Lian-Li launched lovely looking low cost cases

Opinion gets split at KitGuru on a number of things. GTX or Radeon. Core i3 or Fusion. Battlefield 3 or Black Ops. But the area that's contested the hardest is chassis design. Everytime we argue about cases, Lian-Li is always one of the contenders for “Most desirable”. But, generally, they are costly. For Computex 2012, Lian-Li has decided to get down. KitGuru follows to see what's what.

Founded and run by people who want to spend all day trawling Taiwan's beaches for driftwood, so they can create hand-crafted sculptures, gives you an idea of how they approach design.

Today, the company has announced a brand new ATX chassis, code named PC-A55 – as well as a new micro ATX chassis that its calling the PC-V355. Let's break down the features, advantages and benefits:-

PC-A55
Available sub-£99 in either black or silver. It uses a front mounted PSU which, according to Lian-Li, means the case can be smaller than traditional designs without limiting the size of graphics card you can use (up to 310mm is cool, so they say)

PC-V355
This micro ATX case will also be under £99, but here the focus has been placed on airflow and noise. Grommets abound and this affordable case includes a slide-out motherboard tray for maximum build flexibility. HD audio and a pair of USB 3 connectors are available on the front, while the optical drive bay is side mounted. Despite its size, this case can also accommodate the full 310mm that it's larger cousin can

Lian-Li has been at this for more than 20 years so, as you might expect, both cases come with a 2 year warranty.

KitGuru says: Interesting additions to the range, but we'd still like to see chassis manufacturers including card readers as standard on high quality chassis like this. In the modern world, wireless networking, SD memory card access and high quality HD playback are no longer ‘luxuries' – they are ‘essentials' for most people.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

Become a Patron!