Help Me Pick A Lian LI Case

G

Gravestone Doji

Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2006
Messages
562
I'm building my first rig and plan to use it for gaming. Right now I'm not much of a gamer at all but feel like I'm missing out, so what the heck.

Now I'm far from a teen (in my 40's) and this PC will likely be placed in our living room and connected to our 40" 1080p HDTV. So needless to say I don't want a case with neon green lights or one that looks like an alien. Hence the decision to go with Lian Li.

One more thing, I'm building this rig with price/performance/value in mind (wife restraints). So I'm not planning to run SLI or install components that need water cooling. Just looking to put together a system with a single video card (8800 GT) with a Q8400 CPU on a GA-P35-DS3L board with 4 gigs or ram running Vista x64. Likely going to try my luck overclocking the CPU a tad but will most likely leave the GPU at stock until I feel that I'm experienced enough to tinker with OCing that.

So I'd like to stay under a hundred bucks for a case and I see the Egg has a pretty good deal on the Lian Li A05B Mid Tower Case (69 w/promo code and free ship). But what else would y'all suggest I look at besides the A05B ? It doesn't HAVE to be a Lian Li but I'm definitely not looking for a case like THIS. I'd appreciate your input. Thanks
 
Yeah I'm really tempted to pull the trigger on the A05. Looks nice, classy and isn't a monstrous size either. Just not sure if it's too small to work on easily. I have rather large hands and also concerned it may get a little warm in there when I start tinkering with OC'n the CPU, ram and maybe the GPU.

Yes, I just seen the PC-7B pluss II and it's in my budget w/free ship. Looks like it might offer better airflow, too!. Also I kind of like the looks of THIS one even though it's not a Lian Li. Still under a hundred buck though.
 
RC-690 is meh for quality.. I'd pay $40 for it, not $80..

Considering I grabbed an A05 for $60.. :)

A05 is not the best for cooling, but it's not terrible either, those e8400 's run cooler and you shouldn't have any problem with it. My q6600 gets pretty hot in the A05 if I don't have a window open (window is behind the A05 so cold air dumps into it) but dual-cores run much cooler, my X2 4200 in the A05 idled right around 20c in the A05...
 
Ya know, I coulda swore I seen the A05 for 59.99 w/promo coupon and free ship but when I went back and looked later, it was 69.99 w/promo. Good catch. And thanks for the heads up on the RC-690. By the way, I was considering going with a Q6600 but I really don't think I'm ever going to need four cores to run games, atleast not anytime soon. So it makes more sense to me to get more speed vs. more cores. Plus I can probably OC the E8400 to 3.8Ghz or maybe even 4.0 Ghz which will be screaming fast. Couple that with a 9800 GT when they come out (plan on taking advantage of EVGA's step-up program) and I think I'll have a pretty fast gaming rig.
 
Yea, I do HD Video editing, 100% usage across all 4 cores when rendering ;)

If you're just gaming E8400 OC's well and lasts a while.

I've done 4 builds w/ the A05 and 1 w/ the 690... the 690 has some decent features, just feels cheaper... plastic HDD trays, Plastic PCI slot clamps. For super-budget builds I'd consider the 690...
 
I think I'm going to stick with Lian Li for quality. I seen the other link in this forum for the A05 and it shows two fans, one in front that exhausts air and one in the rear that intakes air. Yet the description on the Egg states the A05 only has one 120mm fan. Kind of misleading and was a big reason i was concerned about cooling in the A05.

Just seen this A09B which is slightly over my budget but really looks nice. I bet it would provide better cooling than A05 and I like how the PSU mounts on the top rather than the bottom.

This PC-61 also looks cool and from reading the first two reviews I'd say it's very noob friendly. Still a little over my budget though and it only has 80mm fans, albeit four of them. Anyone know if four 80mm fans would cool as well as two 120mm fans?
 
Ended up going with the A05B. I was tempted to go over my budget but in the end I'd rather stay under that way I can have a little more room for spending on components. And it sure looks like the A05B will work just fine for my new build. For 69.99 shipped and no rebates to deal with I'm confident I made the right choice. Thanks for your help
 
Where did you find for $69 shipped? I want I want!

Lol.

I saw one in person, and I worked on the inside a little. I dont see any problems compared to say... a 6 series or something, and Im a big dude with big hands (Im 6'8" with an 11" finger spread, pinky to thumb, not exactly thin either), so dont worry.

I have a PC-V2000 with two 120 blowholes added in the top. It cools so well I cant complain, but its also rather noisy because its soo vented, and the bottom half of this bulky case is 100% useless and not flexible. Its kind of cool because with a room temp of up to about 70, I dont even turn on the case fans and it stays cool passive-style. I like the PC-767 because of its similar setup (mesh bays top to bottom like a stacker, BTX-style bit PSU up top) yet classier look. The only downside is that it seems like the top would really build up heat or want more fans in the front (like the new P60/80), and Im sick of the noise. With the A05, the airflow is kept tight along a narrow path, for good cooling. Sure, it needs a blowhole up top for the GPU, but I can think of worse.
 
Check the Hot Deals section for the Promo code. It says in the HD thread that it's $60 shipped. But its actually 69 shipped. Might have been 60 though for a few hours at first but the Egg corrected it. Still not a bad price for a Lian Li A05, w/out rebate hassles too ! Now I'm trying to figure out what PSU I should put in the A05. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Gravestone Doji said:
I think I'm going to stick with Lian Li for quality. I seen the other link in this forum for the A05 and it shows two fans, one in front that exhausts air and one in the rear that intakes air. Yet the description on the Egg states the A05 only has one 120mm fan. Kind of misleading and was a big reason i was concerned about cooling in the A05.

Just seen this A09B which is slightly over my budget but really looks nice. I bet it would provide better cooling than A05 and I like how the PSU mounts on the top rather than the bottom.

This PC-61 also looks cool and from reading the first two reviews I'd say it's very noob friendly. Still a little over my budget though and it only has 80mm fans, albeit four of them. Anyone know if four 80mm fans would cool as well as two 120mm fans?
Click to expand...

If you like that first case, get the A05B.

And 80mm fans are plain noisy in comparison, and also, more expensive and harder to find (if you told me this 3-4 years ago I'd say you were high).
 
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