LIAN LI PC-V700B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: The case is very elegant, and it's pretty small for an ATX mid tower. Probably the smallest case I've owned honestly.

The toolless side panels, 3.5" bays, ODD bay, PCI slots, and even motherboard tray are an absolute treat. I'm quite surprised Lian Li provided thumb screws for the motherboard.

The PSU and 140mm fan both get their own air filters and they can be removed without too much work. It's definitely not as much work as my old case.

The construction feels very solid. I couldn't really sense that anything was going to break while I was putting it together, even though I was definitely trying to be incredibly gentle. I paid a pretty penny; I don't want to ruin it, after all.

The included front panel USB 3.0 ports are quite a surprise and a nice addition.

Lian Li also had the good sense to include an extra-long front panel audio connector because some motherboards (like mine) have the audio connector at the back of the case.

The included fans are very quiet, even at full power. I'm genuinely surprised by that.

The case isn't very tall for an ATX mid tower. It was a surprise to see that everything fits in there, despite the small space.

Hot swap hard disk bays. This really does make replacing hard disks that much less of a pain. Just pull the old one out, swap the screws and rubber rings, and put the new one in. No tools needed.

Cons: The small size and lack of the motherboard tray extending the full length of the case means wire management is a bit of a pain. I did get my case fairly clean on the inside, though I feel I'm going to need to go back in there and do a couple more things, such as get all of the SATA III cables in a neat little bundle.

There's a gap between the front fan and the PSU that isn't filtered. Given how the air's mostly going to go through the fan while also coming out the front, this shouldn't cause too much of an issue because of the air currents.

From looking in there, it feels like air is going to have a hard time getting to my GTX 670. This isn't too much of a problem, but I have reset all overclocks just to make sure. I'm also equipping a higher CFM front fan later to help make sure enough air gets through the case, with positive pressure to make sure that air isn't coming in through the back.

The PSU mounting in the front is slightly strange, and as others have said you can't get to the on/off switch. However, you don't necessarily need that as you can really just unplug the computer if you want power to not get in.

Other Thoughts: It takes a little bit of work to get something into the front USB ports, but I don't find that bad, really. It's just a quirk and shows that things will stay firmly plugged in.

The fact that it's black means that it will go with any color scheme. I do plan on putting some green LED fans in there to match my green Razer gear.

You really need to pay attention to size clearances, but most components nowadays will fit easily.

The case came with wire ties, which is another nice thing from Lian Li. They seemed to make sure that the people who paid a premium price got their money's worth.

The box was slightly banged up, but the styrofoam helped make sure the case arrived completely intact. I'd say FedEx did a good job in shipping.

The cons can easily be worked around, so they're not worth knocking an egg off. On a scale of 1-100, I'd give this case an 91. It's not an absolutely perfect case because of the motherboard tray and tight wire management space, but it's definitely a beautiful, sleek aluminum case that probably can make any computer set up look high-end or unassuming. The price is also incredibly steep, so I'd only recommend this if you've got money to throw at the wall or something.

Pros: The case is made of high quality aluminum and looks very elegant. The tooless pci slots and harddrive cage have no plastic in them and seem very durable.

Cons: The first one i received came with a peg on the side panel broken off. Newegg was kind enough to replace the case. Wire management can be challenging because the motherboard tray does not extend all the way to the front of the case.

Pros: Elegant appearance, high quality fit and finish, good but quiet ventilation, easy access to components, easy cable routing, worth its cost

Cons: Con's: three very minor ones, not even collectively taking off an egg:
(1) The PSU AC on/off switch is inaccessible (always on), and there is no AC switch on the rear panel, so once you attach a power cord to the case the PSU (though not necessarily the computer) is activated. But we rarely use those power supply on/off switches anyway, do we?
(2) To put a full-length video card in your motherboard's first PCIe slot you will have to remove the 2.5" HDD cage. This only applies to the very long video cards that most of us don't use.
(3) No support. A case is a mostly static mechanical structure, and not much support should ever be needed unless it is damaged or defective upon receipt, in which case a Newegg RMA should suffice. With that said however, nowhere on or within the box will you find any Lian Li address, website URL, telephone number or warranty whatsoever. I have never needed factory support for this or any other PC case, but for the record you should be aware that there isn't any, as far as I can determine.

Other Thoughts: I don't usually contribute product reviews, but felt compelled to for this case, which has an unusual but effective design.

The case was shipped in a very sturdy carton with shaped foam inserts, and arrived in perfect condition. The first things I noticed were the strength and rigidity of the case and the high quality of fit and finish, not often found in PC cases. As other reviewers have noted, you won't likely scratch yourself on sharp edges, because you won't find any. Both sides pop off without tools to make access very easy for building or maintaining a system in it.

The power supply position is unusual -- the PSU is mounted at front bottom, with the AC end forward and concealed behind the front panel, and the DC end facing the motherboard. I mounted my Seasonic X850 modular PSU upside down so that the fan draws air in from the bottom vent (which has a removable filter) and exhausts through the perforated front panel. That way the PSU airflow is mostly isolated from ventilation of the rest of the case. An interior AC power cord supplied with the case connects from the PSU to the back panel, where the customary external power cord connector is provided. Since the PSU on/off switch is inaccessible once it is mounted, you must make sure it is in the ON position when you install it.

Four very quiet Lian Li 120mm fans ventilate the case: one front, drawing air in and across the HDD cage, one exhausting at rear, and two exhausting at the top. There is plenty of room to mount a double-fan liquid cooler at the top if that is what you need. I used the Intel Liquid Cooling Solution for my LGA2011 processor, mounting its single fan and radiator (in "fan configuration B" of the Intel instructions) in place of the Lian Li fan at the rear position.

My full ATX sized motherboard (Asus P9X79 Deluxe) mounted perfectly with plenty of room around it for cable routing. The PSU I used also left plenty of room behind it for SATA connections to the motherboard. Several grommet-lined ports on the perimeter of the motherboard mounting plate make cable routing easier -- since both sides of the case are removable, some cables can be passed through these ports and routed behind the motherboard, getting those cables out of the way.

The interior 4 x 3.5"HDD cage allows for several drive mounting methods, including hot-swap, with silicone rubber isolation mounts supplied. A 2 x 2.5" HDD cage pops on or off the bottom of the larger cage, giving you a place for your SSD(s).

At the top front of the case Lian Li provides an optical drive cover, so that when you mount your ODD its front is concealed behind the case cover (which hinges open when the button is pressed), keeping the front appearance sleek. The front also has 2 x USB3, 1 x USB2 and 1 x eSATA ports as well as audio connectors. If your motherboard doesn't have a 20-pin dual USB3 header, a supplied converter cable allows connection to a 10-pin dual USB2 header.

Pros: Looks great. Brushed aluminum, curved edges, simple design. Case is just as wide as a normal ATX case, but shorter and shallower. Very lightweight. If you have a 200mm PSU, this case will accommodate it with a m-atx board. Front panel inputs work well, and the front audio jack does not have static, as my previous case did. Inside design is simple and efficient and easy to work with. Comes with plenty of rubber grommets for mounting drives.

Cons: A few cons. There's not much room to hide cabling in this case so a modular PSU is recommended if you want it to look neat and clean on the inside. The power and reset buttons are fairly fragile, and if too much pressure is applied, can be pushed into the case (though this is easily fixed.) One wire for the power button on my case required me to connect and tape it back on upon arrival, so not great QC there. There could be a fraction of an inch more room behind the mobo panel for cable management. The HDD cage has molex connections for half of the hotswap bays, which seems dated. The stock 120mm fans can get loud at full power.

Other Thoughts: This case is extremely overpriced at MSRP. I am happy with my purchase at a much lower price point over a holiday sale, but this is not the quality that I would expect for a $220+ chassis.

Pros: Very well constructed, innovative power supply mounting, great looks, rounded edges save the hands from cuts. This is my first Lian Li case.

Cons: Make aure the power supply is turned on before you mount it, because you can't get to the switch once it is installed. It would have been nice to have a redundant power switch on the rear of the case. My ASUS P8Z77-V LK board fit nicely but the SATA ports are right near the power supply. This would not have been a problem if the power supply were in the top of the case, but there has to be a tradeoff if you want two big fans at the top rear. My gorilla hands got the cables connected, but it's tight.

Other Thoughts: I've been building computers since 1983, starting with a 386/20. This case has obviously been designed with a lot of thought for the builder as well as the user.

Pros: Standard Lian-Li quality ---- excellent. Compact size --- make sure your stuff will fit.

Cons: Compact size requires you to make sure it'll allow your hardware to fit.

- Access to on board SATA connectors is difficult with power supply cables, particularly with a modular one. Best access is through the back panel, not the front.
- First impression of PSU mounting was great! BUT you can't access the power switch on the PSU with disassembly of the mounting apparatus. Make sure the PSU is on before you install it.
- The expansion card locks except they need to lock up as well as down. You have to hold them out of the way as you install cards.
- Lian-Li support doesn't exist, at least I've never gotten any reply from them when I had a problem. e.g. broken fan. Newegg does of course provide support but it typical requires you to return the whole case, e.g. they could provide me a replacement fan. Inspect your case BEFORE you build.

Other Thoughts: If you can deal with the cons it is an excellent case and the compact size is nice if your available area is limited.

Pros: Front PSU. Great HD placement with anti-vibration: drives slide directly out towards you. If you don't have a real long video card you can put in six drives, 4 3.5 2 2.5. Four hot swap bays. Left side opening (works for my setup). Side comes off with a very short swing so good on a crowded desktop. Very quiet fans and lots of them: the 140 blows right across the drives, the 2 top 120s are right above the CPU, lots of room in the case. Love the e-SATA and USB 3 ports on the front. Power supply sucks air through the bottom of the case so don't put it on carpet.

Cons: The power connectors on the hot swap bays are terrible. On the case I have they alternate between molex and SATA. WHY? The connections are so close you can't use a daisy chained set of power connectors because the through wires of the SATA connector are bent over by the molex connector. It meant I had to use the end connector on two separate power leads for the two SATA connectors and a third power lead for the molex. If I had used a modular power supply it might have cut my grief a bit. It makes for a jumble of cords behind the drive rack.

I also don't like the way expansion cards are locked down. The levers don't raise the lock down pad far enough to stick some cards in the slot. I didn't think my video card was going to make it in the case. It took a good bit of wiggling and prying to get the card in the slot and under the lock down.

Be aware that if you use a long video card, you lose the caddy for the 2 2.5 drives.

Other Thoughts: I was looking for a case for a new build and my old standby case used in many builds is now discontinued so I thought I check out other Lian-Li cases. This case jumped out at me and I thought I'd found the case of my dreams. It's nearly twice as expensive as any case I've ever bought but I couldn't resist. Newegg was out of stock and I couldn't wait. I'm happy with the case because all my build problems are behind me. The case is nearly silent, which is amazing considering that there are four fans and a PSU going. The drives are the loudest thing in the case.

You need the right motherboard for this case. Make sure you have enough fan headers and that they are placed around the board well. I used an ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE. Works like a charm.

If you're going to hot swap drives, be sure to run power and data to all the ports on the drive rack or else you'll have to take of the back side panel later.

Pros: like all lian li cases, it's very slick. unfortunately mine came with broken e-sata port and customer service is non-existent.

Cons: Customer service is terrible. Case came with the front e-sata port broken. Lian Li customer support contacted two times trying to resolve the issue, no reply.

Case is long, but the power supply is at the bottom front of the case, which makes the long case moot for long pci cards like avid hd or hdx cards.

Pros: Perfect size for a mid tower case. Probably the most pain free side panel design I've seen. Overall construction is great.

Cable management was good. Interesting sata back-plate makes for clean cabling.

Cons: This being a smaller mid tower means not all configurations are going to work.

Other Thoughts: I was able to fit a full size graphics card and full size psu just fine, but 2 graphics cards would be impossible. In my configuration the second card would overlap the psu by about an inch. Also the psu is very close to the sata ports. I can see some difficulty in trying to squeeze 8 sata cables in there.

Noise levels are fine. About what I would expect from this type of aluminum case.

Air flow is a bit hard to say. Having the PSU exhaust in front would seem to cause problems for the other intake fan, but I haven't really tested this myself.

Pros: I had very intended purpose for this case, it was to house all of my desktop lab server for the home while also looking nice doing so. This case has done it perfectly and looks marvelous, now I wish I had actually bought the windowed version.

The cable management for me was perfect, the hotswap drive bays make for a nice clean installation being that you only need one power cable from the PSU which can run up the rear panel as well as onto your single ODD. This kept all the cabling above the motherboard minute and allows for great airflow for you enthusiast.

Cons: The only con to this case for me isn't the case itself but the ASRock Extreme6 mobo I put into it. The bulk of the SATA ports on the mobo are blocked by my PSU, thankfully for me I only needed two of the SATA ports since I run all my drives through an add-on raid card.

Warning to those of you planning to put in a mobo with side mounted outward facing SATA ports.

Other Thoughts: Case is just beautiful. If I could justify the additional luxury money to replace my other cases I would. For me, this is the case I have longed for years. Beautiful, simple, functional and well thought out.