Lian Li V1000 Plus Review

[BrianG]

The latest review at nV News is of the Lian Li V1000 Plus case.

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/lianli_v1000plus/

Read the review and give me some feedback...

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/lianli_v1000plus/images/lianli4_s.jpg

[kgroombr]

I still don't see a reset button. I would have thought Lian Li would have got the hint from reviews of the previous version of this case slamming it because of this.

Some may not think this is important, but I find it a definate detractor. When Lian Li fixes this shortcoming, then I will probably purchase this case. My current case is a Lian Li case, but I am starting to outgrow the mid tower size, but it will wait.

[BrianG]

Interesting. I never missed the reset button. I didn't even comment that it didn't have a reset button, never occured to me. I'll make mention of it...

[Clay]

Interesting. I never missed the reset button. I didn't even comment that it didn't have a reset button, never occured to me. I'll make mention of it...
You did, third paragraph from bottom of first page.
Visually, the front of the case is very clean. The polished aluminum power button is the solo as Lian Li left off a reset button.

[OWA]

Nice case.

I never use my reset button but it's still kind of strange they don't include one. I don't think it would keep me from buying the case though.

[MikeC]

You did, third paragraph from bottom of first page.

Hmmm...BrianG must of been testing some new brew along with his case. :alc:

[BrianG]

Hmmm...BrianG must of been testing some new brew along with his case. :alc:
On the fly edits, but when I posted my reply, I honestly did not remember even addressing it.

Added to the review...

Yes, still no reset button, and the strange thing is that I do not miss it at all. It was only after the review was posted and I received a comment about the lack of the reset button, that it did not occur to me that it was "missing".

[BrianG]

Hmmm...BrianG must of been testing some new brew along with his case. :alc:
And yes, I did try out a new beer. Ever had Loft by New Belgium? Good stuff. :D

[|JuiceZ|]

Nice review Brian :thumbsup: Highly recommend this case. I've owned the V1000B (black version) for the last 6months and have gotten more compliments at lanparties than w/ my old CM case. Can't count how many ppl thought it was a G5, lol.

[SH64]

Nice case.

I never use my reset button but it's still kind of strange they don't include one. I don't think it would keep me from buying the case though.

I use the reset button when PC hangs up or something goes wrong but yeah thats still not enough reason not to buy it.

[Clay]

I use the reset button when PC hangs up or something goes wrong but yeah thats still not enough reason not to buy it.
Yeah, you can always by a reset switch at Fry's...would just have to run the wire outside the case somehow (around back or something)...or just leave it in the case. With all of the mesh holes in that Lian Li, though, I bet you could run the plunger button through one of them. You'd never even notice it.

[BrianG]

Yeah, you can always by a reset switch at Fry's...would just have to run the wire outside the case somehow (around back or something)...or just leave it in the case. With all of the mesh holes in that Lian Li, though, I bet you could run the plunger button through one of them. You'd never even notice it.
If the system is locked up, I'm in no hurry. Power button for four seconds is fine with me. (crazy)

[CybrSage]

How loud is this case. You mention it is not suitable for HTPC uses, but do not really say if it sounds like an airport or whatnot...

Good review, I am thinking of getting one.

[BrianG]

With the standard 120mm fans, it was quieter than the Chen Ming/Alienware Case it replaced that had two 80mm case fans. If you were to use it as an HTPC, you would probably want to get quieter fans and maybe pull the front hard drive fan (you'll probably only have one hard drive so just ambient air will suffice). Than again, I would want it as close to silent as possible.

Lian li has the PC-800 for HTPC needs, though I am not sure how the two 60mm and one 80mm fans will be quiter than larger low-speed fans.

[Clay]

If the system is locked up, I'm in no hurry. Power button for four seconds is fine with me. (crazy)
True, and many current BIOSes allow you the option of not even having the 3~4 second hold delay and make the switch react immediately.

[BrianG]

True, and many current BIOSes allow you the option of not even having the 3~4 second hold delay and make the switch react immediately.
Yup. But if I'm gonna be rude to my hardware, I want to be sure, heh...

[kgroombr]

Nice case.

I never use my reset button but it's still kind of strange they don't include one. I don't think it would keep me from buying the case though.

My case that I have now is getting close to being maxed out on what I can put in it. I would really like to get a new case, and this by far is one of the best I have seen, but I would really like to have a reset button.

I don't use the reset button often (like after updating a BIOS or in a rare instance a freeze/lockup), but when I do, I hate to hold the power button down for a few seconds to power off, and then press it again to power up. I guess I am just a bit mental in that area.

Till then, my current case will hold up just fine.

Ken

[einstein_314]

Nice review brian :Thumbsup: I love Lian-Li's cases. I have a PC-65 and absolutely love it.

[biyahero]

Brian I liked your review a lot... in fact it made me decide I will return my V-1000 original and exchange it for a V-1000 Plus because of your comment that "Through several minor revisions, most grievances were eliminated, the most significant change coming from enlarging the cable access for the power supply's output leads."

I do recall now another reviewer whining about not having enough cable routing space from the output of the PSU. I was already contemplating exchanging it.... I bought it when they first came out and it is still in the box... [long story omitted here about shipping costs since I was at the distributor anyway].

The other feature that may be different in the Plus is that you comment and even Lian Li on their site makes a statement about the PSU front baffle being removable on the Plus version.

In the first review I read about the original non-Plus V-1000, the person couldn't fit his power supply in that "Zone 3" space allocated for the PSU, and talked about "drilling" to remove the front baffle plate for the PSU compartment and removing the rear row of hard drive tracks so that he could install his longer than normal PSU.

So I was already thinking about exchanging it for a Plus version, and was going to take it out of the box this morning and see if the PSU baffle plate was really removable or not, and then when I read your review I realized that if they increased the size of the hole for routing the PSU output cables in the Plus version that I will want to exchange it for sure whether the baffle plate is removable or not.

One part of your article confuses me though. The part about CPU cooler mounting problems. What is the problem exactly? I am planning to mount a ASUS P5WD2 Premium in it, with a CoolerMaster Hyper 6+ cooler on it, and the only problems I had been previousl worried about is if the height of this combo will interfere with the case cover, but your problem seemed to be related to the location of the motherboard in relation to the PSU compartment top barrier?

[biyahero]

I have a PC-65 and absolutely love it.

I love those too... I have in the family two Black PC-65's, two silver PC-82's (One Plus and one a special model made for CompUSA apparently with five fans instead of four... an extra in the back), and a PC-6010.... plus my new V-1000.

[BrianG]

One part of your article confuses me though. The part about CPU cooler mounting problems. What is the problem exactly? I am planning to mount a ASUS P5WD2 Premium in it, with a CoolerMaster Hyper 6+ cooler on it, and the only problems I had been previousl worried about is if the height of this combo will interfere with the case cover, but your problem seemed to be related to the location of the motherboard in relation to the PSU compartment top barrier?
It was more or less a warning to potential buyers. I know the Zalman 120mm CPU cooler could have clearance issues with the motherboard I am using. The A8N-SLI has the CPU socket rahter close to the top of the board. If you compare the CPU placement, you will see that several more OC friendly SLI mainboards have the CPU closer to the card slots.

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/lianli_v1000plus/images/lianli13_s.jpg

This picture tells that story. If I had a wider CPU cooler, such as the XP120 from Thermalright instead of the XP90, the cooler may not have proper clearance and may not fit at all. Again, this depends on the cooler and on the motherboard layout.

[biyahero]

It was more or less a warning to potential buyers. I know the Zalman 120mm CPU cooler could have clearance issues with the motherboard I am using. The A8N-SLI has the CPU socket rahter close to the top of the board. If you compare the CPU placement, you will see that several more OC friendly SLI mainboards have the CPU closer to the card slots.

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/lianli_v1000plus/images/lianli13_s.jpg

This picture tells that story. If I had a wider CPU cooler, such as the XP120 from Thermalright instead of the XP90, the cooler may not have proper clearance and may not fit at all. Again, this depends on the cooler and on the motherboard layout.

Thanks for the response Brian.

Yes I see that now. When I read the article I didn't understand what I was looking at in the picture.... Now that I see it bigger I realize that the presence of the cable in the lower foreground of the picture confused me and I didn't appreciate that the silver area there next to the CPU cooler fan was the top of the PSU compartment.

If I have a problem I think it will be because of insufficient distance between the CPU mounting surface and the case side cover since the Hyper 6+ is not so wide as even the XP-90 you have I believe, but it is taller. I see now that you might not be able to fit a XP-120 in there because of the issue you mention.

[BrianG]

No problem. You'll love the case.