have access to the thumb screws keeping the slot bezels in place. At this point it’s basically the opposite of “design follows function” but this little addition really helps providing even the back of this case with clean looks. Water cooling (all-in-one and custom)The PC-O8 is not just suitable for air cooling, it also allows you to build a fully-fledged, custom water cooled system. Nevertheless let’s first talk about installing an all-in-one water cooler. Basically you can equip this case with a 120, a 240 and even a 360 millimeter solution, whereas they’re being installed in the back, at the top and in the front respectively. The process is anything but complicated. You simply take the all-in-one and tighten it to the case using the screws, which comes with your cooler. If you wish to put a 360 millimeter all-in-one into this case, you’ll have to mount it on the right hand side of the motherboard tray. This means you’ll have to route cooling block from one side of the motherboard tray to the other. For that purpose there is the huge cut-out as well as a connecting cut to one of the rubber grommets for cable management, through which you’ll end up pushing the all-in-ones tubes. If you plan on creating a custom water cooling loop, we recommend you to think precisely about which components you want to use and where you want to place them. Although this case offers good compatibility for custom water cooling gear it’s not huge. Actually in relation to the hardware, which can be installed this case is rather compact. For this review we decided to equip this case with a custom water cooling loop, whereas graphics card and CPU are being cooled using a front-mounted triple radiator. Apart from that we’ve used a rather small pump/reservoir combo. To connect the blocks, radiator and pump we decided to go for fat tubes with 19mm outer diameter and it was just possible to squeeze those tubes through the rubber grommets. What we don’t like is that we had to place the pump/reservoir combo on top of the power supply. If there is a leak, then the power supply is actually the one components cause the largest damage to the system, not to say, that it’s simply dangerous because of high voltage. Not placing pump/reservoir on top of the PSU in the HDD cage, would have meant to move it to the other side of the motherboard tray, which would have ruined the looks. Bottom line we can say that it was definitely worth putting a custom water cooling gear into this case, since it looks simply stunning, especially with the RGB LED lighting. Nevertheless we really have to underline again, that it’s crucial to think well about the gear you want to use. |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Installation |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Ventilation options |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 7 - Temperatures |
| Page 4 - Product overview | Page 8 - Conclusion |
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