Lian-Li PC-X2000F Chassis Review

1. Introduction2. The Lian Li X2000F (External and Bundle)3. The Lian Li X2000F (Internal and Installation)4. Testing Methodology and Performance Results5. Acoustic Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

If you are in the market for a new, high end aluminum chassis, then today's review may very well just tickle the taste buds. Lian Li have a well earned reputation for producing some of the most exquisite designs on the market and today we are looking at their high end X2000 gaming case.

Lian Li were founded in 1983 and they are one of the most respected manufacturers of aluminum PC chassis in Taiwan. They have earned ISO 9001 certification for their product range and they offer a two year warranty with many of their product range.

Lian Li place considerable emphasis on research and development and there is no doubt that their engineering standards are the highest on the market. The X2000F is hand crafted … yes this isn't a factory run case. Each of them are hand built to the demanding specifications of the company.

X2000F Specifications:

Model PC-X2000F Case Type Full Tower Chassis Unit Dimensions (W) 240mm x (H) 695mm x (D) 442mm Front bezel Material Aluminum Color Black Side Panel Aluminum Body Material Aluminum Net Weight 11.7KG 5.25″ drive bay (External) 4(C-02 x2) 3.5″ drive bay (External) 1(use one 5.25-inch to 3.5-inch converter) 3.5″ drive bay (Internal) 7(SAS Hot Swap) Expansion Slot 8 Motherboard E-ATX / ATX / Mirco-ATX System Fan (Front) 140mm Fan x 3 System Fan (Top) None System Fan (Rear) 140mm Fan x 2 I/O Ports USB3.0 x 4 / e-SATA x 1 / HD Audio Maximum Video Card Size 340mm Package Dimensions (W) 302mm x (H) 768mm x (D) 524mm Gross Weight KG

The X2000F arrives in a massive box, and I do mean massive. There are images on the front which highlight the detail of the layout and design.

The bundle is extensive, with various mounting plates, screws and adapters supplied. There are also eight extra long sata cables included, which are used for connection to the internal drive bays, but more on this later.

The quality of the aluminum is immediately evident after the case is unboxed. It really does look stunningly beautiful in the flesh, and there is a diamond cut line cut down the center of the aluminum front. The bottom is home to the Lian Li logo and the power and HDD access lights are positioned top right.

The front is kept clean and clutter free while the back has several holes for watercooling, as well as several fans to help with the ambient cooling.

The front of the case can be removed by simply tugging on it. There is a thumbscrew at the bottom holding the fascia in place. Behind the long cover is a full length dust filter which perfectly covers all three 140mm intake fans – this filter can be removed vertically (above right). The fan layout should give a perfect, full length intake air flow, and we will look at cooling capabilities later in the review.

There are no grills on the intake fans, but they aren't needed with this particular design. There is a small fan controller above the top fan with three settings available. ‘L,M,H' which stands for low, medium and high speeds.

Lian Li have placed connectivity behind a recessed aluminum flap, which resides next to the power and reset buttons. There are four USB 3.0 ports here, as well as a microphone and headphone connector. On the far left is an eSATA port for users who need to hook in a fast hard drive for external backups. The older version of this case had USB 2.0 ports here.

The power supply is installed in the bottom of the chassis, which has changed from the older design. Next to this are two watercooling holes which have rubber grommets included. Above this are eight PCI brackets which should cover even the most demanding of system builds.

There are two 140mm fans at the top of the case which are both set to exhaust positions. There is a controller knob next to the top fan which allows for speed adjustment for any fans connected to the internal circuitry. We will look at this shortly when we open the case.

We absolutely love the door sealing mechanism, which is so much more advanced when compared to other designs we have tested in the last year. You simply unscrew the thumbscrew (it doesn't come out completely), then pull on the lever. This allows the door to be opened, and no screws are removed. Yes, finally a system in which you can never lose a door screw. Bonus points for such an ingenious system. You can even padlock it for security.

The bottom of the case has a removable dust filter attached, this is positioned directly underneath the power supply.

Internally, this chassis is a beauty. The side panels are covered in dampening materials to lower noise levels and the overall layout is extremely clever.

At the front are the three high quality 140mm intake fans which ensure high levels of airflow. These are controlled to low, medium or high speeds by a switch on the outside of the case. Each of these fans ends in a 3 pin header, which is connected to a molex adapter.

The top of the chassis is home to a cage system which is cooled directly by a fan at the rear of the chassis. This tray has slots for hard drives which connect directly to a sata power and data board at the other side.

The other side of this PCB contains SATA header connectors. The extra length cables (which are supplied) can be hooked in here and then attached directly to the motherboard.

There is another one of these hard drive bays at the bottom of the case, which is removable (see above).

Underneath the top drive bay section is another 140mm exhaust fan which is connected to another 3 pin header and molex connector adapter. Lian Li have adopted their clever PCI mounting system which is based around little levers, these are pulled back to allow the fitting of graphics card and other devices. When they are fitted they are pushed ‘forward' to lock. These levers are made of metal and can withstand some serious abuse, unlike other similar designs we have seen adopted in competitor cases.

All of these fans can be hooked into a control board which resides at the top/rear of the case. Every fan which is connected here can be speed controlled by the external knob.

The reverse side of the case has many holes cut into it to allow for routing of cables. There is also a large area cut into the aluminum to allow access to motherboard CPU backplates.

Installing the system is as straightforward as it gets and we think the hard drive installation method is easily one of the best we have seen. You connect a runner device to the hard drive, slide it into the bay and then lock the drive in place with little stoppers on either side. There is a bracket for a 2.5 inch drive which works in an identical manner.

Installing the system only took a matter of minutes, and with the added space offered thanks to the size of the design, we had plenty of room to work around the motherboard area – the tray is also removable so you can fit the motherboard outside the case if you wish.

There are a lot of cables to route, especially with all the connectors running from the fans at both front and rear locations, but after a little time, the system build can look great. We removed the bottom drive bay as we wanted this space for our 1200w PSU and cabling.

For the test today we are using an Intel Core i7 990x processor which is connected into the stunning new Asus Rampage III Black Edition motherboard, which we reviewed this week.

Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58
Cooler: Antec Kuhler Liquid Cooler
Memory: Kingston T1 12GB 1600mhz DDR3
Storage: Corsair F40 SSD
Graphics: eVGA GTX460 SC
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 64bit

Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2

Firstly let us have a look at the chassis design and airflow, as it comes ‘out of the box’. Fans are set to a mid way point for this testing.

The Lian Li X2000F airflow system is very impressive, with three 140mm fans pulling in cool air from the front of the case, over all of the components. Two 140mm fans act as exhaust units, removing warm air out the rear, as it rises. All of the fans are controllable via front and rear mounted controls.

We have placed thermal diodes in 5 case positions – 1; top optical drive bay position. 2; fan intake position. 3; hard drive area. 4; CPU area. 5; graphics card area. Ambient room temperatures were maintained at 23c throughout.

Great reference results, especially with the ambient temperatures.

Now we overclock the 990x to 4.8ghz by increasing the core voltage to 1.48v.

The cooling system is clearly doing a magnificent job, with ambient temperatures remaining the same as before.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

Today to test the chassis we have taken it into our acoustics room environment and have set our Digital Sound Level Noise Decibel Meter Style 2 one meter away from the case. The room rates as 21dBa before powering on the system (air conditioning unit in the far corner of the room causes this).

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

We have replaced the graphics card with a Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate edition.

Noise levels with fans on low are exceptionally good, registering just over 32dBa. When we crank them all to the limit noise rises to 34.2dBa which is louder, but still very good, especially for the airflow inside.

After being forced to look at many half baked chassis designs, such as the BitFenix Colossus and Survivor recently, this review today has came as a breath of fresh air. As a reviewer, there really is nothing worse than having to battle through a case review, wondering who came up with ludicrous, and sometimes frustrating build concepts.

Over the years, I have used literally hundreds of cases, and the Lian Li PC-X2000F rates as one of the top three I have ever used. Immediately when removing the case from the box, the quality of engineering and design can be seen and felt. I have always loved Lian Li designs, and often use them as a reference point for case reviews.

I have read comments from some people on our forums that Lian Li's recent products aren't breaking any new ground, but I would argue that when the designs are this stunning, why should they try and reinvent the wheel? All of the internal design has been carefully researched to help with the build phase, and to ensure that the cooling proficiency is class leading.

This X2000F is a refresh, or update on the original (released in 2008) X2000 which suffered from a few glaring weaknesses. For instance, the older chassis design had two smaller 80mm fans acting as exhaust units at the rear. These were positioned right at the bottom of the case in the worst possible position to remove rising warm air. The design has seen Lian Li replace these with 140mm fans, and they have been moved to the top of the case. USB 3.0 has been added to the interface panel at the top of the chassis and other internal changes have taken place, such as moving the power supply to the bottom of the case.

As it stands now, this is quite possibly the finest looking case on the market, which not only wins the design award for appearance, but for cooling proficiency. The inspired choice of fan size and placement ensure that even demanding SLI and CrossfireX configurations with overvolted, overclocked processors remain cool at all times. The thermal results we recorded are some of the best yet.

Can we find any fault?  To be honest it is hard to find any weaknesses, but it is expensive, costing £343 inc vat in the UK. Is it worth it? For one of the finest cases ever made, yes absolutely.

Pros:

• luxurious hand crafted design, which looks stunning
• Exterior finish is beautiful
• Internal layout is well researched and extremely well engineered
• cooling is better than 2008 model
• power supply at bottom now
• All fans can be controlled
• drive bay mounting system is fantastic
• PCI slots are screwless and a showcase of how it should be done

Cons:

• its expensive.

KitGuru says: A showcase of how a high end case should look and function. its quiet, able to cool the highest end system builds without a problem. Stunning engineering from Lian Li.

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