Lian Li PC-7HX Mid-Tower Case

[HardOCP News]

There is a review of the Lian Li PC-7HX posted at LanOC today. If you are in the market for a new case, you might want to give this review a look.

When I saw the PC-7HX I was reminded of the Lian Li cases of old. This isn’t to say that their new cases haven’t been great, but there is something to be said for the simplicity that their old cases used to have. The PC-7HX looks great with its rounded edges around the mesh grill on the front of the case. I would love to see this same model with a windowed side panel, but beyond that I wouldn’t change anything on the outside.

 

[ep0x73]

Not a bad case when bought on sale.
I did have some issues though and as my first Lian-li not as impressed as I thought.
The main issue is the left side has very little room if you have a Seasonic or Corsair power supply as their power heads are around 5 inches from each other so you they must be bent. The cables are thick and stiff and end up protruding from the case. You can't put the side on or if force it induce the chance of breaking off your drive connectors thus ruining drives that are worth more then the case itself.
There is also a bar in the way that creates issues of cabling.
My side panels were not 100% true thus they would squeak if the case was touched, the problem was solved with adding a neoprene spacer to the back of each panel to offset the panels touching the front.
The red and blue LED's bleed into each other creating a weird cotton candy effect too.
Stock fans are quiet and seem decent for the meantime, case has great airflow.
The ovals for wiring were somewhat sharp, Lian-Li could spend a buck here and use rubber grommets.
I fixed it myself with 3 feet of Neoprene trim for a few bucks.

 

[sblantipodi]

personally I found the PC-7FNWX way more cool.

 

[ep0x73]

I was considering that case. It has 5 DVD bays, with this you could get one of their 4x racks for drives and still have two left over for blu-ray or DVD.
The single 140mm in front, does the case flow well?
Since the stock fan is LED I'd have to toss it and put a Noctua there, that's an extra $20.
The HD mounting trays although appear to be easy plug and play the design looks to block a good portion of airflow.

 

[sblantipodi]

I was considering that case. It has 5 DVD bays, with this you could get one of their 4x racks for drives and still have two left over for blu-ray or DVD.
The single 140mm in front, does the case flow well?
Since the stock fan is LED I'd have to toss it and put a Noctua there, that's an extra $20.
The HD mounting trays although appear to be easy plug and play the design looks to block a good portion of airflow.

the airflow is excellent, really no need for two 140mm intake.
case airflow must equal the intake and the outake, if the outake is greater than intake no problem, if the intake is greater than the outake there is worse performance.

140mm intake is enough for every rig, the led one has good CFM so no need to change it with a noctua.

 

[ep0x73]

If you like LED disco fans otherwise it would have be changed out.
You have two scenarios, more in than out creates positive pressure and pushes hot air out of any hole, grill, etc.
More exhaust then intake creates a vacuum, this pulls in air, dust, etc into the case.
Neutral is tough to do as CFM would have to be matched.

 

[sblantipodi]

If you like LED disco fans otherwise it would have be changed out.
You have two scenarios, more in than out creates positive pressure and pushes hot air out of any hole, grill, etc.
More exhaust then intake creates a vacuum, this pulls in air, dust, etc into the case.
Neutral is tough to do as CFM would have to be matched.

quite difficult to match intake and outake when you have PSU and GPUs that blows air out.