Lian-Li PC-B25

Looks aaight i guess ... woulda rather have seen more space on the bottom of it for ie water cooling ... but oh well

btw ... FIRST!

Welcome to the Lian-Li fanboy club. There aren't that many of us, and we aren't as vocal as the Antec die-hards and the Silverstone people, but we do exist.

You forgot one key step on the hard drive installation - you need to run some 6-32 screws through the middle holes in the cage into the middle hole in the hard drives - that holds them down, keeps them from bouncing out the exact same way they went in. I don't know what Lian-Li was thinking with this new mount, the old-school ones in the V-1000 are a ton easier to use.

Those stubby things on the PSU bracket are supposed to be facing out - they mount a duct/shroud thing that vents PSU air to the side, rather than just letting it blow free. They were originally on the V-1000 first revision, when Lian-Li converted the back exhaust into an intake to cool the CPU better, and added the squirrel-cage blower fan up by the PCI cards. The duct would blow the hot air to the side and away from the case, rather than letting it rise for the rear fan to blow it onto the CPU.

(yes, I'm a Lian-Li fanboy who knows his trivia. Why do you ask?)

But yes, looks like a remarkably good looking case - I think the comparison with the monolith is very apt. I'm not sure if I care for the beveled side panels, but it wouldn't be too hard to swap on a pair from a 7H+. And concerning the weight, I suspect a PC7H+ would be even lighter - no door or double-layer side panels.

Didn't look very special from this angle maybe if it was infront of you yeah would look ok, Lian Li have done some really nice looking case for me this one isn't one of them, also it doesn't look like it'll be such a good modding canvas like many of there other cases.

Nice review as always.

I have to agree with M_D_K though and say that it does not look very special.

It's design is bizzare with a futuristic looking door and some weir art deco style panels, if you did not mention that it was Lian Li then I would have thought Aerocool had introduced a new case.

The internals look nice and show typical Lian Li quality.

I have to question the decision to rate this 10/10 (build quality) since this means that it's perfect!

No room for improvement????

There is always going to be room for improvement somewhere!

not bad, although the side bezelling sotra kills it for me.

also.... i believe the frontpage summary should have the word 'sensuous' in place of 'senuous' which i have never heard of.

Ed! do your job! (whoever this guy Ed is <boom boom> *dies*)

I don't really like the looks of it (and the p182 and lookalikes). They look like bloody fridges! I like my computers to look a little special, a little exciting. However, if they made the case in a smaller (mATX) size, it would be perfect for a server/torrenting box.

Also, any word on price?

Lian li should just stop to try to design a fancy looking case.... they are the company i love for their high quality lots of room big towers with a very "plain" design (but in a way that if your familiy sees it the first time they know that it costs more than the entire pc you built for them), those sidepanels are just plain ugly.... its something i would have expected from one of those companys (sunbeam, aerocool and the likes) that try to create cases with so called gamer bling bling... not from lian li...

One query, if the blue circle on the front is so good to look at that you mention it twice, why not show a picture of it lit up? Oh and do the bevelled doors do anything, noise reduction for example, or are they just for decoration? Okay so that was two questions.

Originally Posted by capnPedro
I don't really like the looks of it (and the p182 and lookalikes). They look like bloody fridges! I like my computers to look a little special, a little exciting.

Spoken like a true fan of iCute cases.... :p

agree with you there naokaji, those side panels are horrendous, certainly isnt going to replace my g90 with my ridiculous water setup, 2 x 120rads + 1 x 360rads.

Originally Posted by capnPedro
Also, any word on price?

Read the article

There’s no word on pricing just yet

Sorry - no word on pricing yet, this is something of an exclusive and the case isn't available for a week or two yet. We'll let you know when we do ;)

Originally Posted by Fod
Spoken like a true fan of iCute cases.... :p

:o Chenbro Xpider II

Originally Posted by Hiren
Read the article

It's easy to miss a single line of text when you're scanning for a £ sign/link to Bit shopping.

I wish manufactures would think ahead and have some toughts about making space for dual 120x radiators,pumps and reservoirs inside a case. And also make doors where there is one dvd/cd drive slot free to acces without opening the door everythime to swap/burn a disc.

I know i have dozens of great ideas to make a wc ready cases, and i think a lot of others BT'rs too.

Originally Posted by [USRF]Obiwan
I wish manufactures would think ahead and have some toughts about making space for dual 120x radiators,pumps and reservoirs inside a case. And also make doors where there is one dvd/cd drive slot free to acces without opening the door everythime to swap/burn a disc.

I know i have dozens of great ideas to make a wc ready cases, and i think a lot of others BT'rs too.

Very few people use watercooling and the size of the case doesn't lend itself easily to this. If it were larger or significantly geared towards performance then yes, I'd be looking for it too. Also wanting a DUAL rad, rather than setting for a single in the size is over optimistic imo ;)

Door - yes, it annoys me too, but unless you're going slot loading it's an inevitable trade off.

Pricing - I have emailed but typically our contact at Lian is very behind when it comes to replies so it takes a few days.

Looks like an Antec P180 ripoff to me. From the understated, matte black looks, to the front bezel, it looks like Lian-Li designers didn't really felt like trying hard to come with an original design.

This said, my last rig was housed into a Lian-Li, my current one into an Antec Solo, and there's simply no contest. The Antec trounces the Lian-Li in so many ways it isn't even funny. For half the price it's sturdy steel made with sound dampening panels (aluminum is for pussies...or the deaf...the amount of rattling and vibrations one has to cope with a Lian-Li case is simply mind-blowing), has cable management tools included (my cable-fu sucks -not as much as Joe Martin's given the pics, though- but the Solo made tiding the system a piece of cake), suspended hard drives for 0 vibrations, a Antec TriCool fan with fanmate for silent operation and the best 5.25 bay rail mounting system I've seen to date. The Lian Li has a slightly higher build quality, but that's it.

apart from PSU on top, i also feel this is a p182 ripe off. even the holes on the mobo tray feels like Antec (out of interest, and shows how little i know, apart from Antec, who else has had the holes pre-cut on mobo tray?)

Originally Posted by Iago
Looks like an Antec P180 ripoff to me. From the understated, matte black looks, to the front bezel, it looks like Lian-Li designers didn't really felt like trying hard to come with an original design.

wrong
"understated but yet done in a way that it screams expensive look" was invented by lian li many many years ago....

you have to accept that there are people that prefer cases without that cheap looking wow bling bling crap.

Yep, I'm afraid if anything Antec "borrowed" it from Lian, even if Antec "does it better for less money" it's still not an alu case.

Originally Posted by naokaji

wrong
"understated but yet done in a way that it screams expensive look" was invented by lian li many many years ago....

And still, they felt the need to rip the P180's front bezel (specially the airflow design) and looks. Understable, as it's become one of the most popular cases around, bud sad nonetheless.

Originally Posted by naokaji

you have to accept that there are people that prefer cases without that cheap looking wow bling bling crap.

I know. I'm one of them. And it doesn't have anything to do with what I said. Still Lian Li no longer looks like an industry leading manufacturer to me. Besides the "high end" feeling one gets when unpacking one for the first time, they don't really bring anything to the table than Antec or Coolermaster don't already provide at half the price. And if I really, really had to get a superb looking, overpriced alu case, Silverstone has a much more interesting line nowadays (specially on HTPC cases).

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Yep, I'm afraid if anything Antec "borrowed" it from Lian, even if Antec "does it better for less money" it's still not an alu case.

Antec has just made the 2 most "silent conscious" cases in the market, the P180 (, P180b, P182...) and P150 (Solo). They didn't borrowed much from Lian Li, as far as I know... I have yet to see any Lian Li case with HDD suspension, dampened panels and silent fans (and that includes their "V Silent" series). Design-wise...the Antec 180 was revolutionary (and polemic...just take a look at the original silentpcreview.com threads to see all the "looks like a fridge" trashtalk) when launched and it brought several cooling and silence solutions that no other manufacturer had included up to that point.

Despite, people talk about alu cases as if that was something good on itself. News flash, it's not. It's simply a matter of choice. A lighter case, for me, it's irrelevant when talking about a desktop rig, but alu as a material is simply a hindrance for silent computing.

All in all, I'm not bashing Lian Li lovers. To each their own I guess. But as a former Lian Li user, I do feel that you pay up the nose in money and features for a slightly better than average build quality and finish.

why is there never a perfect case :'(, love the asethetics thou

blue circle would be the first thing i mod to make it a red circle. tho removing it completely is an option.

side panel is nice, better than just flat plain dull panel. but each to his own.

nice clean little case :)

tho at that price point, ill pick upa TJ04 any day (yes, welcome to the Silverstone fan club ;))

First thing that came to mind was 'cute'. I like it, though I prefer larger cases myself. Side beveling is odd, but not bad perse'. The B-25 is my fav bomber from WWII.

only Lian-Li case I'd ever shell out for would be a PC343 server cube (the one with 18 5.25" slots)

this case doesn't work for me for one simple reason: not enough 5.25" bays for my hot-swap HDD array gear.

Originally Posted by Bluephoenix
only Lian-Li case I'd ever shell out for would be a PC343 server cube (the one with 18 5.25" slots)

this case doesn't work for me for one simple reason: not enough 5.25" bays for my hot-swap HDD array gear.

after i've won the lottery i'll get one too

yep.. the 343 is a seriously great case.. but.. comes great case comes high price.. even if the price is appropriate for what you get...