Lian-Li Wants Your Feedback for its PC-A51 Prototype

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Not trying to troll, but I really wish Lian-Li could re-release the snail case. They came out and were discontinued before I got in to computer building and I found them a few months ago. I really want one without paying super large amounts on eBay. 🙁
 
Case looks too cramped with how it's designed for my tastes and I think it look better with a black side instead of a window. I'd like to see a fan mount on the side of the case to put some much needed airflow in the case as the front fan and PSU won't be bring in a lot of air due to the design. Though if that remains unchanged I'd like to see some type of dust filter be setup along the rear open vents as the case has a lot of negative air preasure and will be sucking in a lot of air through there so it won't accumulate dust inside.

And lastly this type of design is just begging to be for a micro atx case with how it tries to save on space. I think a micro atx version where it ditches some of the 3.5in drives and keeps the PSU placement, adds side vent, and the black metal side would make quite a nice case with minimal size. It would make a great HTPC, regular PC, or anything that doesn't require drastic cooling potential.
 
Lian Li
Why can't you design something looks more interesting or elegant, this new model is almost the same model i saw 7 years ago.

as a hint, take a look at the existing Mac Pro casing. Looks simple and yet beautiful
 
I don't know if it is just the picture... but...

The description mentions 5 3.5" HDD's (or 2 2.5" per tray).

However, looking at the picture, it looks like that if you went with the 2.5" drives you wouldn't be able to connect the second drive through the small I/O Passthrough on the backplate of the drive caddy.

Again, not sure if that is removable, or if there is a way to do this. But just something I noticed.
 
I like clear panels, I hate the look of this one. The screws on the outside make the panel look like an after thought. My preference for a clear panel would be interior mounted, with material removed from around the edges to make the panel sit flat in the opening. I don't want the panel sticking out, or dipped into the case.
Also, it doesn't look like there are many/any top front USB ports.
 
I find the shade of red a bit on the pink side.
What happens if like me you like having 2 disc drives? Only has a bay for one.
Also the addition of a smaller bay for an SSD would be useful.
Can't tell from the picture but is there enough room to mound a dual radiator inside at the top like a corsair H100?
A rubber seal around the window would be good, they always tend to rattle and seem cheap otherwise.
Is there a fan in the front of the case so draw heat from the PSU?
Some sort of cable tie down system or even just mounting points for cable ties in between the HDD's on the back would be good. Looks a mess just now.
 
Also the blanking plates on the back look like they have the screws partially covered by the left edge of the case. Nothing worse than having to use a screwdriver at an angle and stripping screws in the process.
 
Smaller case for a full size mobo. Plenty of space for a full size vid card. I do like how the PSU is mounted to the front. I fell this is an excellent design and would use it in future gaming builds
 
Add holes on the side case for ventilation. Make the Lian Li logo in the front the same red that is inside the case. add a removable filter screen for the dust on the fans. Also, hurry up and release it so I can buy it.
 
I don't like this small case to fit ATX motherboard because it can't cool it if it's overclocked.

Why not making it fit for mATX or ITX boards (including OC versions ... look Asus ROC solutions).

Today every vendor offers high performance mATX MBs that offer 2x VGA over Crossfire/SLI.

Here is my solutions made with Microsoft Paint on shown pictures inhere.

Idea, make space to fit two 240mm radiators, on top and back, make drilled/mashed bottom right below GPU space on bottom and put dust filter (lets call it VGA filter!) giving 2nd air colled GPU enough enviroment temp to pull in for its fans.

Put PSU on TOP, and one 5,25" drive for ODD with 2cm space distance of PSU intake fan on it's bottom. Then it follows by 3x 3,5" drive mounts or 4x 2,5" drive fixed mounts and 120mm intake fan as shown on pic.

This leaves enough space to put any size of GPU builder would like because it won't have anything to block it's installation or cable management.

I don't belive that resizing case to any smaller format would drastlicly lower cost of material and it's late sale price on market. Also this huge "empty" space could help pro water cooler solution builders to put pump and tank.

I don't know anyone tried put power supply on top, it could help take out extra heat with it's own exhaust fan and it does looks like mirrored standard mounting on top, while sacrificing 2x5,25" drive space but gaining extra 120mm fan mounting place or second 240mm radiator mounting place. and keeping case size as mid tower (how many mid towers have top and back 240mm radiator mounting place?)

Here r my fast created Paint edited pictures of it's back and side:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzQqtiL05Ao8M1lzaERkN2JsVUE&usp=sharing

I don't have CAD to put real measurements,
 
My last two cases have been Lian Li. I like that the hard drives have been reoriented because it makes them much more convenient to upgrade and label. I would recommend you change the way the side door is fastened. The doors on these cases usually slot into the bottom and have little metal hooks that fit into small cutouts and then have to be pushed into position and screwed in the back. This isn't very convenient and chances are one of the hooks doesn't slot and you end up bending the door slightly out. They are just a pain to get set properly. If the doors just had the guide on the bottom and MAGNETIC holds on the edges, they would be easy to take off and put back on. They could also use some kind of insulating material on the edges to keep them from rattling.
 
The intake fans don't have proper dust mitigation for my taste.
This is a similar little side slot intake as a lian li case I purchased a year ago, I don't like having to take appart the case to clean out dust every few days ...
It seems like none of the case makers get this. Put a large, easily removeable/washable dust screen on the front already ...
 
It's a really neat idea; I like that Lian-Li is always experimenting with different things that go outside of what is traditional. I would be curious to know if having the drives above the power supply would cause them to heat up more than normal. There is a front fan there though, so maybe it would be able to cool the drives sufficiently?
 
Looks nice to build a little home server or a NAS , so support for some more 3 1/4 drivers looks like a nice feature to add
 
For display purposes, they should have gone with a red motherboard... The red accents towards the rear of the case are rather unnecessary since you will not be seeing it very often. My biggest "beef" with the case is that the window is not flush mounted. Having the window rather sloppily mounted the way it is here is a bit of a turn off. Forward placement of the PSU is an interesting idea to allow the case to accommodate larger form factor motherboards...+1 to that.

Fix the window and you have yourself a clean looking workstation!
 
I run a lan li on it side it would be better to prevent scratches by allowing rubber feet attachable to the side,
With all the Earthquakes ova here towers are dumb
 
I have never seen it where you put the power supply under the hard drive cage. Very intresting.

I would make it so you could have green or black hard drive holders instead of the pink.
It would be cool if you had 2 fans on the bottom of the case, I like how the case has water cooling support, they should have lots of areas to put SSDs

maybe if you turned the PSU so it would suck air in from the bottom and then pushed the warm air out the side pannel.
 
Something about the setup for air intake and the power supply air exhaust bothers me. It's blowing the hot air into the front part of the system where the 140mm fan is geared for pulling IN air.
 
with the way the hard drives are positioned. The case needs to be taller to allow for at least one more fan with no drives in front of it to block airflow from front to back.
 


Exactly... with what I said it's like a double whammy.
 
Lian-Li makes too much money selling inexpensive items , but that is how Dell made billions of dollars
 
Being able to have a button that allows me to have all the status lights off when the computer is on.Good cable management is a must.Being able to use dust filters is also a must for transparent cases.Would like to see more configurability and modularity.Tool free being able to reassemble and choose different aspects:- PSU top or bottom- front, system where it is possible to configure the front slots for different drive bays and buttons and connections.Modular so that you can configure it the way you like.Want a power button in the middle of the uppre front slot, sure why not?Want to remove the reset button? Sure just reconfigure the front blocks.Want 5 5.25" drive bays with the power button on the underside of the front panel? Sure, let's do that.Want a fan on the upper part of the front two 5.25" drive bays on the middle and the power button together with two USB 3.0/2.0 and an eSATA connection on one slot on the bottom, sure you can.It would be good if there would be an open free standard for such a modular tool-free system.
 
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