Lian Li PC-8FIB Aluminum Midi Tower Case Review

1. Introduction2. Lian Li PC-8FIB (External Appearance)3. Lian Li PC-8FIB (Opening and insides)4. Installing a system5. Testing Methodology and Performance Results6. Acoustic Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

After reviewing many cases recently made from steel and targeted at the budget audience it has been a total pleasure reviewing this Lian Li PC-8FIB today, hand crafted from the highest quality aluminum.

Lian Li have spent considerable time during the design phase as everything has received attention to detail, from the completely tool-less design, to beautiful touches such as the PSU holding bracket, hard drive installation racks and cable routing devices. The inclusion of washable air filters throughout as well as an additional 140mm filter for the upgrade option is a nice touch.

Build quality is as good as we have seen, the chassis is extremely light, yet strong enough to feel substantial and easy to carry from room to room. This entire chassis weighs less than the side door of the recent Antec P193 we reviewed!

With all the sharp edges removed for safety, there is no way to cut your hands when building a system, something we have experienced in the past with lesser chassis design. The external and internal surfaces incorporate the finest quality hair line brush anodised aluminum, and it shows. It really doesn't get much better than this.

While we would like to see Lian Li include a top mounted 140mm fan as standard, the cooling prowess of the chassis is top tier and our overclocked system at 4.2ghz was kept well within safety parameters. That said, if you want to run a highly overclocked system we recommend you populate the 140mm top position with a high quality fan.

Noise levels are also class leading, with the three 120mm fans generating around 30 dBa of noise, easily drown out by most graphics card or CPU fans.

All in all, to say we have been impressed would be an understatement. The only kicker is the price which is around £235 inc vat in the UK, more than double the price of many of the steel based designs we have reviewed on KitGuru in the last couple of months. This is targeting a different audience however and we think it is worth every penny, the craftmanship is the reason why Lian Li have such a well earned reputation. If you have the money for a high end chassis then this should be right at the top of your list.

KitGuru says: This is a breathtaking showcase of Lian Li's engineering prowess and build quality.

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