Lian-Li V Case design

[laserbeam]

All,
The case slated for my new system build right now is a Lian-Li 6070B. My only real concern with it is the 80mm case fans. My concerns are growing and I'm starting to look for a case with 120mm fans.

Of course, my preference is Lian-Li and that's where I start to get confused and a little distressed by what I see. They seem to be changing their design approach on their current range of V cases. PSU at the bottom of the case, upside down mobo and compartmentalized interior. And there's no removal mobo tray either! The upside is that they're attractive and well built (of course) with a fair degree of passive cooling - and the big fans mean that stock performance is decently quiet.

What I cannot, for the life of me, understand is why put the PSU at the bottom? It kills the idea of using the rear fan as a ducted intake to cool the cpu because of heat recycling. And using the PSU as a high mounted rear vent is neutralized seeing as it's at the bottom rather than the top of the case. And if the mobo is mounted high isn't that where warm air will collect? I hope there is a blow hole for a top mounted fan...

So, are Lian-Li a waste of space for cooling performance with 120mm fans? Certainly seems their current design isn't flexible in terms of modability. All opinions welcome

 

[FunkStar]

The new V cases cool really well from what ive read. The layout of components is a tad odd but the cpu sits lower down and the 120mm fans make it run alot cooler. The PSU at the bottom stops it from radiating heat onto the other components which heats them up, overall this outweighs the advantage of using it to pull air out. The drives are segmented because of the same reason, also because it allows them to be cooled more efficiently.

 

[laserbeam]

Interesting...

However, judging by it's position, the single 1200mm fan's primary role seems to be to cool the hard drives. Airflow schematics I've seen seem to show that the mobo components get cooled passively by air drawn in through the top/front and top/rear of the case.

Also, the "full of holes" design of the V series runs counter to everything I've ever seen about airflow optimization, ie. a leaky case is bad. This case seems full of contradictions to me

 

[Python14]

and yet somehow it works.

Seriously, the components in my V2000 ran about 2 to 3 degrees cooler than they did when they were in a very well put together and sealed case with tradition cooling. V2000s are basically open-air cases. Hot air never has a chance to built up.

 

[tonyou]

What I cannot, for the life of me, understand is why put the PSU at the bottom? It kills the idea of using the rear fan as a ducted intake to cool the cpu because of heat recycling. And using the PSU as a high mounted rear vent is neutralized seeing as it's at the bottom rather than the top of the case. And if the mobo is mounted high isn't that where warm air will collect? I hope there is a blow hole for a top mounted fan...

I actually like the idea of putting the PSU at the bottom very much. If you are trying to quiet down your power supply in a high performance system, that's the place to be. In a traditional case, all the heated air would be collected by the power supply so it would have to be running at higher fan speed to compensate this. If you are concerned about heat build up with power supply on the bottom, you can probably also look at either the Cooler Master Stacker or the upcoming Antec P180 as an alternative.

 

[laserbeam]

Okay, so the V1000 performs well in stock configuration. While that's fine I'm not convinced of how well the interior can be modded to improve temps still further. That said, I'm willing to accept that it's a good case (it is Lian-Li after all

However, does anyone know if the case can take a water cooler or phase change unit? I gather some phase changes are built for Lian-Li cases. I know very little about advanced cooling of this type but may move to it in the future. If I bought a V1000 I'd want to be "insured" in this regard.

 

[xonik]

To address some of your concerns:

The separated PSU section is a wonderful thing. Using the PSU as a way to expel warm air from the CPU has always been a bad thing. That's because the hot air flowing through the PSU components is reducing the operating life of said components, which could possibily put you into a world of trouble. Now, the PSU gets its own airflow path, with significantly reduced strain on its internal components.

The venting is great, too. Somehow, it seems to me that aircooling "experts" have adopted a wind-tunnel approach to computer cooling. This is not a sound approach, nor is it practical. The wind-tunnel approach to things--having "equalized" pressures and sealed-off areas--is very hard to implement, and I have not seen any encouraging benefits. And really, a computer case hardly exhibits the characteristics of a wind tunnel. Instead, generous venting prevents heat from collecting as much as a "sealed" case would. Another benefit is that you don't need to "equalize" the intake/exhaust pressures. Of course, this has always been crudely implemented, as no fan runs exactly to spec anyways. Any pressure differentials are going to suck dust into undesirable places, which isn't helpful. Instead, a well-vented case will let heat escape on its own, and fans will aid in the process. It's really quite simple.

 

[JSquid]

everything in my v-1000 runs cooler than it did in my old antec sonata. i did cut out the mesh over the rear fan as i thought it impeded airflow (it did) I think my video card benifited the most as it dropped almost 10 degrees c in the new case and I'm glad it has that fan in front to cool hard drives as mine tend to get hot.