LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Desktop Computer Case

Pros: Looks nice, power/reset buttons have a nice tactile feel, even if I only touch the power button about once a week.

Dual 120mm intakes on such a small case is nice but should be a standard by now

Tests have shown that even under stress, my GPU temps are not that bad (75c max, 90% load for ~15m)

I have custom-fit a CM H60 liquid cooler to one of the front 120's for CPU cooling so that is rock solid.

Cons: Although I know this is an mATX case, I was really surprised by the construction and how cramped it really is, because it is not *that* small of a case. Perhaps some of this could have been discovered pre-purchase with a little more reading but.. that's on me.

* There are no "removable" elements. In most cases, drive bays or other components are typically removable; not so much in this case. They are integrated into construction and riveted tight in to place. I had to do some customer work to be able to even plug in my graphics card. This was a major downside for me.. I wanted to scale back the size of my case but I expected to be able to work around a little better than what was given here.

* The hard drive fan butts-up against the HDD cabling.. Luckily, I had an 'elbow' SATA cable that allowed me to actually put that plate back on. I could have just removed the fan but the HDD's need some cooling, too.

* There are no exhaust fans. I knew this going on but.. really should try for some exhaust somewhere.. However airflow seems to be OK at this point. My temps are fine but I am not running any extreme hardware.

* Proprietary screw/hardware sizes? Really? And you sent a whole *9* standoffs when my board normally uses 8. You have a TON of confidence in the average person's ability to not lose hardware. Furthermore there was hardly any spare screws or parts in general. For $110 I expected a whole lot more than this, even the $30 cases send a 5-gallon bucket worth of screws and bolts. This was almost unacceptable to me.

* Tool-less mount systems are touted to be pretty nice in here with rubber-grommets for anti-vibration but.. really it just kind of turns out to be a pain in the rear. The front 120mm fan system is OK but you're going to have to use quit a bit of elbow grease sometimes, they like to get stuck. The drive-bay covers... jeeze.. do *not* remove them if you intend to put them back, they don't go back. At least not correctly.

* Warped by the time I was done with my build? I was transferring from one case to this one, and all the outer plates lined up nice at first but.. once I had all my hardware in, the screw holes and plates did not want to line up very well; really makes me question the quality for the price tag.

Other Thoughts: Overall.. perhaps it's a nice case if you have a small form-factor graphics card, no other cards and really, really small hands. Don't expect much in the way of managing cables and don't expect everything to fit very well.. Perhaps I just didn't research enough or had unreal expectations of mATX desktop format.

Pros: • mATX form factor
• Elegant design
• Super, super-quiet
• Reasonably small footprint

Cons: • Should accommodate more internal hard drives considering its size.

Other Thoughts: I have two PC-Q08s for Mini-ITX Hackintosh builds. I wanted to build an NAS server and after researching MoBos, I decided to go with a SuperMicro in a Micro-ATX form factor. I bought the PC-V351B from NewEgg.

As far as where I stand now, I love many things about this build. The system is rock solid and quieter than a whisper. In fact, I don't hear a thing and I've not yet had to even reboot it. I'm still learning to work with FreeNAS and this is my first experience with the ZFS file system. So far, I'm very impressed.

However, if Lian Li's Mini-ITX Q08 and Q25 can each accommodate a minimum of 6 internal 3.5" drives, then a larger mATX case like this should fit at LEAST that many plus more. But I had to really scratch my head to get the V351 to fit just four 3.5"'s and one 2.5" SSD. It really put a limit on how much I could store on this NAS, leaving me no choice but to have to build another NAS unit.

I'm moving about 30TB off external USB drives to the NAS and it would've been nice if this box could fit something like 9 drives, which I believe the PC-Q08 can (if you don't need a graphics card or optical drive). What this means is that my next NAS box will unfortunately NOT be in a Lian Li PC-V351. The footprint-to-internal storage ratio just doesn't impress me, although as I indicated there are many things about this case that I DO like.

• PC-V351B
• SuperMicro X9SCM-F-O
• Intel Core i3 2100 (stock cooling)
• Crucial 4GBx2 ECC DDR3-1066 RAM
• Seagate Barracuda 3TBx4 7200rpm (ZFS storage)
• Pyro SE 120GB SSD (Cache log)
• 1x8GB Patriot USB Flash Drive (FreeNAS 8.3.0)
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk. II 750W ATX PSU

Pros: Fairly good looking case.
Very nicely machined and good overall quality.

Cons: Poorly designed.
Difficult to work inside.

Other Thoughts: This Lian-Li case is one of the better looking mATX cases out there, and they have a well deserved reputation for quality so I thought I'd give it a shot. As expected the case is very solid and well built. Unfortunately that's about all it has going for it.

I had the opportunity to build a machine inside this case back-to-back with a more traditional mATX mini tower sold here for nearly identical price. I was astounded at how much easier the tower was to build. The Lian-Li was a constant fight every step of the way, trying to slip cables through narrow gaps and routing things almost blindly. The removable motherboard tray is no help at all; after you're done building outside the case, the whole thing will immediately jam up on half a dozen stray cables.

Astoundingly, the Lian-Li still manages to be unreasonably large and bulky while making life difficult. The desktop design means everything is jammed together at slightly odd angles, cables are crashing into other components, there's no room for cooling, and life is generally a mess. Yet the footprint is large, the case is quite heavy, and it isn't particularly shorter than a mini tower.

In short, it gives you all the disadvantages of a small case and none of the advantages. Look elsewhere.

Pros: Ordered a lot of them. All had functioning fans. No warped casings. Solidly built with properly threaded screw holes for smaller screws that hold the side panels on. Able to fit a full size power supply.

Cons: Putting electricity to a optical drive requires removal of the opposite side's 5 1/4 bay bezel. These bezels will take some finesse to snap back properly into place, but once they do, they are secure.

Other Thoughts: To save space and maximize airflow, order a modular power supply, so you can leave out the power cords not being used.

Pros: Classy and squat, really cool design. Great internal organization and plenty of fans.

Cons: A little larger than I had imagined, but that may have more to do with my imagination than the case itself.

Pros: First time reviewer, long time NewEgger.

I wanted to comment on the fans as I've only seen a few reviews on this case relating to them. They are seriously quiet. I was somewhat worried about the noise the case would bring, but the fans are hardly audible.

The case itself should be exactly what you're expecting. At least it was for me. A smooth looking, small form factor case. There weren't any surprises when putting everything together. Of course it's going to be tight! It's a micro atx case!

Cons: Too happy to be negative.

Pros: Looks coolio. Smallish. got the job done

Cons: Rediculous amount of screws to get into the thing. Pretty much plan on taking every panel off if you have any peripherals. The layout of the case in general just made me scratch my head as to what the engineers were thinking. For the price it should be a lot better. Also the clearance for the mobo w/ cpu cooler graphics etc is only about 4 and 3/4 inches. So I dremeled off part of the cooler to fit it in... lol no i'm overheating and bluescreening. The Case itself got up to about 100 + degrees!!

Pros: I wanted a case that did not take half my desk. That's what I got!

Cons: Optical drive opening to the side can inhibit installation in a corner. But I cannot recall when was the last time I used my drive. The irony.

Other Thoughts: Be sure to get a small motherboard, and don't get carried away with a huge heatsink/fan. This is meant to be COMPACT.

Pros: Looks very beautiful, spacious, good airflow, relatively easy to work with - screws in all hard to reach places are thumb screws.

Quiet - I planned to replace them with Nexus or Noctua's of proven quality, and use Speedfan to keep speeds down, but it is nearly inaudible in my bedroom with the stock fans.

It matches in color and fits perfectly into black Ikea Expedit bookshelf - there is even gap on top and sides wide enough to access side connectors.

The blue power LED is nicely "frosted" - unlike some other cases, there is no annoying glare from it. HDD LED is red, also "frosted".

Cons: Only very minor cons: all three case fans have 3-pin connectors (with molex adapters), so modern motherboards with 4-pin headers cannot use PWM to control their speeds. There is no easy way to install 2.5" SSD drive without adapter. The front port connector cables come from the front left corner to reach rear right corner (GIGABYTE motherboard) - could have been a bit longer for perfect cable management.

Other Thoughts: Fully modular PSU is highly recommended - there is no other place to hide all unused power cables but in front of one of 120mm front fans. Turns out SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze is not fully modular - some PCIE cables which I don't need are still non-removable.

COOLER MASTER GeminII S524 120mm CPU cooler fits just fine, and provides good blow to all motherboard components surrounding CPU.

My build:

- GIGABYTE GA-H77M-D3H LGA 1155 Intel H77 Motherboard
- Intel Core i5-2310 CPU
- COOLER MASTER GeminII S524 120mm CPU Cooler
- Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal SSD
- SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W PSU
- SAMSUNG DVD Burner SH-222BB/BEBE
- LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case
- G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600

Took few hours to put everything together, but case documentation, while somewhat sketchy, provided enough clues.

Pros: small case that can fit in small compartments, very quiet, keeps everything cool, looks very nice

Cons: it was hard getting all of the components inside this small case