Rocketfish (Lian Li) Case Wiring

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Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Messages
987
A buddy and I both picked up one of the Rocketfish cases, and spent yesterday swapping our parts over. I was coming from a P180B, and he was coming from an Antec 900. I think we are both happier with them, then we were in the previous cases just to get that out of the way. I like the case a lot, but the wiring is pretty tricky.

Here is where mine stands... without the fan.

mydesktop1ed4.jpg


With the centrifugal fan.

mydesktop2yz8.jpg





And here is my buddy Justin's that we also did yesterday.

justinsdesktop1aj8.jpg



The Bad with the case.

- You can't mount the hard drives in either bay backwards so you don't see the HD power and sata cables. There just isn't enough room on the other side.
- There are no pre-cut holes to run any cabling.
- Little to no room underneath or behind the motherboard area.
- No blowholes on top. Perfect area to throw a 120x3 radiator though. Also could just holesaw and throw a couple 120's up there for exhaust.
- We both don't have modular power supplies :(

The Good with the case.

- Plenty of room to work with everywhere else in the case. Most definitely enough room to watercool with ease.
- Very easy to work with, didn't get cut once!
- I really like the centrifugal fan over the graphics cards, and the fans that come with the case are really quiet. I have Yate Loons, but just decided to stick with the stockers.
- Love the removable hd trays.
- Overall fan placement.
- Latching system for 5.25's

I know a couple things I need to do:
- Get a black sleeved cable to go to the live drive for the X-FI.
- Get another black sleeved IDE cable to go to the dvd drive, both with only one connector!
- Get some long black latching sata cables so I can clean that up a bit.
- Possibly heatshrink some of the cables.

We are curious what you guys think and if you have any suggestions to help out with the wiring. If you have any questions about the case let me know. I think for 72$ it is a HELL of a deal.

Both computers are pretty similar. Q6600's, 8800's, X-FI Fatality's (damn you live drive), etc. I have an Abit IP-35 Pro and he has an EVGA SLI 680i.
 
that's a huge case.. you can actually put another pc in there.. :D.. i thought my cm690 has plenty of room but that has more room. nice case...
 
You said you can't mount the hard drives backwards. Is there anything stopping you from unscrewing the HDD cage from the case, flipping it, and mounting the hard drives in them that way?

Great looking case. It seems like it was designed to have a radiator mounted in the top. Otherwise, there is some extra/wasted space above the motherboard that doesn't serve much purpose.
 
The size seems very good. Looks nice and practical inside also, but my god, it's such an ugly cube...there's 0 design on the outside.

Anyway, I have the same same "problem" with cables in my case. It's not really a problem since there's a ton of rooms for any cables, but you just can't hide them like in a smaller case, so it won't look at clean...but the motherboard can be cleared very easily at least.
 
The size seems very good. Looks nice and practical inside also, but my god, it's such an ugly cube...there's 0 design on the outside.
I've always been a fan of simplistic cases which is why I am always drawn to Lian Li's.

Sometimes, simplicity is better than what's out right now.

The only other case that I found appeasing was my buddies. He made one out of a metal brief case which was pretty cool. But I digress. :)

I wonder if we'll see more of RocketFish or if they'll stay on the back burner.
 
You said you can't mount the hard drives backwards. Is there anything stopping you from unscrewing the HDD cage from the case, flipping it, and mounting the hard drives in them that way?

Great looking case. It seems like it was designed to have a radiator mounted in the top. Otherwise, there is some extra/wasted space above the motherboard that doesn't serve much purpose.

tried that that, when the HDD cage is flipped you can't get the right side panel on. :-(
 
is the panel behind the door aluminum, or is it plastic?

it seems like itd be easy to remove the door and the top and bottom lip.

EDIT: how much space is there between the mobo tray and the back panel? i wonder if u can cut a hole next to the psu to route cables thru the back
 
Great looking case. It seems like it was designed to have a radiator mounted in the top. Otherwise, there is some extra/wasted space above the motherboard that doesn't serve much purpose.

Even without a radiator, the extra room up there makes it nice for working with large and/or exotic air coolers--no need to take out the motherboard, no PSU in the way.
 
is the panel behind the door aluminum, or is it plastic?

it seems like itd be easy to remove the door and the top and bottom lip.

EDIT: how much space is there between the mobo tray and the back panel? i wonder if u can cut a hole next to the psu to route cables thru the back

The door is aluminum.

The mobo tray is virtually touching the right side panel. So the only possible way to run wires behind there would be to cut the the cable sheathing and to run it flat within the 1/8 " space created by the lip on the mobo tray.

IMG_3001.jpg

IMG_3004.jpg
 
aww that sucks :( wonder if its possible to just jam them back there and put the side panel on tightly :p worked in some cases b4
 
that does suck that there isn't to much room back there but it still seems to be a nice case, maybe a little cheap with emp. discount I might have to check that out.
 
The employee discount price is just set to the same as the clearance price right now of $71.99. That typically means the case is actually selling cheaper than the employee pricing even was.

It did kind of frustrate me about the motherboard sitting so close to the back panel as Justin and I had discussed cutting a hole for wiring, but just because of the sheer flexibility of the case I think it will be sticking with me for a while. It cools decently at this point, but could use some venting or blowholes on the top. It is also absolutely begging for watercooling as well so we shall see.
 
I wonder if anyone can help me. My motherboard has two pins close together for the PowerLED header, and this Rocketfish case has the connector arranged so that the two wires are separated by a blank, making it essentially a 3-pin connector with only two "live" holes. This won't fit onto the right pins on the header, especially with the power switch pins right next door. Can I safely make the Power LED of the case work by attaching only one of the connector holes to one of the header pins? If so, which one? I have no soldering skills, or soldering iron for that matter.

So far this is the only design flaw I have encountered in this excellent case, but it is an annoying one.
 
The employee discount price is just set to the same as the clearance price right now of $71.99. That typically means the case is actually selling cheaper than the employee pricing even was.

I didn't know it went clearance, that isn't a bad price though.
 
I wonder if anyone can help me. My motherboard has two pins close together for the PowerLED header, and this Rocketfish case has the connector arranged so that the two wires are separated by a blank, making it essentially a 3-pin connector with only two "live" holes. This won't fit onto the right pins on the header, especially with the power switch pins right next door. Can I safely make the Power LED of the case work by attaching only one of the connector holes to one of the header pins? If so, which one? I have no soldering skills, or soldering iron for that matter.

So far this is the only design flaw I have encountered in this excellent case, but it is an annoying one.


I had a similar issue with it. I just pulled the wires out and put them next to each other. so rather than having them in position 1 and 3 they were in 1 and 2.

and i think i even had to flip them around. The case user guide said the white was negative, so i set that to the corresponding pin out for my mother board but it didn't work like that. so i plugged them in as if the green wire was negative and the orange (i believe) was negative for the HDD led and the power led.
 
If you can't fit all the wiring behind the tray, show it off. Sleeve everything, grab som anchors and zipties, and do some high quality cable routing. I don't think anybody really minds seeing cables as long as they look nice. Its one thing to have a rats nest in your case. Its another thing entirely to have a well organized, well routed display of cable-fu :)
 
I had a similar issue with it. I just pulled the wires out and put them next to each other. so rather than having them in position 1 and 3 they were in 1 and 2.

and i think i even had to flip them around. The case user guide said the white was negative, so i set that to the corresponding pin out for my mother board but it didn't work like that. so i plugged them in as if the green wire was negative and the orange (i believe) was negative for the HDD led and the power led.

Oh, I didn't know you could pull the wires out and put them back in. Do they end in some kind of little metal clip that just snaps in and out of the holes?
 
Oh, I didn't know you could pull the wires out and put them back in. Do they end in some kind of little metal clip that just snaps in and out of the holes?

Yea, I did the same thing w/ my case (The earlier V1000 I had I took scissors and a file to it and made it 2 seperate pins, but now I realized I could have just done it like that)

There's a little plastic-tab , you lift up the tab slightly and pull out the wire... it's plastic, so don't pull too hard otherwise it'll break.

Hard to describe, but if you look at it, you should be able to see...

Took ~30 minutes I'm pretty happy with it

 
Don't you think that it has more room then needed? Since there is just a cage with 3 HDD-spots (if you don't want to mount them ghetto style in the 5,25" cage or buy more stuff). Nice case btw
 
If you can't fit all the wiring behind the tray, show it off. Sleeve everything, grab som anchors and zipties, and do some high quality cable routing. I don't think anybody really minds seeing cables as long as they look nice. Its one thing to have a rats nest in your case. Its another thing entirely to have a well organized, well routed display of cable-fu :)

They can go extreme, and mod the PSU cables... I've done that. Only bad thing is it voids the warranty. :eek:

I've toyed around with the idea of making a PSU modular, but havne't taken the time to do it on mine.
 
Don't you think that it has more room then needed? Since there is just a cage with 3 HDD-spots (if you don't want to mount them ghetto style in the 5,25" cage or buy more stuff). Nice case btw


there is actually 6 but me and brandon took out the other hdd mounts because he only has two HDDs in there and i have 3.
 
They can go extreme, and mod the PSU cables... I've done that. Only bad thing is it voids the warranty. :eek:

I've toyed around with the idea of making a PSU modular, but havne't taken the time to do it on mine.

It doesn't void it on a modular psu.:) Just grab some extra wire and connectors, measure up and go to town.
 
Yea, I did the same thing w/ my case (The earlier V1000 I had I took scissors and a file to it and made it 2 seperate pins, but now I realized I could have just done it like that)

There's a little plastic-tab , you lift up the tab slightly and pull out the wire... it's plastic, so don't pull too hard otherwise it'll break.

Hard to describe, but if you look at it, you should be able to see...

Took ~30 minutes I'm pretty happy with it

Thanks, that did the trick. I used my smallest jeweler's flat-head screwdriver to bend the tab up so I could slide out the connector. Who knows how many times such skills will serve me well in the future?

I wished more than once I had three hands, though--one to hold the connector, one to pry with the screwdriver, and one to pull the wire out! In the end I just pulled the connector toward me until the tension on the wire pulled it out.
 
I lifted the tab and used the screwdriver to push it out at the same time :D
 
is that a mid tower or full tower case. Seems to big to be a mid, but almost to small to be a full.
 
Okay, i have noticed something. Most of you guys seem to be mounting your PSUs upside down. I have a thermaltake toughpower 750... does this mean putting the fan facing downward?
 
Okay, i have noticed something. Most of you guys seem to be mounting your PSUs upside down. I have a thermaltake toughpower 750... does this mean putting the fan facing downward?

indeed the fan would go down. The way the hole for the psu is cut it doesn't allow for the PSU to go any other way. There is a bracket that supports the psu from the bottom along with vent holes below the psu and on the back.
 
indeed the fan would go down. The way the hole for the psu is cut it doesn't allow for the PSU to go any other way. There is a bracket that supports the psu from the bottom along with vent holes below the psu and on the back.

hmmm perhaps i should install a filter below it to prevent dust choke.
 
Oh man, a G70 is on craigslist for $100... tempted to return mine for $80 and buy that instead...

Basically the same case, I just hate doors, and that one has potential for more HDD's...
 
really? doesnt look like it to me. It looks like a nice case though... i like the door on this one though.

I wish there was a way to change the logo from rocketfish though.
 
There's the PSU bay on top, I believe they make a tray that can hold 3 HDD's up there, with 2 5-in 3 bays, 2 floppy bays, and 6 below that's 21 HDD's... although the max I plan to do is 16... + system drive...
 
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