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Lian Li supply the B25F in an attractively designed box which details the features of the case alongside a large product photo. Inside it's wrapped in a plastic bag and sandwiched between two slabs of polystyrene for protection.
We find a comprehensive bundle inside the case itself consisting of all the required screws, a tool-less PSU bracket, a case speaker, some cable ties, a cable management bracket and some fan adapters. There is also a detailed installation guide included.
The first thing we noticed on removing the PC-B25F from the plastic bag was the stunning minimalist beauty of the case. The sheet of black-anodized aluminium that makes up the front of the case is disturbed only by the three drive bays and a subtle blue ring which is illuminated when the case is powered on.
Rather than have an ugly fan vent in the front panel, Lian Li have perforated the sides of the front panel to allow airflow to the two 120mm front intake fans. There are also two 120mm fans in the roof of the case, ventilated by a large perforated area in the aluminium roof panel. This area fits in nicely with the minimalist style of the case.
We find the Front panel connectors on the top of the case at the front. The only major omission is a USB3.0 port but this is probably because the PC-B25F is quite an old model now. There are two USB2.0 ports, an eSATA port and headphone and microphone jacks.
Having had past experience with Lian Li's cases, we know that the black anodized aluminium finish does scratch quite easily so it's worth taking extra care to prevent this. But it does look even more awesome in the flesh than it does in the photos! The build quality of the PC-B25F is also top-notch, giving the case a sturdy feel. But, thanks to the exclusively aluminium construction, this doesn't make the case very heavy at all. It is far lighter than Corsair's 600T which has a steel construction.
Another quality Lian Li product. nice finish.
A lot of their cases have halved in price recently, good price now for quality aluminum. £230 wasn’t so much.
I love Lian Li, but most of their designs are very similar. they aren’t really developing much.
Good review henry. seems a nice enough product all round at a good price point.
I recently bought this case and I am very happy with it. It holds all my current hardware with an honor. Have gone through several steel cases (most recently a Antec Sonata II from 2005), I was looking for a modern case with better cable management, increased space for my hard drives and better ventilation. I also wanted the outer dimensions to stay moderate. I have now filled my Lian Li case with six hard drives (5 of them begin 5200 rpm drives to conserve energy and reduce noise), a Phenom II X4 965, very large Noctua CPU cooler, ATI 5850, Gigabyte mother board and a ODD. I also did buy the black front bezel to cover the ODD, a piece of plastic and aluminum that make all the difference in the world for appearance. Although not everything is great with this case. The fans is all too noisy for my taste. I ended up disconnecting all of them but one at the top. And even on that one I installed a resistor to lower the rpm. Yet, my CPU, MB and graphics card stay within limits, hard to believe but true. But truth to be told I value quiet computing more than reading ‘CPU temperature weekly’. Regarding USB 3.0 connectors I am not that worried. Lian Li have released replacement front connectors to other cases and I hope they will for this case too. When time comes I will probably buy one of those too. I would recommend this case to my friends.
Please consider, English is not my first language. Greeting from Sweden.
It is very good to see their prices dropping in the UK, at the start of this year they were not feasible to most people, but this one seems quite competitive considering.