LIAN LI PC-X1000 Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: -Strong and solid construction with beautiful finish. 2mm thick aluminum. -Very efficient ventilation design with fan speed controller. Intake fans all come with removable filters. Compared with my last case, my overclocked i7 core load temps are ~10° C cooler. -This case has by far the best tool-less locking mechanisms I have ever seen for optical disc drives and motherboard expansion cards. -Aluminum covers for optical drives give it a nice, clean and consistent look. The plastic faceplates of the drives would make the case look ugly without the covers. -Motherboard tray has open back slot for easy access to change CPU cooler mount, and tray is also removable so it makes things very easy to install.

Cons: -Price, but it was just recently released so it will probably go down after a while. -The case is very tall. The cables for my power supply [Corsair HX-1000] are barely long enough to reach the hard disks and optical drives mounted at the top of the case. -The plastic grommets around the openings for cables to pass through detach very easily. -Did not come with an installation manual. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to install the optical drives. Had to remove the tray in bottom slot and unscrew the top two drive covers to slide them down to insert drives from front. So technically, it's not completely tool-less, but i don't change drives very often so not very significant issue for me. -Probably not a good case for a watercooling setup, but it seems like it was designed with air cooling in mind. -Although this goes for many cases i've seen, there are ugly fingerprints that i can't seem to remove from the interior.

Overall Review: -I dislike flashy fan and case lights. Thankfully this case does not have anything of the sort. -I am not a very big person so this case is pretty heavy with everything in it. Good thing it's all aluminum.

Pros: This is my first lian-li case and... wow. Spaceous, plenty of room for cable management, the three separate areas (optical drive area, motherboard, and power supply) and fans all over! Airflow is excellent, and i really love the snap-on pci card holders. Tool-less indeed.

Cons: Price, obviously, but you pay for quality. And this is huge, so if you lack space... don't get this. Quite tall.

Overall Review: To quote someone else, this case "resembles the monolith from 2001, crafted from magical obsidian by the proud dwarves of middle earth".

Pros: From the elegant understated styling, the thick reinforced side panels, the integrated fan controller, the super long leads for the upper panel connectors, the GPU support, to the grommets that line the openings between compartments. Everything about this case exudes quality. This is my second Lian Li case and I'm not disappointed. The design is very versatile. I opted for HDDs in the upper bay and removed the lower HDD cage to make more room for cables. The SSD mounts in the MB compartment are a nice touch for those of us with SSDs. The case structure is quite rigid for its size and light weight. Lots of options for routing wires. There's enough clearance behind the MB tray for the 8 pin power cable though you'll likely need a 12" extension. I used 24" Molex extensions to bring power to the upper bay then Molex to SATA converters. The case is virtually silent on the low fan setting yet cools adequately unless I'm overclocked.

Cons: Obviously the price puts this case out of range of the casual builder. However, If you're building a $2,500+ system and want the best, it's not hard to justify.

Overall Review: Don't know why Newegg calls this a Mid Tower case. It's nearly as tall as my desk.

Pros: This is my third Lian Li case and they never fail to impress. I figured there wouldn't be much to improve, but they always find ways. Lian Li has made the move to 140mm fans, at least with this series, as well as adding thermal zones. The side panels are redesigned for much easier access. Most noticeable however is that the aluminum panels are THICK, and a bit heavier than the usual panels.

Cons: Lian Li cheaped out a little on the drive covers, they're plastic instead of metal.

Pros: SPACE: There is so much room for everything... I have two Radeon HD 6950s on my Rampage III with a V8 cooler master with crazy amounts of room to spare... No hindrance on air for what-so-ever COOLING: The different cooling sections really do keep everything nice and cool (but if you are using a processor fan that goes perpendicular to your MB make sure it has an air flow parallel to the chassis air flow) Looks sleek and doesn't have any crazy lighting or logos. Very simple, very sexy.

Cons: The holes in the frame that are for pulling through cords are placed in a way that you might have trouble managing all your cables and wires. But there is space behind the MB plate that you can string everything through to keep the cords from becoming a tangled mess. If you have a large processor cooler you may need to move the center support beam closer to the front of the tower. This is not really a problem since the case has a a place where you can move it to. These are not really true cons so I did not feel the need to smash an egg on this tower. If you want a tower you can mod and go crazy inside, buy this.

Pros: Top-notch build quality One-of-a-kind thermal zones keep drives and PSU out of the motherboard cooling process Tons of noise-canceling drive mounts: 6x3.5", 2x2.5", and 3x5.25" 5 140mm fans, front/bottom filtered intakes, and included 5-fan controller provide clean/quiet cooling for full-size systems out-of-the-box Motherboard and PSU easy to take in/out even if things are installed, rather than having to dismantle entire machine Almost completely tool-less Includes 4- and 8-pin CPU power extensions and two long black SATA cables that can make it up to the top drives

Cons: Really expensive Cable-management is almost non-existent Drive locations above and below the main motherboard chamber guarantee some long cables will be required Optical drive covers didnt work for my new drive

Overall Review: This is my first Lian Li and, wow, their build quality is higher than anything I've ever owned. It's really tall, but not deep which makes it easy to give it some room for exhaust. Despite how much I love it, it really did seem too expensive and if the cooling design hadn't been truly unique, I might've gone for something half the price. My rationale was that I would have a full-sized case that will be worth what I paid for it indefinitely and can be re-used until the ATX form factor changes significantly. The expansion card support bar system gives the case more rigidity, but wasn't really useful to me for my two-slot GPU, although it might be for someone else Cable-management for this system is basically routing them all behind the motherboard tray and putting the back panel on I loved how easy the side-panels are to get off and on Optical drive covers didn't work for my new drive, in all fairness, I've never had these work and don't really understand the need for these

Pros: Top quality. Superb cooling with 3 140mm front fans. Fans are quiet, even on high. 3 speed fan controller. Came with psu extension for bottom mounted psu. 2 x 2.5" SSD mounts. Can handle any size graphics card.

Cons: Motherboard side panel clearance is minimal. Use duct tape to keep psu leads from causing a bulge. Stealth dvd door button does not match my dvd burner. Supplied pads don't help much. Price is too high.

Overall Review: I bought this because I needed a short case to fit my desk space. Advertised length is 16.9", in actuality, the case is only 15" deep. A plus for me. Removeable motherboard tray is sort of a plus, but not generally useful.

Pros: Good quality case. I love the the hard drive cages and mounting for expansion slots.

Cons: Cable management. Never had to daisy chain so much. Due to the design putting is together took longer than usual. Had to dig out long Sata cables from misc computer stuff box in the garage.

Overall Review: I agree that Lian Li did go cheap in the optical drive covers with them being plastic.. No real biggie. But, a bit of a let down for the brand name and price. Get some extra adapter/extension cabled to daisy chain. I have an Sapphire Vapor X 4870 and a Cooler Master V8 CPU fan. Both fit with no problem.