LIAN LI PC-90 Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: The case has a very clean design that allows for larger motherboards in a rather small volume. Only two 5.25 inch bays put me off at first but since this machine is a render workstation, two are enough. The quality is high and the styling is understated. This appeals to me.

Having all the drives on the side above the motherboard seems like it would be a hassle but I rarely tough a motherboard for two years after a build is complete.

With $10 worth of SATA to molex connectors and a soldering iron, I was able to make the cables to the drives very neat. Right angle power and SATA connectors don't work with SSDs the way the drives are laid out in this case. It seems that always have to customize cables no matter what mfr I choose, though.

Cons: One of the front 140 mm fans is new defective. I left a message at Lian Li site. Don't know if they will respond.
I don't actually need both of the front fans for this build, though. So, I'm not heart-broken. I like the color and intensity of the blue power light. I am less enamoured with the red disk activity light. I would rather is was green or yellow. Red lights indicate errors to me. I don't like amber dash lights on BMWs, either.

Other Thoughts: I went through the whole case and lined with Dynamat to damp vibrations, especially at joints attached with point fasteners. The result is a very quiet build with an i7-3770k. May not be so quiet in the future if I install a multi-socket board.

Pros: The case is extremely light relative to other cases that I have owned, including the Antec Lanboy Air and Cooler Master Storm Sniper. The case also contains sound relatively well and reduces accumulation of dust within the case.

Cons: The unused front bezel returns into the case with slight pressure on it, and removing it to its correct position requires opening the system, removing the hard drive cage and everything else in order to insert it. Then again, someone moves in front of it, Bammm... Back in the case!

Directions are useless.

My CPU's temperature is 8 degrees higher than it was in the Antec Lan Boy Air.

Other Thoughts: Worth a $100 not $180.

Pros: Small for HPTX form factor. If you have a eVGA Classified board then, yes, it will fit in here but it's tight.

Cons: I'm not too big of a fan of having to remove all HDDs just to access the motherboard to make changes.

Yes the HDDs are located over the mainboard. In the photos on the site they looked like they went under the mainboard on the other side of the case.

Other Thoughts: It is 100% aluminum and is fairly light compared to others.

Pros: + Great quality components
+ Excellent packaging
+ Stylish
+ Light
+ No stupid colored fans. Stylish Power and Reset buttons, with great looking blue light
+ Can fit eventually any video card. I use ASUS EAH6950, and it is huge. However, it looks small in this case.
+ Nice Video Card holder
+ Silent fans, can be connected to power supply directly or right to the motherboard 4pin connectors
+ Nice cooling design.
+ Washable filters
+ Toolless HARD drive installation
+ Uses anti-vibration washers to install HDDS and CD-ROMs
+ Up to 6 hard drives on the side panel. They do not take inside space at all. What a design!!!

Cons: - Some sharp edges
- Fingerprints can be seen easily on a surface
- PSU compartment on the top
Makes it difficult to route the cables, 'cause there is not much room between PSU and CD-ROM
-- To get inside, you'll have to remove central bar and HARD drives plates. Not a big issue though, as you do it once and forget.
-- Cable management is poor. The black one on a central bar is almost useless. No cable twists or clams in the package.
-- Can hear the noise from hard drives as they are too exposed to the side of the case. I guess, they could have installed some noise covering on the side panel. (I may do it myself). Not an issue if you use SSD.

Other Thoughts: May not get customer support from Lian-Li. Sent them some emails, did not get a single response.

Pros: It is the smallest HPTX case. The case design really makes use of volume in the most efficient way. The case weight is very light for its size. The airflow is perfect as soon as all wires are put above HD holders. The build: SR-2 MB with two Megahalems for couple E5649 at 4Ghz + 24GB RAM Cinibench 11.5 - ~20 scores. CPU temp under 61C (room 25) is a perfect result for such compact render box. The dual X5690 has score ~18 at x2.5 price.

Cons: Such option as an additional 140mm fan on the top of case is not even mentioned in specs provided by newegg, this additional 140mm fan may conflict with PSU; I could fit (barely) 1000W RSA00-AMBAJ3-US with the third/top 140mm fan. (no issue without extra 140mm fan). Even case is smallest for HPTX it is still bigger then I used to.

Other Thoughts: Newcoming Sandy Bridge 10core 2.4GHz Xeon has around the same rendering performance as 4Ghz E5649 so, SR-2 may remain in business for couple years until Intel come up with some more substantial improvements then SB (or AMD).

Pros: It is the smallest HPTX case. The case design really makes use of volume in the most efficient way. The case weight is very light for its size. The airflow is perfect as soon as all wires are put above HD holders. The build: SR-2 MB with two Megahalems for couple E5649 at 4Ghz + 24GB RAM Cinibench 11.5 - ~20 scores. CPU temp under 61C (room 25) is a perfect result for such compact render box. The dual X5690 has score ~18 at x2.5 price.

Cons: Such option as an additional 140mm fan on the top of case is not even mentioned in specs provided by newegg, this additional 140mm fan may conflict with PSU; I could fit (barely) 1000W RSA00-AMBAJ3-US with the third/top 140mm fan. (no issue without extra 140mm fan). Even case is smallest for HPTX it is still bigger then I used to.

Other Thoughts: Newcoming Sandy Bridge 10core 2.4GHz Xeon has around the same rendering performance as 4Ghz E5649 so, SR-2 may remain in business for couple years until Intel come up with some more substantial improvements then SB (or AMD).