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After removing the two thumbscrews, the top panel of the case slides off to reveal the interior. It initially looks a little bit cramped but this is because all the drive cages sit in the top of the case.
There is room for three 3.5″ hard drives and three 2.5″ hard drives in total but you can also install three 2.5″ hard drives in the 3.5″ bays if you prefer. There is also space for a single 5.25″ optical drive which sits behind the front bezel.
These drive bays are spread between three different caddies which slot into the top of the chassis. These have to be removed before we can install anything else into the chassis.
When the drive caddies have been removed, the chassis is divided into two parts by an aluminium bar which supports the drive caddies. You can remove this if you like by taking out the screws on either end but this isn't necessary for installation.
As a space saving measure, the motherboard standoffs are fixed to the bottom panel of the case, removing the need for a dedicated motherboard tray. Unfortunately this means that it is going to be more difficult to manage the cables without causing a mess, although it is still possible.
There are four full-size add-in card slots in the rear of the chassis which have ventilated covers installed by default. These are secured by standard screws, rather than thumbscrews, which are located outside the case to give a little extra room for long graphics cards.
Unlike some more compact cases, the PC-C50 has plenty of room for a large power supply. This room would be restricted slightly however if you decide to install an exhaust fan in the left hand side of the chassis.
There is a vent in the bottom of the chassis for the power supply which doesn't have a dust filter. In fact, none of the case's fans have dust filters so be prepared to give your system a thorough clean every so often.
At the front we find an abundance of wires spewing from the front panel connections. These are all very long, making it very easy to route the cables around the chassis. As there aren't many motherboards on the market which support more than two USB3 ports, Lian Li have included an adapter which lets you attach two of the front panel USB3 ports to an internal USB2 header.
I love Lian Li products, but I continually ask myself ‘are they really worth the premium’?
Sure the aluminum quality is fantastic, but I dont think they radically try new ideas and their premium prices are simply staggering at times.
We bought this in black for our living room and my husband built the system up over a weekend. we are very happy with it, it looks very nice in the living room
Caseking.de ship these to UK if anyone wants the silver one. you pay less too, even with shipping.
I am in the process of building a media center and have three cases shortlisted. this would have been one of them but I think its too expensive for what you get.
[A year later…] I am building a media center and I’m am seriously considering buying this one.
However, I read in another review that in order to equip their blu-ray reader (which was 19cm deep) they had to sacrifice the HDD tray behind it. Did you experience this problem? How deep could the optical drive be to still leave room to max out the HDD trays?
Thanx
No dust filters! Are you kidding me? For a “premium” case, this is simply inexcusable. I am looking at replacing my Antec NSK2480 which is about half the price of this case, and one of my main reasons for replacing it is the lack of dust filters. The Fractal Design Node 605 is cheaper and includes dust filters.