Cooler Xtreme : Coolers
: Casing : Lian Li PC-31 Aluminium PC Case
Lian Li PC-31 Aluminium PC Case
Overall
If you want a black case that
won't look completely ghastly with a beige drive-front or two showing, this
could be the one for you.
Of course, if you're a studly
business type looking for that Rand Corporation style, you can of course
set up a machine in this box as a no-removable-drives workstation. What
you save on building some simple Duron or Celeron machine into one of these
cases, rather than buying a proprietary pizza
box from a big name, you can spend on a flat screen monitor to
keep your corporate-onanist schtick on track.
A no-drives PC-31 wouldn't be
a bad choice for a network games room or cafe Web box, either; no floppy,
no CD-ROM, no teenage punks futzing with your computers.
For the ordinary computer hobbyist
looking for a snazzy enclosure, the PC-31's a pretty good choice. Apart
from having sexy mirror-finish aluminium all over the place, the PC-31 is
also easy to work on. The metal edges aren't sharp, the removable middle
bays and motherboard tray let you easily get at otherwise fiddly bits, and
everything that's meant to be a right angle actually is. So you don't need
a panelbeater's mallet to get cards into slots.
Overclockers usually buy higher-powered
PSUs along with their new cases anyway, so it's not a big deal that the
PC-31 doesn't come with a power supply. And its price tag may be rather
imposing, but it's only about as much as the average GeForce2 MX video card.
When I reviewed the PC-60, I
built a full stacked computer into it, and I was impressed. It's not a huge
case, but it's a very well done one, with most of the expansion capability
of a proper tower in a much smaller enclosure. Many cases with lots of bays
become a big pain to work with if you actually want to use all of the bays;
the Lian Li cases aren't like that.
The PC-31's got essentially
the same ingredients as the PC-60, in a slightly smaller serving.
Really, for most people, the
only thing wrong with it is that if you're not in Australia you may have
a hard time finding one. Every buyers can get Lian Li cases from JCL,
and Leadman Electronics
apparently also distribute them. In Canada, Tweakbox
might be able to help you out. If you're somewhere else, though, Lian Li
gear is apparently difficult to get, and international shipping for PC cases
- even very light PC cases - is excitingly expensive.
If you can buy them locally,
though, the Lian Li cases are an excellent foundation for a high performance
PC. Recommended.
