Best, classy aluminum case available?

[akwok]

Well, if Lian Li (or any other case manufacturer for that matter) released a perfect case, then we wouldn't ever need to upgrade, now would we? That'd be a horrible business model for them!

Dust shouldn't be a problem -- I'm allergic to dust so I clean often. Hopefully the filters won't get that clogged as a result!

 

[E.T]

but if I can find a decent method for doing it without compromising chassis rigidity, cooling performance degradation should be akin to the a70f versus a71f

Cooling per fan speed of course suffers some but cooling per noise differences are questionable...
And probably even other way in A71A/B because in addition to holes in door's side there's also ~4mm gap between front panel and door making additional impedance probably very small. (as facepalm moment gap was blocked with rubber strip in A71F...)
With door open achieving roughly same sound signature would require decreasing speed of nearly every fan by good amount (maybe 20-25% as avg) which would mean those fans moving that much less air. Especially in case of CPU (and GPU) that speed decrease has direct effect to temperatures because in addition to probably higher case temp heatsinks also loose efficiency with lower airflow.

I'm gonna go ahead and get the 8FI when it comes out and try to damp the insides

Don't bother getting anything more expensive than bitumen mats.
You can lower vibration induced part of noises but with open case trying to do something to airborne noise is... well, like trying to carry light into dark inside bag.

Edit: Looks like Lian Li is coming out with a new variant of the B25F, with new silence features and a removable HD cage: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=517&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62

Nothing new usefull stuff in that.
Direct noise escape path was already blocked and this just adds notable airflow lowering/turbulence creating impedance so getting same cooling might even make more noise:
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/pc-b25s/b25s-30.jpg
That Akasa/Spire etc Crapmat is useless, it has barely any effect to airborne sound and even less against vibrations. You should be actually reimbursed for that because removing it from out of the way of real damping material would take work.
And calming down optical drive vibrations needs adding mass to there and other panels (like this: 1,2) and some rubber strips can't do anything else except prevent loose rattling of those tool-less gimmicks which are just in the way of attaching short devices.
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/pc-b25s/b25s-12.jpg
Besides HDD cages are attached with screws probably in many Lian Lis.

 

[undertheradar]

The case with the most class by Lian-Li was the PC-767, which you can still get some places like silverpcs.com. Otherwise, I would have to say that the current contender is by Silverstone, the Fortress 2 is one beautiful case.

 

[Blue Fox]

The case with the most class by Lian-Li was the PC-767, which you can still get some places like silverpcs.com. Otherwise, I would have to say that the current contender is by Silverstone, the Fortress 2 is one beautiful case.

It really is the best looking 2-tone case available. It looks a lot better in person too (I own one).