Lian Li PC-V354B MicroATX mini-tower build

[Activate: AMD]

I was looking for something to put a media-server type rig in for a little while, and I was torn between a very small, low-powered mini-ITX rig that I could stick in my closet, and something a little bigger with more expandability. What I eventually settled on was this: The Lian-Li PC-V354B Its definitely smaller than your average mid-tower, but offers 7 3.5" bays and 2 spots to mount 2.5" drives. The other benefits were that I could re-use my existing mATX s775 budget mobo/cpu/ddr2 combo as well as have far more options to upgrade the internals in the future, owing to the far greater range of mATX products out there. So without further ado, I'll walk you through a few steps of my build so you can get a look at the case All images are click-able links to the full size photos




The front is home to two 140mm fans that pretty much dominate the whole front panel. Why Lian Li chose to put horribly bright blue LED fans in an otherwise classy and understated enclosure may never be known, but I simply snipped the LED leads to fix that issue. There are also 2 USB 3.0 ports, audio jacks and a multi-function card reader built in.I also like the stealth-ed drive bay cover. Though this build doesn't currently have an optical drive in it, nobody likes having a nice brushed aluminum front broken up by the cheap plastic of an optical drive. Speaking of the finish, the whole case is an absolutely top-notch brushed black aluminum. Anyone familiar with Lian-Li's style here will feel right at home.

Opened up:

I apologize for the less-than-ideal angle here, The lighting in my room casts too many shadows!

Drive Cages removed:

Theres actually quite a bit of space in here, owing to its rather generous depth. The fans up front can be removed without tools and have rubber bushings to prevent vibration being transferred to the case.

Fan controller:

4 fan controller. Only 1 speed control, but I didn't even know this was built in when I bought it. A nice touch. The Lian Li fans are all 3-pin with included 3pin->4pin molex adapters. I don't know the last time a case manufacturer included the adapters on their own fans. The attention to detail is impressive.

Installing the motherboard:

Installation was very easy. Unlike most cases, the standoffs for the motherboard are drilled right into the side panel rather than some kind of motherboard tray. So while this means you can't hide cables behind the tray, it does mean it has a removable motherboard tray of sorts. Thats always a welcome feature in my opinion, and something I wasn't expecting!

In the case:

Not too much to say here other than the fact that the leads for the front panel USB ports are very very long, making cable management a little trickier than normal. They're designed to go out a built-in grommet to reach the back panel if your board doesn't have internal USB 3.0 headers. Lian Li thoughtfully includes an adapter to attach them to an on-board header, though I do not know if this limits them to USB 2.0 speeds. Without any USB 3.0 peripherals, or USB 3.0 on this board, I'm not too concerned.


spots for 2.5" drives right on the bottom of the case here. Just screw in from the other side. A nice addition

Power Supply installation:


The power supply slides in over the motherboard. This is the biggest sticking point with this case. This case is short, but the tradeoff is that certain motherboards will have issues with tall HSF's. It really depends on socket placement since some have them down a bit lower. In this case the socket is pretty far up and big HSF's might actually hit the top of the case depending on orientation. Obviously I'm using the stock HSF so thats not an issue, just something to keep in mind. Here are some photos to show you what I mean:




Drive cages in, pretty much done here



It only has 1 drive in there now, but more will be populating it shortly. i'm going to be playing with WHS 2011 (Vail) a little bit before I start putting my precious data in there.

Overall impressions:

Pros:
-Very high quality case, the materials are great. Nice touches and attention to detail everywhere (Stealth 5.25" drive bay cover, fan power adaptors, fan controller, USB3.0 )
-Mostly tool-less. The only place I had to use a screwdriver was on the side panels, PSU, and mobo mounting
-Removable mobo tray
-compact overall dimensions, but still spacious internally. Its relatively wide and deep, but short, which makes it seem smaller.
-Space for full length GPU's if a drive cage is removed. Makes this a great choice for a small gaming rig!

Cons:
-Side panels attached using 8 tiny screws. Not a big deal, but an inconvenience in an age of push-button case door release. I guess I'm spoiled with my PC-V2120 and 800D (both full towers)
-PSU placement may interfere with HSF's. Do your research beforehand, tall HSF's won't work on boards with lower socket placement. The asus P8P67 m-atx board is a prime example
-LED fan's! LED fans look terrible 99% of the time. Unless I'm looking at some hugely in-depth mod I don't want to see them anywhere. Thankfully some scissors make an easy fix

Meh:
-Very long USB/front panel connection leads. I don't know if this is really a con since its done purposely, but in my situation its unnecessary.

Its a great case! A little pricey, but it really was exactly what I was looking for, and came with a number of nice little surprised. Definitely worth a look from anyone trying to build a small system

[Poci]

Cool. Mini ITX with 4 dimm slots?

[Activate: AMD]

nope, thats a mATX board. I wasn't sure if I'd do a mini-itx build or not, and chose to opt for more flexibility instead of an even smaller case.

I wanted enough expansion ports to be able to add a TV tuner card while still having the possibility of including a SATA card for more ports. This current board only 4.