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

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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