Lian Li's PC-M25 Can Fit Many Hard Drives In Compact Footprint

[N.Broekhuijsen]

"Compact" may not be an apt description, but there aren't many Micro-ATX cases of this size that can fit this much gear.

Lian Li's PC-M25 Can Fit Many Hard Drives In Compact Footprint : Read more

 

[dstarr3]

Time to build the little storage server that could.

 

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

Funny, the article says it can support micro-ATX, which it certainly looks like it can. But the promotional graphic at the top, which I assume is supplied by Lian Li, says it's for "Mini-ITX" at the bottom.

I think this would be great w/a mini-ITX server board, like the ones from ASRockRack, to run a small server w/decent storage capability.

 

[wysir]

Am I the only one thinking that the placement of the PSU over the CPU might cause some heating issues?

 

[Quixit]

Am I the only one thinking that the placement of the PSU over the CPU might cause some heating issues?

Not for the usage this is designed for. This would be a good fit for a really low-power CPU.

 

[firefoxx04]

I use a similar older version of this case. Two 120mm fans in the front with the top 140 exhaust provides good airflow. It fits a bunch of drives.

The only downside is poor cable management. It's doable tho.

 

[why_wolf]

not a fan of how the PSU is placed but I guess this thing is really meant for people to roll their own servers or NAS not a gaming rig.

 

[sylentz199]

Funny, the article says it can support micro-ATX, which it certainly looks like it can. But the promotional graphic at the top, which I assume is supplied by Lian Li, says it's for "Mini-ITX" at the bottom.

I think this would be great w/a mini-ITX server board, like the ones from ASRockRack, to run a small server w/decent storage capability.

This is the Plex server case I've been waiting for. Already have a mITX Obsidian 250d gaming rig built. Now I need a mITX storage server. I like the future proof 10GbE on this one: http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5761#ov
But rock racks looks pretty sweet too. Anyone have any suggestions. Looking for a mid range xeon in the event i need to transcode a couple 1080p plex streams. I try to ensure rips are direct play but if i'm remote on phone then it can't be an atom or i3 type cpu

 

[pasow]

Am I the only one thinking that the placement of the PSU over the CPU might cause some heating issues?

i have some old computers lying around where the fan for the CPU is the PSU. It never seemed like a safe design personally, especially given the reputation of Pentium 4's to be hot buggers. But some how they are all still running. (TDP is in the 60's)

 

[mortsmi7]

So It's like a PC-Q25B, but with microATX. Looks like it gives two more inches for the PSU, that's a huge plus. I got a modular PSU for mine, then opted for the extension bracket because it wouldn't fit.

 

[bit_user]

Am I the only one thinking that the placement of the PSU over the CPU might cause some heating issues?

i have some old computers lying around where the fan for the CPU is the PSU.

I did the exact opposite, with a i3-based server I built in a similar case: the CPU's 140 mm fan is used to cool the fanless Seasonic PSU. The CPU's TDP is 55 W, and the cooler it's got can handle a 130 W TDP CPU, so there's cooling capacity to spare.

In a bigger case, the PSU wouldn't need a fan (which is why it has none of its own). But because it's it's mounted sideways, I'm actually glad it can piggyback on the CPU's cooling solution. And when I say sideways, that's relative to the orientation it's supposed to have, in order to receive proper convection cooling (as specified by the manufacturer). Fanless PSUs are designed to be oriented in a specific way.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

What a pretty little oven! I see no front intake, and a possible floor intake for some new half height fan design which I havent seen hit the market. I cant see much purpose in trying to get air in from the top rear (not that I think its an intake either) that close to the rear exhaust.

There is what looks like a front fan mount, but I am wondering how it will suck air through the solid aluminum front panel.

 

[bit_user]

What a pretty little oven! I see no front intake, and a possible floor intake for some new half height fan design which I havent seen hit the market. I cant see much purpose in trying to get air in from the top rear (not that I think its an intake either) that close to the rear exhaust.

There is what looks like a front fan mount, but I am wondering how it will suck air through the solid aluminum front panel.

There are holes in the bottom, and in in the front of the side panels (presumably in front of where the fan would be). It wouldn't be a lot of airflow, but HDDs each use only like 5W under load.

Also, aluminum is more heat-conductive than steel. So, the skin would act a bit like a heatsink.

I agree that it's a bit thin on airflow, however. I'd like to see someone fill it with the max supported # of HDDs and a ~48 W i3 and take some thermal measurements during a stress test that also hits the disks.

 

[sylentz199]

What a pretty little oven! I see no front intake, and a possible floor intake for some new half height fan design which I havent seen hit the market. I cant see much purpose in trying to get air in from the top rear (not that I think its an intake either) that close to the rear exhaust.

There is what looks like a front fan mount, but I am wondering how it will suck air through the solid aluminum front panel.

Why do you expect any mITX case to have airflow? This is basically a DIY NAS case which is exactly what I want to use it for. Doesn't need lots of cooling and you use silent components for the most part

 

[bit_user]

Why do you expect any mITX case to have airflow?

Actually, mini-ITX cases with better airflow aren't hard to find. But most of those are gaming-oriented rigs with room for a decent graphics card.

I agree that the airflow of this case will probably be adequate for NAS-type applications.