Yewen Reviews: PC7SE

Yewen · 3 Dec 2005 at 21:08

Lian Li PC7SE

Silver All Aluminum Case

Appearance:

The case continues with the usual Lian Li style that has been common in most of there cases for a long period now, without any major changes. Features to note about the appearance of this case mainly are the black strip at the top of the front panel, which is a nice touch and makes all the difference on the PC7SE, transforming it from a bland box into something to focus in on subconsciously adding to its lasting appeal.

The rear of the case has no real surprises just the addition of a 120mm fan over the previous additions of this case.

Design Features:

The case at first glance is assumed to have no advanced features; yet it has more than you first think there would be. The ease at which the front panel can be removed by just four small screws is much nicer than a plastic front with fragile clips, the addition of fairly strong front panel door cover is most welcome.

Every bay in the case has Aluminum holders to keep the drive you are securing in place so you need not hold it while securing it to the case, the same can be said of the PSU area, with four little brackets to hold it in place.

The PSU has a removable fitting bracket which makes installation of the PSU a quick and easy job that takes a matter of a minute, with no danger of dropping the PSU into the case.

The fan is positioned to cool the hard drive bays which it does quite well.

The top bracket which hides the CD drive is useful as it also hides the PSU, giving the overall effect of a tidier case.

Yewen · 3 Dec 2005 at 21:08

Design Improvement Ideas:

In a review it is all to easy to miss out the little things that make your life easy, so I will just now list the parts which made the build in this case slightly less than perfect.

The motherboard when installed in the middle flexed towards the back of the case slightly to much for my liking, although this should not be a problem it is not to the standard I have come to expect from Lian Li and they should have added a strengthening bar behind to prevent this from happening.

Another idea is the hard drive rack, this could be made with a roof on top, or maybe side mounted as the total capacity for hard drives is 3, or 5 without floppy disk drives.

The third idea for improvement has to be the inclusion of extra parts, the lack of a CD stealth panel and thumbscrews for the PCI cards was a slight letdown but nothing major, just a inconvenience.

Conclusion:

Appearance: 7/10 (Nothing New)
Design: 8/10 (Nothing New)
Quality: 8/10 (Usual Lian Li)
Cooling and Noise: 9/10 (Good Cooling and Low Noise even with raptors)
Feel Good Factor: 7/10 (Nothing New)
Overall: 39/50

Alu_ATC · 3 Dec 2005 at 21:19

Good review Yewen, but it did kind of sound as if you were reviewing it as if you were a Lian-Li employee, your personal bias was in there

Whats the next case?

Yewen · 3 Dec 2005 at 21:50

Yes Yes sorry about that

Its just the way I write things, will be in all my reviews as it is to difficult to be objective and I make no attempt to hide it, as the review is afterall my opinion, other users are entitled to there own.

Well the case collection in my room is:

V1000+
CM110
CM201
CM201b
Cheiftec Scorpio
Cheiftec Dragon

So one of them most likely

Mekrel · 3 Dec 2005 at 22:42

That case looks familiar

and the carpet... and the wardrobe :confused:

Yewen · 3 Dec 2005 at 23:59

Yes Mekrel your PC7SE is a nice case

Alu_ATC · 4 Dec 2005 at 00:42

Yewen said:
Yes Yes sorry about that

Its just the way I write things, will be in all my reviews as it is to difficult to be objective and I make no attempt to hide it, as the review is afterall my opinion, other users are entitled to there own.

Well the case collection in my room is:

V1000+
CM110
CM201
CM201b
Cheiftec Scorpio
Cheiftec Dragon

So one of them most likely

110 - nuff said

Mekrel, I swear you supply Yewen with all his cases, lol!

Yewen · 4 Dec 2005 at 01:05

Nice one.... About that....

Well he has supplied me with all the CM cases yes...

But the rest are mine through and through

Always been a Cheiftec / Lian Li person so was in the opposite camp for most of the CM hay day.

Now you will get dissapointed with me when the 110 scores highly, but it is a good cases bar the outdated cooling.

Lets see what tommorrow brings as other than Worcester playing im not up to much

beh · 4 Dec 2005 at 02:21

Nice collection of cases.

Is PC-7SE noticeably more roomy inside than your CM201b?

Yewen · 4 Dec 2005 at 12:04

The pc7se is slightly larger inside but lacks the removeable motherboard tray.

So in all in all they are about the same to build in. I would probabaly think think the best case to go for after having a 201 would be the pc7se if you want to keep the same sort of styling but improved cooling, Mekrel has noticed some quite impressive drops in temp from using Silenx fans in the 201 to the stock ADDA in the Lian Li which has to say something for the cases capacity really

HighlandeR · 4 Dec 2005 at 13:02

Nice review, but can u remove the hdd cage stuck to the bottom of the case on the botton right?

and how about that floppy cage does it come off also?

My hdd will go in the 5.25 bay in a silent box thats why I ask

Yewen · 4 Dec 2005 at 13:26

The bottom cage can not be removed as one side is riveted

It could be removed, but not put back again sadly, and I will point Mekrel here as we did not try and remove the floppy cage!

HighlandeR · 4 Dec 2005 at 13:29

oh well another one crossed off my list, cheers still

Noni · 4 Dec 2005 at 13:48

Hi, thats one great review! Im so tempted!

BTW, what PSU do you have?

Thanks.

KizZ · 4 Dec 2005 at 14:04

Looks like the Hiper to me.

Yewen · 4 Dec 2005 at 14:13

In there it is a Tagan Modular psu.

DaveMac · 4 Dec 2005 at 14:42

The internal HDD rack looks like the one I have on the 6002, it has screws on one side and slides into a lipped riveted bracket to make it removable. The external 3 1/2" should have fixings under the front bezel to make it removable too.

I assume the window is an extra?

Mekrel · 4 Dec 2005 at 14:48

There is more room in there than the CM201 as the board used to reach right to the edge of the coolermaster motherbord tray but there is a couple of inches of room from the motherboard to the edge of the backing plate within the Lian-Li.

As for motherboard tray, I don't really miss it except for initial building where you can setup the parts to run/overclock before actually putting them into the case.

My temperatures are... mental lol. My CPU was idling at 29 degrees last night and my X1800XL which kicks out one hell of aload of heat was idling 36, but then again my room was very cold due to me turning of the radiator in my room.

As for the 3 1/2" cage I will have alook now.

The PSU is a tagan TG580-U15 and I can highly recomend this too. Good price for what you get and the quality of the cables/braid are brilliant. Only bad thing I have come across at the moment is it offers loads of 12v options.

Your standard 20pin/24pin (20+4p) ATX power, P4 12v ATX Power, 8pin power, and a +p4 cable to add to the other P4 connecter to make another 8pin.

Your probably thinking, and how is that a bad thing?
Well they are all hardwired (as they should be, being the most important rails from the PSU) but they get in the way a lot

Yewen, I think you should review that last case that came out of my attic?

Yewen · 4 Dec 2005 at 14:58

Which the Black Widow or the silly excuse for a window mod

Well if I had the silly window prit stick mod then I would review it

I refuse to buy that off you though

Melm0 · 5 Dec 2005 at 12:57

Yewwy schmells

nice review x