LIAN LI V COOL PC-V1000 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: This case is beautiful, classy, and well-constructed. It is as sexy as a Mac Pro case, without a doubt.

Cons: Since the motherboard is inverted you cannot mount a motherboard with heatpipes for Northbridge cooling because heatpipes do not work upside-down. Therefore additional cooling is necessary for any board that relies on heatpipes. I am using a Thermaltake Symphony with Northbridge coolers.

It is also a bit tricky to work with this case because the compartments make it difficult to reach components/get in the way. Not too bad really.

Pros: Unpside down mobo mount, chambered airflow seperating HD/ps and mobo, rolled edges, high quality aluminum, superb fit and finish.

Cons: Left side mobo mount (backward from most), non-removable mobo tray.

Other Thoughts: This is the finest case I've ever owned, no question. It's expensive but that expense is paying for craftsmanship of unparalled quality. The v1000 is the MacLaren F1 of the case game closely trailed by Thermaltake and Antec. As long as the ATK form factor lives, my PC builds will be in this case. period.

Pros: Being both an Apple and PC user, I generally tend to like apple designs more than PC's. Although this is an obvious take on the Apple G5 Powermac, it brings the wonders of the G5 case to the PC realm. Tons more space, tons more airflow, heatsinks are finally set properly (upside down!). I used to have my PC workstation crammed inside an old beige case that was filled with cables, hard drives, optical drives, expansion cards, the works. By switching to this case, temps dropped 10 degrees C, freed up space, and allowed me to add more to my raid array!

Cons: none! except if using IDE cables, they need to be twisted awkwardly to connect hard drives in their bays. Round cables and SATA are a near requirement, which everyone should switch to the latter anyway!

Pros: Well designed alluminum case with excellent cooling options. Inverted placement of motherboard and power supply/hard drive bays allows for lower center of gravity and better air flow with thermal zones. Front panel audio, USB2.0, and firewire ports (with headers, not stereo plugs). Comes with fans and washable filter.

Cons: No reset button (who cares?). Front ports are on bottom (this is a complaint I have about virtually every case on the market). I'm not much of a fan of the location of the cut-outs through which one must feed the wiring to/from the hard drives/power supply and motherboard/optical drives. I also wish the case had two real 3.5" external bays instead of one 5.25"->3.5" adapter.

Other Thoughts: To those of you complaining that your power supply doesn't fit: maybe next time you'll do a little research before spending hundreds of dollars on a computer case. There is a longer version, the V1200, which is specifically designed to accommodate longer power supplies.

Pros: All around awesome case.

Cons: Ports at bottom.

Other Thoughts: As an addendum to my previous review: one peculiarity of the chassis design is that the external front ports (USB, Firewire, and audio) are at the BOTTOM of the case. Since midtowers are usually on the floor, this is a bit out of the way (although not an uncommon design decision).

The new Lian Li PC-V600 (the mini tower version of this case that just released) has moved these to the top -- although ironically for a mini, which may sit on a desktop, that isn't as valuable).

This doesn't detract from the beauty or value of this case at all for me, but is worth noting. If this really bothers you there are plenty of front panel accessories on NewEgg that can be added to one of the 5.25" bays.

Pros: Absolutely flawless fit and finish. It's the first case that my wife thinks is "classy". It'll be a real head-turner at a LAN party.

Cons: Inverted layout might not work for some. No reset button. The casters work well but it might be nice if they were the swiveling type. (Don't take them off, though - the case needs to be raised off the floor for its cooling scheme to work properly)

Other Thoughts: I had read about issues with this case and some power supplies. I used an Antec TruePowerII 550 and had no problems getting it to fit. The compartmentalized layout is nice and cooling is stellar... My mainboard runs the fans at minimum speeds most of the time so noise is minimal. Nearly all screw-holes are pressed-in steel so the threads should not be prone to stripping like other aluminum cases sometimes do.

Pros: light wieght,flawless construction,excellent design that is already being copied,very handsome

Cons: because of the open design of the front of the case hard drive noise is alittle louder,cpu air deflector would not work with my zalman cnps9500

Other Thoughts: to the guy complaining about the power supply bay.did you even read the directions?on larger type power supplies you just remove the one divider.i run a ocz powersteam 520 which is a large psu with out problems.and on cable routing,i fail to see any difference in routing.every case requires alittle different thought on that.aparently you never tried.mines great

Pros: LOVE THE CASE

Cons: NOT TO BE USED WITH AND A8N-SLI AS THE CHIPSET HEAT PIPE WILL NOT WORK THE PIPE IS MADE TO MOVE THE HEAT UP THE PIPE AND WITH THE MOTHERBOARD UPSIDE DOWN IT DOES NOT WORK.....

Pros: -Light
-Holes
-Sexy Look

Cons: -Power Supply bay is too small.
-Upside down motherboard is really annoying.
-The cable managment is horrible.

Other Thoughts: I thought this case was great and everything. But it turns out that I started to hate it, the longer I had it. I returned the case and got a COOLER MASTER CM Stacker STC-T01.

Pros: The design of this case in terms of cooling and layout is TOP NOTCH.

Cons: If you plan to use a power supply that is longer than the standard ATX supply (basically, any supply that's SLI compatible), it will not fit unless it hangs out the rear. I remedied this by getting longer screws for the mounting plate, but it's a little short-sighted.

Other Thoughts: You really can't go too wrong with this case. I would also recomend the Silver Stone Tamjin full ATX case, as it has room for a very large power supply and it also has a similar design.