Installation
This is where Lian Li’s idea for using the compartment to keep the CPU temperature down falls apart. Our mATX board that we are using is the recently reviewed abit AN-M2HD which has onboard HDMI. This is a major issue when it comes to installing this board into the case, as the provided hole for the cooler is not big enough, even if you take out the AMD specific plate. This is because the large abit heatsink has pushed along the CPU socket by a centimetre or so meaning that the hole for the cooler is in the wrong place. Unless I remove the bracket, or whip out a hacksaw, there is no way that a cooler is going to fit.
This is a great shame as the Lian Li website point out that this case is compatible with every mATX motherboard. Unfortunately, the position of the CPU socket is NOT in the mATX standard which means that it’s not a great idea to rely on it being in the same place. Granted that this is a rare occurrence that the position is vastly different, but you should always check before buying that your motherboard will ‘work’ with the case. Any other normal layout (not standard) will work perfectly.
Of course, thanks to the stock only bracket plates, you won’t be able to use an after-market cooler and you’ll be stuck if you bought an OEM processor. This case is therefore not designed to be used by extreme overclockers.
The space that’s provided for a graphics card will allow a 12 incher to be used. But if you do have a 12” GPU and the PCI-e connectors come out the rear, then you won’t be able to use the 80mm fan bracket.
The power supply is an incredibly tight fit and the sound of scraping aluminium on steel isn’t an attractive one. However once it’s installed all is well. I would recommend that you choose a modular power supply otherwise you’ll be left with cables everywhere and there isn’t much space to tuck them away.
Only having one optical drive bay means that your best choice is a multi reader/writer which most drives are these days. Installing it is a breeze and all you have to do is pop out the bay cover and slide it in. Jobs a good ‘un.
Installing hard discs is easy, but a bit of a difficult procedure. First you have to remove the HDD cage and then use four supplied drive screws to mount your data holder into place.
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