Lancool gets new, more aggressive cases
Lian Li has tweaked the latest cases in the popular Lancool range to help them appeal more to gamers.
The DragonLord Dark File PC-K58, Black Wind PC-K60 and Dark Ice PC-K62 might sound like something out of a kids fantasy novel, but they're actually all similar sized midi towers with all-black parts. Instead of the usual aluminium, Lian Li has gone for steel and plastic. Thankfully, it’s hard to tell because the plastic on these models blends into the case like the Antec Nine Hundred Two (902), but purists to the mother brand will no doubt be up in arms.
The design is more aggressive, with strong lines along the facia, but it still remains simple, with less fridge-like looks. Internally the features are very well thought out – with vibration reduction on just about everything: hard drive racks, quick release optical bay clips and fan mounts. It also has some of the most awesomely engineered aluminium clips for PCI slots we’ve ever seen (yes, we’re still very geeked out by the small things!).
Fan filters sit over every intake, of which there's one 120mm in the front and one in the base for the PSU, three 120mms for the exhaust - two in the top (suitable for potential watercooling) and one in the rear. Lian Li says that the final retail product will be about a centimetre or two longer to accommodate longer graphics cards with PCI-Express connectors at the end, and it will also be slightly taller to accommodate three-way SLI and CrossFire with a dual slot cooler in the very bottom slot; a very good idea for a gaming case.
In addition, Lian Li also has a chubby little mini-ITX case on show too – its tiny in height but it takes a full size ATX or micro-ATX PSU, as well as a full size optical drive and 3.5” and 2.5” hard drive support. So, while not the smallest mini-ITX case available, it’s arguably one of the most feature rich and looks good in its all aluminium design.
Finally, something else that perked our interest was a new external HDD case. It looks similar to the QNAP TS-409 we reviewed last year, but it’s eSATA or USB only for now with a large 120mm fan in the back, although Lian Li do plan to make space for a mini-ITX board making it the most perfect home-brew NAS box we could possibly imagine.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyAll the hideous case designs coming out recently make me wonder if we've entered the "Year of the Fugly Dragon" or something...
Just out of interest... What's the desktop/HTPC case under the NAS case, or is it nothing new?
I read the article as meaning the case would accept ATX sized PSUs, which it appears to do.
Single PCI slot in the right position and not enough space on the other side of the I/O for much. It's ITX small.
john
I'd still say it's small enough to be advertised as one because that's the market it'll compete in.
Still has plastic on the front and top......*face palm*.
It's a mini-ITX case that takes "ATX" PSUs - as in standard size and mount. Although I think it might be limited to mATX in half depth - I'll have to check when we get one in.
The HTPC cases underneath are nothing new afaik - they are already available.
Obi - TJ07 costs a LOT to tool.
-Its nice that somone has finaly realised an 8'th pci slot would be usefull, they have not put a blanking plate there...
-Why dont they just fully cut a hole behind the cpu so its usefull (like CM)?
I sometimes get the idea that case and motherboard makers dont actualy use PC's. Some of the flaws and nice touches are so easy and obvious...
Do you think the mini-ITX case will make it to the colonies?
I have a couple previous build owners that like the looks of this case.
john
Depends what your current distribution is like?
http://www.casemodblog.com/?p=1103